Issue - meetings

The Committee heard from the Business Support Team Leader regarding the Budget and Treasury Monitoring report for period four of the 2020/2021 financial year. She explained that the report provided an oversight of financial performance for the areas of revenue, capital and treasury management. She explained that the report had been completed before the accounts closed and that the final report would be presented to the Committee in June. She detailed the following oversights per area.

Revenue

·         Revised Budget 2020/2021 report on 5 November 2020 approved a net movement to General Fund Balances of £0.783m. Forecast movements against the revised budget were:

·         ‘Business as Usual’ Revenue Forecast Out-Turn (after carry forwards) - Surplus £0.54m. However, a further £0.157m of carry forwards had been approved by the Management Team from the overall surplus position (as detailed at Appendix 2), therefore, £0.383m would be the contribution to the General Fund Working Balance (2.06% of Net Revenue Budget – see 2.1 for details of significant variances).

·         Forecast pressure above Covid-19 LA Support Grants £0.222m. This was a reduction of £0.226m against the pressure forecast for the revised budget at the midyear point (see 2.2.6 for details). Within this figure, there was £0.461m of unallocated LA Covid Support Grant (£1.496m received during 2020/2021). This balance was to be held within the Covid reserve to support ongoing costs of the pandemic.

·         Carry forwards approved during the year of £1.033m (see Appendix 2 for details). This was in addition to the £0.326m approved at the mid-year review. Total carry forwards for the year £1.359m.

·         Remaining net surplus of £1.643m (including carry forwards) to be transferred to the General Fund Balance, in addition to the £0.783m movement approved for the Revised Budget 2020/2021 – a total of £2.426m. This would result in a forecast Fund balance as at 31 March 2021 of £6.523m.

Capital

·         Capital Forecast Out-Turn: £8.653m, a variance of £5.46m against current budget £14.113m, this was made up of:

·         Anticipated Slippage of £5.442m (see section 3.1.2)

·         Bring forward from 21/22 budget of £0.104m in relation to Private Sector Renewal and Disabled Facilities Grant (see section 3.1.2)

·         Underspend of £0.011m on two schemes (see section 3.1.2):

o   Vehicle Replacement Programme £0.010m

o   Capital Enhancements to Council Owned Assets £0.001m

·         Overspend on two schemes of £0.007m (see section 3.1.2)

o   Flooding resilience £0.005m

o   Leisure facilities-Market Rasen £0.002m

·         Schemes that had now closed £0.0194m (Telephony)

·         Approval was also sought to transfer £0.0146m from Trinity Arts Centre capital scheme to the revenue budget and a request was made for £0.020m of funding to be made available from reserves for the contribution to Richmond House Conservatory.

Treasury Management

·         Treasury Management Report and monitoring:

·         Average investment interest rate for Jan to March was 0.763%

·         Total Estimated Investments at the end of Quarter 4 £19.69m

·         The council’s prudential borrowing position reflected actual borrowing undertaken from the Public Works Loans Board (PWLB)/Other Local Authorities and the amount of internal borrowing required to meet the actual costs of borrowing up to 31 March  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90