Agenda item
Revenue Budget Monitoring 2018/19 (Month 9) and Capital Programme Monitoring 2018/19 (Month 9)
- Meeting of Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Thursday, 14th February, 2019 10.00 am (Item 95.)
- View the background to item 95.
Decision:
That the Committee supports the recommendations made in the Cabinet report for 19 February and confirms that there are no concerns which it wishes to have raised at Cabinet this month.
Minutes:
The Corporate Finance Manager presented a report on the revenue budget monitoring position for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA), and the Capital Programme 2018/19 as at Month 9. Both would be considered by Cabinet on 19 February 2019.
Revenue Budget Monitoring
On the Council Fund, there was an operating surplus of £0.233m reflecting a positive movement of £0.207m from Month 8. The key variances were additional costs for Special Educational Needs transport offset by a reduction in Highways Network costs following a capital grant allocation from Welsh Government (WG). An additional windfall income was reported for Central & Corporate Finance together with a centrally held amount for non-standard inflation for energy costs which was no longer required in-year.
There was no change in overall planned efficiencies where 96% were expected to be achieved by year end.
More detail on Reserves and Balances would be shared in the briefing to take place after the meeting. The total available balance of Contingency Reserves was estimated at £5.985m taking into account the latest projections. The current position on earmarked reserves indicated that these would reduce to £7.829m.
Whilst praising the quality of the Revenue Budget monthly reports, Councillor Heesom said that the level of detail did not help Members to evaluate portfolio expenditure. He cited the cost of short-term borrowing as another area where more information was needed.
The Chief Executive highlighted the level of work required to product the detailed reports. Members were encouraged to raise specific areas of interest directly with officers at any time so that briefing notes could be provided. Members were also able to raise any portfolios issues for inclusion on the Forward Work Programmes of the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committee.
Capital Programme
A summary of changes to the programme for the period indicated a revised budget total of £71.192m mainly due to additional grant funding. Requests for carry-forward amounts totalling £1.815m were summarised and two additional allocations were identified. The overall funding position for the three year period showed a £1.428m shortfall prior to the realisation of additional capital receipts and/or other funding sources.
Councillor Heesom referred to spend on county towns and questioned the investment made in the west of Flintshire, specifically Mostyn Docks.
Members were reminded that the county towns listed were based on the seven areas in the Wellbeing Plan and that a breakdown of area spend was shown in the appendix.
On Single Status/Equal Pay earmarked reserves, Councillor Bateman was informed that the remainder were being used for employment costs, as previously agreed by County Council, and would soon be exhausted.
RESOLVED:
That the Committee supports the recommendations made in the Cabinet report for 19 February and confirms that there are no concerns which it wishes to have raised at Cabinet this month.
Supporting documents:
- Revenue Budget Monitoring and Capital Programme Monitoring 2018/19 (Month 9), item 95. PDF 70 KB
- Enc. 1 - Revenue Budget Monitoring, item 95. PDF 774 KB
- Enc. 2 - Capital Programme Monitoring, item 95. PDF 214 KB