Agenda item

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 £20.065m for the year. There is a forecast underspend of £14.005m 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 £20.065m to £16.735m, due to the forecast underspend within budget lines (paragraph 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 continues to operate in a similar way to one being issued.

f) Note the progress and delivered savings of £32.217m 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 £3.909m of Red unachievable savings, deliver the £0.727m Amber at risk savings and the £3.379m Green on track savings.

h) Note the in-year forecast overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant of £31.300m, a decrease of £1.467m from Month 7 (paragraph 11).

i) Note the total forecast Dedicated Schools Grant year-end deficit of £65.211m as set out in Appendix C.

j) Note the collection rates for Council Tax and Business Rates as set out in paragraph 16.

k) Note the quarterly update from the Spend Control Board detailed in Appendix K.

l) Note the quarterly update on the prudential indicators detailed in Appendix L.

m) Note the outstanding debt position as detailed in Chart 3 and Appendix M.

n) Note the level of General Reserves is £60.000m (risk-based assessment – minimum £30m, maximum £60m) and repurpose of some specified earmarked reserves following a review of the Council’s balance sheet (see section 19).

o) Note the Capital Programme forecast outturn at Quarter 3 is £150.573m.

p) Approve the additional Quarter 2 capital slippage of £0.631m into future years

q) Approve £247.062m of additions to the capital programme, as detailed in Section 35 of this report.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Finance, Procurement and Performance, Cllr Liz Leyshon, to introduce the item. Cllr Leyshon highlighted that this was the Q3 report following the month 7 report, as month 8 was not reported on due to budget setting; that the report shows a reduced draw on reserves and that reserves are one-off funding to allow us to close the budget gap; the difference between one-off pressures vs ongoing pressures and where a pressure becomes a growth.

Cllr Leyshon proceeded to hand over to the Service Director – Finance and Procurement, Nicola Hix, who detailed: that this is not a ‘true’ underspend due to the use of reserves; that there was a decrease in the forecast overspend in Children, Families and Education and the reasons behind that; that non-service directorate has an increased underspend and the reasons behind that including the impact of asset sales; the ongoing and one-off pressures; the movements in each service; the improvement in the Dedicated Schools Grant forecast; ongoing monitoring of savings and comparison with the previous report; the collection funds that are above target for business rates and council tax; that the spend boards are still in place; and that there is no big swing of projections for the capital spend.

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 detail of the adults’ services budget including the savings made as part of transformation, the winter pressures, the need for a realistic budget and the importance of prevention; the positive changes in Children’s including savings relating to Home to School transport and SEND transport and the importance of forecasting and modelling and the need for more foster carers; the causes behind the underspend in Adults Services and if that is linked with preventative work; the large amount of work in delivering My Life, My Future; that the headlines of the budget monitoring were positive but it was dependent on capitalisation and use of reserves; how the budget was set based on no asset sales; the pressure on agendas and the number of papers, including late papers creating pressure for officers and councillors; the reserves position and whether there is enough in reserves for transformation; whether earmarked reserves for insurance and PFI are sufficient; whether reducing drawdown on reserves should be prioritised in the case of an underspend; the increased overspend in Resource and Corporate Services as a result of loss of income from asset sales; and the outstanding debt in Adult Social Care.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proposed a drafting amendment to recommendation e. The Committee proceeded to a vote and the recommendations 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 £20.065m for the year. There is a forecast underspend of £14.005m 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 £20.065m to £16.735m, due to the forecast underspend within budget lines (paragraph 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 continues to operate in a similar way to one being issued.

f) Note the progress and delivered savings of £32.217m 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 £3.909m of Red unachievable savings, deliver the £0.727m Amber at risk savings and the £3.379m Green on track savings.

h) Note the in-year forecast overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant of £31.300m, a decrease of £1.467m from Month 7 (paragraph 11).

i) Note the total forecast Dedicated Schools Grant year-end deficit of £65.211m as set out in Appendix C.

j) Note the collection rates for Council Tax and Business Rates as set out in paragraph 16.

k) Note the quarterly update from the Spend Control Board detailed in Appendix K.

l) Note the quarterly update on the prudential indicators detailed in Appendix L.

m) Note the outstanding debt position as detailed in Chart 3 and Appendix M.

n) Note the level of General Reserves is £60.000m (risk-based assessment – minimum £30m, maximum £60m) and repurpose of some specified earmarked reserves following a review of the Council’s balance sheet (see section 19).

o) Note the Capital Programme forecast outturn at Quarter 3 is £150.573m.

p) Approve the additional Quarter 2 capital slippage of £0.631m into future years

q) Approve £247.062m of additions to the capital programme, as detailed in Section 35 of this report.