Issue - meetings

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the Finance Monitoring Outturn Report 2017/18 and in so doing highlighted the following points for the Committee’s consideration:

·                The Chief Executive and the Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources had met with the external auditors that day and had received some positive feedback.

·                There were a number of variances in the final accounts when compared to the Council’s budget. 

·                In some cases there had been higher costs than anticipated, including for the Planning Department and the waste collection team.  In the latter case this was due to hiring temporary works to deliver services whilst staff were absent due to sickness and Officers were investigating how to support those on long-term sick leave back into work.

·                There had also been a shortfall in income in some areas.

·                However, a substantial saving had been achieved in respect of the strategic purpose ‘help me find somewhere to live in my locality’.  This was partly due to salary savings, though a new service structure would be in place in due course.

·                Overall a saving of £20,000 had been achieved by the end of the year.  This was partly due to the Council adopting a more robust approach to forecasting.

·                The capital budget would be underspent by £1.6 million.  Some of the funding concerned would be carried forward to the following year to spend on any delayed projects.

·                There had been significant expenditure on supervision and management costs in the HRA, though at the end of the year there were balances of £1.4 million and £19 million in housing capital reserves.

·                The auditors had advised that the Council did not need to continue to monitor expenditure in relation to the Efficiency Plan as the content was now out of date.

Following the presentation of the budget Members discussed the budget position and welcomed news that there was a surplus of £20,000.  However, Members also noted that funding from reserves had been used to help balance the budget and there remained a funding gap that would need to be addressed moving forward.  Therefore the authority would continue to face challenging financial circumstances in the future.  At the request of the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Management future financial monitoring reports would take into account variances of £20,000 or above.  This would help to ensure that more detail was provided.

RECOMMENDED

1)        that the financial position on Revenue and Capital for the financial year 2017-18 as detailed in the report and the transfer to balances £20k as at 31^st March 2018 is noted;

2)        approval of the movements of £410k in existing General Fund reserves which reflects the approval required for April - March 2018;

3)        approval of the addition of new General Fund reserves of £212k. This reflects the approval required for April - March 2018;

4)        approval of the movements of £324k in existing HRA reserves as included in Appendix 2 which reflects the approval required for April - March 2018;

5)        that an increase  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8