Issue - meetings

The Committee heard from the Business Support Team Leader with a report detailing the Budget and Treasury Monitoring Final Outturn 2021/2022. It was explained that this was the final outturn report following the closure of accounts, subject to the audit of the statement of accounts. In relation to revenue activity, the final position was a net contribution to reserves of £1.612m. £0.828m of which were approved carry forwards into 2022/23. This left a surplus balance of £0.784m. This was an increase in surplus of £0.597m from the position reported to the Committee in April as the quarter four forecast outturn. Details of the movement were listed at section 2.2 of the report, however Members heard that the two significant items which made up this movement were:

1.    New burdens grants of £0.327m, paid to the Council to support the administration of covid support payments – in the main, services had been able to contain the delivery of grants within existing budget provision and it was therefore possible to include this in the overall surplus position at year end. 

2.    there had been a reduction in bad debt provision for Housing Benefits of £0.21m. The Housing Benefits team had worked hard to actively reduce outstanding debt, and had reduced the balance by just under £0.5m during 21/22. Combined with the work they had also undertaken to reduce the instances of new overpayment cases, the level of provision required had significantly reduced, resulting in a positive impact on the revenue accounts.

It was explained that Members were asked to approve that £0.25m of the year end surplus be carried forward into 22/23 to support service resourcing. Due to the current high inflation rates, there was a risk of an increased pay award for 22/23 above the budgeted 2%. The proposed carry forward would provide for a 4% pay award. The remaining balance of £0.534m was to be transferred to the general fund working balance – increasing the balance to £5.4m, which was £2.9m above the minimum working balance of £2.5m.

In relation to the financial impact of Covid-19, there was a balance of £0.691m in the covid support reserve, £0.232m had been committed in future years, leaving an unallocated balance of £0.459m.

In the fees and charges section of the report at 2.4, Members were asked to approve an amendment to the fees and charges schedule for DBS checks included on the schedule for licensing. The fee was set by the Disclosure and Barring service and the Council was notified of the amendment in April. The amendment was a reduction from £44 to £38.

With regard to capital schemes, the final outturn position was £7.812m against a revised budget of £10.326m - £2.838m had been requested as carry forwards into 22/23, and £0.324m being the net overspend on scheme budgets. The main variation from the position reported to Members at quarter four was the carry forward of £0.337m for the cinema land where only the land deposit had been paid in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9