Agenda item

To receive the 2024/25 General Fund Revenue Budget Monitoring Report – Month 4.

The Committee noted the report and recommendations for Executive:-

a)    Notes the Service Directorate Revenue forecast overspend of £8.4m for the year.

b)    Notes the total Council Revenue forecast overspend of £2.3m.

The Council’s Interim Chief Finance Officer, Maria Christofi and the Service Director, Finance and Procurement, Nicola Hix presented the General Fund Revenue Budget Monitoring Report for the end of July 2024 - Month 4.

They advised that the Council is forecasting a revenue overspend of £8.4m within Service Directorates for the 2024/25 financial year, which is being offset by £6m corporate contingency leading to a total revenue forecast overspend of £2.3m. This equates to 0.1% of the net budget for the year and is an increase in the revenue forecast overspend of £2.5m from the previously forecast underspend.

The Committee was taken through the various appendices and in the discussion which followed Members made a number of comments and observations which were responded to:-

• income from beach car parks in Minehead – officers will respond to Cllr Woods on the specifics of this.
• how the information is presented in the report around the revenue overspend and details by Service Directorates – report going to the Executive will reflect the full picture / position so the relevant tables and the accompanying narrative at the front of the report are as clear as possible.
• need to also include a paragraph in report on contingencies position and link the tables to the narrative more clearly.
• legal agency spend and whether it is slowing devolution / asset transfers, sales and if there is capacity – explained the complexities, the use of the earmarked reserves and the time involved; also referred to information contained on page 23 of the report and making the income element clearer.
• need a central place where all acronyms used in the report are defined (with a link in a relevant report).
• page 39 – Children’s Services budget – comments re planning issues and lack of social housing for young people to move on to – it was noted that resources have been put in to help situation for example a specialist planner is being funded from Children’s Services budget (Homes and Horizons); also expanded on progress made with the homes (6 and 7 have opened and 8 is in progress).
• question about mitigations / actions around the Children’s Services budget position which is not reflected in the report – confirmed this is being worked on for future reports; are working to pull position back and for example mentioned work of the Transformation Board and the deep dive on CLA; also highlighted where the budget is showing an underspend, for example in the fostering budget and the impact and link to the overspend in residential placements.
• query about the Adults budget and how it is expressed in the report – referred to page 34 and the section on commissioning which helps explain this and the focus / actions on reablement at home.
• Climate and Place budget overspend (waste contract) and why the one off uplift is not coming out of the contingency budget – too early in the financial year to be allocating contingencies for any of the forecast overspends and role of the Directorates is to pull back a forecast overspend.
• a follow on question about whether this situation is sustainable – needs to be an ongoing response by the organisation and referred to the MTFP and necessary actions being taken.
• query about the position regarding the contingency budget – the contingency budget figure is £6m and it has all been released and the report fully reflects this.
• question on financial risk matrix detailed in the report – this is around the overarching risk to the Council.

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee noted the report and the Chair summed up the discussion, as follows:

• thanked officers for the improvements which have been made to the report over time and thanked officers for this and will look forward to the next iteration.
• members had highlighted that if possible, the reports from the service areas will have more detail on mitigations around how they are addressing shortfalls in their respective budget areas.
• also thanked the Executive members for attending and responding to questions at the meeting.

The Committee noted the report and recommendations for Executive:-

a) Notes the Service Directorate Revenue forecast overspend of £8.4m for the year.

 b) Notes the total Council Revenue forecast overspend of £2.3m.