Agenda item

To provide an overview of the Council’s actual financial position against the budget as at the end of December 2017.

RESOLVED that:

(a)     the financial position, as at the end of December 2017, be noted; and

(b)   Business Investment and Growth revenue and capital budgets be merged in 2017/18, as set out in this report, which would remain subject to further decisions once potential uses of the funding are identified / proposed.

There was submitted a detailed report and appendices by the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate Resources (A.6), which provided Cabinet with an overview of the Council’s actual financial position against the budget as at the end of December 2017 (Quarter Three).

Cabinet was informed that the position to the end of December 2017, as set out in more detail in the Executive Summary to the aforementioned report, showed that overall the actual General Fund Revenue position was behind the profiled budget by £2.027m.  After allowing for significant one-off budgets (such as the Fit for Purpose Budget), where commitments or decisions had still to be made, the position could be revised down to £0.245m behind the profiled budget.

It was reported that for 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 Portfolio Holder’s report, there were no further issues to highlight to date.

Cabinet recognised that, as in previous years, a number of smaller variances within services had emerged over the course of the year that would not necessarily be specifically highlighted or discussed within the Corporate Budget Monitoring reports. Although a significant number of budgets had been revised as part of the financial strategy process, it was still possible that a range of smaller variances might remain at the end of the year and contribute to the overall position. In addition, a number of budgets that related to schemes / initiatives or earmarked for specific purposes that might not be fully spent by the end of the year and could be subject to end of year processes such as carry forward requests remained committed. However, at this stage and after taking into account the current position and information available it was anticipated by the Portfolio Holder that any adverse issues would be offset by favourable variances elsewhere within the overall budget at the end of the year.

Cabinet was made aware that the opportunity had been taken to bring together a number of business investment and growth budgets within both the revenue account and capital programme. Further details were before Members in the Portfolio Holder’s report along with an associated recommendation.

The overview before Cabinet covered the following areas of the budget:-

(1)       General Fund Revenue;

              i.       Expenditure Budgets;

             ii.       Income Budgets;

            iii.       Delivery of Savings 2017/18;

           iv.       2017/2018 Budget Adjustments and Other Issues;

(2)       Housing Revenue Account – Revenue;

(3)       Capital Programme – General Fund;

(4)       Capital Programme – Housing Revenue Account;

(5)       Collection Performance; and

(6)       Treasury Activity.

Having considered the report and appendices, it was moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor Skeels Snr., and

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the financial position, as at the end of December 2017, be noted; and

(b)     Business Investment and Growth revenue and capital budgets be merged in 2017/18, as set out in this report, which would remain subject to further decisions once potential uses of the funding are identified / proposed.