Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance (to follow – please note hard copies of the report will be circulated with the Council papers so please bring those to the meeting)

The Director Resources introduced the report and explained that the projected £476 000 overspend as at end of August 2011 had been mitigated following a reduction in expenditure on supplies and services and decisions with regard to filling vacant posts. At year end the Council had achieved an underspend of £149 000 which represented a significant achievement in the current difficult economic climate. He highlighted the carry forward requests detailed in appendix 7 which were in two categories-firstly where there had been slippage on schemes where the Section 151 officer had authority to approve the requests and secondly carry forward requests for alternative use requiring member sign off. He clarified that the £7000 carry forward request for democratic services included £2000 to support the new scrutiny arrangements.

The Director Resources reported that £5.8 of £11 million had been received to date from the Icelandic banks with the remainder expected over the next 6-12 months.

The Cabinet Member Finance said there had been a solid financial performance over the last year and a budget saving had been achieved giving the Council the opportunity to invest in key areas of the councils work. The proposal to council was to use £43 600 of the budget savings to address the problems of rough sleepers in the town. He explained that this was to fund a further two years of an Assertive Outreach Service provided by Cheltenham Housing Aid Centre. Secondly, it was proposed that £43 900 should be invested in providing recycling boxes and bins due to the increase in demand for recycling boxes since fortnightly residual waste collections were introduced. Thirdly, the Cabinet was proposing that Council contributed £62 277 from the 2011/12 budget savings to strengthen the Planning Appeals Reserve as the Council was likely to face a number for potentially expensive appeals by developers wishing to challenge the council’s planning policies at a time when the National Planning Policy Framework was still relatively new and the Joint Core Strategy was still taking shape.

The Cabinet Member Finance referred to the £100 000 High Street Innovation Fund grant Cheltenham had been awarded for the purposes of reviving high street retail. The Council had discretion in spending the grant and Cabinet was proposing to Council that £65 000, two thirds of the total, should be allocated to funding business rate discounts for new business start-ups taking on empty properties. A further £20 000 should be allocated for skills training to help new and existing businesses and £6 000 to fund the design stage of a project to renew and improve the signage for visitors in the town and footfall cameras which were previously funded by the county council.

With regard to Icelandic banks the Cabinet member paid tribute to the efforts of officers and the Local Government Association (LGA) in recovering a large proportion of the money. He also highlighted the high level of council tax and business rate collection rates that had been achieved despite the current economic climate.

The Cabinet Member wished to put on record his thanks to all officers for achieving budget savings in 2011/12 and for the high level of financial management over the past year.

RESOLVED that the following recommendations to Council 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 (requiring member approval) at Appendix 7.

2.2The 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).