Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the Council’s revenue and capital outturn position for 2018/19, which represented the expected final position for the year, subject to external audit.

The General Fund revenue expenditure for the financial year was projected at £151.667m against the revised budget of £145.368m, although that was offset by an income surplus of over £3m which meant that the year-end net variance was projected to be an overspend of £2.881m.  The Cabinet Member confirmed that the overspend would be met from the specific Budget Support reserve, meaning that the main General Fund reserve balance would remain at £17m (£2m above the minimum floor position previously agreed by the Council).  The Cabinet Member also referred to a number of revenue budget carry forwards and transfers to / from reserves that had been accounted for in the outturn position and advised that 98% of previously agreed savings had now been achieved.

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) showed a projected year-end surplus of £1.075m, which would be transferred to the HRA reserve, while Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) expenditure showed an overspend of £1.902m due to pressures on the High Needs block, which were expected to continue into 2019/20.  The Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement reported that, in spite of the ongoing financial pressures faced by schools, a significant amount of progress was being made.  One example was a project led by the Council, in partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions and other agencies, to increase accessibility to free school meals which had resulted in an extra 1,984 registrations in the 2018/19 financial year, taking the total number of children accessing free school meals in the Borough to 8,196.

The Council’s Capital Programme showed expenditure of £225.153m against the budget of £284.758m and it was proposed that the £37.559m of slippage that related to General Fund projects would be carried forward to 2019/20.  The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services also referred to two new capital projects, one to support local ward initiatives and the other to fund urgent repair and replacement works to corporate, commercial and non-HRA residential properties. 

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the provisional revenue outturn for Council services as set out in sections 2 and 3 and Appendix A to the report;

(ii)  Note the provisional outturn on the Dedicated Schools Budget as set out in section 4 of the report;

(iii)  Note the provisional Capital Programme outturn as set out in section 5 and appendices B and C to the report;

(iv)  Approve the carry forward of slippage of £37.559m into the General Fund Capital Programme 2019/20;

(v)  Approve the creation of a Ward Member capital budget of £0.34m and £1.0m capital budget for urgent maintenance and health and safety works, as set out in section 6 of the report;

(vi)  Approve the transfers to and from reserves as set out in Appendix D to the report;

(vii)  Note the provisional outturn of the Housing Revenue Account as set out in section 8 of the report; and

(viii)  Note the position on Schools balances as set out in section 9 of the report.