Issue - meetings

The Section 151 Officer presented the Combined Financial Outturn and Quarter 4 Revenue Monitoring Report 2023/24 (Including Update on the Fleet) for the Committee’s consideration.

During the presentation of this report, the following points were highlighted:

·             The Council was projected to have a £386,000 overspend at the end of the 2023/24 financial year, which was only £3,000 more than the figures that had been anticipated at the end of the third quarter.

·             A key reason for the overspend had been costs arising due to issues with the Council’s vehicle fleet.

·             Another major cause of the overspend had been the financial costs arising from the pay award to staff.

·             The Council’s long-term debt remained at a total of £104 million, which was due to the transfer into the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) 20 years previously.

·             The Council had not had to borrow funding for a long time, with purchases having been paid for in recent years using cash balances.  It was possible that this situation would need to change in order to fund purchases of replacement vehicles in the fleet.

·             The authority had only spent £3.2 million of the total £12 million capital budget.  This area would need to be reviewed going forward, although Members were asked to note that delays had been caused due to competition for raw materials and for contractors’ time.

·             The HRA budget was in a breakeven position, although there had been a slight overspend on the HRA capital budget.

·             Council Tax collection rates had recovered to a level almost equivalent to collection rates prior to the Covid pandemic.  Members were asked to note that, like many authorities in the country, there had been a decrease in collection rates during the pandemic.

·             There were four key areas where additional funding would be requested from Council:

-        Funding to purchase new vehicles for the fleet.  Previously, the Council had planned to maintain existing vehicles whilst waiting for clarity from the Government on future requirements of waste and recycling vehicles.  Electric, hybrid and hydrogen powered vehicles were all more expensive than diesel powered vehicles. However, guidance had not yet been issued by the Government on this subject and maintenance costs for the Council’s existing fleet had been higher than anticipated.  Therefore, Officers were proposing to start replacing some of the vehicles and this would require financial investment.

-        There had been a high-profile funeral held at Redditch crematorium in June 2024 which had been well attended by people in person and remotely.  Those watching the live stream of the funeral had highlighted problems with the audibility of the sound system.  Given the sensitivities associated with this service area, it was recognised that there was a need to invest in improvements to the sound system which were likely to cost circa £20,000.

-        Members of the Executive Committee were keen to introduce a street market.  This would be at a cost of an additional £38,000 per annum to the Council.

-        Similarly, members of the Executive Committee had requested a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8