Agenda item

As detailed in the recommendations.

The Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the most up to date revenue budget monitoring information (Month 12) for the Council Fund and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) in 2012/13.

A debate had taken place the previous week at Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the £2m increase in the underspend on the Council Fund.  Whilst it was positive that further savings had been identified, he stressed the importance of the timely reporting of financial information.

The Head of Finance explained that the projected year end position was estimated at Month 12 was a net underspend of £4.313m on the Council Fund and a net underspend of £1.047m on the HRA, however £0.329m of that underspend was committed for specific items in 2013/14.

The significant in-year projected variances to date were detailed in the appendices to the report, including reasons for the variances and the actions required to address each variance.  The significant changes for the Council Fund from Month 11 were detailed in Appendix 1 to the report.

There was a total improvement of £1.979m on the projected underspend reported within the Month 11 report to Cabinet on 21 May 2013.  There were four major influences on the total movement which amounted to £1.497m (75.6%) of the total increase of £1.979m, which were detailed in the report.

In response to the Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance’s comments, the Head of Finance explained that the further improvement in the projected underspend reflected the outcome of planned activities and positive budget management and the utilisation of external funding where possible.  It did illustrate however the need for more discipline in strengthening financial controls, forecasting and timelier reporting.  A detailed review of the interaction between service managers and actions to establish the early identification and reporting of variances was being carried out.

Appendix 7 detailed movements to date on unearmarked reserves and the level of contingency sum available.  As a result of the movements the current projected level of the contingency reserve at the end of March 2013 was £1.301m.

On the Housing Revenue Account there was an overall projected underspend of £1.047m and the projected closing balance at Month 12 of £1.902m, which at 6.9% of total expenditure satisfied the prudent approach of ensuring a minimum level of 3%. 

There were two requests for a carry forward of underspend, details of which were in the report.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted;

(b)       That the Council Fund contingency sum as at 31 March 2013 be noted;

(c)        That the projected final level of balances on the Housing Revenue Account be noted; and

(d)       That the request for carry forwards of underspends to 2013/14 be approved.