Issue - meetings

To set out the current financial position for the Council at the end of the second quarter of 2025/26 (report of the Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) enclosed).

The Leader introduced the report which gave the Quarter Two Finance Update for 2025/26. 

He advised all present that throughout the year quarterly monitoring reports were completed forecasting the expected year end outturn compared to the approved budget. This report provided information on the forecast full year financial performance as at 30 September 2025.

General Fund Revenue Forecast

The revenue outturn forecasted an overspend position of £281,000 at the year-end.

The Leader pulled out some key areas for Cabinet’s attention as follows:

• The General Fund 2025/26 net budget for investment income was £0.771m.  The forecasted full year outturn for investment income as at Q2 was £1.283m, which would be an overachievement of £512,000.
• As members would be aware the 2025/26 budget included a savings efficiency target of £1.203m, savings were being tracked and could be found in Table 1b. He advised that that 54% of the target had been identified as at 30^th September and the forecast assumed the remaining target would be met with work ongoing to support this.

General Fund Capital

The Leader detailed that for General Fund Capital, Table 1a of Appendix B provided details of all capital schemes. The capital budget as at Q2 for the General Fund was £14.681m. General Fund forecasted capital spend at the end of Quarter 2 was £14.520m, expected to underspend by £161k. Changes to the capital programme were also being tracked with £199k identified and detailed in Table 1c of Appendix B. Slippage continued to be carefully monitored and considered and budgets refined as we progressed through the financial year.

General Fund Reserves
The Leader advised that Table 2 of Appendix A provided details of the balances held in reserves at 30 September 2025 being £7.761m.  The overall movement in reserve balances during Q2 2025/26 was a decrease of £38,000 taking account of adjustments budgeted or previously approved by way of Proforma B that sought approval from either the S151 Officer or Cabinet.

HRA Revenue

The Leader advised that Section 2.4 detailed the HRA revenue outturn, which showed a surplus of £687,000. He noted that this was due mainly to a reduction in interest payable (£244,000) and an increase in investment income (£297,000).

HRA Capital

The Leader advised that for the HRA Capital, Table 4 provided details of all capital schemes with the programme totalling £20.356m for 2025/26. HRA forecasted capital spend at the end of Quarter 2 was £16.500m.

Treasury

The Leader advised that Section 2.6 of Appendix A detailed the Council’s treasury investments. The Councils cash continued to perform well with £810,000 forecast to be achieved in excess of budget.

Concerns were raised regarding utility costs at Priory Road, which appeared not to have been included in the budget to meet last year’s spend, resulting in an overspend of approximately £35,000.  Officers explained that the variance column showed differences between budget and actuals, not an omission.

It was noted that General Fund Assets agency costs were £67,000, which seemed high and suggested significant use of agency staff.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66