Issue - meetings

Members considered a report setting out the revenue, capital and treasury management activity from 1 April 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Note:   Councillor Jeff Summers joined the meeting at the start of this item.

The following points were highlighted by the Business Support Team Leader:

·         The revised Budget report on November 5 2020 approved a net movement to general Fund Balances of £783,000;

·         Forecast movements against the revised budget are:

o   Business as usual revenue forecast outturn surplus of £223,000;

o   Pressure above Covid-19 Local Authority Support Grants of £384,000 – this was a reduction of £64,000 against the pressure forecast for the revised budget;

o   ‘Carry forwards’ approved during the year of £53,000, alongside those pending officer approval of £40,000;

o   The remaining net surplus of £380,000 was proposed to be transferred to the General Fund Balance, in addition to the £783,000 movement approved for the Revised Budget 2020/2021 resulting in a total of £1,163,000.  This would result in a forecast Fund balance as at 31 March of £5,148,000.

·         In terms of Capital, there was anticipated slippage of £4,375,000, comprised of £4,344,000 being re-phased at the financial year end, and £31,000 of projected underspends on the vehicle replacement programme, the telephony scheme and capital enhancements to Council owned assets;

·         Total investments at the end of Quarter 3 stood at £20,931,000.

Following questions and comments from members, further information was provided:

·         The Match Funding Grant pot was currently in a healthy position.  In accordance with financial regulations Members needed to have sight of grant funding bids of over £50,000, hence why the grant application to FCC was part of this report’s recommendations;

·         Bad debt provision had been increased by around £60,000 to make allowance for Covid-19;

·         The CCLA property fund investments were achieving 3.46%.  This was a long term investment of £3m and It was anticipated that cash flows would be robust in terms of balances.  Whilst money market funds can go into negative interest rates, currently these stood at 0%.

The report was moved, seconded, and it was unanimously RESOLVED to:

(a)  Accept the forecast out-turn position of a £223,000 net contribution to reserves as at 31 December 2020 (see section 2 of the report) relating to ‘business as usual’ activity;

(b)  Accept the use of Earmarked Reserves during the quarter approved by the Chief Finance Officer using delegated powers (2.4.1 of the report) and the contribution to Earmarked Reserves (2.4.2 of the report);

(c)   Approve the grant application for the FCC Communities Foundation’s Community Action Fund of up to £100,000, and to approve the allocation of up to £11,000 from the Match Funding Grant, in addition to the National Leisure Recovery Fund Bid for £209,000.  Details of this are in the report at 2.5.3;

(d)  Accept the current projected Capital Outturn as detailed in 3.1.2 of the report;

(e)  Accept the report, the treasury activity and changes to the prudential indicators.