Issue - meetings

Received a report from the Cabinet Member for Finance, Revenues and Benefits on the Council’s revenue and capital position for 2010/11 as at the end of November 2010.

The projected service overspends, taking account of in-year savings, have decreased from £3.5m (and not £3.9m as published) to £2.7m since the last report, the main reason being continued reductions in the projected overspends in the Customer Services and Children’s Services departments.  The Cabinet Member advised that he has held meetings with the Corporate Directors of those departments and will meet with them further as part of the efforts to achieve a year-end balanced budget. 

With regard to the General Fund balance, this is now projected to be £8.3m at the year end rather than the planned £10m.  In response to a question, the Corporate Director of Finance and Resources advised that accounting standards recommend that reserves should typically equate to approximately 3% of net expenditure or 5% of gross expenditure (whichever is the most prudent) although this should be considered in the light of the level of risks, which is an issue for this Council.

The position of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is largely unchanged, with the projected deficit now at £38,000.  In respect of the Capital Programme, the Cabinet Member reported on the proposed re-profiling of a number of schemes to reflect the impact of delays in Government funding decisions.  As a consequence, the Capital Programme is projecting slippage in budgeted expenditure of £7.6m. 

Agreed, as a matter of good financial practice, to:-

(i)  Note the current projected outturn position for 2010/11 of the Council’s revenue and capital budget as detailed in paragraphs 3 and 5 of and Appendices A and C to the report;

(ii)  Note the position of the HRA as detailed in paragraph 4 of and Appendix B to the report;

(iii)  Note the position of the Contingency Fund as detailed in paragraph 3.1.5 of the report; and

(iv)  Approve the changes to capital budgets as detailed in paragraph 6 of and Appendix D to the report.