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 December 2010.

The projected service overspends, taking account of in-year savings, have decreased from £2.7m to £2.2m since the last report, as a result of continued reductions in the projected overspends in the Customer Services and Children’s Services departments.  The Cabinet Member advised that efforts will continue in the drive to achieve a balanced year-end position but he stressed that the Children’s Safeguarding and Rights budget continues to be under significant pressure as a result of the volume and complexity of cases.

The General Fund balance is now projected to be £8.8m at the year end, compared to a planned level of £10m, and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) position has improved significantly, with a projected underspend of £1m which would result in a final balance of £4.4m.

In respect of the Capital Programme, the Cabinet Member reported on the proposed re-profiling of a number of further schemes and current projections suggest a £5.3m slippage in overall budgeted expenditure.

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 for 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;

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

(v)  Note the Financial Health Indicators for the third quarter as detailed in paragraph 7 of and Appendix E to the report.