Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Finance.

Scrutiny Committee – Resources considered the report at its meeting on 17 September 2014 and its comments will be reported.

The report of the Assistant Director Finance was submitted advising Members of the overall projected financial position of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and the General Fund Revenue Budgets for the 2014/15 financial year after three months.

A Member stated that total Government Funding received over the past few years had in fact been increasing and questioned why level of reserves were growing whilst the Council’s borrowing was rising. The proposed cuts as a result of the forthcoming consultation would have an impact on services.

The Leader stated that we could not guarantee that the New Homes Bonus funding would funding would continue and therefore it has not been used to support the revenue account and was being spent on the growth of the city.

Scrutiny Committee – Resources considered the report at its meeting on 17 September 2014 and the support and comments of the Members were noted.

RECOMMENDED that Council approve the:-

(1)        General Fund forecast financial position for the 2014/15 financial year;

(2)        HRA forecast financial position for 2014/15 financial year;

(3)        additional supplementary budgets listed in Appendix C;

(4)        outstanding Sundry Debt position as at June 2014;

(5)        creditors’ payments performance; and

(6)        Council Tax and Business rates collection performance.

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Finance.  

The Assistant Director Finance presented a report which advised Members of the overall projected financial position of the General Fund Revenue Budgets and Housing Revenue Account after three months, for the 2014/15 financial year. The report also sought approval for a number of supplementary budgets totalling £89,000.

The report also contained details of the three Scrutiny Committees and the Housing Revenue Account, together with a budget variance after the first financial quarter of the year.   The Service Committee budgets showed a forecast underspend of £66,290 against a revised service net expenditure budget of £12,372,560.  It was projected that there will be an overall net contribution to the General Fund balance of £229,285.

The Corporate Manager Democratic & Civic Support responded to a Member’s comment, welcoming the reduction in postage costs, and advised that savings had been achieved by using the TNT delivery service, who sort and then deliver to Royal Mail, enabling a greater discount. There may be the possibility of achieving further savings through the use of a bar code on all letters.