Decision details

Received a report on the Council’s revenue and capital outturn position for the 2004/05 financial year.

Agreed to:

1.  Note the final outturn position of the Council’s revenue budgets for 2004/05 as detailed in Appendix A to the report;

2.  Reaffirm that the Department of Education, Arts and Libraries’ net overspend of £216,000 in 2004/05 be met from the Department’s 2005/06 budget;

3.  Note the increase in the 2004/05 Collection Fund deficit to £1.283m, resulting in an additional cost to the Council of £459,000;

4.  Note the improved position of the working balance for the Housing Revenue Account of £3.2m at the 2004/05 year end;

5.  The carry forward of 2004/05 revenue budget underspends into the relevant 2005/06 Departmental budgets as detailed in Appendix B to the report;

6.  Note the final outturn position of the Council’s Capital Programme for 2004/05 as detailed in Appendix C to the report;

7.  Note the underspend in the 2004/05 Capital Programme of £14.4 million and a list of those schemes where significant underspends occurred including reasons for their slippage, as detailed in Appendix D to the report;

8.  The carry forward of category A, B, D and E schemes (i.e. committed and rolling programmes) totalling £15.349 million from the 2004/05 Capital Programme into 2005/06, as detailed in Appendix E(i) to the report;

9.  The carry forward of category C schemes (i.e. not yet contractually committed) totalling £340,000 from the 2004/05 Capital Programme into 2005/06, as detailed in Appendix F to the report, subject to the necessary approvals via the Capital Programme Management Office (CPMO) process;

10.  Adjustments to appropriate 2005/06 Capital Programme budgets to reflect advanced expenditure in 2004/05 of £1.6 million, as detailed in Appendix G to the report;

11.  Note the approved use of £2.183m from the £5.1m revenue underspend in 2004/05 as follows:

a.  £165,000 set aside in General Reserves to fund the revenue costs of the new Oracle E-Business suite (Executive, 21 December 2004 - Minute 242)

b.  £1.5m set aside from the Social Services underspend to support the 2005/06 budget (Assembly, 2 March 2005 - Minute 88)

c.  £518,000 set aside to fund the ‘Cleaning the Borough’ initiative (Executive, 28 June 2005 - Minute 46)

12.  Provisionally earmark £459,000 from the revenue underspend to fund the increase in the 2004/05 Collection Fund deficit, and that this position be considered and reviewed in February 2006 as part of the budget setting process for 2006/07;

13.  The allocation of £1.65m from the remaining 2004/05 revenue underspend as follows:

14.  The remaining 2004/05 revenue budget underspend of approximately £750,000 being set aside for service improvement projects via one-off bids.  In this respect, the Director of Finance agreed to report further on proposals in respect of playground equipment at Goresbrook Park and a Memorial Garden in Central Park; and

15.  Note the outturn position for 2004/05 Prudential Indicators as set out in Appendix H to the report.