Agenda item

Members are asked to consider the report of the Chief Finance Officer which sets out Financial Results and Budget Exceptions Reports for Quarter 4 to 31 March 2021.

The Committee received the report from the Head of Finance which asked them to consider the content of the report and make any comments on the Council’s financial results and budget exceptions.

Members acknowledged that 2020-21 had been heavily impacted by the pandemic. A revised budget was set in year to help to address some of the shortfalls in budgeted income which were expected as some services and facilities remained closed for extended periods of the financial year. There had been challenges delivering some of the programmes of work in both the General Fund and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), from the perspectives of both changing priorities of delivery in the year and ability to deliver works on the ground.

The Committee noted that each month a return to Government was completed, which detailed the latest forecasts of the impacts of Covid-19, including additional costs, delayed savings and income losses. The latest return showed losses as a result of Covid-19 of £2,873k in 2020-21, split between the General Fund £2.44m and HRA £433k. To date the Council had received (£1,168k) emergency Covid-19 funding from the Government, of which (£350k) had been allocated to the HRA. Additional (£245k) compensation for losses in sales, fees and charges income for the period April to November had also been received. A further application for the period December to March would be submitted in May for a value of £242k.

Officers explained that after carry forward requests, which were detailed in Appendix E to the report, the Council’s year end results for 2020-21 showed a surplus of (£371k) on the General Fund against a budget surplus of (£43k); a variance of (£328k). There were a number of variances (positive and negative) which made up the surplus, including higher income from a number of sources for example, Covid-support grants, investment interest and services partly offset by increased costs on the trade waste, recycling, and leisure services.

The Committee also noted that the Housing Revenue Account showed a surplus of £6,532k against a budget surplus of £5,509k, which was a variance of £1,023k. This had been mainly driven by Covid support grants which were not budgeted, and a number of cost savings. This was partly offset by a shortfall in savings due to the delays in the implementation of the housing system. It was proposed that any surplus be transferred to the Major Repairs Reserve to help fund future capital expenditure. More detailed analysis of the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account variances could be found in the rest of the report at Appendix A.

Members recognised that planned savings were reduced as part of the revised budget integrated into service budgets. Most of the savings were achieved in 2020-21, but there was a £15k shortfall on two savings areas in the General Fund; details of savings and their status could be found in Appendix B.

Officers also informed the Committee that capital programme spend was under budget, as a number of projects had experienced delays. £4,657k was spent on the General Fund programme in the year which was (£787k) lower than budget. £716k was proposed as a carry forward, leaving a saving of £70.8k generated from underspends at the end of completed programmes of work. In the HRA, £4,597k was spent against a budget of £6,072k, an underspend of £1,475k. Almost all of this was proposed to be carried forward to 2021-22. A summary analysis of the capital programme could be found in the report with more detail in Appendix C.

Lastly, Members noted that the Programme for Growth spend totalled £1,462k in 2020-21, against the latest approved Q3 estimate of £3,796k. After £2,334k was carried forward to 2021-22, £12,919k of approved budget remained to be spent in this multi-year programme.

Members had a number of queries about the report in relation to the HRA and General Fund deficits and the reasons for these, and in terms of the carry forwards, the reason that there was a two-year delay in the station lift project which was not expected to take place until 2022-23 at the earliest.  It was further queried when the work to continue the car park improvement programme would recommence, and lastly, what level of savings were being made from recycling.

The report was noted by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

To note the Council’s financial results and budget exceptions for Quarter 4, to 31 March 2021.