Issue - meetings

To consider the Council's outturn expenditure for 2019/20, agree recommendations and approve changes to the Capital Programme in 2019/20 and future years.

Cabinet received an update on the council’s outturn expenditure for 2019/20 and considered changes and commendations to the Capital Programme.

Having considered all of the information, including known proposals, alternative options and reasons for recommendations, Cabinet noted the report and,

RESOLVED to:

1)    Note the overall 2019/2020 revenue budget underspend of £0.326

million and approve the following transfers: -

1.1 Transfer of £0.011 million to the Vulnerable Adults Reserve to use  on 2020/21 projects and investments to supports the Adult Single Programme;

1.2 Provision of £1.575 million (being £1.050 million in Adults and £0.525 million in Prevention and Wellbeing) for refunds to service users where income was incorrectly collected from current and former residents receiving S117 ‘after care’;

1.3 Provision of £0.456 million for backdated reimbursements to Shared Lives Carers in respect of Utility payments;

1.4 Carry forward of £0.151 million to 2020/21 to complete two year projects within Children’s Services which were originally funded by additional “one off” budget allocations in 2017/18. The initial start of these projects was delayed.

1.5 Transfer of £0.352 million from the Active Communities Reserve.

1.6 Revenue transfer of £1.433 million to the Strategic Waste Reserve to fund the EFW (Energy from Waste) smoothing requirement;.

1.7 Revenue transfer of £0.393 million to the EE&I Reserve for the carry forward of Highways Local funding;

1.8 Revenue transfer £0.015 million of the surplus generated by Traded Services to the Traded Services Reserve;

1.9 Revenue transfer to the Transformation Reserve from Corporate Resources for the carry forward of £0.115 million to fund GDPR compliance initiatives.

1.10 Revenue transfer to the Transformation Reserve from Corporate Resources for the carry forward of £0.206 million to fund on going Covid-19 commitments.

1.11 Transfer £0.759 million to the Business Rates Retention Reserve in relation to the GCC share of the additional surplus on the 2019/20 Business Rates Pool. In addition, to approve a transfer of £0.948 million to the Strategic Economic Development Fund also as a result of the Business Rates Pool;

1.12 Other technical reserve movements for 2019/20, as set out in Annex 1

2. Note delivery of the £14.492 million of savings against a target of £19.051 million in 2019/20 or 76.1%.

3. Note the capital budget position for 2019/20 is £88.461 million against a budget of £110.950 million, giving in year slippage of £22.489 million.

4. Changes to the Capital Programme totalling a net decrease of £1.187 million for 2019/20 and future years made up of:-

4.1. £0.055 million increase for Children and Families schemes funded by a transfer from the AMPS programme and a revenue contribution from AMPS.

4.2. £2.107 million net decrease in the Highway Capital programme  reflecting a £2.950 million decreased in the capital receipts approval required for the LED replacement scheme, and additional funding of £0.618 million of developer and third party contributions and Highways Locals revenue contributions of £0.225 million.

4.3. £0.201 million increase in the Libraries capital budget funded from developer contributions

4.4. £0.039 million increase in the Trading Standards capital  ...  view the full decision text for item 7

Cabinet received an update on the council’s outturn expenditure for 2019/20 and proposed changes to the Capital Programme.

Cllr Lynden Stowe, Cabinet Member: Finance and Change reported a finalyear end position with an underspend of £0.326 million on a net revenue budget of £429.661 million. This underspend will be transferred to the council’s General Reserves, (currently 4% above target).

Cabinet was advised that expenditure in response to the Covid-19 emergency had only been incurred at the latter end of the 2019/20 financial year. In total, £0.129 million of Covid-19 related expenditure was incurred. The financial impact of Covid-19, would continue to be monitored throughout 2020/21.

During 2019/20, the areas of major revenue risk related to the care of the most vulnerable children and adults in the county. These demand-led budget areas continued to be subject to significant volatility due to changes in client numbers and care needs and would need to be closely monitored and controlled in the 2020/21 financial year.

A total of £14.492 million savings were delivered in 2019/20, against a target of £19.051million, (76.1% of the annual target). £4.559 million of savings remained undelivered, representing 23.9% of the annual target. The most significant areas of savings not delivered in the 2019/20 budget year included £1.841 million in the Adults Single Programme and, due to continuing pressures on external placements, £1.700 million savings in the Children and Families Budget. Cllr Stowe confirmed the savings would be rolled forward to this financial year and reported alongside agreed MTFS savings targets for 2020/21

The re-profiled capital budget for 2019/20 totalled £110.950 million with expenditure of £88.461 million, (an in-year slippage of £22.489 million).

Cllr Stowed stated that this had involved slippage in some of the council’s major schemes (as detailed in the Cabinet report) but that the schemes remained on budget and were expected to be completed during 2020/21

Having considered all of the information, including known proposals, alternative options and reasons for recommendations, Cabinet noted the report and,

RESOLVED to:

1)    Note the overall 2019/2020 revenue budget underspend of £0.326

million and approve the following transfers: -

1.1 Transfer of £0.011 million to the Vulnerable Adults Reserve to use  on 2020/21 projects and investments to supports the Adult Single Programme;

1.2 Provision of £1.575 million (being £1.050 million in Adults and £0.525 million in Prevention and Wellbeing) for refunds to service users where income was incorrectly collected from current and former residents receiving S117 ‘after care’;

1.3 Provision of £0.456 million for backdated reimbursements to Shared Lives Carers in respect of Utility payments;

1.4 Carry forward of £0.151 million to 2020/21 to complete two year projects within Children’s Services which were originally funded by additional “one off” budget allocations in 2017/18. The initial start of these projects was delayed.

1.5 Transfer of £0.352 million from the Active Communities Reserve.

1.6 Revenue transfer of £1.433 million to the Strategic Waste Reserve to fund the EFW (Energy from Waste) smoothing requirement;.

1.7 Revenue transfer of £0.393 million to the EE  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7