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 2014/15. The information contained within the report had been used to prepare the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2014/15.

The Cabinet Member said that 2014/15 had been a particularly difficult year for balancing the books. In January 2015 it had been forecast that there would have been a possible overspend of £178,000.  There were at that time particular concerns regarding shortfalls in parking income and crematorium income, although both these items had recovered. He reported however, that another problem had hit the council completely from left field and this related to the impact on the Gloucestershire business rates pool of a successful major re-evaluation appeal by Virgin Media in Tewkesbury Borough. This has led to a far bigger reduction in rateable value than was expected.  He explained that this had hit Tewkesbury the worst but because all the councils in the Pool share the risk, it has left the Pool in deficit and the council has had to contribute £285,000 as its share of the deficit. The Cabinet Member stressed however that he did not believe that this problem outweighed the benefit of being in the business rates pool. That said councils across the country were being hit by valuation appeals and the LGA were pressing Government to provide them with a degree of protection of sudden losses against valuation appeals.

The Cabinet Member reported that despite the business rates problem the council finished the financial year within budget, with a very small underspend of just over £9,000. He paid tribute to the very good financial management within the council by officers. He said that across the authority officers and its partner organisations worked hard to find savings, cut costs and generate income wherever they could. He welcomed the fact that Ubico had delivered an overall net surplus of £370,000 for the Council.

The Cabinet Member then went on to explain that as always a certain amount of revenue expenditure had been carried forward subject to Council approval. This included £23 000 to commission a new tourism and marketing strategy for the town, £40,000 to the planning appeals reserve and £40 000 for costs related to the JCS which would be matched by Tewkesbury and Gloucester councils.

The Cabinet Member also referred to major proposals in the report regarding accelerating capital investment in ICT.  It involved reshaping the existing five-year ICT investment programme, switching some expenditure within the ICT capital budget, bringing some investment forward into 2015 to 2016, and adding a further allocation from unapplied capital resources.  He explained that the effect of this accelerated investment would be to make CBS’s ICT fully fit for purpose and aligned with other councils in the 2020 Vision programme. It would give the council among other things better data recovery in the event of a disaster, better storage  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9

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 note that services have been delivered within the revised budget for 2014/15 resulting in a saving (after carry forward requests) of £9,021 which will be returned to general balances.

2.     Approve £380,700 of carry forward requests (requiring member approval) at Appendix 5.

3.     Note the annual treasury management report at Appendix 7 and approve the actual 2014/15 prudential and treasury indicators.

4.     Approve the additional ICT requirements (section 6) to be funded from capital resources unapplied.

5.     Approve the additional capital programme in respect of affordable housing (section 7).

6.     Note the capital programme outturn position as detailed in Appendix 8 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2015/16 (section 8).

7.     Note the position in respect of Section 106 agreements and partnership funding agreements at Appendix 9 (section 10).

8.     Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates for 2014/15 in Appendix 10 (section 11).

9.     Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2014/15 in Appendix 11 (section 12).

10.  Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2014/15 in Appendices 12 to 13 and approves the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2015/16 (section 13).

11.  Agree to guarantee any shortfall in the funding of the Gloucestershire leg of the Tour of Britain up to a value of £75,000, to be funded from General Balances as outlined in section 14.

12.  Note the budget monitoring position to the end of June 2015 (section 15) and approve the budget virement of £65,000.

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 2014/15. The information contained within the report had been used to prepare the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2014/15.

The Cabinet Member said that 2014/15 had been a particularly difficult year for balancing the books. In January 2015 a possible overspend of  £178,000 had been forecasted.  There were at that time particular concerns regarding shortfalls in parking income and crematorium income, although both these items had susequently recovered. He reported however, that another problem had hit the council completely from left field and this related to the impact on the Gloucestershire business rates pool of a successful major reevaluation appeal by Virgin Media in Tewkesbury Borough. This had led to a far bigger reduction in rateable value than was expected.  He explained that this had hit Tewkesbury the worst but because all the councils in the Pool shared the risk, it had left the Pool in deficit and the council has had to contribute £285,000 as its share of the deficit. The Cabinet Member stressed however that he did not believe that this problem outweighed the benefit of being in the business rates pool. That said councils across the country were being hit by valuation appeals and the LGA were pressing Government to provide them with a degree of protection of sudden losses against such appeals.

The Cabinet Member reported that despite the business rates problem the council finished the financial year within budget, with a very small underspend of just over £9,000. He paid tribute to the very good financial management within the council by officers.

The Cabinet Member then went on to explain that as always a certain amount of revenue expenditure had been carried forward subject to Council approval. This included £23 000 to commission a new tourism and marketing strategy for the town, £40,000 to the planning appeals reserve and £40 000 for costs related to the JCS which would be matched by Tewkesbury and Gloucester councils.

The Cabinet Member Finance thanked the Budget Scrutiny Working Group which had played a valuable role in the process. He also thanked officers for their hard work, in particular the new S151 Officer Paul Jones and the Deputy Section 151 Officers Sarah Didcote and Nina Philippidis.

Finally, the Cabinet Member Finance referred to the Tour of Britain cycle race which was referenced in section 14 of the report.  Cheltenham and some other local councils were in discussion with the organisers of the 2016 Tour of Britain Cycle Race about the possibility that one of the eight stages of the event might begin and end in Gloucestershire.  He emphasised that this was still at the discussion stage but it would be a huge boost to the economy and would raise Cheltenham's profile nationally and internationally as a festival town and tourist destination. If it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13