Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the report on the Council’s capital and revenue position for the 2014/15 financial year, as at 30 November 2014.

The General Fund showed a projected end of year spend of £166.8m against the total approved budget of £165.3m, which would mean a reduced General Fund balance of £24.6m at the year end.  The Cabinet Member advised that he was hopeful that the overall budget would be balanced by the year end but stressed that the pressures within the Children’s Services division would continue to be challenging.  He also referred to the proposal to realign budgets within the Environmental Services division, in order to better reflect current service requirements, and clarified the reasons for a proposed loan to Valence Primary School to support the upgrade of ICT facilities.

It was also noted that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) continued to show a projected break-even position for the year while the Capital Programme showed a projected spend of £135.96m against the revised budget of £143.15m.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected outturn position for 2014/15 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget at 30 November 2014, as detailed in paragraphs 2.4 to 2.10 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Agree the service budget reallocation within Environmental Services as shown in paragraph 2.7 of the report;

(iii)  Note the progress against the agreed 2014/15 savings at 30 November 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.11 and Appendix B of the report;

(iv)  Note progress against the agreed 2014/15 Housing Revenue Account (HRA) savings as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix B of the report;

(v)  Note the overall position for the HRA at 30 November 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix C of the report;

(vi)  Agree to a loan of £300,000 to Valence Primary School, to be repaid over three years, to fund an upgrade of the school’s ICT facilities as detailed in paragraph 2.13 of the report;

(vii)  Note the projected outturn position for 2014/15 of the Council’s capital budget as at 30 November 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.13 and Appendix D of the report;

(viii)  Note the revised capital budget of £143.2m following inclusion of the scheme to extend Barking Riverside Primary School in the Capital Programme for 2014/15; and

(ix)  Note the Corporate Director of Children’s Services update report on the budget pressures within the Children’s Services department at Appendix E to the report and support the ‘next steps’ set out in section 5 of Appendix E.