Agenda item

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 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 went ahead, with a major stage of the race taking place in Cheltenham, the council would be asked to underwrite £75,000 of the cost.  Officers were working hard with the Cheltenham Trust to cover that cost through sponsorship by local businesses and other organisations, as other local authorities have done.

The Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles reiterated the need for Cheltenham to promote itself and emphasised that the Tour of Britain was the largest free event in the country and would be a great boost for the town.

The Leader of the Council thanked officers for their hard work over the last year. He expressed his concern that Government had delegated its historic valuation appeals locally which in the Virgin media case had effectively wiped out 3 years’ worth of surplus for the whole of Gloucestershire. He emphasised that concerns had been expressed to the Secretary of State and there was an ongoing conversation at Gloucestershire level. Despite this issue it was commendable that the council’s finances were still on track.

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.