Agenda item

2024/25 General Fund Revenue Budget Monitoring Report - Month 7

Decision:

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

 

a)    Note Council is now forecasting a balanced revenue position (on-budget). 

b)    Note the total Council revenue forecast underspend of £8.782m for the year. There is a forecast underspend of £2.722m within Service Directorates for 2024/25 and the Corporate Contingency of £6.000m, whilst remains unallocated it has been released into the forecast outturn within budget lines Table 1

c)    Note that the planned use of reserves of £36.800m for Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Support towards the budget is forecast to reduce by £8.782m to £28.018m, due to the forecast underspend within budget lines (section 18). 

d)    Agree that mitigating actions are to be identified in order to reduce any overspends, to take action and to contribute to the long-term financial sustainability of the authority. 

e)    Agree that the Council continues with the aim of avoiding a Section 114 notice by taking all of the necessary actions and continuing to operate as if onehas been issued. 

f)      Note the progress and delivered savings of £17.050m of the approved savings programme as set out in Table 2 and Appendix J

g)    Note that work will continue to find mitigating or substitute savings for the £1.239m of Red unachievable savings, deliver the £5.004m Amber at risk savings and the £16.584m Green on track savings. 

h)    Note the in-year forecast overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant of £32.767m, an increase of £4.508m from Quarter 2 (in section 12). 

i)      Note the total forecast Dedicated Schools Grant year-end deficit of £68.707m as set out in Appendix C

j)      Note the collection rates for Council Tax and Business Rates as set out in section 19. 

k)    Note the Capital Programme forecast outturn at Month 7 is £113.678m. 

l)      Approve that any application for Exceptional Financial Support for the 2025/26 budget is delegated to the Interim Chief Finance Officer (Section 151 Officer) as detailed in section 31 of this report. 

 

 

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Finance, Procurement and Performances to introduce the report. Cllr Leyshon explained that the report had been seen by Scrutiny Committee – Corporate and Resources; that there was a slight improvement in the Month 7 position; that there won’t be a Month 8 report due to focus on Budget Setting.

 

Cllr Leyshon proceeded to hand over to Nicola Hix, Service Director Finance & Procurement, who detailed: the forecast underspend of £2.72m and the resulting reduced call on reserves; recommendation L in the report to delegate any application for Exceptional Financial Support for 2025/26 to the Interim Chief Finance Office (Section 151 Officer); the increase in achieved or on track savings and the need for further improvement in that; improvement in collection rates for business rates and council tax; that there had not been significant movement in capital budget; the need for exceptional financial support for 2024/25 and the discussions underway for 2025/26.

 

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: the ongoing pressures in Children’s relating to external placements and home school transport and work ongoing to improve modelling and mitigate overspends; the pressures relating to the Dedicated Schools Grant; the draw on different reserves and how that is shown in the Table 1; the hard work of everyone involved in forecasting and reducing spending; the increase in risk of not achieving a sustainable MTFP and what could be done to reduce the risk; the impact of in-year overspends on the MTFP; the impact of borrowing costs on the budget; the savings that are at risk and plans in place to address it and the limited time-frame to do so; the slippage in the capital programme; the factors that led to reduced demand creating savings in Adult’s Services and Children’s Services; the causes and impact of staff vacancies; if any pressures in SEND provision would be caused by movement from independent schools as a result of VAT; thanks to the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Service Director – Finance and Procurement and the rest of the finance team who have been working hard on the application for Exceptional Financial Support.

 

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

 

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

 

a)    Note Council is now forecasting a balanced revenue position (on-budget). 

b)    Note the total Council revenue forecast underspend of £8.782m for the year. There is a forecast underspend of £2.722m within Service Directorates for 2024/25 and the Corporate Contingency of £6.000m, whilst remains unallocated it has been released into the forecast outturn within budget lines Table 1

c)    Note that the planned use of reserves of £36.800m for Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Support towards the budget is forecast to reduce by £8.782m to £28.018m, due to the forecast underspend within budget lines (section 18). 

d)    Agree that mitigating actions are to be identified in order to reduce any overspends, to take action and to contribute to the long-term financial sustainability of the authority. 

e)    Agree that the Council continues with the aim of avoiding a Section 114 notice by taking all of the necessary actions and continuing to operate as if onehas been issued. 

f)      Note the progress and delivered savings of £17.050m of the approved savings programme as set out in Table 2 and Appendix J

g)    Note that work will continue to find mitigating or substitute savings for the £1.239m of Red unachievable savings, deliver the £5.004m Amber at risk savings and the £16.584m Green on track savings. 

h)    Note the in-year forecast overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant of £32.767m, an increase of £4.508m from Quarter 2 (in section 12). 

i)      Note the total forecast Dedicated Schools Grant year-end deficit of £68.707m as set out in Appendix C

j)      Note the collection rates for Council Tax and Business Rates as set out in section 19. 

k)    Note the Capital Programme forecast outturn at Month 7 is £113.678m. 

l)      Approve that any application for Exceptional Financial Support for the 2025/26 budget is delegated to the Interim Chief Finance Officer (Section 151 Officer) as detailed in section 31 of this report. 

 

 

Supporting documents: