Agenda item

Report by Executive Director, Alistair Cunningham.

Cllr Philip Whitehead, Cabinet Member for Finance, Procurement, ICT and Operational Assets presented the report which provided:

·         information about the (unaudited) General Revenue Fund and Housing Revenue Account outturn positions for financial year 2018/19, as well as the position for the Collection Fund and Reserves

·         information about the year end 2018/19 capital programme, including budget virement; and

·         an oversight of the unaudited Statement of Accounts, including the narrative report.

Cllr Whitehead was pleased to report that there was an underspend on the General Revenue Fund of £0.357m, representing an improvement of £1.515m on the budget monitoring position reported for Period 9 and the breakeven forecast reported to Council in February 2019. He congratulated Finance and other Services for their contributions towards the underspend, especially as there was significant demands on budgets. In particular, Cllr Whitehead highlighted the work undertaken by Adult Social Care and Children & Education Services.     

In response to questions from Cllr Church about variances within Corporate expenditure and the General Government grants, Cllr Whitehead explained that the government grants received were in respect of compensation for the requirement to award specific business rate reliefs. In previous years the grants were used at the year end, however the amount for the current year is being used to support overall revenue budget forecasts, and has also been built into the 2019/20 budget.    

Cllr Thorn, Chairman of the Financial Planning Task Group stated that he was encouraged that the Council had ended the year with an underspend and welcomed the additional top up to the General Fund Reserves. He also paid tribute to Cllr Wickham, former Cabinet member, for his involvement in achieving the underspend and in particular the work undertaken within Adult Social Care.

Cllr Sturgis raised an issue relating to planning and how budgets are affected by influences outside of the control of the Council. In particular, he referred to a reduction in Planning fees received, the number of planning applications considered at Committee with officer recommendations being overturned by Members, and subsequently approved at appeal and the impact of this on budgets and officer time. In response to a comment from Cllr Hill, Cllr Sturgis urged members to consider the grounds for calling in applications and the reasons for overturning an officer’s recommendations.  The Leader spoke about the importance of Members reporting facts about planning applications to Parish Councils.

Resolved:

1.    To note the outturn for the General Revenue Fund, subject to external audit, of a General Fund underspend of £0.357 million and an additional financial stability top up to reserves of £1.800 million;

2.    To note a Housing Revenue Account underspend of £2.119 million and a planned contribution to finance the capital programme of £6.503 million, giving an overall draw from HRA revenue reserve of £4.384 million.

3.    To note the transfers to the General Revenue Fund and Earmarked reserves, as set out in Sections 67-72 of the report, and return to Housing Revenue Account reserves.

4.    To note the position of the 2018/19 capital programme as at Outturn (31 March 2019).

5.    To note the unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2018/19.

6.    To approve the budget virements in the revenue and capital programme, as detailed in appendices B & F of the report.

Reason for Decision:

1.    To inform effective decision making and ensure a sound financial control environment.

2.    To inform Cabinet of the position of the 2018/19 outturn capital programme, including highlighting any budget changes.