Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Investment presented a report on the Council’s revenue budget monitoring position for the 2017/18 financial year as at 30 November 2017.

The General Fund showed a projected year-end overspend of £6.878m against the budget of £145.13m, which represented an increase of £0.995m on the position reported for 31 October 2017.  The Cabinet Member alluded to the new pressures and risks detailed in the report and confirmed that it was unlikely that the position would improve to any significant degree by the end of the financial year.  The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) showed an unchanged projection from the previous month’s £0.769m deficit position against the budgeted contribution of £39.642m to the HRA Capital Programme.

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration referred to the increased pressures within the Adults’ Care and Support service and drew particular attention to the excellent work of the Mental Health Crisis Intervention team which had overseen just one delayed discharge from hospital in the last reporting period, compared to another London local authority which had experienced over 4,000 in the same period. 

In respect of the increased overspend within the Disabilities Care and Support service stemming from the high cost of two out-of-borough care packages which the Council had funding responsibilities for, the Cabinet Member confirmed that an urgent review had been undertaken and no other ‘potentially unknown’ cases had been identified.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the forecast outturn position for 2017/18 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget as at 30 November 2017, as detailed in section 2 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Note the new financial risks and the suggested mechanisms for resolving them, as detailed in section 3 of the report; 

(iii)  Note the overview of the Housing Revenue Account for 2017/18 , as detailed in section 4 and Appendix B of the report; and

(iv)  Note the update on the Capital Programme as detailed in section 5 of the report.