Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director for Finance and Customer Services.

Recommendations:

1.    That the update on the revenue budget financial outturn 2023/24 be noted.

2.    That the Council’s progress on the delivery of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up payment 2024/25 be noted.

3.    That the Council’s delivery of the Household Support Fund 2023/24 be noted.

4.    That provisional allocations of the Household Support Fund Grant 2024/25 of £2.489m be agreed as detailed in Section 2.5 of this report. 

5.    That Cabinet delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, to determine revised and final allocations for the Household Support Grant to include provision for other eligible actions within the use of Household Support Fund should it not be possible to achieve full spend of the grant through the approved provisional allocations.

6.    That Cabinet approve the capital budget variations as detailed in Section 2.6 of the report.

Consideration was given to the submitted report which provided an update on a number of financial matters and provided as an interim update following the approval of the Budget and Council Tax 2024/25 report by Council on 28 February 2024 and in advance of the Financial Outturn 2023/24 report and May Financial Monitoring 2024/25 report to be submitted to Cabinet in July 2024.

This report also provided an update on the Council’s administration of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up payments, Household Support Fund 2023/24 and proposals for 2024/25 along with several Capital Programme variations.

The financial monitoring final outturn position reflected an overspend of £0.1m for the financial year 2023/24. The core directorates services had a final overspend of £8.8m. The directorate overspend was partially offset by the £5m corporate budget risk contingency held within Central Services approved within the Council’s Budget and Council Tax Report 2023/24. Taken with savings delivered from the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy, the final underspend in Central Services was £8.7m, which reduced the Council’s overall outturn to a £0.1m overspend. This was an improvement of £1.1m from the December Financial Monitoring reported to February Cabinet as service areas delivered savings ahead of year-end, improvements in income were recognised and the Council generated further savings in Treasury Management.

The Council had also been allocated a total of £2.489m from the Household Support Fund for the period of April to September 2024. From experience of previous allocations of this fund, it was proposed that the Council would support a wide range of low-income households and was not limited to those in receipt of benefits. There was flexibility within the fund to identify which vulnerable households were in most need of support and apply discretion when identifying eligibility.

Cabinet Members welcomed the Council’s financial position and the ability to manage the pressures whilst ensuring analysis was undertaken to fully understand what services were doing to bringing down cost and stopping the risks increasing. 

The main pressures were looked after children placement costs and home to school transport as well as homelessness. Work to reduce placement pressures was ongoing.

The options for use of Household Support Fund have been assessed to meet the criteria of the grant funding streams and aligned with the other actions being taken by the Council to support people in need.

This report had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board as part of the pre-decision scrutiny process and full support was given to the recommendations.  However, discussion had taken place on:-

·             The overspend in the Children and Young People’s Service directorate, noting that this related to the Looked after Children (LAC) placement mix within the borough however work was ongoing in this area.

·             Improvement in the treasury outturn position specifically relating to the PWLB borrowing.

·             Levelling Up Fund allocated to the Sheffield Road Cycleway project, which was to support public realm uplift.

·             Clarification on the payments for the Commissioner Support to Nottingham City Council.

The Cabinet welcomed the support to the budget process and the methods for reducing costs and a mix of savings; some of which were short term and some more permanent.

Resolved:-  (1) That the update on the revenue budget financial outturn 2023/24 be noted.

(2)  That the Council’s progress on the delivery of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up payment 2024/25 be noted.

(3)  That the Council’s delivery of the Household Support Fund 2023/24 be noted.

(4)  That provisional allocations of the Household Support Fund Grant 2024/25 of £2.489m be approved as detailed in Section 2.5 of this report.

(5) That authority be delegated to the Assistant Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, to determine revised and final allocations for the Household Support Grant to include provision for other eligible actions within the use of Household Support Fund should it not be possible to achieve full spend of the grant through the approved provisional allocations.

(6)  That the capital budget variations as detailed in Section 2.6 of the report be approved.