Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

1.      That the Council’s revenue and capital positions for the year be noted.

2.      That the following transfers to reserves planned as part of the revenue budget be approved:

o  £4.5m unspent redundancy budget in order to mitigate risks associated with delivering Transformation in future years

o   £2.4m to meet future feasibility costs of capital schemes

3.      That the following transfers to and from reserves from the outturn position as set out in paragraphs 4-5 in the Executive Summary below be approved:

o   £3.7m from the Covid-19 reserve to meet the outturn position on Covid-19

o   £4.0m to add to contingency to cover expected continued turbulence in our operating environment and future risks

o   £3.0m to establish a Future Thinking Reserve

o   £0.6m to the Interest Rate Risk Reserve

4.    It be noted that the remaining £3.9m surplus will be added to the General Fund balance to improve our financial resilience.

Reasons for Decisions:

This report is to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval of any necessary actions.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Resources & Performance Select Committee]

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources introduced the report explaining that the Council has achieved a £3.9m surplus outturn for the year after transferring £3.9m to reserves and contingencies without the need to rely

on reserves, despite the extraordinary impact of Covid-19. The finance team were thanked for their hard work throughout the year which had contributed to this good news. The Council incurred costs, lost income and suffered disruption to the delivery of efficiencies, with a total impact of £137m during 2020/21 as a result of Covid-19, offset by a combination of specific funding and general emergency funding from MHCLG. A future thinking reserve would be established to provide towards the costs of transforming the Council and close the budget gap.  

Although it was good to see a small surplus in the budget, the Leader stated that a tight handle needed to be kept on the budget and the council could not be complacent moving forward.

RESOLVED:

1.      That the Council’s revenue and capital positions for the year be noted.

2.      That the following transfers to reserves planned as part of the revenue budget be approved:

o  £4.5m unspent redundancy budget in order to mitigate risks associated with delivering Transformation in future years

o   £2.4m to meet future feasibility costs of capital schemes

3.      That the following transfers to and from reserves from the outturn position as set out in paragraphs 4-5 in the Executive Summary below be approved:

o   £3.7m from the Covid-19 reserve to meet the outturn position on Covid-19

o   £4.0m to add to contingency to cover expected continued turbulence in our operating environment and future risks

o   £3.0m to establish a Future Thinking Reserve

o   £0.6m to the Interest Rate Risk Reserve

4.    It be noted that the remaining £3.9m surplus will be added to the General Fund balance to improve our financial resilience.

Reasons for Decisions:

This report is to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval of any necessary actions.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Resources & Performance Select Committee]