Agenda item

Joint report of the Cabinet Member Finance and Director of Resources

Councillor Teakle left the meeting at 5pm.

The Cabinet Member Finance introduced the report and referred members to the amended appendix 11 that had been circulated at the meeting. The report highlighted the Council's financial performance for the previous year which set out the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account revenue and capital outturn position for 2011/12.  The information contained in the report had been used to prepare the Council’s Statement of Accounts for 2011/12.

The Cabinet member was pleased to report that during the year, the potential in year budget deficit had been addressed and as a result a revised balanced-budget had been achieved.  The council's success in achieving this was down to the hard work by officers across the council in reducing costs and boosting incomes. He outlined the intentions for making use of the revenue budget savings are set out in section 3 of the report and the budget carry forward requests in section 4. He referred members to an error in appendix 7 where the carry forward bid for democratic services of £7,000 should have referred to £5,000 for the support and rollout of ICT remote access facilities for members and £2000 to support the new scrutiny arrangements.

He highlighted the favourable outcome regarding the Icelandic Banks and the potential uses of the High Street Innovation Fund grant where Cheltenham had been awarded £100,000 of the £10 million allocated by Government to help revive high street retail. He concluded that overall the report represented a sound piece of work which made sensible use of the council's resources.

In response to questions from members, the Cabinet member gave the following responses:

• He confirmed that businesses had been consulted on the potential uses of the High Street Innovation Fund and a number of their suggestions had been picked up.
• In response to a suggestion that the reinstatement of a planning appeals officer would be preferable to boosting the planning appeals reserve, he said in his view these two issues were not connected.
• Asked how the funding of business rate discounts would be "targeted at the areas where it can have the greatest impact”, he explained that currently there was a focus on the town centre. However it would be necessary to strike a balance between targeting sufficient funds in an area to make a difference and identifying areas of greatest need across the borough.
• A member had suggested that the proposed £9,000 cost for installation of cameras to measure footfall in different parts of the town centre should be supported by big retailers and the money would be better spent on the business rate relief scheme. In response the Cabinet Member said that businesses in the town centre spent a large amount of money on marketing and this scheme was a sensible way to help them target their resources more appropriately. Major businesses would be making a contribution and the Cheltenham Development Task Force would also be involved in reviewing the results.
• Asked whether the Council could encourage more young people to attend events in the town by refunding their bus fares, he noted the point but the Council did have a limited budget and had already allocated £50,000 to support youth provision in the town and offered facilities at leisure@.
• The additional funding for grass verge cutting had been allocated to make up for the shortfall in County Council funding in 2012/13. If this shortfall continued then the council may have to look at building additional funds into the revenue budget in future years.
• He referred the question about where the funding from the sale of Midwinter appeared in the budget papers to the Director of Resources who advised that it did not appear because the report was an analysis of the outturn of the revenue budgets or capital schemes for the year 2011/12.
• He confirmed that tackling homelessness was a high priority for the council despite the underspend in the previous. The homelessness strategy had highlighted the complex needs of homeless people and the carry forward bid would allow this important work to continue.
• He would provide a written response to members on the areas where the alcohol grant referred to in appendix 7 would be applied.
• He would discuss with officers the question of whether it was sensible to continue reducing staff development budgets when staff needed to develop new skills sets to work effectively in the new commissioning environment.    

Upon a vote it was (unanimously)

RESOLVED that the following recommendations be approved;

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 2011/12 resulting in a saving (after carry forward requests) of £149,777. 

2.      Recommend that Council approve the following:

     2.1  £214,700 of carry forward requests as amended (requiring member approval)at Appendix 7

     2.2  The budget saving of £149,777 be used as follows:

·        £43,600 to fund a grant to CHAC as outlined in para 3.3

·        £43,900 for providing recycling boxes and bins as outlined in para 3.6

·        £62,277 to strengthen the Planning Appeals reserve as outlined in para 3.7

3.      Note the treasury management outturn at Appendix 9.

4.      Approve the allocation of the High Street Innovation Fund award grant as set out in section 6.

5.      Note the capital programme outturn position as detailed in Appendix 11 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2012/13 (section 8).

6.      Note the position in respect of section 106 agreements and partnership funding agreements at Appendix 12 (section 9).

7.      Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non domestic rates for 2011/12 in Appendix 13 (section 10).

8.      Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2011/12 in Appendix 14 (section 11).

9.      Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2011/12 in Appendices 15 to 17 (section 12).

10. Note the outturn prudential indicators Appendix 18 and recommend that Council approve the revised prudential indicators for 2011/12, marked with an asterisk (section 13).

11. Note the budget monitoring position to the end of May 2012 (section 14).