Agenda item

Cabinet Portfolio: Corporate Services, Community Safety and Finance

Strategic Directorate: Finance and Customer Services

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community Safety and Finance introduced the report explaining it provided an update on financial matters following on from approval of the budget.  It also provided an interim update on the financial outturn prior to the full report being considered by Cabinet in July.

The outturn position reflected positive movement of £4.1m in the directorates outturn positions since the December financial monitoring position.  The main reason for the movements within directorates were indicated within the report.

This positive improvement removed the need for Council to use £1.7m of the budgeted financial reserves to support the outturn position.  The improvements within the directorates forecast outturn represented a positive direction of travel for the Council’s finances, with levels of costs reducing across many of the key service areas and income generation beginning to recover post Covid.  This prudent financial management will be important in managing future budget pressures. 

This was a strong outturn position that included a positive trend of cost reductions within some of the Council’s key services and an increase in £2.4m in budgeted financial reserves.  This placed the Council in a more robust position heading into the 2022/23 financial year and therefore better able to mitigate against any cost pressures that were not evident at the time of setting the budget, such as the war in Ukraine, the significant rise in energy prices and inflation.  This financial position will allow the Council to better manage the impact rather than making cuts to services.   It was expected that the period of high inflation would last for two years before returning to normal levels.

The Assistant Director of Financial Services explained the £2.4m transfer to the reserves was a positive position but it was clarified that the finance pressures that the Council was facing, such as the war in Ukraine and specific Rotherham issues such as the Home to School Transport pressures would be in excess therefore Financial Services were working on a Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) review, to understand what a revised MTFS would look like.  The report also covered a number of updated on key grants the Council was receiving.

In response to a query regarding the Energy Rebate payments it was clarified that the cheque provided in the first instance contained a range of options regarding how it could be processed along with providing options for the cheque to be returned to the Council in order to be paid directly into a bank account rather than cashing the cheque or for it to be issued in another name along with an option to contact the Council for further information.  It was clarified that a small number of people had come forward requesting a cash payment.  Upon further discussions it was suggested that if future energy rebate schemes became available that the Council ensure options for Energy Rebate payments are more widely published in an easy-to-read format.

It was clarified that the Council had provided residents with the ability to provide the Council with their bank details to enable the energy rebate to be paid straight into their accounts however residents are not obligated to pay their Council tax via direct debit.

It was clarified that the budget position set for 2021/22 assumed a use of originally of £7.5m budget strategy reserve.  This was reduced through financial monitoring with the updated report for 2022/23 indicated that there would be a planned use of £1.7m however due to the improvement of the outturn position the Council did not need to utilise any of the £1.7m.  The Council had not used any of the planned £7.5m which would be carried forward to the new financial year.  A section of the report covered understands that had been achieved through service delivery across a number of the directorates however a key element of the outturn position was the Council’s ability to use emergency Covid funding that it had received during 2021/22 enabling the Council not to use its core reserves.

The positive trends highlighted within the report were welcomed.  It was understood that Covid recovery would sit within the background of financial monitoring for some years to come however some directorates were seeing a return to pre-covid trends however there were challenges that lay ahead.

It was reported that there had been instances were food parcels had been provided rather than the receipt of a Free School Meals voucher, to enable to people of have the choice of what to buy.  It was understood that vouchers were issued rather than parcels however the specific incident reference would be considered outside of the meeting. 

Resolved:

1.     That Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.

2.     In future that the Council ensure options for Council Tax (energy) Rebate payments are more widely published in an easy-to-read format.