Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Assets

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    The contents of this report be noted, including the key projected variances to the 2022/23 budget approved by Council on 21 February 2022 and the actions to ensure overspends are reduced as far as possible by the end of the financial year. 

The Cabinet Member Finance, Assets and Regeneration introduced the report, noting that the last paper he had brought before Cabinet was the outturn report for 2021/22 back in July. At that point, inflation stood at 9.1% and it had just been announced that interest rates would be increased for the third time in a year. Since then, inflation had further increased to 10.1%, and was expected to hit 13% in the winter of 2022. Interest rates had also increased again to 1.75%. The council had declared a cost-of-living emergency, the impact of which made this budget monitoring report for the first four months of 2022/23 sober reading.

The forecast for the year was an overspend of over £2.8m against a budget which, when approved, was prudent and realistic for a town recovering from a pandemic. The most significant cost of living pressure they were facing was the predicted cost of energy as they entered the crucial winter period. The government’s recent announcement on the energy crisis would change the current projections, and they would have to work through the details to understand by how much.

During the energy crisis, the focus of Cabinet and finance team was to support the delivery of services by controlling the controllables. They could not control the cost of energy, but they could control how much of it they used to run their buildings. The installation of smart meters and improved data now meant that they could work with partners to make changes to the energy usage in key buildings, while they were also using the Green Investment Fund (previously approved by Council) to upgrade their building management systems and reduce unnecessary energy usage.

They had also been working closely with their energy broker to implement an energy purchasing strategy which took advantage of the short-term dips seen in the market. In addition to this, there were longer-term plans to invest in improvements to the fabric of the leisure centre to become more energy efficient for years to come. He thanked all involved in the work done, and expressed his confidence that the council would continue to provide direct support to those in the town that needed it, as they had previously done through times of adversity.

The Leader agreed that it was a sober report, and that she hoped the public would understand that the influence of the pandemic was still being felt within it.

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

RESOLVED THAT:

1.    The contents of this report be noted, including the key projected variances to the 2022/23 budget approved by Council on 21 February 2022 and the actions to ensure overspends are reduced as far as possible by the end of the financial year.