Agenda item

Report from the Executive Director of Corporate Services.

Recommendations

That Cabinet:

1.    Note the update on the revenue budget financial outturn 2025/26.

2.    Note the Council’s progress on the delivery of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up payment scheme.

3.    Note the update to the Household Support Fund for 2025-26.

4.    Approve the capital budget variations as detailed in section 2.4 of the report.

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update to Cabinet on a number of financial matters. The report was provided as an interim update for Cabinet on the Council’s financial outturn 2025/26, in advance of the more detailed Financial Outturn 2025/26 report to be submitted to Cabinet in July 2026. The updates follow on from the approval of the Budget and Council Tax 2026/27 report at Council on 4 March 2026, which set out the forecast outturn position for 2025/26. 

The report reflected that the Council’s financial outturn position for 2025/26 had improved from a projected £3.4m overspend, as reported to Cabinet as part of December’s Financial Monitoring report, to an overspend of £0.3m. Headline information explaining the improvements was detailed within the report.
 

The report also provided updates on the Council’s delivery of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up Scheme. The 2025/26 Scheme provided additional support of up to £126.12 to low income households most vulnerable to rising household costs, through reduced Council Tax bills. A total of £1.777m had been awarded across 17,558 accounts with 10,989 being reduced to nil in 2025/26.

An update on the Household Support Fund (HSF) was also provided. The Council was awarded a full year HSF grant for 2025/26 of just under £4.4m. This was to support vulnerable households with energy, food and other cost of

living pressures. As of 31 March 2026, the Council had fully spent this grant allocation, including through delivering 141,748 Free School Meals vouchers to support families across the school holidays. HSF contributed over £413k to the delivery of the Council’s Energy Crisis Support Scheme, supporting 1,657 households with £250 towards their fuel bills. Care leavers were supported with £90k of HSF covering energy and food costs and over 17,558 households received extra support towards their Council Tax bills. In addition, the HSF supported Voluntary and Community Sector provision to provide 657 vulnerable households over the Christmas and New Year period and distributed crisis food parcels throughout the year.

The report provided updates on a series of proposed variations to the Council’s Capital Programme that required Cabinet approval. These were:

·       The Corporate ICT Capital Programme (2.4.2 of the report)

·       Matrix and Century Fire Stopping Works (2.4.3)

·       Rother Valley Country Park Waterfront Café and Events Space (2.4.4)

·       Ash Dieback Mitigation (2.4.5)

·       Property Flood Resilience (2.4.6)

During the meeting, the Leader highlighted the Property Flood Resilience work. Following Storm Babet, communities impacted by flooding were entitled to apply for property flood resilience measures through a Grant arranged by central Government (DEFRA) but administered by Local Authorities, known as the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Grant. Eligible flood-hit property owners would be able to apply for up to £5,000 to help make their homes and businesses more resilient to future flooding via the Property Flood Resilience Repair Grant Scheme. It was noted that the Grant was set up to allow residents to pay more to enhance protection beyond the minimum offered through the Grant.  However, top up by the Council was recommended as this may be unaffordable in a number of cases and residents had incurred significant costs and disruption as a result of the floods to date. The works would support the overall aims of the Council’s drainage capital programme. It would also lead to cost avoidance for the Council in the future, for example in clean-up costs and diverted staff time. 

The scheme would utilise £171,026 of unallocated budget (corporate borrowing) from the drainage capital programme to fund any works which could not be covered by the grant.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board who advised that the recommendations be supported.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Note the update on the revenue budget financial outturn 2025/26.

2.    Note the Council’s progress on the delivery of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up payment scheme.

3.    Note the update to the Household Support Fund for 2025-26.

4.    Approve the capital budget variations as detailed in section 2.4 of the report.