Agenda item

The report was considered by the Financial Planning Task Group on 7 July 2023 and Cabinet on 14 July 2023. A report of the Financial Planning Task Group’s discussions is also attached.

The Chairman noted that in agenda was a report which set out the year end revenue position for the Council as of 31 March 2023 for the financial year 2022/23. The report provided detail of the final position for services and provides details of variances against budgets following the quarter three budget monitoring reported to Cabinet on 31 January 2023. The overall variances for the financial year could be seen in Appendix A. The report was considered by Financial Planning on 7 July and Cabinet on 11 July.

Cllr Gavin Grant, Vice-Chairman of the Financial Planning Task Group stated that the Task Group had found the report to be a satisfactory piece of work, with a small overspend and that all officers and Cabinet Member should be congratulated for delivering such an outturn. Cllr Grant drew attention to big areas of expenditure for the Council which included the Adult Social Care recoverability of debt, the revenue accounts of Adult Social Services, Education and Skills, and Families and Children’s Services. Furthermore, though it was not an area for immediate concern, the Delegated Schools Grant could see an occurrence of escalating levels of debt. The report also provided a summary of the High Needs Block. Cllr Grant also drew reference to Table 15, the savings summary with 87.9% of savings achieved of the target to date, with pressures cited which had allowed for the delivery of these performances, such as over expenditure and inflation. It was also suggested that the Task Group had not looked at implications of service delivery and risk, with it suggested that this duty could sit with the Select Committees and Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Control and Strategic Planning stated that he took comfort that the overall budgets were under control not withstanding some areas of extremes, such as the debt in Adult Social Care, which has had to be provided for following the methodology change of how payments are made. It was referenced that inflation was a big threat and was lasting longer than anticipated, with the Council having a robust way of approaching the issue. Reference was also made to some transfers to reserves which had been highlighted within the paper.

The following comments were made by Andy Brown, Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, who stated that the paper reported an encouraging position, though there was an overspend of £1.8million. In addition, it was referenced that regarding Adult Social Care, Wiltshire Council had now moved to gross payments and collecting care provider contributions. The officer noted that regarding the debt against property, officers had been prudent with a conservative estimate and that only in the future it would the size of the debt be known, with this being an area Overview and Scrutiny might want to investigate. It was stated that savings and resources were in positive positions, with earmarked reserves enabling investment and transformation to take place. The Dedicated Schools Grant was highlighted as an area of concern, with Wiltshire Council’s deficit growing with no clear sign of how the annual deficit would be addressed nationally.

The following comments were received by Members of the Committee, including a question raised in relation to the variance of data included in Table 2 of the report, the summary position 2022/23 final year end position, with it suggested that that the Capital Programme had been pushed out to reduce the capital financing costs to allow the revenue budget to be brought back in line. It was suggested that the process was not clear on how decisions had been taken and to what extent the deferred capital spend was used to improve the reserves position. It was suggested by the Cabinet Member and the Section 151 Officer that there had not been a manipulation of the capital programme to suit revenue need and furthermore that there was a governance process in place for deferment, which could only be agreed by Cabinet rather than officers. The officer further noted that the underlying issue was regarding the profiling of spending and when it gets spent, with this being an area that Wiltshire Council had not been good at with it down to individual project managers to profile. The officer acknowledged that a positive impact of not spending was that the funds would come through in revenue form, with interest receivable, thus significantly improving the budget due to rising interest rates. It was also suggested by the officer that there had been a disconnect between profiling and Treasury, with there being a need to be more aligned with what is allocated and what is spent. It was hoped that the Quarter One report to Cabinet would show profiling improvements. It was further clarified by officers that a number of factors had impacted on the revenue figure including higher interest rates and profile borrowing.

The Section 151 Officer stated that when the capital programme budget of £307million was approved, it was known that this would not be spent, with the profiled spend dropping from £269million and further down to £172million, with only £128million spent as it was known that Wiltshire Council historically only spends around £120million to £150million a year. It was stated that the unspent money would be shifted into later years and would then be spent over a more reasonable period, with the Maltings Development cited as an example. The Cabinet Member noted that the Council was gradually getting better at profiling with an explanation provided as to how profiling might be used to provide greater efficiency for the taxpayer.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1.     To note the general fund revenue budget outturn position for the financial year 2022/23

2.     the Dedicated Schools revenue budget outturn position for the financialyear 2022/23;

3.     the Housing Revenue Account outturn position for the financial year2022/23;

4.     the contributions to and from earmarked reserves as planned;

5.     the final year end position of savings delivery.