The report sets out the provisional revenue and capital outturn positions for the Council’s General fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as at the end of Quarter 1 2023/24 as well as performance against the measures of success published in the Council’s Corporate Plan.

The Committee considered a report setting out the projected revenue and capital outturn positions for 2023/24 for both the General Fund and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as at the end of Quarter 1 and the performance against the measures of success set out in the Council’s Corporate Plan.  The following documents were attached to the report:

·         Appendix 1 – General Fund Revenue Financial Monitoring and Performance Quarter 1

·         Appendix 2 – Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) Budget Monitoring Report Period 3

·         Appendix 3 – Capital Programme Quarter 1

·         Appendix 4 – Corporate Plan Performance Measures (Monthly & Quarterly) Quarter 1

·         Appendix 5 – Corporate Plan Projects and Initiatives Quarter 1

The report noted that the Council remained financial stable, however, it was not immune to several wider pressures impacting on the Local Government sector including:

·         A cost-of-living crisis with pay and inflation pressures far in excess of what was anticipated when the budget was set in February 2023;

·         Cost pressures arising from increasing demand and increasing complexity of need in children’s social care services;

·         Increasing numbers of families presenting as homeless;

·         Income still not returning to pre-Covid levels.

There was also an increasing trend of non-delivery of savings, with only 42% of savings currently showing as on track or delivered.  As a result of these factors there was a forecast adverse variance of £11.255m on General Fund (GF) revenue service expenditure. This was broken down as follows:

·         £0.288m Adult Care & Health Services

·         £3.981m Economic Growth & Neighbourhood Services

·         £1.142m Resources

·         £0.015m Chief Executive Services

·         £5.829m Children’s Services Delivered by Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) 

Detailed explanation for these variances were contained within Section 3 of the report.

It was noted that other Corporate Budgets were forecasting an adverse net variance of £0.374m. This variance included a forecast pressure of £1.243m relating to current 2023/24 pay award assumptions. This pressure on pay inflation was predominantly offset by positive net variances of £0.869m within Other Corporate Budgets mainly due to the forecast release of all other contingencies. The pressure relating to the pay award was assumed to be funded by a drawdown from the Pay & Inflation earmarked reserve. In addition, the Capital Financing budget was currently forecast to deliver a positive net variance of £2.472m.

A corporate contingency of £4.108m was set for 2023/24 to mitigate against non-delivery of savings.  This contingency was now fully released to offset against the adverse variance on service expenditure.  Overall, this resulted in a projected overall adverse net variance of £3.806m.  While this level of adverse variance was manageable within existing reserves, it was important to take action now in order to avoid a worsening of the Council’s financial position. Each Directorate had been tasked with developing a Recovery Plan to identify options/mitigations for in-year savings.  If successful this would avoid the need to implement additional spend controls at a later point.  The results would be presented to Policy Committee in December as part of the 2023/24 Quarter 2 Performance and Monitoring Report.

The provisional General Fund Capital Programme outturn was forecasting a positive net variance of £0.728m against a proposed revised budget of £107.178m in 2023/24. This variance related to £0.842m of the Delivery Fund that had not yet been allocated to specific proposals as at the end of Quarter 1 and an adverse variance of £0.114m on approved Delivery Fund allocations.

The approved Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget assumed a drawdown from HRA reserves of £2.499m. At Quarter 1 the forecast revenue outturn position was a positive net variance of £0.661m.  Therefore, a drawdown from HRA Reserves of £1.838m was forecast rather than the originally budgeted £2.399m.  The HRA Capital programme was forecasting to spend to budget against a revised budget of £36.442m in 2023/24.

The report also set out performance against the measures of success published in the Council’s Corporate Plan. Of the 26 Corporate Plan Performance Measures monitored monthly or quarterly, 52% were currently “green”, 46% “amber” and 2% “red”. 38% had improved since Quarter 4 of 2022/23, whilst 50% had gotten worse. Of the 48 Corporate Plan Projects, 52% were currently “green”, 46% “amber” and 2% red”. Those measures that had shown significant change since Quarter 4 of 2022/23 were set out in Appendix 4 to the report.

Resolved –

(1)       That it be noted that:

a)    That the forecast General Fund revenue outturn position for Quarter 1 was an adverse net variance of £3.806m;

b)   £0.044m (1%) of savings had been delivered (blue) to date in this financial year, with a further £3.345m (41%) of savings on track to be delivered (green) by March 2024; £2.730m (33%) of savings were currently categorised as non-deliverable (red) and £1.999m (25%) categorised as at risk of delivery (amber);

c)    That the General Fund Capital Programme was forecasting a positive net variance of £0.728m against the proposed revised budget of £107.178m;

d)   That there was a total £4.595m Delivery Fund available for 2023/24 (inclusive of 2022/23 approved carry forwards). At Quarter 1, £3.753m of this funding had been allocated to approved schemes;

e)    That the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was projecting a positive net variance of £0.661m as at the end of Quarter 1, which resulted in a forecast contribution to HRA reserves of £0.051m;

f)     That the HRA Capital Programme was forecasting to spend to budget against the proposed revised budget of £36.442m;

g)   The performance achieved against the Corporate Plan success measures was as set out in Section 11 of the associated report and Appendices 4 and 5;

(2)       That the amendments to the General Fund Capital Programme (as set out in Section 7 and Appendix 3 of the report) resulting in a revised Capital Programme budget of £107.178m for 2023/24 be approved;

(3)       That the Scheme & Spend approval for the two General Fund Capital Programme schemes as set out in paragraph 7.8 and Table 13 totalling £0.309m be approved;

(4)       That spend approval for the three General Fund Capital Programme scheme as set out in paragraph 7.9 and Table 14 of the report totalling £24.800m be approved;

(5)       That the amendments to the HRA Capital Programme (as set out in further detail in Section 10 and Appendix 3 of the report) resulting in a revised HRA Capital Programme net budget of £36.442m for 2023/24 be approved.