Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Assistant Director Finance.

Scrutiny Committee – Resources considered the report at its meeting on 16 March 2016 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 General Fund Revenue Budgets for the 2015/16 financial year after nine months. Members were advised that there were no supplementary budget requests this quarter. The General Fund showed a projected underspend of £1,368,724 and the HRA a projected underspend of £2,959,182.

Scrutiny Committee – Resources considered the report at its meeting on 16 March 2016 and its comments were reported.

RECOMMENDED that Council approve the:-

(1)          General Fund forecast financial position for the 2015/16 financial year;

(2)          HRA forecast financial position for 2015/16 financial year;

(3)          the outstanding Sundry Debt position as at December 2015; and

(4)          the creditors’ payments 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 Budget and Housing Revenue Account for the 2015/16 financial year after nine months.

Members were advised of the main variances within the Scrutiny Committee’s budgets, which showed a projected underspend of £1,368,724 against a revised Service Committee budget of £13,492,220. There were no supplementary budget requests this quarter.

The Assistant Director Finance responded as follows to Members’ comments:-

·           he would obtain an answer in respect of the repair and maintenance strategy and the approach taken in respect of the re-pointing and damp ingress programmed works to ensure the best use of resources was made.

·           the General Fund Balance offered the Council a contingency against future shocks.  The Council was taking a prudent approach to lessen the impact of the future changes in local government finance and it was sensible to maintain a level of unrestricted funds to invest or fund capital projects.

·           he would consider the potential changes resulting from Budget Day, particularly with regard to business rates and report to Members as necessary. 

·           outstanding sundry debt was considered in the review of an assessment of risk, and should be considered in the context of the values written off.  He clarified the approach to collecting Housing Benefit debt.

·           a Members’ Briefing event tailored to offer relevant detail of local government finance was held annually in June.  He would investigate providing another opportunity to provide snapshots of specific areas of local government finance.

·           the £75,000 overspend in relation to the net expenditure on the Rugby World Cup 2015, had been due to the lack of opportunity to generate the anticipated levels of income after the early exit of England from the competition.  A report to the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee - Economy in January had outlined the key points. There were no additional resource implications in respect of the clearing up of Northernhay Gardens and making good the grass.

The Chair wished to congratulate the team that ran the Fanzone, which remained open long after other cities had closed theirs, despite their commitment for the entire contest.  A Member welcomed the inclusion of the contribution in the budget which had enabled the Home Call Alarm service to continue.

Scrutiny Committee - Resources supported the report and recommended approval by Council (where applicable) of the:-

(1) General Fund forecast financial position for the 2015/16 financial year;

(2) HRA forecast financial position for the 2015/16 financial year;

(3) additional supplementary budgets as listed in Appendix C;

(4) outstanding Sundry Debt position as at December 2015;

(5) creditors’ payments performance; and

(6) Council Tax and Business Rates collection performance.