Agenda, decisions and minutes

The Council was requested to determine that the item of business below, which had been identified as containing exempt information as described in Schedule 7A to the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, be considered in private.

·       North East Scotland Joint Mortuary Full Business Case - exempt appendix

The Council resolved:-

in terms of Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of the above item so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the classes described in paragraphs 8 and 10 of the Act.

Councillor Allan declared an interest as a holder of a blue parking badge but did not consider that the nature of her interest required her to leave the meeting.

Councillor Lesley Dunbar declared an interest as a Council appointed member of the Board of CFINE but did not consider that the nature of her interest required her to leave the meeting.

Councillor Mason MSP declared a general interest as a Member of the Scottish Parliament for North East Scotland but did not consider that the nature of his interest required him to leave the meeting.

Councillor Alex Nicoll declared an interest by reason of a family member being in residential care provided by Bon Accord Care but did not consider that the nature of his interest required him to leave the meeting.

Councillor Cooke and the Depute Provost declared interests as Council appointed members of the Friends of the Gordon Highlanders but did not consider that the nature of their interests required them to leave the meeting.

Councillor Copland declared an interest by virtue of his wife being a holder of a blue parking badge but did not consider that the nature of his interest required him to leave the meeting.

The Council had before it a joint report by the Chief Officer - Data and Insights and the Chief Officer - Capital which presented the Council Delivery Plan for 2021/22.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           note the content of the Council Delivery Plan 2021/22; and

(b)           instruct the Chief Executive to realign any of the delivery commitments and performance reporting set out in the Plan that may be required, as a result of any potential Council budget decisions, to meet Council’s instructions.

The Council resolved:-

to approve the recommendations.

At this juncture, it was agreed that the reports on the General Fund Revenue Budget and Capital Programme, the North East Scotland Joint Mortuary Full Business Case and the Common Good Budget be considered together as the next item of business.

(A)      The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Finance which provided information on both the revenue budget for 2021/22 and capital programme for the period 2021/22 to 2025/26 in order that approved budgets and Council Tax value could be set by the Council for the year commencing 1 April 2021.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

Balance Sheet

(a)           note the projected balance sheet position including the reserves as at 31 March 2021, shown at Appendix 1;

(b)           approve the General Fund Capital Programme as attached at Appendix 2;

(c)           consider the capital projects described in Appendix 3 and earlier on the agenda, referred to at paragraph 3.125 in this report, which are not currently included in the General Fund Capital Programme, and instruct the Director of Resources on any action to be taken;

(d)           approve the Prudential Indicators as attached at Appendix 4;

(e)           approve the recommended use of reserves and Reserves Policy for 2021/22 as detailed in Appendix 5;

Medium-Term Financial Projections

(f)             note the forecast medium-term financial projection for the period ending 31 March 2026 as shown in paragraph 3.34;

(g)           instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to refresh the Medium-Term Financial Strategy and report it to the City Growth and Resources Committee on 3 November 2021;

(h)           instruct the Chief Officer - Finance to report to the City Growth and Resources Committee, no later than December 2021, on options to balance the budget for financial year 2022/23;

(i)             instruct the Chief Officer - Data and Insight to report to the Strategic Commissioning Committee, no later than December 2021, on draft commissioning intentions, aligned to 2.2.3 above;

Revenue Budget

(j)             note that the conditions outlined by the Scottish Government within the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2021/22 are met by the proposals set out in the report;

(k)           note the ongoing exceptional operating environment created as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and that there are known and unknown risks that arise as described in the report.  Approve the inclusion of an ‘exceptional uncertainty provision’ in the budget for 2021/22 to the value of at least £1.5m, and delegate the authority for its use to the Chief Officer - Finance;

(l)             approve the redesign of Council services to address demand, in line with the commissioning led approach described in the report, and to set at least a balanced budget for financial year 2021/22, having due regard to:-

1)    The Budget Model as contained in paragraph 3.34 that identifies a funding shortfall of £30.4m for 2021/22;

2)    The impact of service redesign on services and fees and charges described in Appendix 6;

3)    The Reserves Policy, that sets out the Council should maintain uncommitted General Fund balances of £12m;

4)    The Prudential Indicators and impact of the General Fund Capital Programme on revenue expenditure;

5)    The savings options and cost of implementation put forward in Appendix 7 and Fees and Charges proposals in Appendix 8;

6)    The funding announced by the Scottish  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Council had before it a report by the Chief Officer - Finance which provided information to enable the Council to approve a revenue and capital budget for 2021/22, including setting of the rents and other charges on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the financial year.

The report recommended:-

that the Council -

(a)           approve the budget as attached in Appendix 1 (pages 5 to 6) of this report;

(b)           approve the setting of the weekly unrebated rents for municipal houses taking account of proposals outlined for a fixed rent policy, as detailed in Appendix 1, pages 5 to 6 of this report, to take effect from Monday 3 May 2021;

(c)           approve the level of revenue contribution to the Housing Capital budget for 2021/22 as well as note the provisional contribution for the subsequent four financial years as detailed in Appendix 1, pages 18 to 20;

(d)           approve the proposal to maintain the working balances at 10% to meet future contingencies as detailed in Appendix 1, (pages 5 to 6);

(e)           approve the level of miscellaneous rents and service charges, including Heat with Rent as detailed in Appendix 1, (pages 12 to 13), to take effect from Monday 3 May 2021;

(f)             approve, based on the rental increase of 4% the Base Capital Programme for the financial year 2021/22 Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20);

(g)           note the indicative level of the Base Capital Programme for the financial years 2022/23 to 2025/26 Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20);

(h)           approve as estimated expenditure in terms of Procurement Regulation  4.1.1, in order for work to commence on the Ongoing Capital Programme, the sums shown against each heading of the Housing Capital Expenditure budget for the financial year 2021/22 set out in Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20) without the need for separate Committee approval of each;

(i)             delegate authority to the Director of Resources, following consultation with the Chief Officer – Capital, Head of Commercial and Procurement and conveners of the Capital Programme Committee and the City Growth and Resources Committee, to approve business cases related to the expenditure approved in terms of recommendation 2.8 and to undertake or instruct appropriate procedures in accordance with the ACC Procurement Regulations to procure the works referred to in those business cases within the budgets allocated in Appendix 1, (pages 18 to 20) for the capital programme for the financial year 2021/22 and to authorise the award contracts relating thereto; 

(j)             approve the gross indicative spend as shown in Appendix 1 (page 22) entitled ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’;

(k)           delegate authority to the Chief Officer – Capital, following consultation with the Head of Commercial and Procurement Services, to procure the necessary professional services and construction works referred to in Appendix 1 entitled ‘New Housing Capital Programme Budget’ without the need for further approval from any other committee of the Council subject to due diligence, consistency with the financial model and affordability;

(l)             delegate authority to the Chief Officer – Capital ,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

In accordance with Article 1 of this minute, the following item was considered with the press and public excluded.

The Council had before it the full business case for the North East Scotland Joint Mortuary.

The Council resolved:-

to refer to the relevant decision contained within Article 3 of this minute.