MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL

Strategic Leadership and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee

TUESDAY 6 JANUARY 2015

REPORT OF HEAD OF FINANCE AND RESOURCES

Report prepared by Paul Riley 

1.              The Use of Revenue Under Spend - Update

1.1           Issue for Consideration

1.1.1      This report provides the Committee with a further update on the progress of schemes that received funding from the revenue under spend in 2011/12 and 2012/13. The report is provided at the request of the Committee following earlier consideration of progress in July 2014.

1.2           Recommendation of the Head of Finance and Resources

1.2.1      That the Committee consider the current progress on the schemes detailed in Appendix A and makes any recommendations that are considered necessary. 

1.3           Reasons for Recommendation

1.3.1      In both 2011/12 and 2012/13 the Council’s revenue outturn reported a significant under spend. Cabinet considered options to use the under spend and proposed a bidding process in order to bring forward schemes that delivered on the Council’s objectives, to utilise the money.

1.3.2      In both years the schemes put forward were considered by the then Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The recommendations of the Committee were submitted to the Leader of the Council along with a report on the proposals, and the Leader of the Council agreed, from the proposals, those schemes he was satisfied offered the greatest benefit to the Council after considering the recommendations of the Committee and the Council’s objectives.

1.3.3      The decisions were taken by the Leader of the Council on 9th February 2013 and 29th August 2013 respectively. Due to the delay in reaching a decision on the 2011/12 under spend schemes the funding from 2011/12 and 2012/13 was offered to officers in either 2013/14 or 2014/15 depending on the scheme and the length of effect.

1.3.4      At the time of considering both sets of schemes, the then Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee requested a report back on the status of all schemes at the end of the financial year 2013/14.

1.3.5      The report was brought to this Committee at its meeting on 7^th July 2014. While considering the details of progress the Committee noted that a number of the schemes had commenced later than expected or had suffered from delays in completion. The Committee requested a report back to the meeting in January 2015 to further consider progress nearer to the current year end.

1.3.6      Attached at Appendix A is a table of schemes giving a predicted spend profile and a written status on each scheme.  The table has been sorted, as per the Committee’s request, in such a way as themes are grouped together. It should be noted that at the time of production of the agenda for this meeting a complete list of comments was not available. It is hoped that an updated appendix will be circulated in advance of the meeting.

1.3.7      The current appendix shows a total of £1,383,700 was awarded.  In 2013/14 £572,730 was spent leaving a balance of £810,970 to be spent in the current year.  Officers have provided an update specifically for this report and, in some cases, predict that the use of some resources will slip into 2015/16. Once a completed appendix is available the full sum that is predicted to require transfer to 2015/16 will be identified and provided to the Committee as part fo the updated appendix.

1.4           Alternative Action and why not Recommended

1.4.1      It is possible for the Committee to leave the monitoring of these schemes to the normal quarterly budget monitoring reports provided to Cabinet. That report is not formally presented to this Committee and members would not have the same level of opportunity to consider the progress made.

1.5           Impact on Corporate Objectives

1.5.1      The selection and approval process for all schemes included the effect of the proposal on the criteria set by Cabinet. The criteria were selected from the strategic priorities and all schemes are expected to have a direct impact on one or more of the corporate objectives.

1.6           Other Implications

1.6.1   FINANCIAL - The resources available for these schemes come from year end under spend against the revenue account resources for 2011/12 and 2012/13. The major impact of £1.113m occurred in 2011/12 and was, in the main, a consequence of the early delivery of the budget strategy plans for 2012/13. The under spend reported in the 2012/13 outturn report to Cabinet was £0.275 and arose largely from effective management of budgets following high profile work across the organisation regarding future financial risks.

1.6.2   The amount utilised is reported in paragraph 1.3.7 above as £1.383m and the resource available as given in paragraph 1.6.1 above was £1.388m therefore only a minor balance from the under spend in those two years is held in balances

1.6.3   STAFFING – some of the schemes included funding for staff and or consultants to complete one off tasks. Where such roles have been filled through direct recruitment fixed term contracts have been used to appoint the staff concerned.

1.7        Relevant Documents

1.7.1   Appendices

Appendix A – Use of Revenue Under Spend – December 2014 Update

1.7.2   Background Documents

None