Agenda item

Revenue and Capital Outturn Expenditure - 2018/19

The attached report provides a summary of revenue and capital outturn expenditure for 2018/19 and compares this expenditure with the approved budget.

 

 

Decision:

The Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Corporate Support, Councillor Oppler, introduced this item and stated that it had a close link to the Budget Monitoring and Financial Prospects reports to be considered later.  

 

The Outturn report set out the actual performance for the Capital, Housing Revenue Account and General Fund Revenue against budget for 2018/19. 

 

Councillor Oppler then invited the Financial Services Manager to highlight the key sections of her report.

 

            The Financial Services Manager was pleased to advise that the Audited Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019 were available on the Council’s website.  The Statement of Accounts had been approved by the Audit & Governance Committee on 30 July 2019 receiving a clean audit report which was good news considering the complexity of work and the tight statutory deadlines that had to be adhered to. 

 

            The following points were particularly highlighted through the Financial Services Manager’s verbal presentation: -

 

·         The General Fund summary – some of the variations against individual service budgets were due to technical accounting requirements, for example, the requirement to charge depreciation to service.  These entries had to be reversed under statute to prevent the charge being borne by the Council Tax payer

·         The variations against original budget had been summarised in Table 2.4.  and Members’ attention was drawn to the fact that the outturn was made up of a significant number of over and underspends against budget.  The outturn was generally favourable allowing contributions to be made to the Funding Resilience Reserve.  The items over £100k had been explained within the report. Key adverse variations related to homelessness nightly paid accommodation amounting to £567k.  Expenditure on this continued to be a significant issue in the current year and had been reflected within the financial model.  Full Council last year had approved a supplementary estimate of £650k which had formed part of the approved budget. 

·          The favourable variations included:

§  Establishment savings of £177k in addition to the £450k corporate target.  The Council had also achieved a favourable outturn on Council Tax Court case recoveries with the interest being invested.

§  The Cabinet were asked to note the additional £845k that had been transferred to the Funding Resilience Reserve which had been achieved due to additional Business Rates income.

§  The General Fund balance now stood at £7.076m

§  The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) position stood at £7.229

§  The total major repairs reserve was £1.165m

§  The HRA balance was expected to reduce over the first few years of the HRA Business Plan as a result of the programme in place for the provision of new dwellings and additional expenditure on sheltered housing

§  On capital and asset management it was highlighted that the Wave Leisure Centre had required no prudential borrowing and had been financed through revenue contributions, capital receipts and a successful grant application from Sport England.

 

The Chairman thanked the Financial Services Manager for a positive report and asked a question relating to the HRA and the reasons for the positive outturn compared to the original budget deficit of £1.248m.  The Financial Services Manager explained that this was mainly due to a reduction in the financial of capital expenditure.  

 

The Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED – That

 

(1)          The revenue and capital outturn expenditure for 2018/19;

 

(2)          The level of balances and unused S.106 sums at 31 March 2019 be approved;

 

(3)          the £250k contribution to the Redundancy Reserve to allow restructures that meet the Council’s payback period criteria be noted; and

 

(4)          the additional £0.845m contribution to the Funding Resilience Reserve be noted

 

            The Cabinet supported the recommendations in the report and then confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/014/020919, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.

 

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Corporate Support, Councillor Oppler, introduced this item and stated that it had a close link to the Budget Monitoring and Financial Prospects reports to be considered later.  

 

The Outturn report set out the actual performance for the Capital, Housing Revenue Account and General Fund Revenue against budget for 2018/19. 

 

Councillor Oppler then invited the Financial Services Manager to highlight the key sections of her report.

 

            The Financial Services Manager was pleased to advise that the Audited Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2019 were available on the Council’s website.  The Statement of Accounts had been approved by the Audit & Governance Committee on 30 July 2019 receiving a clean audit report which was good news considering the complexity of work and the tight statutory deadlines that had to be adhered to. 

 

            The following points were particularly highlighted through the Financial Services Manager’s verbal presentation: -

 

·         The General Fund summary – some of the variations against individual service budgets were due to technical accounting requirements, for example, the requirement to charge depreciation to service.  These entries had to be reversed under statute to prevent the charge being borne by the Council Tax payer

·         The variations against original budget had been summarised in Table 2.4.  and Members’ attention was drawn to the fact that the outturn was made up of a significant number of over and underspends against budget.  The outturn was generally favourable allowing contributions to be made to the Funding Resilience Reserve.  The items over £100k had been explained within the report. Key adverse variations related to homelessness nightly paid accommodation amounting to £567k.  Expenditure on this continued to be a significant issue in the current year and had been reflected within the financial model.  Full Council last year had approved a supplementary estimate of £650k which had formed part of the approved budget. 

·          The favourable variations included:

§  Establishment savings of £177k in addition to the £450k corporate target.  The Council had also achieved a favourable outturn on Council Tax Court case recoveries with the interest being invested.

§  The Cabinet were asked to note the additional £845k that had been transferred to the Funding Resilience Reserve which had been achieved due to additional Business Rates income.

§  The General Fund balance now stood at £7.076m

§  The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) position stood at £7.229

§  The total major repairs reserve was £1.165m

§  The HRA balance was expected to reduce over the first few years of the HRA Business Plan as a result of the programme in place for the provision of new dwellings and additional expenditure on sheltered housing

§  On capital and asset management it was highlighted that the Wave Leisure Centre had required no prudential borrowing and had been financed through revenue contributions, capital receipts and a successful grant application from Sport England.

 

The Chairman thanked the Financial Services Manager for a positive report and asked a question relating to the HRA and the reasons for the positive outturn compared to the original budget deficit of £1.248m.  The Financial Services Manager explained that this was mainly due to a reduction in the financial of capital expenditure.  

 

The Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED – That

 

(1)          The revenue and capital outturn expenditure for 2018/19;

 

(2)          The level of balances and unused S.106 sums at 31 March 2019 be approved;

 

(3)          the £250k contribution to the Redundancy Reserve to allow restructures that meet the Council’s payback period criteria be noted; and

 

(4)          the additional £0.845m contribution to the Funding Resilience Reserve be noted

 

            The Cabinet supported the recommendations in the report and then confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/014/020919, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.

 

Supporting documents: