Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance

The Cabinet Member Finance introduced the report which highlighted the Council’s financial performance for the previous year which set out the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) revenue and capital outturn position for 2016/17. She highlighted that it had been another challenging year.

The Cabinet Member reported that in December 2016 a possible under-spend of £110,737 had been forecast. In February 2017 Cabinet made recommendations to Council that this be transferred to the Budget support reserve which was approved and therefore formed part of the revised budget for 2016/17.

She explained that continued government funding arrangements and changes, together with the economic climate, presented ongoing concern for this council’s budgets, particularly in light of the Business Rates retention bill having been dropped from the legislative plan and the uncertainty surrounding the next steps. It was important that this council looked to grow its economy at the same time as ensuring that it used under-spends to support economic growth, the budget strategy reserve and general balances, bearing in mind the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The Cabinet Member was pleased to report that the year ended with an under-spend of £571,443 achieved through a great deal of hard work and sound financial management, by CBC officers and its partner organisations. This saving had been transferred into the Budget reserve pending decisions for its use in 2017/18 and future years.

The Cabinet Member highlighted the following :

·         car parking and Cemetery & Crematorium income had increased which can now be built into the base budget with some certainty

·         the business rate pool had delivered a positive variance of nearly £300K which has been transferred to the Business rates retention equalization reserve

·         the housing revenue outturn statement showed a net positive variance of £691k

·         additional income generated through planning amounts to £77k

·         an increase on investment income from properties of £140k

The Cabinet Member informed Members that the Local Government Association undertook a peer review in April this year of the council’s financial strategy and overall  the results were extremely positive with the main challenges around the use of revenue to part fund the capital programme and the use of voluntary debt repayments.

She explained that with current interest rates being low, the challenge was to model extended lending periods on major capital schemes such as the crematoria project. She went on to explain that when the Council purchased Delta Place, the Section 151 Officer determined to pay additional voluntary debt repayments of £400k per annum from the current rental stream. Whilst this was a prudent decision at the time, the short-term challenges that the Council now faced suggest that this rental stream would be better placed to support the revenue budget, which was the reason behind creating an investment portfolio.

The Cabinet Member reported that the business case for Delta Place had now been remodelled, based on revised occupancy needs. This confirmed that the rental stream previously used to finance voluntary debt repayments are now better served to support the budget proposals  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance

RESOLVED THAT

Council be recommended to :

1.    Receive the financial outturn performance position for the General Fund, summarised at Appendix 2, and notes that services have been delivered within the revised budget for 2016/17 resulting in a saving (after carry forward requests) of £571,443.

2.    Approve £80,000 of carry forward requests (requiring member approval) at Appendix 5.

3.    Approve the use of the budget saving of £571,443 as detailed in Section 3.

4.    Approve the suspension of voluntary debt repayments to support existing commitments and future budget proposals as detailed in Section 3.

5.    Note the annual treasury management report at Appendix 7 and approve the actual 2016/17 prudential and treasury indicators.

6.    Approve Investments in corporate bonds in respect of Green Investment Bonds increased to a maximum of 5 years with a monetary value limit of £2m as detailed in Section 5.

7.    Note the capital programme outturn position as detailed in Appendix 8 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2017/18 (section 7).

8.    Note the position in respect of Section 106 agreements and partnership funding agreements at Appendix 9 (section 9).

9.    Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates for 2016/17 in Appendix 10 (section 10).

10.  Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2016/17 in Appendix 11 (section 11).

11.  Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2016/17 in Appendices 12 to 13 and approves the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2017/18 (section 12).

12.  Note the budget monitoring position to the end of June 2017 (section 13).

The Cabinet Member Finance introduced the report which highlighted the Council’s financial performance for the previous year which set out the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) revenue and capital outturn position for 2016/17. It had been another challenging year.

The Cabinet Member reported that in December 2016 a possible under-spend of £110,737 had been forecast and  in February 2017 Cabinet made recommendations to Council that this be transferred to the Budget support reserve which was approved and therefore formed part of the revised budget for 16/17.

She explained that continued government funding arrangements and changes, together with the economic climate, presented ongoing concern for this council’s budgets, particularly in light of the Business Rates retention bill having been dropped from the legislative plan and the uncertainty surrounding the next steps. It was important that this council looked to grow its economy at the same time as ensuring that it used under-spends to support economic growth, the budget strategy reserve and general balances, bearing in mind the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The Cabinet Member was pleased to report that the year ended with an under-spend of £571,443 achieved through a great deal of hard work and sound financial management, by CBC employees and its partner organisations.  This saving had been transferred into the Budget reserve pending decisions for its use in 2017/18 and future years.

The Cabinet Member highlighted the following :

·         car parking and Cemetery & Crematorium income had increased

·         the business rate pool had delivered a positive variance of nearly £300K

·         The housing revenue outturn statement showed a net positive variance

She went on to explain that when the Council purchased Delta Place, the Section 151 Officer determined to pay additional voluntary debt repayments of £400k per annum from the current rental stream. Whilst this was a prudent decision at the time, the short-term challenges that the Council faces suggest that this rental stream would be better placed to support the revenue budget, which was the reason behind creating an investment portfolio.

The Cabinet Member reported that the business case for Delta Place had now been remodelled, based on revised occupancy needs. This confirmed that the rental stream previously used to finance voluntary debt repayments are better served to support the budget proposals in 2018/19 and 19/20, using the money now not paying off debt or cutting front line services.

The Leader reminded Members that this report would be considered by Council on 24 July.

RESOLVED THAT

Council be recommended to :

1.    Receive the financial outturn performance position for the General Fund, summarised at Appendix 2, and notes that services have been delivered within the revised budget for 2016/17 resulting in a saving (after carry forward requests) of £571,443.

2.    Approve £80,000 of carry forward requests (requiring member approval) at Appendix 5.

3.    Approve the use of the budget saving of £571,443 as detailed in Section 3.

4.    Approve the suspension of voluntary debt repayments to support existing commitments and future budget proposals as detailed in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14