Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced a report updating the Council’s revenue and capital position for the four months to the end of July 2014.

The Council began the current year in a better financial position than the previous year with a General Fund (GF) balance of £27.1m.  The Council’s approved budget of £165.3m for 2014/15 included a budgeted drawdown of reserves of £1.0m, agreed by Assembly in February 2014. This budget gap formed part of the savings requirement for 2015/16.

The Cabinet noted that at the end of July 2014 (Month 4), there was a projected overspend of £3.5m, predominantly on the Children’s services budget. Since the publication of the report further pressures had been identified on the service, which would be mitigated by further controls on all expenditure.

The total service expenditure for the full year was projected to be £168.8m against the budget of £165.3m. The projected year end overspend coupled with the reserve drawdown would reduce the General Fund balance to £22.6m at the year end. 

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was projected to break-even, leaving the HRA reserve at £8.7m.  The Cabinet Member for Finance advised Cabinet that he had asked officers to consider why the reserve was so high for the HRA.

The Capital Programme had been updated to reflect changes approved at Cabinet on 30 June 2014, including roll forwards and re-profiles.  The capital budget at 31 July stood at £154.9m.

The report also presented a request for a new capital budget of £307,000 to upgrade the Environmental Asset Database, ‘Confirm’, to be funded from existing invest to save revenue sources.

The Cabinet Member for Finance confirmed that the report before Members instilled good financial practice within the Council.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected outturn position for 2014/15 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget at 31 July 2014, as detailed in paragraphs 2.4 to 2.9 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Request a report from the Corporate Director of Children’s Services setting out the detailed reasons for the directorate’s forecast overspend and options for eliminating the overspend;

(iii)  Require all Chief Officers and budget managers to authorise only essential expenditure relating to their service areas;

(iv)  Note the progress against the agreed 2014/15 savings at 31 July 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.10 and Appendix B of the report;

(v)  Approve 2014/15 HRA savings as detailed in paragraph 2.11 and Appendix B and note progress on delivery at 31 July 2014;

(vi)  Note the position for the HRA at 31 July 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.11 and Appendix C of the report;

(vii)  Note the projected outturn position for 2014/15 of the Council’s capital budget as at 31 July 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix D of the report; and

(viii)  Approve the new capital budget of £307,000 to fund the upgrade to the Environmental Asset Database, ‘Confirm’, as detailed in paragraph 2.12 of the report.