Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Assets

The Cabinet Member Finance introduced the report and explained that the council had been on the front line of the response to the pandemic in Cheltenham, on matters including licensing and business grants, providing support to vulnerable people who were shielding, setting up community testing facilities and taking on the most challenging contact tracing, all the while keeping existing services running.

The delivery of the response had placed unprecedented financial pressures on resources, in addition to the £6.8m cuts to Government funding experienced over the past decade and following the first national lockdown, it was estimated that coronavirus would create a budget deficit of £1.831m in 2020/21 as a result of additional unbudgeted expenditure and irrecoverable income losses.

He reported that Council approved a recovery budget in November 2020 to close the gap by implementing a strategy to review surplus assets owned by the Council for disposal. These would generate an estimated £4m of capital receipts which would be used to balance the budget. This work was ongoing and at pace.

He reported that by November 2020, a Government grant of £1.5m to cover expenditure relating to the pandemic response was received with an additional £300k required from internal resources.

There was also a huge impact on the income generated from sales, fees and charges. The recovery budget took this into account and at this point, even with the Government’s income compensation scheme it was estimated that total losses would be just less than £1.5m.

He was pleased to report a £394k underspend against this recovery budget. In addition since the start of the pandemic £95m of financial support had been awarded to Cheltenham businesses.

The pandemic had still cost the authority £1.47m and the damage to the economy has been acute and recovery would take time. It was proposed to use the underspend from the 2020/21 budget to fund the first steps towards the long term, green sustainable recovery of the town.

£250k would be ring-fenced to fund initiatives and projects aimed to support making Cheltenham a place for everyone to thrive.  This could include:

·         Working with the Cheltenham BID to put on events to increase the footfall into the town centre.

·         Investing in our communities to ensure residents are supported through our recovery plan

·         Investing in our public toilets to ensure they are safe, accessible and fit for purpose.

·         Investing in our green spaces to ensure there are adequate places for our residents to gather and celebrate as restrictions are released.

A number of proposals were being reviewed and he asked that authority be delegated to Officers in consultation with himself to approve spending on these projects to ensure the council can continue to be responsive to the needs of our town, businesses, partners, and residents.

He wished to put on record his thanks to the council’s executive team and every member of staff, including our partner organisations, for the tremendous efforts they have put in over the last 15 months. Notably, he mentioned the Head of Finance  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Assets

RESOLVED THAT:

Council be recommended to:

1. Receive the financial outturn performance position for the General Fund, summarised at Appendix 2, and notes that in delivering services in 2020/21, there was an underspend of £394,663 against the recovery budget approved by Council in November 2020;
2. Notes £609,345 of carry forward approved by the Section 151 Officer under delegated powers at Appendix 5;
3. Approve the proposal for the use of the underspend after the carry forward requests outlined in Section 2.10 of this report and delegates authority to the Executive Director of Finance and Assets in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Assets to ensure the underspend it spent in line with this proposal;
4. Note the annual treasury management report at Appendix 7 and note the actual 2020/21 prudential and treasury indicators;
5. Note the capital programme outturn position as detailed in Appendix 8 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2021/22;
6. Note the year end position in respect of Section 106 and CIL agreements and partnership funding agreements at Appendix 9;
7. Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates for 2020/21 in Appendix 10;
8. Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2020/21 in Appendix 11;
9. Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2020/21 in Appendices 12 and 13 (as detailed in Section 11) and approves the carry forward of capital budgets in 2021/22 as set out in paragraph 11.9.

The Cabinet Member Finance and Assets presented the report, which would go on to full Council on 19^th July. After a decade of austerity, the council’s budget monitoring position had been solid, but then came another challenge in the form of Covid-19. A unique, innovative and ambitious response was required. During the first national lockdown, it was estimated that Covid would create a budget deficit for the council of £1.813m in 2020-21 through additional expenditure and income losses. Council therefore passed a recovery budget in November 2020, including a strategy to review assets for disposal in order to close the income gap. This budget made assumptions about how much the crisis would cost, with an ultimate underspend of £394k compared to this budget. Had the recovery budget not been passed, members would be discussing an enormous overspend at this meeting. Some of the underspend would be used to fund the first steps of a long-term, sustainable recovery for the town.

The Leader added that given the position local authorities found themselves in last year, it was remarkable to end up with an underspend. Income had been lost and things had slowed down, but no services had been cut. It was important to be careful about where this money was spent.

The Cabinet Member Finance and Assets thanked the finance team for their hard work.

The Leader moved to a vote, where it was unanimously:

RESOLVED THAT:

Council be recommended to:

1. Receive the financial outturn performance position for the General Fund, summarised at Appendix 2, and notes that in delivering services in 2020/21, there was an underspend of £394,663 against the recovery budget approved by Council in November 2020;
2. Notes £609,345 of carry forward approved by the Section 151 Officer under delegated powers at Appendix 5;
3. Approve the proposal for the use of the underspend after the carry forward requests outlined in Section 2.10 of this report and delegates authority to the Executive Director of Finance and Assets in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Assets to ensure the underspend it spent in line with this proposal;
4. Note the annual treasury management report at Appendix 7 and note the actual 2020/21 prudential and treasury indicators;
5. Note the capital programme outturn position as detailed in Appendix 8 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2021/22;
6. Note the year end position in respect of Section 106 and CIL agreements and partnership funding agreements at Appendix 9;
7. Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates for 2020/21 in Appendix 10;
8. Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2020/21 in Appendix 11;
9. Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2020/21 in Appendices 12 and 13 (as detailed in Section 11) and approves the carry forward of capital budgets in 2021/22 as set out in paragraph 11.9.