Agenda item - Revenue and Capital Expenditure 2018/19

To consider the Council’s outturn expenditure for 2018/19 and approve changes to the Capital Programme 2019/20.

Cllr Lynden Stowe presented the Council’s outturn expenditure for 2018/19 and proposed changes to the Capital Programme 2019/20.

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 2018/19 revenue budget underspend of £2.905 million and approve the following transfers.

1.1. Transfer £1.824 million to the Vulnerable Adults Reserve. This funding will be used to progress projects and investment in community based provision that supports the Adult Single Programme in 2019/20 and to manage demand pressures.

1.2. Approve the carry forward of £0.386 million to 2019/20 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.

1.3. Approve a revenue contribution of £0.120 million to the Trevone House capital refurbishment project as a result of additional slippage in the IRIS Project in 2018/19.

1.4. Approve the transfer of the £0.35 million Public Health underspend to the Public Health Reserve.

1.5. Transfer £1.534 million to the Strategic Waste Reserve to fund the EFW (Energy from Waste) smoothing requirement.

1.6. Transfer £0.438 million to the C&I Reserve for the carry forward of one off funding for the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Improvement Project

1.7. Transfer £0.496 million to the C&I Reserve for the carry forward of Highways Local funding

1.8. Transfer £0.025 million to Economic Stimulus Reserve for the Joint Strategic Rail Strategy between GCC, LEP and partners to inform future policy and investment decisions.

1.9. Transfer £0.150 million to the C&I Reserve which relates to income from Boots Corner camera enforcement to cover future costs of Cheltenham Transport Plan including Boots Corner experimental changes and related measures.

1.10. Transfer £0.09 million of the surplus generated by Traded Services to the Traded Services Reserve

1.11. Transfer £0.440 million to the Transformation Reserve from the Technical & Corporate Budget.to enable implementation of the a new payment system

1.12. Transfer £0.800 from the corporate insurance reserves to the Transformation Reserve to support future transformation initiatives.

1.13. Transfer £3.83 million to the Business Rates Retention Reserve in relation to the GCC share of the additional surplus on the 100% Business Rates Pilot (this includes £2.23 million already earmarked for Children Services within the 2019/20 budget approved by Full Council in February 2019). In addition approve a transfer of £3.44 million to the Strategic Economic Development Fund also as a result of the 100% Business Rates Pilot, and.

1.14. Other technical reserve movements for 2018/19 set out in Annex 1.

2. Approve the transfer of the overall £2.905 million revenue budget underspend to the Transformation Reserve (£2.855 million) and to the Vision 2050 Working Fund (£0.050 million).

3. Note the capital budget position for 2018/19 is £93.235 million, giving in year slippage of £8.152 million.

4. Approve increases to the Capital Programme totalling £1.301 million for 2018/19 and future years made up of:

4.1. £0.441 million for Adults schemes funded from an increased in the Disabled Facilities Grant allocation.

4.2. £0.439 million for Highway schemes reflecting a decreased Department for Transport (DfT) grant £0.023 million, also additional funding of £0.130 million of developer contributions and Highways Locals revenue contributions of £0.332 million.

4.3. £0.190 million in the Archives capital budget, funded from a revenue contribution towards the Alvin Street Extension - For the Record scheme.

4.4. £0.020 million in the AMPS capital budget, funded from a revenue contribution towards the College Yard Gloucester Contact Centre scheme.

4.5. £0.211 million in property works before sale, funded from capital receipts.

Cllr Lynden Stowe presented the Council’s outturn expenditure for 2018/19 and proposed changes to the Capital Programme 2019/20.

Cllr Stowe confirmed the final year end position for the end of 2018/19 as showing an underspend of £2.905 million, (on a net revenue budget of £418.081 million), and proposed that the underspend be transferred £2.855 million to the council’s Transformation Reserve for transformation initiatives and £0.05 million to a Vision 2050 working fund.

It was explained that this overall position included a number of significant variances, with the areas of major revenue risk continuing to relate to the care of vulnerable children and adults. Cllr Stowe stated that these demand-led budget areas continued to be subject to significant volatility due to the changes in client numbers and care needs and would need to be closely monitored and controlled in the new financial year.

Summarising some of the detail included in the report, Cllr Stowe confirmed the following information:

Meeting the Challenge (MTC) Savings: the 2018/19 budget included £18.686 million of savings. Overall £18.345 million or 98.2% of the target savings had been achieved in year, with the £0.341 million shortfall being covered by one-off savings and underspends. The shortfall to roll forward, for which updates will be reported alongside agreed MTFS savings targets for 2019/20.

Transfers to Reserves - the outturn position included recommended transfers to reserves totalling £11.078 million (please refer to the report for details).

Carry forward approvals - as part of 2018/19 budget setting process, £6.303 million of one-off investments had been approved. The unspent elements of the investments had already been committed in 2019/20. On this basis, Cllr Stowe recommended that a total of £1.934 million be carried forward.

Acknowledging the impact of ongoing financial pressures and challenges on the Council, Cllr Stowe congratulated members and officers for their work in achieving £18m savings in 2018/19, including the £11m savings in Adult Social Care. Cllr Stowe also commended the Leader and Chief Executive of the Council for their successful lobbying of funding. He confirmed there was clearly more to do and thanked partners and Gloucestershire First Local Enterprise Partnership (Gfirst LEP) for their work in helping to deliver the council’s budget.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Mark Hawthorne, echoed Cllr Stowe’s sentiments before expressing personal appreciation for the work involved in delivering the council budget, particularly when faced with the uncertainties surrounding the Government’s Annual Financial Settlement announcement each December. Cllr Hawthorne emphasised the benefits a comprehensive spending review from Government.