Issue - meetings

Members received a report on the Council’s capital and revenue position for the 2015/16 financial year, as at 31 May 2015.

The General Fund showed a projected end of year spend of £158.6m against the approved budget of £151.4m.  The projected overspend of £7.2m was attributable to the ongoing pressures within the Children’s Services department and Councillor Geddes, presenting the report on behalf of the Cabinet Member for Finance, advised that the position was being closely monitored and a detailed report on the issue would be presented to the Cabinet’s next meeting.  Councillor Geddes referred to the identification of £1.2m from the Central Expenses budget to mitigate some of the pressure but stressed the importance of finding a permanent solution in view of the Council’s limited reserves.

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) showed a predicted breakeven position while the forecast outturn for the Capital Programme was £129.6m against the budget of £130.1m.  The report also set out details of a proposed loan of £900,000 from the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) reserve to Eastbury Primary School to cover a deficit that had accrued over the past two financial years.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected outturn position for 2015/16 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget at 31 May 2015, as detailed in paragraphs 2.1, 2.4 to 2.10 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Note the progress against the agreed 2015/16 savings at 31 May 2015, as detailed in paragraph 2.11 and Appendix B of the report;

(iii)  Note the overall position of the HRA at 31 May 2015, as detailed in paragraph 2.12 and Appendix C of the report;

(iv)  Note the projected outturn position for 2015/16 of the Council’s capital budget at 31 May 2015, as detailed in paragraph 2.13 and Appendix D of the report;

(v)  Approve the following budget transfers totalling £2.9m from Central Expenses to support the increased in-year demographic demand pressures within the Children’s Services directorate (£1.2m) and the identified shortfalls in respect of the centralisation of Learning and Development and Marketing budgets (£1.1m) and the abandoning of proposals for further shared services with Thurrock Council (£0.6m), as detailed in paragraph 2.11 of the report:

  Existing Budget  £’000

·  Pension Contribution   1,300

·  Redundancy Costs    500

·  Welfare Reform Bad Debt provision    500

·  Thurrock Shared Services budget    300

·  Legacy Contingency budget    300

Total  2,900

(vi)  Approve a loan of £0.9m from the DSG reserve to cover the cumulative deficit at Eastbury Primary School, on the terms set out in paragraph 2.6 of the report.