Issue - meetings

This report will be the subject of pre-scrutiny at a meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group due to take place on the evening of 1^st July 2019, after the publication of the agenda for this meeting.  Subject to the agreement of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at a meeting on 4^th July, any recommendations arising from this meeting will be included in an additional papers pack for the consideration of the Executive Committee.

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the Finance Monitoring Outturn Report 2018/19 and in so doing highlighted the following points for the Committee’s consideration:

·             Members were referred to the Revenue Budget Summary table on page 113 which showed that for some strategic purposes there had been a shortfall and that for others there had been an overspend. 

·             Overall there had been an overspend of £183k which would be balanced by drawing down £183K from business rates.

·             The budget had set out to achieve savings of £1 million, and taking into account the overspend savings of circa £800k had been achieved.

·             The capital budget would be underspent by just under £3 million. Some of the funding concerned would be carried forward to the following year to spend on any delayed projects.  More work was planned with Heads of Service regarding the capital budget going forward.

·             The General Fund Balance as at 31^st March 2019 was £1.223m.

·             There had been savings of £176k in the HRA resulting from additional rental income and lower than expected numbers of Right to Buys.  However, this had been offset by higher costs for repairs resulting in a drawdown of £706k from reserves.

·             The balance of reserves as at 31^SstMarch 2019 was £770k.

In response to questions from Members clarification was given as to the overspend regarding housing benefits detailed on page 114 of the agenda, and it was confirmed that the scheme for grants for residents for Energy Efficiency installation had now been restarted.

RESOLVED that

The Executive Committee note the current financial position in relation to revenue and capital budgets for the period April – March 2019 as detailed in the report.

RECOMMENDED that

1.     Approval of the movement of £122k in existing reserves as included in Appendix 2.

2.     Approval of the addition of new reserves of £3,385 as included in Appendix 2. 

3.     Approve the carry forward to the 2019/20 capital programme of £2,943k as detailed in Appendix 4.   

4.     Approval of an increase in the 2019/20 Capital Programme of £39k for Disabled Facilities Grants. This is due to the budget allocations having now been announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). This will increase the available budget to £839k.

5.     Approval of an increase to the Capital programme 2019/20 of match funding from PCC for digital upgrade of CCTV infrastructure.

6.     Approval of an increase to the capital programme 2019/20 of £3k s106 monies for Borough wide open space improvements.

7.     Approval of an increase to the Capital programme 2019/20 of £33k for Arrow Valley park Safety Improvements. (£180k already approved at Budget 2019/20)

8.     Approval of an increase to the Revenue budget 2019/20 of £5k due to grant being received from Communities and Local Government towards High Street clean up and future community environmental enhancements and approval for BARN to administer the grant and any future monies received which have similar requirements to this grant, as per paragraph 3.4.