Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Chief Finance Officer.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the quarterly report which advised Members of the differences to the revised budget for the Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee. He advised that local authorities had a statutory duty to set and monitor budgets during the year and to action potential overspends or income losses.

He discussed the key variations from the budget, which suggested that the net expenditure for the Corporate Services Scrutiny committee would decrease from the revised budget by a total of £294,280, representing a variation of 3.73%, which included the previously agreed supplementary budgets. He explained there was a revaluation of superannuation every three years.  However, Devon County Council’s projections of the increase, were higher than the final amount leading to a saving for Exeter City Council. Members were provided with an overview the significant variations from the various management units.

In response to Member questions, the Chief Finance Officer responded:-

·         The two elements in unapportionable overhead were the past service cost of pensions and unused portions of buildings. The term unapportionable overhead will be changed to identify them as pension related in the future;

·         Budget figures would be split to clearly identify where there was an over or underspend.

The Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee noted the content of the report and were satisfied that prudent steps were being taken to address the key areas of budgetary pressure highlighted in this report.