Agenda and minutes

(Where a Councillor has a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest the Councillor must declare the interest to the meeting and leave the room without participating in any discussion or making a statement on the item, except where a Councillor is permitted to remain as a result of a grant of dispensation.)

There were none.

To set out the current financial position for the Council at the end of the second quarter of 2023/24 (report of the Deputy Chief Executive – Corporate (S151) enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Deputy Chief Executive Corporate (S151) which set out the current financial position for the Council at the end of the second quarter of 2023/24.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance, Commercialisation, UKSPF and Levelling Up presented the report.

With the agreement of the Leader, a Special Cabinet meeting was being held for this item as additional time was required to consider all aspects of the report and to review some of the variances in more detail. This work had now been completed.  

Throughout the year quarterly monitoring reports were completed, forecasting the expected year end outturn compared to the approved budget. The report provided information on the forecast full year financial performance as at 30 September 2023.

This year continued to be challenging with high inflation impacting on contract uplifts, power, pay and fuel. Pressures within homelessness continued to be an area of concern, and market downturn generally as the economy reacted to high interest rates and the cost of living increase impact fed through. In addition, the impact of the pay award, which was not reflected in the report but would be in Quarter 3, was likely to surpass the budget allowance despite budgeting very prudently at 5% across the workforce.

Revenue Outturn

The revenue outturn forecasted a deficit position of £338,000 at the year-end – Table 1 within Appendix A laid out the detail. The following matters were raised for Cabinet’s attention:

·       The largest change since Q1 was within the Finance area of the budget. A movement of £381,000 had taken place in respect of Finance – this related mainly to £186,000 rent allowances, and £80,000 rent rebates as a result of not being able to reclaim full subsidy for Homelessness cases in particular Bed and Breakfast. The Portfolio Holder for this area had been supporting the officer team to investigate opportunities for minimising and mitigating this impact.  It was also  noted that these movements were due to using the mid-year estimates and could be subject to further change. In addition, there had been some duplication of income streams that were previously separately funded, totalling £98,000, that had now been adjusted for. Also, there had been an increase in external audit fees, and this was an increase being seen across all audit areas.

·       In relation to General Fund Assets, car parking income was not performing as well as expected. However, with changes to working practices in the service and the procurement of new car parking machines, improvement was expected going forward. Work was currently being undertaken to look at garage sites and their income generally and new tenants for the Priory Road offices were being investigated.

·       In Leisure and Culture, there was a pressure from the loss of a tenant at the South Holland Centre and again the service was looking at options for addressing this budget impact.

·       With regard to Neighbourhoods, there had been additional pressures from Agency Staff and this had been offset by unbudgeted income. The service  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.