Agenda item

RESOLVED:

1.      That Cabinet note the Council’s revenue and capital positions for the year.

2.      That Cabinet approve the following transfers to reserves planned as part of the revenue budget and included in the outturn position:

·         £2.6m unspent transformation funding to be transferred to the Transformation Reserve to fund future transformation ambitions and mitigate risks associated with delivering transformation in future years.

·         £19.5m of 2021/22 contingency budget to the General Fund Reserve to improve financial resilience and the Council’s ability to mitigate future funding uncertainty, significant service pressures and increased global economic volatility.

·         £0.5m to the Budget Equalisation Reserve to be utilised early in 2022/23 for specific payments, as set out in paragraph 12.

3.    That Cabinet note that the remaining £1m surplus will also be added to the General Fund Balance to further improve our financial resilience.

Recommendations relating to additional 2022/23 funding:

4.    That Cabinet delegate future decisions on the allocation of emergency funding announced by Government to support vulnerable residents to the Deputy Chief Executive & Executive Director of Resources and other relevant Executive Directors in consultation with the Leader and other relevant Cabinet Members, as appropriate.  This will enable timely allocation of funding for vulnerable residents, such as the Household Support Grant and funding for Ukraine refugees, in accordance with associated funding conditions.

5.    That Cabinet confirms that the following increased/additional grants will be allocated in full to the Public Health service budget to be spent in accordance with relevant grant conditions:

·          £1.1m increase to Surrey’s Public Health grant to meet identified commissioning, contract and pay inflation pressures.

·         £3m recently announced new Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery grant to support improvements in the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment for the years 2022/23 to 2024/25.

·         £0.1m per annum new In-patient Detoxification Grant

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 and Performance Select Committee)

The report was introduced by the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources who explained that this report set out Surrey County Council’s 2021/22 financial performance for revenue and capital, including the year end Treasury Management and debt outturn position. The Council had achieved a £1.0m surplus outturn for the year without the need to rely on reserves, despite the extraordinary impact of Covid-19. This was despite the impact of COVID-19, which had a financial cost of the Council of £99.4m which was funded by a combination of

specific funding (£75.7m) and general emergency funding from the Department of

Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) (£23.7m). This was a good financial outcome for the Council and the result of hard work from within directorates to deliver their services within budget and a culture of financial management and control set throughout the Council. The Deputy Leader provided the Cabinet with some context for the 2022/23 budget explaining there would be some challenges on the horizon.

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health welcomed the £3m supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery grant to support improvements in the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment for the years 2022/23 to 2024/25 which would be allocated to the Public Health service. Will Forster raised concerns around the transformation programme and the efficiency targets achieved which were only 54% of the target. He asked for reassurance from the Cabinet Member that future efficiencies could be achieved. The Deputy Leader stated that covid had thrown up a number of challenges in delivering efficiencies but felt confident that targets could be achieved for the current financial year. The Leader added that the transformation programmes had been reviewed with a number removed to ensure the council was concentrating on the most important and would be picking up pace going forward.

RESOLVED:

1.      That Cabinet note the Council’s revenue and capital positions for the year.

2.      That Cabinet approve the following transfers to reserves planned as part of the revenue budget and included in the outturn position:

·         £2.6m unspent transformation funding to be transferred to the Transformation Reserve to fund future transformation ambitions and mitigate risks associated with delivering transformation in future years.

·         £19.5m of 2021/22 contingency budget to the General Fund Reserve to improve financial resilience and the Council’s ability to mitigate future funding uncertainty, significant service pressures and increased global economic volatility.

·         £0.5m to the Budget Equalisation Reserve to be utilised early in 2022/23 for specific payments, as set out in paragraph 12.

3.    That Cabinet note that the remaining £1m surplus will also be added to the General Fund Balance to further improve our financial resilience.

Recommendations relating to additional 2022/23 funding:

4.    That Cabinet delegate future decisions on the allocation of emergency funding announced by Government to support vulnerable residents to the Deputy Chief Executive & Executive Director of Resources and other relevant Executive Directors in consultation with the Leader and other relevant Cabinet Members, as appropriate.  This will enable timely allocation of funding for vulnerable residents, such as the Household Support Grant and funding for Ukraine refugees, in accordance with associated funding conditions.

5.    That Cabinet confirms that the following increased/additional grants will be allocated in full to the Public Health service budget to be spent in accordance with relevant grant conditions:

·          £1.1m increase to Surrey’s Public Health grant to meet identified commissioning, contract and pay inflation pressures.

·         £3m recently announced new Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery grant to support improvements in the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment for the years 2022/23 to 2024/25.

·         £0.1m per annum new In-patient Detoxification Grant

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 and Performance Select Committee)