Agenda item

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the Financial Outturn 2017/18 and Reserves report and in so doing raised the following matters for Members’ consideration:

·                The Council’s accounts had been submitted on 29^th May 2018.

·                The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources would meet with the external auditors shortly and at this stage a position statement would be provided.

·                Officers were hoping that the Council would achieve an unqualified statement of accounts and an unqualified Value for Money rating.

·                From quarter 2 onwards more detail would be provided for Members’ consideration.

·                A £200,000 overspend was reported in respect of the strategic purpose ‘ keep my place safe and looking good’.  A lot of this was due to a shortage of income in this area.

·                There were very few variances, though some had been reported under enabling services for IT costs and a refund on Heads of Service costs.

·                In total, however, £300,000 in savings had been achieved which would be returned to balances.

·                £1.5 million savings had been achieved in the Capital programme.  However, only £1.3 million would be carried forward in the Capital carry forwards.

·                Previously Officers had determined the capital carry forward but Members had asked to consider these figures as part of the budget process.

·                The Council had £3.4 million in reserves, though this included funds received from external sources which were earmarked for specific purposes.

During consideration of this matter Councillor L. Mallett spoke to Cabinet in his capacity as the Chairman of the Finance and Budget Working Group. Members were informed that the group had been advised that there were different types of reserves.  This included some reserves held in accordance with Government requirements and others that were held for contingency purposes.  Unfortunately the group had found that some funds were held as reserves because the budget holder was trying to carry forward that funding and Members had agreed that this was not appropriate.  Members of the group had concluded that the Council’s reserves were higher than necessary and that some of the funding could be returned to balances.  The group was therefore proposing that a full and detailed review of the Council’s reserves should be carried out.

Cabinet subsequently discussed both the report and the recommendation from the Finance and Budget Working Group in some detail.  The following points were considered during this discussion:

·                The hard work that had been undertaken by the Council’s Financial Services team to ensure that the accounts were submitted according to deadline.

·                The need to ensure that appropriate funding only was included in the Council’s reserves.

·                The extent to which income from car parks had been taken into account in the figures provided for ‘keep my place safe and looking good’.  Members were advised that officers would check this with the Head of Environmental Services prior to Council.

·                The discrepancy between the total figure listed for capital carry forward requests, at £1.3 million, and the figure of £1.2 million in the capital programme quoted in the recommendations in the report.  Members were advised that this figure was correct as the difference reflected the capital receipts.

RECOMMENDED

(1)      That a transfer to balances of £303k is actioned as a result of revenue outturn savings 2017/18;

(2)      Approval of the movements of £257k in existing reserves as included in Appendix 1 which reflects the approval required for 2017/18;

(3)      Approval of the addition of new reserves of £55k as included in Appendix 1. This reflects the approval required for 2017/18;

(4)      Approval of an increase in the 2018-19 Capital Programme of £66k for the Disabled Facilities Grants. This is due to the budget allocations now being announced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This will increase the available budget to £846k;

(5)      Approval of the carry forward to the 2018/19 capital programme of £1.215m as detailed at Appendix 3; and

(6)      That a full and detailed review of reserves be carried out.