Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Geoff Hockley and Councillor Rhydian Vaughan.

To enable Members to disclose to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest they may have in any matter on the agenda for the meeting, where that interest is not already entered in the Authority’s register of interests, and any other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests in any such matter that Members may wish to disclose.

Members were mindful of their duty to disclose at the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest they had in any matter on the agenda for the meeting, where that interest was not already entered in the Authority's register of interests, and their ability to disclose any other personal interests in any such matter that they might have wished to disclose.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were reviewed and agreed.

Pursuant to Standing Order 19, to receive any deputations to this meeting

There were no deputations for the meeting.

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

There were no Chairman’s announcements.

To receive any updates from Members of the Authority

There were no recent Member developments.

To consider a report of the Treasurer, which provides an update to Members of the current financial position for the 2020/21 Hampshire FRA Revenue Budget and an update on the 2021/22 Hampshire and Isle of Wight FRA budget setting process.

The Shadow Authority considered  a report from the Treasurer (item 7 in the minute book), which provided an update to members of the current financial position for the 2020/21 Hampshire FRA Revenue Budget and an update on the 2021/22 Hampshire and Isle of Wight FRA budget setting process.

Covid funding was highlighted in paragraph 7 of the report, including £670 million additional grant to help local authorities support the more than 4 million households that are least able to afford council tax payments.

The Spending Review was announced in November, but there was no detailed information on the likely grant settlement for Fire Authorities and little was known about the impact of Covid-19 on the budget going forward, but it was assumed that there would be a reduction in help from 2022/23 onwards.

The provisional local government finance settlement will not be available until Christmas and so more would be known then an enable more precise planning.

Councillor Dave Stewart thanked the Treasurer for the planned investment in the Isle of Wight.

RESOLVED

a) The Growth Pressures as set out in Appendix A were approved by the Shadow Authority for inclusion in the 2021/22 budget.

b) If necessary, the use of reserves to balance the 2021/22 budget was approved by the Shadow Authority.

c) The Shadow Authority noted that options for efficiencies and savings would be developed once the budget had been set in February 2021.

d) The mid-year review of treasury management activities was approved by the Shadow Authority

To resolve that the public be excluded from the meeting during the following items of business, as it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during these items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information within Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, and further that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, for the reasons set out in the reports.

The exempt minutes were approved as part of item 3 on the agenda, and so the meeting did not move into exempt session.

To approve the exempt minute from the 22 September H&IWFRA Shadow Authority meeting.

The exempt minutes from the 22 September 2020 meeting were approved.