Issue - meetings

To provide an overview of the Council’s financial position against the budget as at the end of December 2019 and to present an updated long term forecast.

RESOLVED that –

(a)     in respect of the financial performance against the budget at the end of December 2019:

(1)     the current position be noted;

(2)     the proposed adjustments to the budget, that include a contribution to the Forecast Risk Fund of £0.446m, as set out in Appendix H to item A.3 of the Report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder, be agreed; and

(3)     the use of £0.041m of the contribution to the Forecast Risk Fund of £0.446m to fund the cost in 2019/20 of the changes to the Members’ Scheme of Allowances agreed by Full Council on 21 January 2020 be agreed.

(b)     in respect of the Updated Long Term Forecast:

(1)       the updated forecast be agreed, which includes the commitment to on-going support to external organisations within the principles set out in the Portfolio Holder’s report; and

(2)       the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee be consulted on the updated long term forecast.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a comprehensive report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder (A.3) which provided it with an overview of the Council’s financial position against the budget as at the end of December 2019 and also presented it with an updated long term forecast.

In respect of the in-year financial position as at the end of December 2019:

It was reported that the position to the end of December 2019, as set out in more detail within the appendices, showed that, overall, the General Fund Revenue Account was underspent against the profiled budget by £2.864m. As had been the case in previous quarters, the variance to date primarily reflected the timing of expenditure and income although any significant issues arising to date had been highlighted and comments provided as necessary within the Portfolio Holder’s report.

Cabinet was made aware that, in respect of other areas of the budget such as the Housing Revenue Account, capital programme, collection performance and treasury activity, apart from additional details set out in the report, there were no major issues that had been identified to date.

Members were informed that any emerging issues would be monitored and updates provided in future reports which would include their consideration as part of updating the on-going long term financial forecast.

Cabinet was advised that some necessary changes to the budget had been identified which were set out in Appendix H to the Portfolio Holder’s report, with an associated recommendation included within the report. The net impact of all of the budget adjustments was a surplus of £0.446m.

Members were further advised that, in addition to the adjustments included within Appendix H, it was also proposed to fund the cost of the changes to the Members’ Scheme of Allowances that had been approved at Full Council on 21 January 2020. The total cost was £0.041m in 2019/20 and it was proposed to fund this from the net surplus of £0.446m reported above.

It was reported that, after taking the above into account, the net budget surplus at the end of December 2019 had been revised to £0.405m, which was proposed to be contributed to the Forecast Risk Fund.

Cabinet was informed that, subject to the recommendations set out in the report, as at the end of the third quarter a total of £0.335m would have been contributed to the fund over the course of the whole year. This was £0.165m short of the required target of £0.500m set out in the long term forecast, which hopefully was a gap that could be closed over the remaining quarter of the year.

As in previous years, it was recognised that a number of smaller variances within services emerged over the course of the year that would not necessarily be specifically highlighted or discussed within the in-year finance reports. It was still therefore possible that a range of smaller variances might remain at the end of the year and would contribute to the overall outturn position.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 120