Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the Council’s General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) revenue budget monitoring position for the 2018/19 financial year as at 31 October 2018 (Month 7).

The underlying General Fund position continued to be similar to that at the end of September, with a projected end of year overspend of £3.818m.  The Cabinet Member referred to the People and Resilience Action Plan which sought to manage the significant pressures across both the Adult and Children’s service areas and also commented on the other services that were experiencing pressures as a consequence of the Government’s underfunding of public services.  On that point, the Cabinet Member for Enforcement and Community Safety remarked on the Government’s recent announcement that local authorities could support Police funding via the Council Tax, which was yet another example of the Government absolving itself of its responsibilities.

The HRA was forecast to be £0.9m below the planned revenue surplus contribution to the HRA Capital Programme.  The Cabinet Member also advised on the receipt of grant funding towards road repairs and an addition to the fees and charges schedule that was approved at the last meeting to reflect new animal licensing regulations.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the current forecast outturn position for 2018/19 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget, as detailed in section 2 and Appendix A to the report;

(ii)  Note the forecast outturn position for 2018/19 on the HRA, as detailed in section 4 and Appendix B to the report;

(iii)  Agree the inclusion of Local Transport Capital Grant funding of £0.42m in the Capital Programme, as detailed in section 5 of the report; and

(iv)  Agree the inclusion in the Fees and Charges schedule approved by Cabinet on 13 November 2018 (Minute 54) of new fees and charges relating to animal welfare effective from 1 October 2018, as detailed in section 6 of the report.