The Director of Finance and Business Improvement presented the 2^nd Quarter Performance and Budget monitoring report.  The biggest adverse variance for Policy and Resources was income from commercial property.  There was currently a commercial deal going through that if completed would mean that four months of income would be received and the variance would be reversed.  The fall back position in the event of the commercial deal not being completed would be to freeze discretionary spending.

Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Committee’s budgets were showing adverse variances in parking and planning income.  The drop in income was primarily from major planning application income reducing.  Officers workloads had not reduced commensurately as they had been working on the local plan review.  It was therefore possible to cover some of the deficit through using monies set aside to fund the local plan review.  The Director was confident that there were measures to address the remaining overspend.

For performance monitoring Policy and Resources were receiving highlight indicators only.

The Committee noted the update, but raised concerns over discretionary spending being frozen if it meant a freeze on recruitment.

RESOLVED: That

1.  The revenue position at the end of the Quarter 2 and the actions being taken or proposed to improve the position, where significant variances have been identified, be noted;

2.  The Capital position at the end of Quarter 2 be noted; and

3.  The Summary of Performance for Quarter 2 for Key Performance Indicators is noted.