Agenda item

To seek approval of the allocation of the overall 2018/19 General Fund revenue variance.

Decision:

RESOLVED that –

 

(a) of the total of £0.790m requested by services, £0.475m can be retained by them via the associated carry forward requests, as set out in Appendix A, to item A.4 of the Report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder; and

 

(b) the allocation of the General Fund Variance for the year of £1.158m, as set out in Table 1 of the aforementioned report, be approved, of which £150,000 be allocated to a climate emergency budget.

Minutes:

The Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder (A.4) which sought its approval of the allocation of the overall 2018/19 General Fund revenue variance.

 

Cabinet was aware that the Leader of the Council, on 31 May 2019, had agreed the overall outturn position for 2018/19 with a high level summary of the General Fund revenue position as follows:

 

Variance for the year before carry forward requests

(£11.395m)

Agreed carry forwards that meet the carry forward criteria

£9.762m

Variance for the year after agreed carry forwards

(£1.633m)

Carry Forward requests from services that did not meet carry forward criteria

£0.790m

Remaining Variance for the year

(£0.843m)

 

The variance for the year of £1.633m had been agreed by the Leader as part of the overall consideration of the outturn position for the year.

 

The Cabinet was therefore now in a position to consider the £0.790m requested to be carried forward by services and the allocation of the remaining variance for the year of £0.843m.

 

It was reported that the£0.790m that had been requested by services to be carried forward at the end of the year had been subject to further review as the various items did not meet the associated qualifying criteria. As they did not meet the underlying criteria, they had been treated as a ‘bid’ by services to retain a proportion of the overall favourable outturn variance of £1.633mbefore any further allocations are considered.

 

Appendix A to the Portfolio Holder’s report set out items totalling £0.475m, of the £0.790m requested to be retained by services, which it was proposed to approve, which would leave a balance of £0.315m.

 

Members were advised that, although subject to Cabinet’s approval, by default the amounts not agreed totalling £0.315mhad been added to the £0.843m general variance for the year, giving a total figure of £1.158m against which further allocations needed to be considered as part of the Portfolio Holder’s report.

 

Cabinet was informed that, in respect of the overall general fund revenue variance of £1.158m highlighted above, it was proposed to allocate this funding in 2019/20 as follows, which took account of a number of items / issues subsequently identified in early 2019/20 after the outturn report had been agreed:

 

Table 1

 

Proposed Allocation

Amount

Comments

Cost of Scanning Microfiche

£0.010m

To compliment the £0.025m requested by Planning as set out in Appendix A, this additional contribution will enable the scanning of microfiche held by the authority. This will free up space and support the wider initiatives that form part of the overall office transformation project.

 

Replacement of Elections Equipment

 

£0.010m

To renew a number of pieces of equipment that are reaching the end of their useful life and need updating

.

Purchase of laptops and tablet computers

£0.035m

This amount has been identified to support the purchase of IT equipment to support the new flexible working arrangements as part of the office / digital transformation projects, which includes replacement equipment for Members as necessary.

 

 

 

Flexible Project Capacity

£0.011m

To meet the cost of additional staff capacity to help deliver projects such as the Mayflower 400 commemorations.

 

Investment in Clacton Leisure Centre

£0.525m

Although subject to Cabinet’s agreement to the proposals set out within a report earlier on the agenda, it is proposed to set aside this funding pending the agreement of the associated business case.

 

Contribution to Reserves

£0.567m

It is proposed to temporarily set aside the balance of the overall variance within the general revenue commitments reserve. At this time, it is felt prudent to wait to make a more specific allocation until the updated long term financial forecast has been revised later in the year, as it may be necessary for this sum to be used to support associated work or initiatives.

 

Total Proposed Allocation

£1.158m

 

 

The Leader, Councillor Stock OBE, referenced his intention to submit to Council a motion on action to address climate change and he would seek the Cabinet’s approval to allocate £150K for action on this matter. In response to a question from Councillor Henderson on the prospect of a cross-party working group being established on the issue of addressing climate change through the Council’s own services and more widely, the Leader indicated that he would be looking to see such a group established. There were several contributions from those attending the Cabinet meeting as to actions that could be contemplated by the Council to address climate change. These included engaging the likes of the Harwich Haven Authority and Trinity House as part of efforts to improve understanding of marine ecosystems and supporting skills development and economic advantage from environmentally friendly endeavours.

 

Having considered the information provided in the report and the appendix thereto:-

 

It was moved by Councillor Stock OBE, seconded by Councillor Talbot and:-

 

RESOLVED that –

 

(a) of the total of £0.790m requested by services, £0.475m can be retained by them via the associated carry forward requests, as set out in Appendix A, to item A.4 of the Report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder; and

 

(b) the allocation of the General Fund Variance for the year of £1.158m, as set out in Table 1 of the aforementioned report, be approved. Of which £150k be allocated to a climate emergency budget.

Supporting documents: