Agenda item

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 September 2017.

The General Fund showed a projected year-end overspend of £5.883m against the budget of £145.13m, which represented an increased overspend of £0.479m on the position for the end of August.  The Cabinet Member advised that the increased overspend was largely due to a worsening of the pressures in the Children’s Care and Support service and he also referred to a number of the other ongoing areas of overspend and, on a positive note, the projected additional £60,000 income from the Council’s film unit.

The report also set out the position in respect of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which showed an unchanged projection from the previous month’s deficit of £0.769m against the budgeted contribution of £39.642m to the HRA Capital Programme.  The Cabinet Member explained that the position was due to a shortfall in rental income as the Government’s austerity and welfare reform measures were impacting on local residents’ ability to pay their rent.

The Capital Programme for 2017/18 was projecting a spend of £240.6m against the current budget of £226.4m.  The variation arose from a combination of expenditure on future years’ projects being brought forward, slippage in the HRA Capital Programme and the proposed addition of a number of new projects relating to the Council’s investment, regeneration and Smarter Working programmes.  Among those projects was the Street Property Purchasing Scheme under which 77 properties had already been acquired and the Cabinet Member was pleased to announce that 33 of the properties had been earmarked for care leavers, 10 for adults with mental health issues and the remainder to support key workers in the Borough.

The Cabinet Member also provided an update on the Council’s Transformation Programme.  Implementation costs were projected to be kept within the overall £23.6m budget and the planned £48m contribution to the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) from 2020/21 was also on target.  It was acknowledged, however, that there were considerable risks associated with delivering such an extensive and innovative Transformation Programme and, to that end, it was noted that a £2.7m contingency had been incorporated in the 2018/19 MTFS to address potential shortfalls that had been identified to date.

The Cabinet resolved to:

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

(ii)  Note the new financial pressures 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;

(iv)  Approve the following additions to the Capital Programme;

·  Land Acquisitions - £10m

·  Becontree Heath New Build - £5.7m

·  Street Property Purchase Programme - £30m

(v)  Approve the inclusion of £1.48m in the 2017/18 Capital Programme for a number of data related IT projects, as outlined in paragraph 5.3 of the report;

(vi)   Note the reprofiled Capital Programme position for 2017/18 as detailed in Appendix C to the report;

(vii)  Approve the capital budgets for 2018/19 and future years, as set out in Appendix D to the report; and

(viii)  Note the update on the Medium Term Financial Strategy savings, as detailed in section 6 and Appendix E of the report.