Issue - meetings

To enable Cabinet to consider the updated financial forecast and detailed estimates for 2018/19 for consultation with the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED that –

a)         the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee is thanked for the work it has done to date in reviewing the forecast as it has developed;

b)         the comments of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder in response to issues raised by the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee be endorsed;

c)         the updated Financial Forecast 2019/20, as set out in item A.6 of the Report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder and its accompanying Appendices, be approved and;

d)         the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s comments on this latest financial forecast for 2019/20 be requested.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a detailed report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder (A.6) which sought to enable Cabinet to consider the updated financial forecast for 2019/20 for consultation with the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Members were informed that, as part of maintaining a ‘live’ forecast, further updates to the position for 2019/20 had been made since the financial forecast had been last considered by Cabinet on 9 November 2018.

It was reported that, at this stage of the budget process, there was a net surplus of £0.002mforecast in 2019/20, an overall change of £0.511m compared with the £0.509m deficit previously reported to Cabinet on 9 November 2018. The long term forecast therefore remained on target.

Cabinet was advised that it was important to highlight that the 2019/20 budget included an estimated collection fund surplus of £0.710m.Although this was an on-going item in the budget it was reviewed each year based on in-year collection performance and could therefore only be deemed a one-off ‘saving’ in 2019/20. Although the amount was available to support the 2019/20 budget, if this was excluded from the forecast, there would be a budget deficit of £0.708m for 2019/20.

Members were informed that, although subject to potential changes to the forecast over the remaining budget setting period, the current forecasted surplus of £0.002m would be paid into the Forecast Risk Fund.

It was reported that any necessary changes emerging from the detailed Local Government Finance Settlement would be included in the figures that would be presented to Cabinet in January 2019 when it considered the final budget proposals after consultation with the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Cabinet was made aware that once the final position for 2019/20 was determined, the remaining years of the 10 year forecast would be revised, set against the revised 2019/20 position and would be reported to Members later in the budget setting process.

Members were informed that the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, at its meeting held on 29 November 2018, had considered the in-year performance against the budget as at the end of September 2018 and the long term financial forecast update and had made the following recommendations to Cabinet:-

1)     that the Section 151 Officer  undertakes a review of the digital transformation business case in terms of estimated costs and planned savings and the performance against the budget to date, with an update to be provided in the Quarter 3 Corporate Budget Monitoring Report 2018/19.

2)     That the Head of IT and Corporate Resilience attends the Resources and Services Committee meeting on 11 February 2019 to discuss digital transformation, as part of the review of the Performance Report 2018/19, Third Quarter.

The Cabinet was aware that the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder had noted and supported both of those recommendations.

With the permission of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Watling MP addressed the meeting on the subject matter of this item.

The Leader  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87