Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance

The Leader introduced this item in the absence of the Cabinet Member Finance. He praised the significant work undertaken by the finance team and in particular the Executive Director Finance and Assets, in a difficult and unprecedented situation. He also thanked the Cabinet Member for her contributions.

He outlined the financial impact of the Covid-19 crisis, noting that in normal times, the council would be able to declare a surplus around this time. By the end of March 2020, however, £72,000 of extra Covid-related costs had already been accrued, on top of some £400,000 in lost income, mostly from car parking. Initial government support was meagre (around £50,000), due to how the first tranche of support was mostly aimed at authorities with social care responsibilities. In that context, he suggested that being able to declare an overspend of only £47,000 was remarkable. He added that there were a number of carry forward requests, as was to be expected.

He praised how the Golden Valley Cyber Central project had been able to continue during the pandemic. A number of groups were bidding to become the project’s development partner, and this had been whittled down to six at the time of the meeting. He welcomed the fact that the council’s key affordable housing projects were up and running, and thanked Cheltenham Borough Homes for their significant efforts in that respect.

The Leader acknowledged that after the end of March, the situation had changed dramatically. The current forecast was for a total loss of income of £3.5m, as well as extra costs of £1.7m. He added that the total government support received as of the end of June was £1.2m, and noted the gap between these figures.

He noted that CBC received £173,000 out of the government’s latest £500m support package to local government, and that the government had also pledged to underwrite 75% of local authorities’ losses. The situation was less clear when trusts were involved, for example in the question of leisure centres. Future announcements were expected from central government to clarify this. He reported that Cabinet had endorsed the report for Council approval on the 28^th July.

One Member thanked finance officers for their work in a difficult time, and stressed the importance of central government’s pledge to underwrite local authorities’ losses. He was hopeful that the Chancellor’s forthcoming Autumn Statement would offer further support to local government. He also praised the Holiday Hunger Fund, and placed on record his hope that this support would continue during the winter. The Leader of the Council responded that the Autumn Statement would be of considerable importance, and he hoped that CBC could ‘phase’ some of its losses over the next few years, although the size of these losses was not yet clear. The budget was likely to be reviewed towards the end of September, although they were still waiting on key aspects of government advice.

The Chair of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group added his support for the report, and asked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9