Issue - meetings

That the content of the reports be noted.

The Corporate Finance Manager introduced a report to provide Members with the first available Revenue Budget Monitoring information for 2014/15 (as at Month 2) for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as approved by Cabinet on 15 July 2014.

The level of detail contained within the report had been impacted by the need for resources to be diverted to work on the closure of the accounts for 2013/14 within the statutory deadline, however communication was continuing with service managers on changes in demand to their respective areas.

Some emerging issues and risks had been identified, as detailed, and included out of county placements, deprivation of liberty assessments, professional support (leaving care), Single Status and the former Euticals site.

No significant variations had been identified in the HRA.

The position on unearmarked reserves reported that the final level of Council Fund Contingency Reserve brought forward into 2014/15 was £5.328m, as noted in the previous agenda item.

An update on the progress against the Corporate Efficiencies and Workforce Efficiencies was included in the report as discussed in the earlier agenda item.

During an update on the monitoring of efficiencies, the Head of ICT & Customer Services reported that following the first voluntary redundancy programme earlier in the year, work was underway to deal with a number of deferred voluntary redundancy applications prior to a follow-up programme in late August/September 2014.

On the former Euticals site, Councillor Robin Guest asked whether assistance sought from the Welsh Government (WG) would impact on the ownership of the site.  The Corporate Finance Manager said that this would need to be a consideration when seeking a response from WG.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the reports be noted.