Issue - meetings

That the Committee supports the recommendations made in the Cabinet report for 16 April and confirms that there are no concerns which it wishes to have raised at Cabinet this month.

The Corporate Finance Manager presented a report on the revenue budget monitoring position for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as at Month 11 prior to consideration by Cabinet.  The report reflected the budget position at the close of the financial year and the outturn position due to be reported in July was not expected to significantly differ unless there were late changes to demand levels of services.

On the Council Fund, there was an operating surplus of £0.931m which was a positive movement of £0.188m compared with the previous month.  As work was underway on closing the accounts, the risks of significant changes to the outturn had diminished.  It was assessed that 96% of planned in-year efficiencies would be achieved by year-end.

On reserves and balances, taking into account the current projected underspend and previously agreed allocations, the balance on the Contingency Reserve was projected to be £8.715m.  As previously agreed by Council, the amount used to assist in closing the budget gap on a one-off basis reduced the total available balance to £6.494m.  Cabinet would be asked to approve allocations from the Contingency Reserve for investment in change and the new requirement to operate a Sustainable Drainage System Approving Body as set out in the report.

In seeking more clarity on budget variances, Councillor Heesom said it was crucial that the breakdown of portfolio expenditure appended to the report had been considered by the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committees.  The Chief Executive spoke about the impact on resources to take such an approach and that instead the practice was for each of the Committees to receive information on efficiencies and pressures within their respective portfolios in addition to budget issues arising as part of regular performance reporting.  If there were concerns about a particular topic, they were signposted to the relevant Committee or at the request of the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee as had been done previously.

Councillor Heesom requested an updated breakdown of Central and Corporate Finance expenditure.  The Chief Executive said that a future report would be scheduled on the Forward Work Programme.

In response to Councillor Bateman’s query on school delegated budgets, the Corporate Finance Manager would provide details of the percentage allocated to employee salaries which was the higher proportion of those budgets.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Heesom and seconded by Councillor Johnson.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee supports the recommendations made in the Cabinet report for 16 April and confirms that there are no concerns which it wishes to have raised at Cabinet this month.