Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Johnson introduced the report which provided Members with the first detailed overview of the budget monitoring position for the 2023/24 financial year for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account and presented the position, based on actual income and expenditure as at Month 5.

The projected year end position was as follows:

Council Fund

·         An operating deficit of £3.660m (excluding the impact of the pay award which would need to be met by reserves – currently estimated as £2.727m) which was an adverse movement of £1.016m from the deficit figure reported at Month 4

·         A projected contingency reserve available balance as at 31st March 2024 of £3.027m (after the estimated impact of pay awards)

Housing Revenue Account

·         Net in-year revenue expenditure was forecast to be £0.006m higher than budget which was an adverse movement of £0.071m from the figure reported at Month 4

·         A projected closing balance as at 31st March, 2024 of £3.191m

The economic outlook remained challenging due to inflation levels remaining high. The impacts of that, together with continued increases in service demand was

becoming increasingly hard to deal with as the Councils funding failed to keep up with the scale of those pressures. To assist with managing those risks and mitigating the overall projected overspend, a moratorium through the review of non-essential spend and a vacancy management process continued.

The report went to Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee and answers to the question were provided either at the meeting or soon after.

The Finance Manager emphasised the need for services to be robust on spending freezes which were to be introduced.  A workforce communication on a moratorium would be sent out to all staff. 

RESOLVED:

That the report and the estimated financial impact on the 2023/24 budget be noted.