Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Investment presented a report on the Council’s revenue budget monitoring position for the 2017/18 financial year as at 31 December 2017.

The General Fund showed a projected year-end overspend of £6.81m against the budget of £145.13m, which represented a slightly improved position to that reported for the end of November 2017 (Month 8).  The Cabinet Member alluded to the new pressures and risks which affected a range of service areas and reiterated that it was unlikely that the position would improve to any significant degree by the end of the financial year. 

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was forecast to be £0.51m below the planned revenue surplus contribution of £39.642m to the HRA Capital Programme, primarily due to a shortfall in rental income, and the Cabinet Member commented that residents were finding it increasingly difficult to pay all their bills as a consequence of the Government’s ongoing austerity programme.  The projected capital spend at Month 9 was £164.5m for the General Fund and £74.642 for the HRA, which represented overspends of £3.6m and £1.075m respectively.

The Cabinet Member also referred to proposed carry forwards into the 2018/19 revenue budget in respect of the local crowdfunding and School Improvement Partnership initiatives.

In response to a question regarding the overspend within the Looked After Children (LAC) placements budget, the Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration suggested that the net increase of 20 LAC placements this year was unlikely to be a ‘spike’.  A modelling exercise using the latest demographic and needs data was expected to show that current levels would continue and, if that proved to be the case, the ongoing funding implications would be set out in a future report to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)   Note the forecast outturn position for 2017/18 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget as detailed in section 2 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Note the new financial risks and the suggested mechanisms for resolving them, as detailed in section 3 of the report;

(iii)  Approve the following year-end adjustments and carry forwards detailed in section 4 of the report:

a)  up to £120,000 of unallocated match-funding monies for supporting the local crowdfunding platform;

b)  up to £100,000 set-up costs in respect of the School Improvement Partnership.

(iv)  Note the overview of the HRA for 2017/18, as detailed in section 5 and Appendix B of the report; and

(v)  Note the forecast outturn of the Capital Programme as set out in section 6 and Appendix C of the report.