Agenda item

Report of the Strategic Director of Finance and Customer Service

Recommendations:-

1.      That the current General Fund Revenue Budget forecast of £4.6m overspend be noted.

2.      That it be noted that actions will continue to be taken to mitigate the forecast overspend.

3.      That the Capital Programme update be noted.

Consideration was given to the report which set out the financial position as at the end of July, 2019 and was based on actual costs and income for the first four months of 2019/20 and forecast for the remainder of the financial year.  Financial performance was a key element within the assessment of the Council’s overall performance framework, and was essential to achievement of the objectives within the Council’s Policy Agenda.  To that end, this was the second in a series of monitoring reports for the new financial year which would continue to be brought forward to Cabinet on a regular basis.

As at July 2019, the Council had a forecast year-end overspend of £4.6m on the General Fund.

The Section 151 Officer confirmed this was not a position the Authority wished to find itself in with a projected overspend.  Last year the Authority out-turned £3.2 million better so if it did need to call on reserves it was no worse off than expected to have been some months ago.

Officers were, however, working hard to see where the overspend could be pulled back before the end of the year.   An update was to be made to the Medium Term Financial Strategy for consideration by Cabinet in November along with the September financial monitoring.  The Government’s high level spending round indications had now been received which would help with the update.

There needed to be focus in the medium term to ensure all the predicted savings were being delivered and all the initiatives and changes that have been implemented continue as planned. 

In terms of the Capital Programme this was a reduced figure for the current year from what was brought to Cabinet in July.  This was due to a number of schemes slipping into future years so the overall programme was broadly the same, but some schemes would slip into future years.

The CYPS programme had been reviewed in detail to assess how the available unallocated grant resources could be more effectively utilised to support programme objectives. Following this review, with a particular focus on the requirements of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) programme, £0.838m of corporate resource funding had been replaced with schools grant funding.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the current General Fund Revenue Budget forecast of £4.6m overspend be noted.

(2)  That continuing action taken to mitigate the forecast overspend be noted.

(3)  That the Capital Programme update be noted.