Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member Finance

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the report as circulated with the agenda and highlighted the following :

·        There was a £490k underspend which equated to less than 1% of the council’s gross annual budget.  This was due to a robust system of financial control.

·        The HRA was in a very satisfactory position with reserves which would be carried forward higher than expected

·        It was being proposed that £100k of the underspend should be used to resource ICT in order to ensure that there was an efficient delivery of the five year programme of investment. 

·        £100k of the underspend would be put towards the restoration of the war memorial in the Promenade which would be in addition to the £50 k allocated in the planned maintenance budget. The total cost of restoration was up to £450 k. An appeal would be launched and it was hoped that other funding would be sourced via the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Memorials Trust and sponsorship by local organisations and individuals. Work on the first phase would start on the 21 July which concerned the renewal of paving and lighting.

·        £97k would be held back to strengthen reserves.

·        It was proposed to earmark £22 k to carry out a feasibility study into the potential for creating a solar PV farm on council owned land. The purpose would be to assess the preferred site’s financial feasibility in terms of return on investment and also offer recommendations for progressing the project to the subsequent stages of development. The Council would then be in a stronger position to negotiate a joint venture with potential commercial partners.

·        A number of budget allocations amounting to £327 k were being carried forward where projects overlapped into the next financial year or where there had been unavoidable delays.

·        The move to local business rates retention was expecting to deliver more income than expected and officers were thanked for their vision on this.

On behalf of the Cabinet the Cabinet Member Finance thanked the Director Resources and the Head of Finance and officers across the organisation for their innovation in delivering savings.

The Cabinet Member Housing explained that the variation in actual spend in the HRA arose primarily from project delays. He also explained that the bad debt provision set up for helping tenants through welfare reform was not taken up. This was testament to the good work of One Stop and CBH.

RESOLVED THAT Council be recommended to approve the following recommendations :

1.      That Council 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 2013/14 resulting in a saving (after carry forward requests) of £489,998. 

2.      That furthermore Council:

2.1            Approve £327,500 of carry forward requests (requiring member approval) at Appendix 5.

2.2            Approve the use of the budget saving of £489,998 as detailed in Section 3.

3. Note the annual treasury management report at Appendix 7 and approve the actual 2013/14 prudential and treasury indicators.
4. Approve the revision to the Treasury Management policy to reflect the revised borrowing facility to support the newly created Leisure and Cultural Trust (Appendix 7).
5. Note the capital programme outturn position as detailed in Appendix 8 and approve the carry forward of unspent budgets into 2014/15 (section 9).
6. Note the position in respect of Section 106 agreements and partnership funding agreements at Appendix 10 (section 10).
7. Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for council tax and non-domestic rates for 2013/14 in Appendix 11 (section 11).
8. Note the outturn position in respect of collection rates for sundry debts for 2013/14 in Appendix 12 (section 12).
9. Receive the financial outturn performance position for the Housing Revenue Account for 2013/14 in Appendices 13 to 14 (section 13).
10. Delegate to the Section 151 Officer the power to act as accountable officer for the transformational challenge funding, as outlined in section 14.
11. Note the budget monitoring position to the end of May 2014 (section 15).