Councillors and committees

Agenda item

Monthly Budget Monitoring Report

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

That the Cabinet noted the following:

 

1.         Forecast revenue budget outturn for 2017/18 is £6m overspend (Annex 1, paragraphs 1 and 7 to 42 of the submitted report). This included:
£9m savings to be identified,
£16m net savings considered unachievable in 2017/18,
£13m service demand and cost pressures
less
£32m net underspends, additional savings and income.

 

2.         Forecast planned savings for 2017/18 total £79m against £95m agreed savings and £104m target (Annex 1, paragraph 43 of the submitted report).

3.         All services continue to take all appropriate action to keep costs down and optimise income (e.g. minimising spending, managing vacancies wherever possible etc.).

 

4.         The Section 151 Officer’s commentary and the Monitoring Officer’s Legal Implications commentary in paragraphs 16 to 19 of the submitted report state that the council has a duty to ensure its expenditure does not exceed resources available and move towards a sustainable budget for future years.

 

The Cabinet approved the following:

 

5.         To transfer the Waste underspend, currently estimated at £1.8m, to the Waste Sinking Fund at financial year end to meet future costs (Annex 1, paragraph 26 of the submitted report).

 

6.         To transfer £3.9m to the Budget Equalisation Reserve in respect of additional Business Rates income (Annex 1, paragraph 38 of the submitted report).

 

7.         To draw down £0.9m to fund Place Development & Waste capital schemes (Annex 1, paragraph 58 of the submitted report).

 

8.         That the Leader of the Council write to the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to request fairer funding for public health and to seek assurance that business rate retention would not affect the Government grant funding.

 

Reasons for Decisions

 

This report is presented to comply with the agreed policy 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 Overview and Budget Scrutiny Committee]

 

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council presented the budget monitoring report for period ten of 2017/18, up to 31 January 2018.

 

He stated that the report’s headline was that persistent hard work by the council’s staff, partners and members had once again reduced the forecast overspend.  As at 31 January the forecast overspend was £6m.  This was a £5m improvement on last month, £13m over two months and £18m since the end of June.  The Leader was confident that with continued efforts, this could be brought down further by the year end. The action in reducing the Council’s overall spending in 2017/18 was important because any overspends needed to be met from reserves.  It was planned to use £24m reserves to balance 2018/19 budget, which the Director of Finance advised left reserves at the minimum safe level.

 

The Leader went on to say that last February the council set its budget for 2017/18 in the face of: significant rising demand pressures (particularly in social care); falling Government funding and continuing restraint on ability to raise funds locally.  To balance 2017/18’s budget the council had to make plans to deliver an unprecedented £104m of savings. This significant challenge for the council came on top of already having made over £450m savings since 2010.  To add to this challenge, the council’s 2017/18 budget included significant, additional demand and cost pressures, mostly in social care.  For example, in Children’s Services, demand continued to increase and was adding a £10m pressure by the end of the financial year.  Partially offsetting these pressures, there were forecast underspends, including elsewhere in Children Schools & Families, Adult Social Care, Orbis, Highways & Transport, Waste and Central Income & Expenditure.

 

He went on to explain that services had continued to take action as part of the recovery plan to reduce costs and bring forecast overspend down.  However, all services needed to keep up this work and take all appropriate action to manage spending within available resources by keeping costs down, managing vacancies, optimising income and being aware of the current financial position before committing to additional future expenditure.

Lastly, he drew Members attention to the benefits accrued from long term investments, both within the investment fund and in the contribution to overall financial costs.

 

Other Cabinet Members were given the opportunity to highlight key points and issues from their portfolios.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Cabinet noted the following:

 

1.         Forecast revenue budget outturn for 2017/18 is £6m overspend (Annex 1, paragraphs1 and 7 to 42 of the submitted report). This included:
£9m savings to be identified,
£16m net savings considered unachievable in 2017/18,
£13m service demand and cost pressures
less
£32m net underspends, additional savings and income.

 

2.         Forecast planned savings for 2017/18 total £79m against £95m agreed savings and £104m target (Annex 1, paragraph 43 of the submitted report).

3.         All services continue to take all appropriate action to keep costs down and optimise income (e.g. minimising spending, managing vacancies wherever possible etc.).

 

4.         The Section 151 Officer’s commentary and the Monitoring Officer’s Legal Implications commentary in paragraphs 16 to 19 of the submitted report state that the council has a duty to ensure its expenditure does not exceed resources available and move towards a sustainable budget for future years.

 

The Cabinet approved the following:

 

5.         That the Waste underspend, currently estimated at £1.8m, be transferred to the Waste Sinking Fund at financial year end to meet future costs (Annex 1, paragraph 26 of the submitted report).

 

6.         That £3.9m be transferred to the Budget Equalisation Reserve in respect of additional Business Rates income (Annex 1, paragraph 38 of the submitted report).

 

7.         That £0.9m be drawn down to fund Place Development & Waste capital schemes (Annex 1, paragraph 58 of the submitted report).

 

8.         That the Leader of the Council write to the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to request fairer funding for public health and to seek assurance that business rate retention would not affect the Government grant funding.

 

Reasons for Decisions

 

This report is presented to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval and action as necessary.

 

Supporting documents: