Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the report on the Council’s capital and revenue position for the 2014/15 financial year, as at 31 October 2014.

The General Fund showed a projected end of year spend of £166.6m against the total approved budget of £165.3m, which represented an improvement of £1.8m on the position as at 30 September 2014 due to the implementation of spending control measures across Council services.  The Cabinet Member stressed that there remained a projected year-end overspend of £1.3m and the pressures within the Children’s Services division were under constant review.  In respect of the latter, the report contained a proposal to use balances carried forward from 2013/14 to support expenditure within the service in the current year. 

The Cabinet Member for Finance also referred to the addendum to the report which the Chair agreed could be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency under the provisions of Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.  The addendum related to recent pay award arrangements and included a proposal to increase the minimum hourly rate from £9 to £9.20 per hour for Council employees and agency staff, which would exceed the new London Living Wage rate of £9.15 per hour.  The Cabinet Member confirmed that provision of up to £0.5m had been set aside but he hoped that the increase would be contained within existing budgets.

It was also noted that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) continued to show a projected break-even position for the year while the Capital Programme showed a projected spend of £142.4m.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected outturn position for 2014/15 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget at 31 October 2014, as detailed in paragraphs 2.4 to 2.10 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Note the impact on the outturn position of expenditure restrictions and early savings implementation agreed at 25 September Cabinet and detailed in paragraph 2.2 of the report;

(iii)  Note the progress against the agreed 2014/15 savings at 31 October 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.11 and Appendix B of the report;

(iv)  Note progress against the agreed 2014/15 HRA savings as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix B of the report;

(v)  Note the overall position for the HRA at 31 October 2014, as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix C of the report;

(vi)  Approve the drawdown of £270,000 from Children’s Services reserve as detailed in paragraph 2.5;

(vii)  Agree that all permanent Council staff and agency staff working on Council assignments be paid the equivalent of at least £9.20 per hour with effect from 1 January 2015; and

(viii)  Agree to review the minimum hourly rate for all Council staff in December each year with any increase applying from the following January.