Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Finance presented a report on the final revenue and capital outturn position for the 2013/14 financial year. 

The General Fund position showed a year end underspend of £9.7m against the net revenue budget of £178.3m, resulting in the General Fund balance increasing to £27.1m at the year end.  The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) surplus was £0.2m for the year, increasing the reserve position to £8.7m, while the Capital Programme showed an outturn of £119.3m compared to the revised budget of £138.2m.  With regard to the Capital Programme, the report provided a summary of expenditure against each project, with underspends proposed to be rolled forward to 2014/15 to enable the relevant projects to be completed. 

The Cabinet noted details of the overall revenue outturn position for each directorate and the Chief Finance Officer referred to the reasons for a number of the underspends.  The Cabinet Member for Finance advised that he would not want General Fund reserves to increase any further given the financial pressures faced by the Council.

Officers also responded to a number of Cabinet Members’ enquiries regarding areas of revenue and capital expenditure.

Cabinet resolved:

(i)  To note the final outturn position for 2013/14 of the Council’s revenue budget as detailed in paragraphs 2.3 to 2.10 and Appendix A of the report;

(ii)  To note the outturn against the 2013/14 savings targets as detailed in paragraph 2.11 of the report;

(iii)  To note the final outturn position for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as detailed in paragraph 2.8 and Appendix C of the report;

(iv)  To approve the requests to roll forward revenue budgets into 2014/15 and the resulting budget amendments as detailed in Appendix B to the report;

(v)  To approve the request to drawdown the sum of £1.5m from the Children’s Services reserve to balance the 2013/14 budget position for Children’s Services;

(vi)  To note the final outturn position for 2013/14 of the Council’s capital budget as detailed in paragraph 2.12 of the report and agree the roll forward requests as detailed in Appendix D to the report;

(vii)  To approve the revised capital programme for 2014/15 as shown in Appendix F and the HRA five year programme as shown in Appendix G to the report;

(viii)  To approve the transfer of the Abbey Road new build scheme from the HRA to the General Fund with all expenditure to be funded from European Investment Bank borrowing; and

(ix)  To approve a budget virement of £0.5m from the Central Expenses budget to the Housing and Environment budget to fund a provision for bad and doubtful debts on the Temporary Accommodation budget, as detailed in paragraph 2.8 of the report.