AT A MEETING of the CABINET of HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL held at The Castle, Winchester on Monday, 22 September 2003.

PRESENT:

Councillors: T.K. Thornber, CBE (in the Chair); D.G. Allen; K.B. Estlin; J.K. Glen;

P.A. Heath; Felicity Hindson, MBE; D.A. Kirk; J. Waddington; M.J. Woodhall.

Also in attendance: Councillors M.J. Kendal; A.R. Ludlow and W.H. Wheeler.

247 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should normally at the time of the debate, declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

248 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 28 July 2003 were confirmed as a correct record, subject to the inclusion of the name of Councillor Mrs. S.M. Glasspool, DL in the list of those present.

249 CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

(i) Capping of Council Taxes

The Leader reported with concern the recent indication from the Minister for Local Government that he might use his discretionary powers to cap council taxes where these were considered by him to be excessive and that in making this statement he had included authorities which had been accorded the category of "Excellent" under Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), when it had previously been announced that such authorities would be exempt from capping as part of new freedoms with the introduction of CPA.


(ii) Children at Risk Green Paper "Every Child Matters"

The Leader requested the officers to submit a report to the next meeting of Cabinet on the Green Paper "Every Child Matters".

250 LOCAL GOVERNMENT BALANCE OF FUNDING REVIEW

The Cabinet considered the report of the County Treasurer (Item 4 in the Minute Book) on a proposed response to the Government's invitation to submit a paper to its review of the balance of local government funding between central grants and local taxation. The County Treasurer amplified the report which was then discussed in detail with a point by point examination of the possible options for major change contained in paragraph 3.49 of the report. The Cabinet considered that the Government should

· transfer the business rate to local control, thereby improving the balance of funding to 50/50, subject to linking future increases in business rates to the retail price index or such other relevant index as may be considered appropriate.


· fine-tune the council tax by revising the rate between the top and bottom valuation band and by increasing the number of bands to make it less regressive.


· improve the council tax benefit system to give better protection to those on low and slowly rising incomes by raising the benefit threshold.


· reversing the "resource equalisation" introduced in the revenue grant distribution system in 2003/04 or, at least, not making further resource equalisation adjustments in 2004/05 or subsequent years.


· not introduce "dynamic equalisation".


· not make any other further transfers of services away from local government such as schools, because their needs are best assessed locally and in view of the complexity of school funding.


· not introduce a local sales tax or a local income tax.


It was agreed that the County Treasurer, in consultation with the Leader, should prepare and submit a detailed response to the review based broadly on Appendix 1 to his report but amended as appropriate to take account of the views expressed by the Cabinet as set out above. A copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 1 to these minutes.

251 GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR LOCAL AUTHORITY CAPITAL INVESTMENT

The Cabinet considered the report of the County Treasurer (Item 5 in the Minute Book) which sought an endorsement of the response made to the Government's consultation on its support for local authority capital investment. The Cabinet adopted the recommendation contained in the report and a copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 2 to these Minutes.

252 LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENT - COST EFFECTIVENESS INDICATOR

The Cabinet considered the report of the County Treasurer (Item 6 in the Minute Book) which sought approval to the basket of performance indicators for the cost effectiveness indicator in connection with the Local Public Service Agreement, and to a proposed cost effectiveness target of 8%. The Cabinet adopted the recommendations contained in the report and a copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 3 to these Minutes.

253 LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME - GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION ON CHANGES TO THE SCHEME

The Cabinet considered the report of the County Treasurer (Item 7 in the Minute Book) on the Government consultation on proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme. The Cabinet endorsed the Hampshire Pension Fund's response to the consultation and a copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 4 to these Minutes.

254 BUDGET PLANNING AND CONSULTATION 2004/05 AND 2005/06

The Cabinet considered the report of the County Treasurer (Item 8 in the Minute Book) on progress with budget consultation exercises, and budget planning for 2004/05 and 2005/06. Further to his report, the County Treasurer reported that the consensus view from the four budget consultation meetings referred to in the report was that a council tax rise of around 6-7% to maintain existing services would be considered broadly acceptable. The Cabinet considered that whilst these meetings had presented a valuable opportunity to explain in detail the changes to the Government's grant policy and its impact on Hampshire in terms of loss of grant aid and the resultant implications for the level of council tax, it remained a considerable challenge to communicate effectively these facts to the residents of Hampshire in general who would not be afforded this facility. The Cabinet adopted the recommendations contained in the report and a copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 5 to these Minutes.

255 2003/04 BUDGET UPDATE
(Councillors Heath, Kirk and Woodhall declared an interest in this matter as Members of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority, and took no part in the discussion).

The Cabinet considered the report of the County Treasurer (Item 9 in the Minute Book) on a request by the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority to retain the value of all its underspendings from 2002/03. As the Authority was unable to hold reserves the underspending had been returned to the three contributing authorities when the Authority approved its statement of accounts for 2002/03. Following discussion, the Cabinet agreed that without any commitment to return any of the 2002/03 underspending and subject to the formal concurrence of Portsmouth and Southampton City Councils, the Leaders of the contributing authorities (namely Hampshire, Southampton and Portsmouth) should meet with leading members of the Fire Authority to determine if a supplementary levy in 2003/04 to meet the additional costs of the firefighters' pay award was appropriate and to discuss the approach to transferring balances when the Authority became a precepting authority from 1 April 2004. A copy of the substantive decision sheet is set out as Appendix 6.

256 ELECTORAL COMMISSION CONSULTATIONS - THE CYCLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS IN ENGLAND AND MINIMUM VOTING AND CANDIDACY AGE

The Cabinet considered the report of the Chief Executive (Item 10 in the Minute Book) on a proposed response to the Electoral Commission's consultation papers on the cycle of local government elections in England and the minimum voting and candidacy age. During the course of the detailed discussion which ensued, the Cabinet rejected entirely the arguments advanced by advocates of partial elections (as referred to in the report) that these might tend to produce less drastic changes in political direction and provide greater political continuity and might reduce the likelihood of the timing of important or controversial decisions being distorted by the timing of elections. Accordingly, the Cabinet supported in particular the principle of whole council elections combined with other elections as appropriate, and a common voting/candidacy age of 18 years (and no reduction to 16 years in respect of the voting age). Subject to this elucidation, the Cabinet agreed that the report be forwarded to the Electoral Commission as comprising the County Council's views in response to their consultation papers on the issues. A copy of the substantive decision sheet is set out as Appendix 7 to these Minutes.

257 OUTCOME OF BEST VALUE REVIEW OF DEMOCRATIC SERVICES

The Cabinet considered the report of the Chief Executive (Item 11 in the Minute Book) on the outcome of the Best Value Review of Democratic Services. The Cabinet adopted the recommendations contained in the report and a copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 8 to these Minutes.

258 MEMBERS' ATTENDANCES AT CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS - FEBRUARY 2003 - AUGUST 2003

The Cabinet considered the report of the Chief Executive (Item 12 in the Minute Book) on Members' attendances at conferences and seminars for the period February 2003 - August 2003. The Cabinet adopted the recommendation contained in the report and a copy of the decision sheet is set out as Appendix 9 to these Minutes.

259 EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC

RESOLVED:

That, by virtue of paragraphs 1 and 9 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for consideration of the following item.

260 INSURANCE AND RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY REVIEW

The Cabinet received the confidential report of the Chief Executive (Item 14 in the Minute Book) on various issues relating to the County Council's insurance arrangements and the development of risk management. Consideration of the matter was deferred to the next meeting of Cabinet to permit further discussion of key issues.

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