Agenda item

1)  That the provisional outturn for revenue and capital for the 2015-16 financial year be noted;

2)  That the carry forward of grant funding from 2015-16 to 2016-17, as detailed in Appendix II of the report of the Head of Finance and Resources be noted;

3)  That the provisional funding of capital expenditure in 2015-16 as set out in paragraph 4.4.5 of the report of the Head of Finance and Resources be agreed and that the carry forward of revenue resources set aside to finance the capital programme in future years, as detailed in paragraph 4.4.9, be noted; and

4)  That a vote of thanks be given to Officers for their hard work in bringing in this budget so closely.

Members considered the report of the Head of Finance and Resources which provided the outturn for revenue and capital expenditure for the year to 2016.

The Head of Finance and Resources explained that there was a minor underspend on revenue for the year of £0.1m.

It was noted, however, that there were a number of services which ended the year with more significant variances and the Head of Finance and Resources highlighted a few areas, for example:-

·  There was a major adverse variance against the temporary accommodation budget, this had been partially offset by new initiatives put in place by Officers to ultimately reduce the cost to the Council of providing temporary accommodation.

·  An overspend of £0.2m within the street cleansing budget was due to temporary costs arising from operational changes.

·  The contract cost for CCTV was higher than budgeted for, which resulted in an overspend of £0.1m but it was hoped that some commissioning work to be carried out in 2016/17 would resolve this.

·  An overspend of £0.1m against the Mote Park budget was due to unbudgeted costs for equipment and repairs and lower than anticipated car parking income.

·  Unexpected changes to the service charges for the Market (due to a change in landlord at Lockmeadow) and an income shortfall gave rise to an overspend of £0.1m against budget.

The list of grants that were not spent during 2015-16 and have been consequently carried forward into 2016-17 were noted.

Members were appraised of the capital spend against the revised estimate.  It was emphasised that the total capital spend for the year was £4.186m.  This total excluded £0.350m spent on schemes funded from external sources such as Section 106 monies.

Councillor Harper asked that a vote of thanks be given to Officers for bringing in the budget so close to estimate.

In response to questions from Members, the Head of Finance and Resources advised that:-

·  Council set a threshold of £2m for minimum balances, if the Committee wanted to spend balances above the minimum, it can do so without Council approval.

·  Another £160k had been given to housing for temporary accommodation but as stated previously, Officers were working hard to come up with initiatives which would help reduce the expenditure.

·  The Council has a strategy to secure investments and follows advice from our External Auditors on short term investment opportunities.

·  There are a number of reasons why grants are not spent, for example in terms of land charges survey claims, the money is not spent until a decision is reached by the courts.

·  The Head of Finance and Resources would feedback to Members on the income target for Street Cleansing.

·  The reason why there was a lot of appeals against rateable values on business properties was due to the fact that the Government changed the rules at the end of last year which resulted in more businesses than usual appealing their valuations.  However, due to a time bar, appeals could only go back to the point in time of the appeal, not to the point of valuation.  The effect of this has meant that there was a deficit on the Collection Fund Account in 2015/16 but a reduced risk of such significant changes in future years.

·  Property Services have a generic budget for responsive maintenance but there are some occasions where the resources are not enough when unprepared for repairs need to be carried out. 

·  The Council Tax team are very good at following up on bad debtors and ultimately collect between 98/99% of Council tax, although it  may take a number of years to recover.

RESOLVED:

1)  That the provisional outturn for revenue and capital for the 2015-16 financial year be noted;

2)  That the carry forward of grant funding from 2015-16 to 2016-17, as detailed in Appendix II of the report of the Head of Finance and Resources be noted;

3)  That the provisional funding of capital expenditure in 2015-16 as set out in paragraph 4.4.5 of the report of the Head of Finance and Resources be agreed and that the carry forward of revenue resources set aside to finance the capital programme in future years, as detailed in paragraph 4.4.9, be noted; and

4)  That a vote of thanks be given to Officers for their hard work in bringing in this budget so closely.

Voting:  For:  15  Against:  0  Abstentions:  0