Issue - meetings

To provide a general update and overview of the Council’s financial position against the 2024/25 budget as at the end of July 2024 and looking ahead to 2025/26 and beyond.

That Cabinet:-

(a)   notes the Council’s in-year financial position at the end of July 2024;

(b)   approves the proposed adjustments to the 2024/25 budget, as set out in Appendix 1H to the Portfolio Holder’s report (A.2), and requests Officers to review the potential on-going impact in 2025/26 and beyond where necessary as part of developing the forecast and detailed estimates for further consideration by Cabinet later in the year;

(c)   agrees that the Council continues to be a member of the Essex Business Rates Pool in 2025/26 if it remains financially advantageous to do so;

(d)   notes that £0.165m of unspent external funding previously received via the North Essex Health & Wellbeing Alliance, that has subsequently been carried forward into 2024/25, is being returned to them in accordance with the original agreement / MOU agreed by Cabinet on 17 September 2021;

(e)   notes the payment of £0.092m to East Suffolk District Council in-line with the previously agreed Freeport East Local Growth and Investment Strategy;

(f)   notes the updated financial forecast, as set out in this report, and requests Officers, in consultation with Portfolio Holders to further develop the financial forecast proposals alongside the development of the Council’s priorities; and

(g)   invites the views of the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the information set out in this report along with the Council’s wider financial position as part of its work programme for the year.

Earlier on in the meeting as detailed in Minute 57 above, Councillor Barry had declared a Discloseable Pecuniary Interest in respect of this item insofar as he was a Trustee of the Brightlingsea Lido which was referred to in Appendix 1D. Councillor Barry had been granted a Dispensation by the Monitoring Officer pursuant to Section 33(2)(e) of the Localism Act 2011, that enabled him to stay in the room and vote on this item as the reference to the Brightlingsea Lido, of which he was a Trustee regarded noting a factual position, rather than making any new decisions about the Lido.

Cabinet considered a detailed report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder (A.4), which provided it with a general update and overview of the Council’s financial position against the 2024/25 budget as at the end of July 2024 and looking ahead to 2025/26 and beyond.

SECTION 1 - In respect of the in-year financial position at the end of July 2024:

It was reported that the position to the end of July 2024, as set out in more detail within the appendices to the Portfolio Holder’s report showed that, overall, the General Fund Revenue Account was overspent against the profiled budget by £0.480m. However, it was important to highlight that this was primarily due to the timing of when the Government reimbursed the Council for the cost of meeting housing benefit claims and the Parliamentary General Election expenses incurred earlier in the year.

No significant new issues had emerged to date in terms of the underlying budget, albeit a number of cost pressures had been identified as set out within Appendix 1H. Those cost pressures were largely unavoidable, and it was both timely and prudent to respond to such issues as early as possible in the year. It was acknowledged that other expenditure or income trends might still emerge / develop over the remainder of the year, which would be included in future financial performance reports as necessary.

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 within the Portfolio Holder’s report, there were no other major issues that had been identified to date.

As highlighted in Appendix 1H,a total of £0.250m had been transferred to the Forecast Risk Fund. This was in effect the annual required contribution highlighted within the long-term forecast which was a ‘banking for the future’ adjustment and was therefore prudent to make at this time.

In addition to the above, it was also proposed to continue to be a member of the Essex Business Rates Pool if it remained advantageous to do so in 2025/26.

SECTION 2 - In respect of the updated long-term financial forecast:

Members were made aware that the forecast had been reviewed and updated at the end of July 2024 and was set out in Appendix 2A. It continued to reflect the very challenging financial position faced by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64