Agenda item

(To follow)

The Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer presented the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Tranche 1 Budget including Fees and Charges (following consultation).

Members were informed that at the Executive Committee meeting held on 26^th November, Tranche 1 of the MTFP (Prior to Consultation) had been considered by Members.  It was proposed that the recommendations of that report, following the consultation period now be recommended to Council.

The Council had consulted on its Tranche 1 Budget.  This budget consultation opened on 5^th December 2024.  An email invite was sent to the Redditch Community Panel.  The survey was also promoted on a variety of social media channels.

The survey closed at 12noon on 2nd January 2025.  The response rate for the community panel was 44%; there were a total of 322 valid responses received.

Question 2 gave a split of the consultation responses by location with the highest percentage of returns coming from Webheath, Batchley and Headless Cross.

Question 17 gave the splits of Age Ranges of the people who filled out the questionnaire.  The vast majority were over 50.

The survey asked respondents to rank the three most important services they felt the Council should invest in.  These were:

·       Community Safety (49.2.% of respondents).

·       Maintenance of the Landscape and Environment (46.1.% of respondents)

·       Housing (42.1.% of respondents).

Each question had the following Questions asked had the following possible responses:

·       Strongly Agree

·       Agree

·       Neither Agree or Disagree

·       Disagree

·       Strongly Disagree

In those questions, 8 had responses well over 50% agreeing or strongly agreeing, and only one had a response lower than 50%:

·       Do you support fees and charges (such as hire costs) rising by 4% to keep them in line with inflation and rising staffing costs at a 47.7% approval rate.

The highest approval rating, at 84.1% was the question - Do you agree that the Council should invest in its land and assets to ensure they are safe and fit for the future e.g. dealing with trees affected by ash die back?

Two further questions were asked on what level of increase to Redditch Borough Council's proportion of Council Tax do you support?

·       61.7% agreed of strongly agreed with a 1.99% increase.

·       This dropped to 37.8% at 2.99%.

There were 2 free text questions:

·       Please let us know your suggestions for investing in the borough to increase prosperity and enhance appeal for residents and businesses alike?

o   There were 181 responses to this question.

o   These responses are being analysed and split then into themes.

·       Please let us know any other comments on the budget or ideas for reducing costs or increasing income to ensure Council services remain sustainable?

o   There were 131 responses to this questions.

o   These responses are being analysed and split then into theme

Appendix C outlined the consultation spreadsheet and set out the overall summary and a breakdown by question.

The Leader commended the work and those involved in this report and said it was encouraging to see the engagement from the Community Panel.

The Portfolio Holder also commended the work carried out and the number of responses. It was noted that the results were slightly skewed to the older generation but was a good mandate for what the Council was doing.

The Leader was also disappointed in the response from the younger age groups noting no one less that 19 had completed the survey. It was thought it might be worth asking Communications about visiting schools.

It was noted that there had been a meeting regarding a youth consultation plan and asked for further feedback from the free text questions, it was agreed more information in respect of this would be sent to the Executive Committee.

Members proposed an amendment to the recommendation in respect of Dial-a-Ride. The amendment proposed was that the level of fees for Dial-a-Ride be retained for a further year in order to support vulnerable members of the Borough who utilised the service. The amendment was proposed by the Leader and seconded by Councillor I. Woodhall.

On being put to the vote the amendment was carried. Therefore, it was

RECOMMENDED that

1                 Members endorse the inputs into the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan as at the middle of October, and the associated risks and opportunities.

2                         An initial Tranche of savings proposals and pressures, as set out in Section 3.03 to 3.19, including the fees and charges increases, apart from the dial-a-ride amendment, after consideration of feedback from the consultation exercise which closed on the 2^nd January, be approved at Council.

3                         The use of £300k of Economic Development Reserve for Feasibility studies at Matchborough, Winyates and Woodrow be approved