Agenda item

To provide an overview of the Council’s financial position against the budget as at the end of December 2018 and to present an updated forecast on an on-going basis as part of developing the budget for 2019/20 and beyond.

RESOLVED that -

(1)         in respect of the financial performance against the budget at the end of

December 2018:

(a)     the position be noted; and

(b)   the proposed in-year adjustments to the budget, as set out in Appendix H to item A.6 of the Report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder be agreed.

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

(a)     the updated forecast be agreed; and

(b)   the Resources and Service Overview and Scrutiny Committee be consulted on the latest position.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a detailed report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder (A.6) which provided it with an overview of the Council’s financial position against the budget as at the end of December 2018 and also  presented it with an updated forecast on an on-going basis as part of developing the long term financial plan.

The report was presented in two distinct sections as follows:-

1) The Council’s in-year financial position against the budget at the end of December 2018; and

2) An updated long term financial forecast.

In respect of the in-year financial position at the end of December 2018:

In respect of the position at the end of December 2018, this showed that overall the General Fund Revenue position was behind the profiled budget by £2.863m. 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.

In respect of other areas of the budget such as the Housing Revenue Account, capital programme, collection performance and treasury activity, there were no major issues that had been identified to date.

Appendix H to the report set out a number of changes to in-year budgets. The net impact of all of the budget adjustments would be moved to, or from, the Forecast Risk Fund. The long term forecast was based on the identification of £0.500m of in-year outturn savings, which would be set aside over the course of the whole year within the Forecast Risk Fund in order to support the long term plan.

As in previous years, it was recognised that a number of smaller variances within services would emerge 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 could remain at the end of the year and contribute to the overall outturn position. In addition, a number of budgets that related to schemes / initiatives or earmarked for specific purposes might not be fully spent by the end of the year and be subject to end of year processes such as carry forward requests and therefore remain committed. However, at this stage and after taking into account the current position and information available it was anticipated that any adverse issues would be offset by favourable variances elsewhere within the overall budget at the end of the year.

Appendix I to the reportset out amounts (both capital and revenue) at the end of 2017/18 that had been requested to be carried forward for more than one year. Following a review of the relevant items, it was not proposed to transfer any funding elsewhere within the overall budget and therefore the current commitments that they reflected had been reconfirmed as part of this review.

In respect of the updated long term financial forecast:

Appendix J to the report set out the long term financial forecast based on the position considered by Full Council at its budget setting meeting on 5 February 2019. Although the figures set out within that appendix would change as part of updating the forecast on a regular basis during 2019/20, there had been no issues that significantly increased the risks in future years with the forecast position remaining broadly in-line with original expectations.

A review of the risks associated with the long term approach to the forecast was also subject to on-going review and was reported within Appendix K.

As previously mentioned in previous reports, it was important to continue to deliver against the new longer term approach to the budget as it continued to provide a credible alternative to the more traditional short term approach which would require significant savings to be identified over 2019/20 and 2020/21. Work therefore remained on-going across the 5 key work strands of:-

1)     Increases to underlying income;

2)     Controlling expenditure / inflationary increases;

3)     The identification of savings / efficiencies;

4)     Delivering a positive outturn position each year; and

5)     The mitigation of cost pressures wherever possible.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 7.08 - Cabinet Procedure Rule 1.5(ii) of the Council’s Constitution, the Leader of the Labour Group (Councillor I J Henderson) requested that it be included within this Minute that his Group opposed the increased costs of £100,000 in the Waste and Recycling Contract and the Labour Group still believed that the Waste and Recycling Contract should have undergone a full re-tender process.

Having considered and discussed the information provided in the report and the appendices attached thereto:-

It was moved by Councillor G V Guglielmi, seconded by Councillor P B Honeywood and:-

RESOLVED that -

(1)       in respect of the financial performance against the budget at the end of

December 2018:

(a)    the position be noted; and

(b)   the proposed in-year adjustments to the budget, as set out in Appendix H to item A.6 of the Report of the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder be agreed.

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

(a)    the updated forecast be agreed; and

(b)   the Resources and Service Overview and Scrutiny Committee be consulted on the latest position.