Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the Council’s revenue and capital outturn position for 2017/18, which was expected to represent the final position for the year subject to external audit.

The General Fund revenue expenditure for the financial year was projected at £150.73m against the revised budget of £145.13m, representing an overspend of £5.6m at the year end.  The Cabinet Member referred to the main areas of overspend and explained that many were a result of long-standing structural budget deficits that had been corrected as part of the budget setting process for 2018/19.  There were also a number of proposed carry forwards and transfers to / from reserves that had been accounted for in the outturn position.

The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) showed a projected year-end surplus of £0.671m which would be transferred to the HRA reserve while Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) expenditure was £210.713m against the budget of £211.386m after adjustments and Department for Education (DfE) clawback.  With regard to the DSG, it was noted that there was an ongoing pressure in the High Needs block due to DfE funding not keeping pace with the population growth in the Borough and the increasing complexity of high-level need for a small number of children with special educational needs.  The Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement advised that the Government was being lobbied for a fairer settlement for Barking and Dagenham and Jon Cruddas MP was also expected to raise the Borough’s plight in the House of Commons.

The Council’s Transformation Programme was on target to deliver £7.7m of the planned £8.1m savings for 2017/18 and the overall Capital Programme showed expenditure of £170.329m against the revised budget of £199.678m, with the most significant variance relating to the Street Property Purchasing Scheme which had allocated only £17.516m of the £30m budget.  The need for Cabinet Members to receive early notification of potential slippage on capital projects was reiterated.

The Cabinet resolved to:

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

(ii)  Approve the carry forwards and transfers to/from reserves as detailed in section 4 of the report;

(iii)  Note the overview of the HRA for 2017/18, as detailed in section 5 and Appendix B of the report;

(iv)  Note the overview of the Dedicated Schools Grant budget for 2017/18 as detailed in section 6 of the report;

(v)  Note the overview of the 2017/18 Capital Programme as detailed in section 7 and Appendix C of the report;

(vi)  Note the overview of the Transformation Programme for 2017/18 as detailed in section 8 and Appendix D of the report; and

(vii)  Note the position of the reserves as detailed in section 9 and Appendix E of the report.