Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance

The Cabinet Member Finance introduced the report. She said that it had been another challenging year. In December 2015 a possible under-spend of £307 900 was forecasted. In February 2016 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 15/16. She went on further to explain that government funding arrangements and changes, together with the economic climate, presented ongoing concern for this councils budgets, particularly in light of Brexit 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 underspends to support economic growth, the budget strategy reserve and general balances, bearing in mind the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The Cabinet Member Finance was delighted to inform Members that an underspend of £239,020 had been achieved. She paid tribute to the hard work and sound financial management by officers and reported that this saving had been transferred into the budget strategy support reserve. She welcomed the increased income from car parking, the settlement from the council’s deposit in the Icelandic Bank of Glitnir and the fact that the business rate pool had come out of deficit. She reported that the Housing Revenue outturn statement showed a net positive variance and that the capital programme had delivered the boiler scheme ahead of schedule. She highlighted the ongoing costs of the Joint Core Strategy which were within the control of the Government’s Inspector.

In response to a question as to whether the council had recovered more than anticipated in terms of its investment in Glitnir bank, the S151 Officer reported that officers had negotiated a deal at a favourable exchange rate of €1.19 but was not aware how we compared to other authorities.

The Cabinet Member Housing welcomed the income received on the HRA account from the Feed in Tariff from PV Installations.

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 2015/16 resulting in a saving (after carry forward requests) of £239,020.

2.    Approve £40,000 of carry forward requests (requiring member approval) at Appendix 5.

3.    Approve the use of the budget saving of £239,020 as detailed in Section 3.

4.    Note the annual treasury management report at Appendix 7 and approve the actual 2015/16 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 2015/16 (section 7).

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

7.    Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates for 2015/16 in Appendix 10 (section 10).

8.    Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2015/16 in Appendix 11 (section 11).

9.    Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2015/16 in Appendices 12 to 13 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2016/17 (section 12).

10.  Note the budget monitoring position to the end of June 2016 (section 13) and approve the budget virement of £60,000.