Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented a report on the Council’s revenue and capital position for the four months to the end of July 2015, projected to the year end.

The General Fund expenditure for the full year was currently projected to be £157.4m against the budget of £151.4m. The projected overspend of £6.0m related to the ongoing pressures within Children’s Services budgets and took account of the Cabinet decision under Minute 23(v) (21 July 2015) to transfer £1.2m from Central Expenses to the Children’s Services directorate.

The projected year end overspend would reduce the General Fund balance to £20m at year end.  The Budget Framework report to Assembly in February 2015 provided for a target of £15.0m for the General Fund balance and the revenue outturn for 2014/15 led to a General Fund balance of £26.0m.  Taking into account the current projected overspend, together with the proposed use of the General Fund balance and other reserves to cover the implementation of savings proposals and budget gaps in 2015/16 and 2016/17, the remaining General Fund balance would be just above the target figure at £15.758m.

It was noted that significant work was in progress under the Social Care Efficiency Programme, supported with additional capacity created by the temporary recruitment of a Project Team, to address the pressures within Children’s Services.  The team was supporting the current mitigation projects and would assist the Corporate Director of Children’s Services to put forward, by the end of September, the Business Case to reduce spend and demand over the next two years.  One of the key factors for the overspend had been the increased use of agency staff and work was being undertaken with a range of recruitment specialists to significantly reduce agency staff numbers as part of an Invest to Save scheme.

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was projected to break-even, leaving the HRA reserve at £8.7m.  The Capital Programme budget stood at £137.0m, inclusive of the European Investment Bank (EIB) funded general fund housing schemes, with a forecast outturn of £138.9m (an overspend of £1.8m).

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected outturn position for 2015/16 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget at 31 July 2015, as detailed in paragraphs 2.1, 2.4 to 2.10 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Note the progress against the agreed 2015/16 savings at 31 July 2015, as detailed in paragraph 2.11 and Appendix B of the report;

(iii)  Note the overall position for the HRA at 31 July 2015, as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix C of the report;

(iv)  Note the projected outturn position for 2015/16 of the Council’s capital budget as at 31 July 2015, as detailed in paragraph 2.13 and Appendix D of the report;

(v)  Note that an additional cost pressure would be incurred to finance the Children’s Services project team in the next quarter of the financial year, as detailed in paragraph 2.5 of the report; and

(vi)  Delegate authority, following the endorsement of the Corporate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34