Issue - meetings

Testing for Governance item on agenda

That the Committee notes the Revenue Budget Monitoring 2019/20 Month 5 report and confirms that on this occasion there are no specific issues which it wishes to raise with Cabinet.

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 5 prior to consideration by Cabinet.  The report reflected the budget position at the close of the financial year if all things remained unchanged.

The projected year-end position, without new actions to reduce cost pressures and improve the yield on efficiency planning, was an operating deficit of £3.042m which was a negative movement of £0.059m reported last month.  The two major areas of variance had been reported at the previous meeting where the Committee was satisfied that there was very limited scope for mitigation to reduce the in-year overspend and that there would be an inevitable impact on the budget position from 2020/21.  This was being incorporated into the Medium Term Financial Strategy to be shared in November.  To help mitigate the overall projected overspend, there would be a review and challenge of all non-essential spend and recruitment to vacancies to achieve temporary in-year savings, and the outcome would be reported to the next meeting.

If the current overspend could not be mitigated, the balance on Contingency Reserves would be £1.827m, which was significantly less than previous years.  The position on earmarked reserves was subject to changes in projected levels of school balances which were currently being reviewed.

On the HRA, in-year expenditure was projected to be £0.108m greater than budget leaving a closing un-earmarked balance of 3.35% which was above the recommended minimum level.

The Corporate Finance Manager noted Councillor Jones’ request that in future, the Cabinet report be appended in the usual way, rather than as a scanned document.  In response to questions, the Corporate Finance Manager reported that confirmation had been received that Welsh Government (WG) would not provide revenue or capital funding for costs associated with the flooding event including road repairs under the Council’s responsibility.  On comparison with Month 9 and 10 outturns for Strategic Programmes, Housing & Assets and Central & Corporate Finance, a separate response would be shared to understand the difference in figures which could possibly be due to virements.

Councillor Jones also asked about the current position on the number of schools with a deficit budget and was informed that the outcome of the review would be incorporated into a future Revenue Budget report.  On this point, Councillor Roberts spoke about the reasons that could lead to schools being in this position.

Councillors Johnson and Jones commented on car parking income and the impact on areas where on-street parking was available.  Councillor Roberts advised that work was underway on restrictions in some areas and that projections on car parking income would require adjustment.

The recommendations were moved by Councillor Collett and seconded by Councillor Heesom.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee notes the Revenue Budget Monitoring 2019/20 Month 5 report and confirms that on this occasion there are no specific issues which it wishes to raise with Cabinet.