Agenda item

The report sets out in further detail the Committee’s Revenue and Capital programme budget performance projections to the 31 March 2024. The Housing Revenue Account forecast is the subject of a separate report on this agenda.

The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer was invited by the Chair to present the report.  He referred to Table 1 that set out the 2023/24 revenue out turn forecast for Quarter 2 against the budget, highlighting an anticipated underspend of £240,000, which was an adverse change since Quarter 1 of £160,000 .  He drew attention to the major changes to the Revenue Budget at paragraphs 4.2 to 4.4. in particular referring to the homeless estimate which had increased by £300,000 since Quarter 1.  It was anticipated that the Council’s recently approved capital investments for projects would reduce the financial impact.  However, it should be noted that homelessness expenditure is driven by price and volumes, and whilst the Council could exert some influence over the former, it could not control the volume of homeless clients, which was the issue that adversely affected the budget. 

He reported that the Chancellor had released his Autumn Budget Statement the previous day. Of particular interest for Housing was the increase in the Local Housing allowances. Once officers had considered the impacts, the outcome would be reported to this committee via the budget monitoring report. It had also been announced that there would be additional Local Authority Housing Fund money available, but at this stage it was not known if the council would benefit from this fund. It was noted that the Council had previously successfully applied for a grant to purchase seven properties to accommodate homeless clients, which was hoped would have a positive effect on the budget.

Turning to the Capital Programme this showed an under spend of £6.4 million due to slippage. The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer said he would speak further on this at item 12.  Whilst there were no immediate signs of financial distress, members should bear in mind that homelessness presented a real risk in cost terms for the council, as was the same for other councils across the Country.

             The Chair then invited questions and comments from members.  It was asked why, at table 1, the Fred Lyons Pool, Wave Leisure Centre, Windmill Theatre and Leisure were shown as four separate headings, as these services were run by Freedom Leisure, which made comparisons difficult.  The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer undertook to provide a written answer explaining why these budget cost codes were separated and whether it was possible to merge them in future reports.  Responding to a question of the timescale of when the report on Sheltered Accommodation would be considered by this Committee, the Interim Group Head of Housing advised that work on this matter was progressing. A meeting to discuss feasibility had taken place earlier in the day to discuss the next steps and a briefing would be arranged for councillors in the new year.   The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer undertook to provide a breakdown of the costings for each of the services provided by the Wave Leisure Centre. 

              During the discussion views were expressed that it was hoped that there would be progress on more social housing and council houses being built and the Decarbonisation Scheme slippage was of concern if the money was used for match funding other grant pots.

The Committee noted the report.