This report sets out the provisional revenue and capital outturn positions for the Council’s General Fund and Housing Revenue Account for 2020/21 and performance against the measures of success published in the Council’s Corporate Plan.

The Director of Finance submitted a report setting out the provisional revenue and capital outturn positions for the Council’s General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2020/21.  The following documents were attached to the report:

•        Appendix 1 – General Fund Outturn;

•        Appendix 2 – Covid-19 Grants;

•        Appendix 3 – Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Outturn;

•        Appendix 4 – Capital Programme Outturn;

•        Appendix 5 – Savings;

•        Appendix 6 – Delivery Fund;

•        Appendix 7 – Reserves Position as at 31st March 2021;

•        Appendix 8 – Performance Outturn.

The report noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had resulted in a unique set of financial challenges for councils around the country, with income levels dropping; costs increasing; savings projects being de-prioritised in order to focus on the delivery of critical front-line services; and large-scale financial support programmes being implemented.  The budget had been based upon a pre-pandemic set of assumptions that had had to be continually revised and adjusted throughout the year and there had been major challenges in monitoring financial performance against the budget.  A prudent approach had been adopted in assessing the financial implications of the pandemic in order to protect the long-term financial stability of the Council.

The report explained that there was an overall General Fund positive net variance of £12.762m.  The combined gross revenue pressures for 2020/21 as a result of Covid-19 totalled £16.448m, which included £1.643m of pressures in Brighter Futures for Children that the Council had agreed to fund.  Funding received from Central Government included £13.269m of Central Government general support grant, £5.842m in compensation for lost income from sales, fees & charges, and £1.305m furlough grant. This had left a net variance of £3.968m of unallocated Covid-19 grant funding that was proposed to be rolled forward into an earmarked reserve to be used to mitigate the ongoing financial impact of the pandemic.  It was also proposed that the £0.126m positive variance on the Joint Legal Team (JLT) within Legal & Democratic Services be carried forward to fund JLT-specific invest to save projects, the £0.313m positive variance against IT & Digital be carried forward to contribute to the funding of the Digital Strategy, and that the remaining balance of £8.355m be released back to replenish reserves that had been used in order to deliver a balanced budget for 2021/22.

The original budget for 2020/21 had included assumed savings of £15.344m, including £2.539m of savings brought forward from the previous year. A total of £7.579m of ongoing savings had been delivered in 2020/21, and £2.640m of savings had been removed as part of the 2021/22 budget setting process on the basis that they were no longer deemed deliverable.  This left a residual balance of £5.125m to be carried forward for delivery in 2021/22.  The shortfall on the savings target had been fully mitigated by services in-year and the balance of £5.125m would be added to the £15.083m of savings already included in the 2021/22 budget to give a revised savings target of £20.208m.

The report also stated that the provisional Housing Revenue Account outturn position was a £9.306m surplus/return to reserves and that the provisional General Fund Capital Programme outturn was a £29.142m positive variance against the budget of £67.812m.  The provisional HRA Capital Programme outturn was a £4.308m positive variance against the budget of £20.457m.  The report also sets out performance against the measures of success published in the Council’s Corporate Plan.

Resolved –

(1)      That the following be noted:

a)    The provisional General Fund revenue outturn position for 2020/21 was a £12.762m positive net variance;

b)    The provisional Housing Revenue Account outturn position for 2020/21 was a £9.306m transfer to the HRA Reserve;

c)    The provisional General Fund Capital Programme outturn position for 2020/21 was a £29.142m positive net variance;

d)    The provisional HRA Capital Programme outturn position for 2020/21 was a £4.308m positive net variance;

e)    £7.579m of agreed savings had been delivered in year with £5.125m of non-delivered savings being carried forward into 2021/22;

f)     £3.256m of Capital Receipts had been used to fund transformation in accordance with the Capitalisation Directive (Appendix 4);

g)    The performance achieved against the Corporate Plan success measures as set out in Section B of the report and Appendix 8;

(2)      That the following be approved:

a)    The service requests to roll-forward funds totalling £0.439m into 2021/22 to complete future programmes of work;

b)    That £3.968m of un-ringfenced Covid-19 grant funding be put into an earmarked reserve to meet the ongoing financial impacts of the pandemic;

c)    That the remaining balance of £8.355m be set aside to partially replace the drawdown of £9.906m of earmarked reserves in respect of reducing the ongoing Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) charge to the revenue budget in future years that was approved in the Quarter 3 Performance and Monitoring Report;

d)    The net roll-forwards of budget within the Capital Programme totalling £29.471m; resulting in a revised Capital Programme net budget of £117.624m for 2021/22;

e)    The net roll-forwards of budget within the HRA Capital Programme totalling £4.419m; resulting in a revised HRA Capital Programme net budget of £44.094m for 2021/22;

f)     The re-programming of the New Build & Acquisitions- Phase 4 budget of £1.400m within the HRA Capital Programme from 2023/24 to 2021/22 as set out in the report.