Agenda item

To receive a report from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) Officer on the 2024/2025 Budget Monitoring report.

The Cabinet had before it a report * from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) presenting the forecast Outturn position for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme for the financial year 2024/25.

The Cabinet Member for Governance, Finance and Risk outlined the contents of the report with particular reference to the following:

·         The report presented the first budget monitoring for the year 2024/25 covering the period April – June 2024, giving an early forecast of the potential year end position.

·         Based on quarter 1 data, the projected outturn position for the General Fund was a £350k under spend. This was a significant improvement on budget and the financial position in previous years and continued the positive action taken by this Cabinet to improve the Council’s finances.

·         There continued to be areas where the Council was likely to be over budget, which were largely symptomatic of the economic circumstances with Planning and Building Control income lower than forecast due to the stagnation of the housing market. However, these were more than offset by areas that were forecasted to be under budget, either through increased income areas such as Waste and Leisure or through prudent management of costs in services such as Finance, HR or Legal.

·         Staff turnover and sickness continued to be quite high requiring more temporary staffing that expected. However, this was forecast to be significantly lower than in previous years. Areas of particular pressure were Waste, Finance and Planning. Given the specialist nature of the roles in finance, these costs were high, but recruitment was underway and would hopefully be complete by Christmas.

·         The main service variances were explained in Appendix B, with key income forecast shown within Appendix C and staffing variances within Appendix D.

HRA

·         The HRA also showed a healthy under spend of £118k. This was largely due to staff savings, partially offset by a lower than budgeted investment yield and some relatively minor overspends. The overall forecast was shown in Appendix E with the detailed variances explained in Appendix F.

Capital Programme

·         There was once again a sizable variance against the 2024/25 Deliverable Budget for a variety of reasons including, movements in the HRA Development Programme, continued uncertainty over the future of major infrastructure projects and greater clarity where some projects were no longer required. Further details were included within Appendix F. 

·         As highlighted within the covering report, a thorough review of the capital programme would be undertaken with a view to remodelling the 2024/25 Deliverable Programme to ensure it more accurately reflected the planned projects for the remainder of the year.

3Rivers

·         The soft closure of 3Rivers had effectively concluded, with the application for the company to be voluntarily struck off submitted to Companies House. This process had seen all outstanding creditors paid and all contracts ended or novated. Final Accounts had been audited and published at Companies House.

·         Work was progressing well with the conversion of St George’s Court into an over 60’s community by the HRA with the first properties expected to be tenanted by the end of September. The unsold units at Bampton continued to be marketed and generated interest, but to date no offers had been received. This position was being kept under review.

Discussion took place regarding:

·         The Cabinet were encouraged by the positive position being reported.

·         Difficult economic circumstances were not only affecting local authorities but other sectors such as agriculture and engineering.

·         Spend on agency staff was significantly lower than it had been.

·         The average returns on investments were encouraging.

·         The report illustrated that the Cabinet were planning strategically for the future.

RESOLVED that the following be NOTED:

a)    The financial monitoring information for the income and expenditure for the three months to 30 June 2024 and the projected outturn position.

b)    The use of waivers for the Procurement of goods and services as included in Section 8

 RECOMMENDED to Full Council that:

·         The changes to the treasury and prudential indicators in tables 6.2.2 and 6.2.3 be approved.

(Proposed by Cllr J Buczkowski and seconded by Cllr S Clist)

Note: * Report previously circulated.