Agenda item

To receive a report from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151 Officer) on the 2024/2025 Quarter 2 Budget Monitoring Report.

The Cabinet had before it a report * from the Deputy Chief Executive (S151) presenting the Quarter 2 Budget Monitoring Report.

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

• Cabinet were asked to note that the improved projected Outturn position for the General Fund was a £398k underspend. This was a significant improvement on the budget and the financial position compared to previous years.
• In regards to income, as outlined in the quarter 1 report, there continued to be areas where the Council had some large variances from budget, both under and over.
• This mainly reflected economic circumstances with Planning and Building Control income, which was lower than forecast due to the stagnation of the housing market. However, those were more than offset by areas that were forecasted to be well ahead of budget in areas such as Waste and Leisure, where recyclable prices were currently strong and Leisure Centre membership where numbers had increased.
• Regarding the expenditure, the key element was the salary budget. There were some significant variances, with underspends through prudent management of costs in services such as Finance, Human Resources (HR) or Legal, or overspends in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) or Environmental Enforcement.
• Although projected to be significantly lower than previous years, the requirement for agency staff was higher than expected. Areas of particular pressure were Waste, Finance, Legal and Planning Enforcement. The main Service variances were explained in Appendix B, with key income forecast shown within Appendix C, and staffing variances within Appendix D.
• The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) also showed a healthy underspend of £315k. This was largely due to staff savings and lower interest costs, but was partially offset by a lower than budgeted investment yield and increased costs of void properties.
• The capital programme had been reviewed and a new deliverable Budget for projects starting in 2024/25 was proposed, The budget was reduced by nearly £5m, made up of over £3m from projects that were no longer going ahead; £1.8m from projects that had been delayed until a future year; £1m from projects reducing in scope; £0.9m from projects being delivered ahead of schedule; and £0.300m from a new project following a successful grant bid.
• There was a sizable variance (£14.6m) against that revised 2024/25 deliverable Budget including £16.5m that would slip into future years, slightly offset by £2m overspend. There were two main reasons including movements in the HRA Development Programme and delays in the Cullompton Town Centre Relief Road which had now reached confirmation of funding being secured.
• Regarding 3Rivers, an application had been submitted on 28 August 2024 to Companies House for the company to be voluntarily struck off, the Council were in the very final few days before it was fully closed. There had been no issues.
• Work was in progress with the conversion of St George’s Court into an over 60’s community through the HRA, with the first properties included on the tenancy lists and occupation expected before Christmas. The unsold units at Bampton continued to be marketed and had recently generated meaningful interest but to date no offers had been received and would be kept under review.

RESOLVED that:

1. The financial monitoring information for the income and expenditure for the six months to 30 September 2024 and the projected outturn position be NOTED.
2. The use of Waivers for the Procurement of goods and services as included in Section 8 be NOTED.
3. The update on the soft closure of 3 Rivers Developments Ltd be noted.
4. The revisions to the 2024/25 Deliverable Capital Programme total be APPROVED.

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

Reason for the decision: As stated in the report

Note: * Report previously circulated.