Councillors and committees

Agenda item

Monthly Budget Monitoring Report

Decision:

RESOLVED:

 

That the following be noted:

           

1.         Forecast revenue budget outturn for 2017/18 is less than £4m overspend (Annex 1, paragraphs 1 and 7 to 45 of the submitted report). This includes:
£9m savings to be identified,
£16m net savings considered unachievable in 2017/18,
£14m service demand and cost pressures
less
£35m 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 47 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 20 of the submitted report state that the council had a duty to ensure its expenditure did not exceed resources available and move towards a sustainable budget for future years.

That the following be approved:

 

5.         Reprofile £8.0m previously reported as capital underspend in Place Development & Waste due to changes within the Local Growth Deal programme of road and transport improvement schemes funded primarily from grant, developer monies and partner contributions (Annex 1, paragraph 63 of the submitted report) as reflected in MTFP 2018-21.

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 eleven of 2017/18, up to 28 February 2018.

 

He stated that the report’s headline was that continued hard work by the Council’s staff, partners and Members had once again reduced the forecast overspend.  As at 28 February 2018 the forecast overspend was £3.6m.  This was a £2.6m improvement on last month, and an improvement of over £20m since the end of June 2017.  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 £21m reserves to balance 2018/19 budget, which the Director of Finance advised left reserves at the minimum safe levels.

 

The Leader went on to say that in February 2017 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 Orbis, Central Income & Expenditure, Adult Social Care, Highways & Transport, Waste and elsewhere in Children Schools & Families.

 

He went on to explain that services had continued to take action 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 stated that the drive for more efficiencies was unrelenting.   To help the Council achieve its medium-term savings programme, Cabinet required the Chief Executive and Director of Finance to ensure services: deliver their existing MTFP efficiencies; monitor their demand and cost pressures; and develop plans to mitigate the impact of any pressures.

 

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

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the following be noted:

           

1.         Forecast revenue budget outturn for 2017/18 was less than £4m overspend (Annex 1, paragraphs 1 and 7 to 45 of the submitted report). This included:
£9m savings to be identified,
£16m net savings considered unachievable in 2017/18,
£14m service demand and cost pressures
less
£35m 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 47 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 20 of the submitted report state that the Council had a duty to ensure its expenditure did not exceed resources available and to move towards a sustainable budget for future years.

That the following be approved:

 

5.         Reprofile £8.0m previously reported as capital underspend in Place Development & Waste due to changes within the Local Growth Deal programme of road and transport improvement schemes funded primarily from grant, developer monies and partner contributions (Annex 1, paragraph 63 of the submitted report) as reflected in MTFP 2018-21.

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: