Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room 5, Civic Buildings 5 & 6, Harrow Civic Centre, Station Road, Harrow, HA1 2XY. View directions

Contact: Manize Talukdar, Democratic and Electoral Services Officer  Tel: 020 8424 1323 E-mail:  manize.talukdar@harrow.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

14.

Attendance by Reserve Members

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

 

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

 

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

 

Ordinary Member

 

Reserve Member

 

Councillor Kam Chana

Councillor Pritesh Patel

 

15.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

 

(a)               all Members of the Panel;

(b)               all other Members present.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

 

Agenda Items 8&9 – Information Report: Draft Revenue Budget 2017/18 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2017/18 to 2019/20 & Information Report: Draft Capital Programme 2017/18 to 2019/20

 

Councillor Ajay Maru declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he owned a business in Harrow.  He would remain in the room whilst the matters were considered.

 

Councillor Pritesh Patel declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he was Director of a local non-profit organisation.  He would remain in the room whilst the matters were considered.

16.

Appointment of Vice-Chair

To appoint a Vice-Chair for the 2016/17 Municipal Year.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To appoint Councillor Ajay Maru as Vice-Chair of the Harrow Business Consultative Panel for the 2016/2017 Municipal Year.

17.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 51 KB

That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2016 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2016 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

18.

Public Questions, Petitions & Deputations

To receive any public questions received in accordance with Executive Procedure Rule 49 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

 

Questions will be asked in the order notice of them was received and there be a time limit of 15 minutes.

 

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, Wednesday 18 January 2017.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk  

No person may submit more than one question].

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that none were received.

RESOLVED ITEMS

19.

Information Report: Draft Revenue Budget 2017/18 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2017/18 to 2019/20 & Information Report: Draft Capital Programme 2017/18 to 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 339 KB

Report of the Director of Finance.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received two reports of the Director of Finance which set out the Council’s proposals Draft Revenue Budget 2017/18 And Medium Term Financial Strategy 2017/18 To 2019/20 and the Draft Capital Programme 2017/18-2019/20 For Consultation.

 

The Chair welcomed a local business representative to the meeting.  She explained that the Council had a statutory duty to consult the business community before setting the Budget and Council Tax for the forthcoming year.

 

Following comments and questions from Members, officers advised that:

 

·                     the draft Business Rates list has been issued at the end of 2016 and local businesses would have been informed of their new rateable values.  The final list will be issued on 1 April 2017 but business rates bills will be sent out in early March 2017 based on the drat list.  Whilst rateable values have generally gone up in London and in Harrow too, the amount of additional business rates payable will be capped under the transitional relief scheme;

 

·                     98% of business rates are collected annually, 30% of which (approximately £14.5m) is retained by Harrow Council as part of its budgeted income.  The Council’s gross budget for 2016/17 amounted to £560m, a significant proportion of which was ring-fenced to meet the Council’s statutory responsibilities in the areas of public health, housing benefit, schools etc.  The Council’s net controllable budget, the element that the Council had control over and where the savings would need to be found, amounted to £165m in 2017/18;

 

·                     the Government was consulting on proposals where Council’s would retain 100% of business rate revenues by 2020 in order to enable them to fund local services;

 

·                     the number of Business ratepayers in Harrow has been declining steadily over a number of years.  This had in part been due to permitted development rights under planning law which allowed office space to be converted to domestic use, resulting in a loss of jobs and business rates.  This loss of income was in part offset by an increase in council tax revenue due to more domestic properties being built;

 

·                     consultation was ongoing regarding the specifics for future 100% rates retention, including the mechanism for top-up and tariff and the 'level of need’ assessment process.

RESOLVED:  That the reports be noted.