No disclosures were received.

To consider the report of the Executive Director (S.151) (enclosed).

The Chairman welcomed Members and Officers to the meeting and invited the Executive Director (Section 151 Officer) to present her report.

Key elements of the Statement that impact on the budget position for 2026/27 are:

·         Confirmation of provisional settlement figures for 2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29 i.e. a three-year settlement was provided.

·         Confirmation that New Homes Bonus was discontinued.

·         Council Tax increase thresholds.

·         Changes to Business Rate Baseline.

·         Information relating to additional funding streams.

Alongside the Settlement the government also published a technical consultation paper on the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2026/27.

A Policy Statement (20th November 2024) had already announced the key principles that ministers applied in the provisional settlement, however some elements, particularly the re-setting of the business rate baseline, were not fully understood until the Settlement was released. 

The funding position for 2026/27 provides Settlement information spanning 3 years. 

The Settlement will result in considerable redistribution of funding between authorities. The funding distribution was last updated in 2013-14 and no update has taken place of key datasets until now.  The Relative Needs Formulas have seen major changes and many grants have either been rolled into the Settlement Funding Assessment or into one of four Consolidated Grants. Alongside this there has been a Full Baseline Reset for Business Rates.

Whilst there has been redistribution of funding through the formula to those authorities with higher needs, the inclusion of business rate growth and business rate pooling income has perhaps lessened the impact of redistribution for Blaby, as these income streams have been protected to some extent.

Total Budget Requirement

The proposed draft General Fund Revenue Account Net Budget Requirement for 2026/27 is £19.731M. The comparable Net Budget Requirement for 2025/26 that was approved in February 2025 was £15.407M. 

It should be noted that significant increases in budget have been included within the budget requirement for 2026/27. These include:

·         The additional expenditure for the delivery of the Food Waste Service from April 2026. An amount of £750k has been included. Whilst the Council were expecting ‘New Burdens Funding’ to be provided for this additional service requirement, the funding has been included within the Settlement and is not separately identifiable. 

·         An additional £500k has been included within the housing budget to allow for expenditure on homelessness in line with the current demand being experienced. This addition will allow the Council to accommodate those in need rather than fall outside of the statutory timeframes for cases to be accommodated within B&B accommodation and also run preventative initiatives.

·         A provision of £700k included in the budget to be utilised to prepare for and facilitate actions arising from the Local Government Reform.

It should also be noted that additional funding streams or cost reductions have been included within the budget as follows:

·         Funding of £1.6m will be received in 2026/27 from Defra relating to the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (EPR). This is based on the Council’s recycling collections and tonnages and passes the cost of collection onto those who produce the packaging.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

a)    To consider the proposed 2026-27 budget and spending plans for the remaining Portfolio areas.

b)    Prepare lines of questioning for a written response from Portfolio Holders in advance of the next Scrutiny Budget meeting on Wednesday 21 January 2026.

Preliminary lines of questioning were identified for submission to Portfolio  Holders prior to the next Scrutiny Budget meeting on Wednesday 21 January  2026 for their response.  

·         Wednesday 21 January 2026

·         Wednesday 21 January 2026.