Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the Council’s revenue budget monitoring position for the 2019/20 financial year as at 31 August 2019 (Month 5).

The General Fund position was largely unchanged from the previous month, with full-year expenditure forecast to be £158.544m against the budget of £148.82m.  Once planned drawdowns from reserves and surpluses from Collection Fund and Business Rates budgets had been taken into account, the overall budget gap was projected at £7.012m. 

The Housing Revenue Account showed a projected overspend of £1.266m against the budget of £104.909m.

The Cabinet Member referred to the ongoing pressures within service areas as a result of the Government’s ongoing austerity programme, the impact on the Council’s reserves position and the short-term management actions being implemented ahead of a detailed report to the next Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected revenue outturn for Council services as detailed in Appendix A to the report;

(ii)   Note the implications for the reserves position and the need to identify in-year action in relation to General Fund expenditure, as set out in section 2 of the report;

(iii)  Note the forecast outturn on the Housing Revenue Account as set out in section 13 and Appendix B of the report; and

(iv)  Approve the revised profile of the HRA Capital Programme as set out in section 14 and Appendix C of the report.