Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration introduced a report on behalf of the Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Core Services relating to the Council’s revenue budget monitoring position for the 2022/23 financial year as at 31 July 2022 (period 4).

The Council’s General Fund revenue budget for 2022/23 was £183.06m, which represented a net increase of £9.4m on the budget for 2021/22.  Despite that increase, the forecast outturn position at the end of July showed a projected net overspend of £16.287m.  The Cabinet Member explained that there were several key factors behind the projected overspend, such as significant demand and cost increases for both Children’s and Adults Social Care services partly attributable to new legislative requirements, the cost-of-living crisis, a review of cost apportionment of approximately £3m between the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and the General Fund, reduced dividends from the Council-owned companies due to cost pressures and additional provision for the 2022/23 Local Government pay award which had previously been estimated at 2% but which was now likely to be significantly higher.  It was also noted that the Council had launched a new financial management system on 1 April 2022 and, as a consequence, the detailed monthly budget monitoring undertaken by individual budget holders was not possible during the period covered by the report.

The Strategic Director, Finance and Investment, commented that officers would continue to look into mitigating measures to address the current overspend and he expected the position to improve in the months ahead, particularly once potential risks and opportunities became more apparent.  It was also acknowledged that while the entire Local Government sector was facing considerable pressures due to a lack of Government funding, Barking and Dagenham was in a much stronger position than most to respond due to the actions it had taken in recent years.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the projected revenue outturn forecast for the 2022/23 financial year as set out in section 2 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  Note the update on savings proposals, as set out in section 3 of the report; and

(iii)  Approve the restatement of the HRA budget as set out in section 4 and Appendix B of the report.