Minutes:
Received a report from the Corporate Director of Finance and Commercial Services showing the first indicative picture of the Council’s revenue and capital position for 2010/11, as at the end of May 2010, and highlighting the pressures on the planned budget position that have already been identified. The report also referred to a number of proposed draw-downs from reserves to support key areas of work within the Finance and Commercial Services division.
Current service pressures are projected at £3.1m for the year and the recent announcement by Central Government of cuts across the local government sector will mean in a reduction in funding of £5.5m in 2010/11 alone. As a consequence, the Corporate Director has extended the stringent expenditure control measures that were put in place during the last half of the 2009/10 financial year into this year and each Chief Officer has been tasked with identifying additional savings to bring the budget position back into line by the year end. The ring-fenced Housing Revenue Account (HRA) also shows a projected end of year deficit of £862,000 which would result in a reduction in its balance to £2.6m.
Issues raised during the discussions included:-
Agreed, as a matter of good financial practice, to:
(i) Note the current projected position for 2010/11 of the Council’s revenue and capital budget as detailed in the report and Appendices A and C;
(ii) Note the position for the HRA as detailed in the report and Appendix B;
(iii) Note that the Corporate Director of Finance and Commercial Services had imposed mechanisms to reduce in-year expenditure, and set targets for departments to contribute towards the reduced resources the Council will receive in-year; and
(iv) The draw-down of reserves, as detailed in paragraph 3.1.5 of the report, in respect of the following:
a. £250,000 from the IT Reserve to support Oracle Financial systems development during 2010/11;
b. £120,000 from the Contingency to the Internal Audit budget to facilitate the necessary work to be undertaken by the Head of Internal Audit in relation to the Council’s statutory duties;
c. £100,000 from the International Financial Reporting Standards Reserve to support the development of the required new financial reporting regime.
Supporting documents: