06
The Committee received and considered the report from the Executive Director - Resources.
The Executive Director - Resources presented the 2026/27 budget for the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account for approval, including the capital programme for both. The report is presented to Scrutiny Committee ahead of approval by Council on 24 February 2025 to inform the setting of the council tax for 2026/27.
The 2026/27 medium term financial strategy was presented to Members in December 2025 and at that time set a savings/income target of £0.6 million for the 2026/27 financial year, with a further £0.5m target in 2027/28. This, together with a reliance on the use of reserves over the short term was part of the financial strategy to produce a balanced budget for 2026/27. This was the position ahead of the announcement of the finance settlement and the detailed work on the service budgets.
The provisional Local Government Finance settlement for 2026/27 was announced on 17 December 2026, this saw the most significant re-allocation of resources for local government for over 3 financial years taking into account the outcomes of The Fair Funding Review 2.0 and the Business Rates Reset. More details on the outcome of these are included in the agenda report together with the member briefings that have been provided.
The final settlement was confirmed yesterday which saw a reduction to the business rates baseline funding and a compensating grant allocated to ensure no Local Authority was worse off compared to the provisional settlement.
There has also been a change to the homelessness funding allocated in the settlement which has resulted in a slight reduction, although the 2024/25 and 2025/26 figures have been recalculated resulting in small changes to the overall percentage changes.
The detail of the budget has been produced by joint working between the service areas and the finance team, informed by operational plans, for example, for the provision of services by GYS, assumptions of income from demand-led services to co-ordinate the detailed service budgets which are presented in more detail at Appendix A (summary statement) and Appendix B for the detailed service budgets.
The 2026/27 budget for the HRA reflects the current revenue requirements for repairs and maintenance service, housing management and capital programme investment on housing.
The report also presents the capital programme for the coming year which sees the continuation of the significant investment programme from the town deal, levelling up fund and Pride in Place Projects.
The Council must present for approval a balanced budget each year. Whilst the finance settlement for 2026/27 is slightly above the level previously forecast the budget is still reliant on the use of reserves as it would be in the medium term. This is not a sustainable position for the long term.
Whilst the report presents a budget for 2026/27 for approval only it does flag a funding gap of £1.5 million in 2027/28 after assuming a forecast savings target of £1.25m for which early work will commence on addressing this gap in 2026/27.
Councillor Jeal asked if the Housing Repairs budget had been fully spent this year. The Chair reported that any underspend would be rolled forward in to the next financial year. Councillor Jeal was concerned in regard to the number and length of long term voids as the previous unspent housing repair budget could have been utilised to bring them back into use. At the last Scrutiny Committee meeting, Councillor Wainwright had raised this issue and highlighted that two properties had stood void for 12 years. Councillor Hammond hereby informed the committee that remedial works had recently started on these two properties on Raleigh Avenue, Great Yarmouth.
The Executive Director - Resources reported that repairs and maintenance growth is due to additional demands around responsive repair works and works completed within void properties and confirmed that any unspent capital would be rolled forward. The Repairs & Maintenance budget has increased by £0.125m in 2026/27, compared to 2025/26 revised budget. This increase reflects inflation and material increases.
The Executive Director - Resources reported that following a meeting of other Norfolk & Suffolk local authorities to discuss the final government settlement, a letter had been sent to the Government which gave feedback and outlined the concerns of the local authorities. The Recovery Grant was included in the settlement and was targeted to areas such as Great Yarmouth which has a high level of deprivation and lower tax generating ability through council tax. The allocation for the Council is £417,511 for the 3 year settlement and is a continuation of the allocation made in 2025 to 2026.
The Executive Director - Resources reported that the outcome of the Core Spending Power provisional settlement had impacted authorities in different ways. There was an average increase in CSP in 2026-2027 of 5.7% but Great Yarmouth had only received 3.3% which shows the CSP is not distributed evenly. The Fair Funding Review planned to address the needs of deprivation and resources; the top 10% most deprived LA's will see and average increase in CSP per head of 24% from 2024-2029. However, the Council had only received a provisional settlement on 12.9%.
The Chair asked if the Executive Director- Resources had received clarity in regard to the 2013 settlement and how it had impacted the Council in subsequent years. The Executive Director - Resources reported that the Fair Funding Review has reset business rates to a new "Baseline" to remove accumulated gains from growth in the system since 2013 to redistribute the funding. The Chair reported that the Committee endorsed the Executive Director in this matter.
Councillor Jeal reported that he had been a Councillor for over 40 years and that although the borough was in the top 10% in the country for deprivation, he did not understand why the Council did not qualify for extra funding, which he thought was unacceptable.
The Executive Director - Resources flagged that £500k had been earmarked in the budget for one year for costs associated with Local Government Review with the total cost for LGR shared across the districts. The Chair reported that it was imperative that the costs for LGR for each local authority be identified.
The Chair thanked the Executive Director - Resources and the Finance Team for all of their hard work in the production of the budget 2026-2027.
RESOLVED:-
That Scrutiny Committee note the following recommendations to be presented to Council on the 24th February 2026:-
(1) Approval of the 2026/27 general fund revenue budget as detailed at Appendix A;
(2) The Council Tax for 2026/27 for the Borough Council tax be £198.25 (for an average Band D);
(3) That the demand on the Collection Fund for 2026/27 be:
(a) £6,350,397 for the Borough Council purposes;
(b) £897,173 for Parish Precepts (to be updated for final precepts when confirmed);
(4) The updated fees and charges as detailed in Appendix H;
(5) The reserves statement and movement on the reserves as detailed at Appendix E and within section 4 of the report;
(6) The Policy framework for reserves as detailed at Appendix F;
(7) The updated Capital Programme and financing for 2025/26 to 2028/29 as detailed at Appendix G and within section 6;
(8) The Minimum Revenue Provision Statement 2026/27 as included at Appendix I;
(9) The housing revenue account budget as detailed at Appendix J;
(10) The housing revenue account capital programme and financing for the revised forecast 2025/26 position and 2026/27 – 2028/29 as detailed at Appendix K;
(11) To approve increase to social and affordable rents at CPI + 1% (4.8%) and changes to service charges as set out in report and appendices.