Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

The Corporate Finance Manager provided Members with the latest revenue budget monitoring information for 2014/15 for the Council Fund and the Housing Revenue Account based on actual income and expenditure as at Month 3 and projected forward to year-end based on the most up to date information available.

The projected year end position, as estimated at Month 3 was:

Council Fund

·         Net in year non pay expenditure forecast to be £0.603m higher than budget.  This did not include any potential effect of variances on pay

·         Protected contingency reserve balance at 31 March 2015 of £3.338m.

Housing Revenue Account

·         Net in year expenditure forecast to be £0.038m higher than budget

·         Projected closing balance as at 31 March 2015 of £1.127m

Following the implementation of the Single Status agreement in June 2014 extensive work had been undertaken to rebase all staffing budgets to reflect the actual new costs arising from the new pay and grading structure and this was being verified by Portfolio areas and would be concluded by the end of September.  Due to this significant work, no pay variations were included in the report.

The report provided details of the efficiencies achieved to date on workforce efficiencies following the initial Voluntary Redundancy Programme.  Also contained within the report was a list of budget assumptions and risks.

On unearmarked reserves, it was estimated that £2.5m would be required from the contingency reserve to fund one off costs and transitional funding for efficiencies in 2014/15.  The projected balance on the contingency reserve at 31 March 2015 was £2.338m, full details of which were contained in appendix 3 to the report.

The position at Month 3 on the Housing Revenue Account satisfied the prudent approach of a minimum level of 3% overspend.

In response to a question from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, the Chief Executive said that trends were looked at each year however the demand for social care could not be predicted with precision due to fluctuations in demand. 

The Chief Executive commented on the former Euticals site which was identified as a risk and said a second formal request had been submitted to Welsh Government (WG) the previous week for financial assistance on what was a unique case, which was supported by Members.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the report be noted; 

(b)       That the projected Council Fund contingency sum as at 31 March 2015 be noted; and

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