Issue - meetings

Cabinet noted the following:

1.         The forecast revenue budget for 2013/14 is balanced on services, adding the unused £13m risk contingency brings this to £13m overall underspend, as set out in the Annex (paragraph 1) of the submitted report.

2.         The forecast ongoing efficiencies and service reductions achieved by year end, as set out in the Annex (paragraph 63) of the submitted report.

3.         The forecast capital budget position for 2013/14, as set out in the Annex (paragraphs 67 to 71) of the submitted report.

4.         The management actions to mitigate overspends, which appear throughout the submitted report.

The following resolutions be approved:

5.      Contributions to reserves:

·      £2.8m creditor write-off transfer to the Budget Equalisation Reserve, as set out in the Annex (paragraph 46) of the submitted report.

·      £3.5m waste PFI grant transfer to the Eco Park Sinking Fund Reserve, as set out in the Annex (paragraph 48) of the submitted report.

·      £1m interest rate rise contingency transfer to the Interest Rate Risk Reserve, as set out in the Annex (paragraph 49) of the submitted report.

6.      A virement of £2.0m of Dedicated School Grant (DSG) be distributed into the follow areas: Services for Young People (£0.8m) and Schools and Learning (£1.2m) (Appendix - paragraph App.3 to App.6 of the submitted report).

7.      A virement of £2.0m of Dedicated School Grant (DSG) be held as a risk budget and delegated to the Assistant Director of Schools and Learning to allocate appropriately (Appendix - paragraph App.3 to App.6 of the submitted report).

Reasons for Decisions:

To comply with the agreed strategy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval and action as necessary.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee]

The Leader of the Council presented the council’s financial position at the end of period 7 (October) of the 2013/14 financial year and focused his introductory comments for this budget monitoring report around the four core elements of the Council’s financial strategy:

·        Balance the 2013/14 revenue budget

·        Reduce reliance on council tax and government grants

·        Continuously drive the efficiency agenda

·        Continue to maximise our investment in Surrey.

On the Revenue Budget, he highlighted the following points:

·                The financial position at the end of October seemed to be progressing well through continuing achievement of efficiencies and service reductions in the face of growing demand for our services.

·                The forecast end of year position for all services was balanced.

·                The Council budget prudently provided a £13m risk contingency (to mitigate the risk of non delivery of service efficiencies) and there were no plans to use this contingency. This meant that the overall year end forecast is also a £13m underspend.

He also said that reducing reliance on government grants and council tax was key to the Council’s ability to balance the budgets in the longer term. One of the projects to help achieve this was the Revolving Infrastructure and Investment Fund. By year end it is forecast that over £28m would have been invested, which would generate net income of £800,000 and over the medium term, the net income would be re-invested into the fund to support its further growth.

In relation to the efficiency agenda, he made the following comments:

·                That the revenue budget required total efficiencies of over £68m - services were making good progress in delivering these and the current forecast for the full year was £63m.

·                That one third of Adult Social Care’s demanding (£46m) savings requirement relied on the success of the policy to maximise use of social capital through friends, family and community. Given the scale of innovation and challenge in the first year of these ambitious plans, it was unsurprising that there had been slippage. To cover this, Cabinet had approved draw down of £7.5m available from the Whole Systems funding.

On continuing to maximise investment in Surrey, he said that:

·                The council’s capital programme not only improved and maintained the Council’s service delivery, it was also a way of investing in Surrey and of generating income for the Council.

·                The 2013/14 capital programme had been reviewed at the start of the year and a small number of schemes reprofiled. The current forecast was that service capital budgets would underspend by under £11m. This was largely due to delays with planning issues and archaeological finds. However, the underspend had been offset by bringing other projects forward where possible.

Other Cabinet Members were invited to highlight the key points and issues from their portfolios, as set out in the annex to the report.

RESOLVED:

Cabinet noted the following:

1.         The forecast revenue budget for 2013/14 is balanced on services, adding the unused £13m risk contingency brings this to £13m overall underspend, as set out in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 210