Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Core Services introduced the Council’s revenue budget monitoring report for the 2023/24 financial year as of 31 January 2024 (period 10) and the quarter 3 Capital Programme update.

The Council’s General Fund revised revenue budget for 2023/24 was £194.46m and the forecast outturn position at the end of January projected a net overspend of £6.016m after transfers to and from reserves, which represented a significant improvement of £3.32m on the position reported for period 9.  The Cabinet Member commented on the main reasons behind the improved position and the key organisational risks which could still affect the end-of-year position, as well as the projected impact on reserves in order to achieve a balanced budget position at the year end.

Reflecting on the past year, the Cabinet Member remarked on the considerable work that had been undertaken to minimise the level of overspend, which had been projected as high as £14.579m in the period 4 report, and reiterated his call on the Government to properly fund the local government sector to protect social care and other essential services.

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) showed a projected overspend of circa £5.396m for 2023/24, up from £5.005m at period 9, and it was noted that any end-of-year deficit would be met via a drawdown from the current HRA reserve of £18.4m.

The 2023/24 Capital Programme showed a project end-of-year spend of £361.832m against the revised budget of £339.042m.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected £6.016m revenue overspend forecast at Period 10 for the General Fund for the 2023/24 financial year, as set out in sections 2 and 3 and Appendix A of the report, and the net projected year end drawdown of £2.366m reserves to support the in-year position;

(ii)  Note the projected £5.396m revenue overspend forecast for the Housing Revenue Account, as set out in section 6 and Appendix A of the report;

(iii)  Note the projected returns for the Investment and Acquisition Strategy as set out in section 4 and Appendix A of the report;

(iv)  Note the movement in Reserve drawdown as indicated in section 5 of the report and that the Cabinet shall be asked to approve the drawdown of reserves to support any overspends at final outturn (post March 2024), subject to finalisation of the actual spend against budget; and

(v)  Note the Q3 Capital Monitoring update as set out in section 7 and Appendix B of the report.