Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the Council’s revenue budget monitoring position for the 2021/22 financial year as at 30 November 2021 (period 8).

The Council’s General Fund revenue budget for 2021/22 was £173.614m and the forecast outturn position at the end of November projected a net overspend of £7.408m once income had been taken into account, which represented an improvement of £1.843m compared to the previous month.  It was noted that the specific Budget Support reserve of £11.433m would cover that overspend and leave approximately £4m to be carried forward into 2022/23.  The Cabinet Member also referred to the ongoing pressures on service budgets due to increased demand and the latest position regarding the Housing Revenue Account and in-year savings. 

Issues were raised relating to the arboriculture service having just one full-time equivalent member of staff, given the Council’s major tree planting and monitoring programme, and the challenges faced by the Barking and Dagenham Trading Partnership which were impacting on its ability to make dividend payments to the Council.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected revenue outturn forecast for the 2021/22 financial year as set out in sections 2 and 3 and Appendix A of the report; and

(ii)  Note the update on savings and commercial income, as set out in section 4 of the report.