Issue - meetings

To consider the recommendations of the Cabinet in respect of:

·        23/24 Outturn Report & 22/23 Abbreviated Outturn including Audit Update (Cabinet minute 18) (Cabinet agenda item 11).

(report of the Cabinet enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Cabinet which sought approval for the Cabinet’s recommendations.

23/24 Outturn Report & 22/23 Abbreviated Outturn including Audit Update

In the absence of the Portfolio Holder – Finance, the Leader presented the report and highlighted the following areas:

The outturn report and reserves position in 2023/24 were more positive as a result of the excellent work that had been undertaken by the Finance team and which continued to be built on in 2024/25, with the team closely monitoring budgets and savings and efficiency targets.

General Fund revenue outturn

At 31 March 2024, the General Fund outturn position was an underspend of £116,000 against an overspend of £340,000 at Quarter 3 – the Leader highlighted this significant and positive change, and thanked the Finance team and Portfolio Holders for their work in achieving this.

The largest changes since the Q3 forecast were:

·       Planning and Strategic Infrastructure saw a £114,000 improvement since Q3;

·       The Wellbeing and Community Leadership position improved by £118,000 from the Q3 forecast due to proactive management of demand in the Homelessness Service and additional income for private Sector Housing

Treasury management return on investment continued to perform well, with the general fund receiving £327,000 interest in excess of the full year budget.

The 2023/24 budget included an efficiency target of £877,000 and £695,000 (79%) was achieved against that target.

In Quarter 2, a release from reserves of £300,000 of the National Homes Bonus had been received, and this had been included in the outturn position.

HRA revenue outturn

At 31 March 2024, the HRA had a surplus of £701,000.

Capital

Table 5 detailed the general fund capital outturn position with spend of £7million against a revised budget of £9.2million (being 76% of planned spend).  Table 7 detailed the revised 2024/25 budget with the inclusion of slippage from 23/24, which formed one of the recommendations to Full Council.

The HRA capital outturn was detailed in Table 8, at 31 March £16.5million had been spent against the approved budget of £23.9million (69%). Table 10 illustrated the revised 2024/25 budget with the inclusion of slippage, which was also a recommendation to Full Council.

The following issues were raised:

·       Agency Staff was mentioned as reason for overspend in a number of areas - was the Authority actively trying to do something about this, and attempting to reduce this kind of excess expenditure?

o   The Leader responded that the Authority was continually looking at how agency staff were used, particularly in Waste Services, attempting to reduce their use wherever possible.

·       Leisure and Culture showed a negative variance of £35,000 relating to the South Holland Centre, and card misuse was quoted – how much of the £35,000 was card misuse and what was meant by card misuse.

o   The Leader was unable to provide an answer on this and would provide a response in due course. 

DECISION:

1)    That the reserves transactions and balances as set out in Appendix A of the Cabinet report (Appendix B of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30