Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Core Services presented the Council’s draft provisional Revenue and Capital Outturn 2021/22 report.

The provisional revenue position showed a projected General Fund outturn of £166.9m against the budget of £168.6m, representing an underspend of £1.7m, while the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) showed an underspend of £2.7m and the Dedicated Schools Budget (DSG) an underspend of £1.946m, although it was noted that those sums were subject to further review and audit.  The Cabinet Member commented on the excellent efforts that had resulted in the turnaround of the projected in-year overspend position of the General Fund but pointed out that within the overall underspend, pressures continued to exist in a number of services areas.  The Cabinet Member also referred to the supplementary paper tabled at the meeting that replaced page 30 of the published agenda, relating to the up-to-date provisional outturn of the My Place service.

The 2021/22 Capital Programme showed a projected outturn of £360.4m against the adjusted budget of £468.8m, with the underspend being largely attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and the capacity of partners to deliver in a timely way.  Although it was noted that slippage of circa £105m would be carried forward to 2022/23, the importance of closely monitoring the delivery of capital schemes was acknowledged to ensure that any schemes subject to slippage in-year were re-profiled and other appropriate schemes brought forward.  That would ensure that projected spend remained on track and to reduce the impact of rising costs due to the current cost-of-living crisis.  On a specific point relating to the Aids and Adaptations project, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration sought clarification of the supply issues that had resulted in a reduced number of schemes being delivered.

The Cabinet Member Finance, Growth and Core Services also alluded to proposed transfers to and from reserves, the overall reserves position, the shortfall in Company returns of £3.4m and the allocation of capital receipts to support the Council’s transformation and ERP projects.

In welcoming the provisional outturn position, the Chair referred to the recent Cost of Living summit with community and voluntary partners, led by the Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement and the Acting Chief Executive, which represented the first stage of the Council’s ongoing plans to support the local community during the current cost-of-living crisis.

Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the provisional revenue outturn for the General Fund for 2021/22, including individual service variances, as detailed in Appendix A to the report;

(ii)  Note the provisional outturn for the Council’s subsidiary companies BDTP and Be First, as detailed in Appendix A to the report;

(iii)  Approve the transfers to and from reserves as detailed in section 3 and Appendix B to the report;

(iv)  Note the provisional outturn for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), reflecting an underspend of circa £11m, as detailed in Appendix C to the report;

(v)  Note the provisional outturn for the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and Schools, as detailed in Appendix D to the report;

(vi)  Note the provisional outturn for the 2021/22 Capital Programme, as detailed in section 6 and Appendices E and F to the report;

(vii)  Approve the carry forward of slippage of £34.861m General Fund, £49.032m Investment Strategy and £19.231m HRA capital budget into 2022/23 and the revised total Capital Programme of £644.936m for 2022/23, as detailed in Appendices E and F to the report; and 

(viii)  Note the update on Transformation and Capital Receipts in section 7 of the report and approve the allocation of capital receipts of £5.5m from the sale of the Film Studio land to part-fund the transformation and ERP projects.