Agenda item

To consider the level of spending against the Council’s Revenue and Capital budgets for the first 9 months to 31st December 2014.

Mr Redmond, Chief Accountant presented the Financial Performance Monitoring Report as at Month 9.  He reported on a forecast overspend of £714, 000 for 2014/2015 with the main areas accounting for the overspend  being Children’s Services, due to the level of Looked After Children not decreasing as expected and Community and Environmental Services due to the expected insurance savings from Project 30 not being realised as yet.  Within Adult Services, Adult Commissioning Placements was forecasting a significant overspend although savings in other areas were helping to reduce the overall overspend for the service.  Parking Services continued to place pressure on the budget as a result of high income targets despite actual income from parking services having increased.

Treasury Management continued to benefit from temporary borrowing at low interest rates resulting in a favourable budgetary position for the service.

The figure for Working Balances was reported at just under £5.2 million as at Month 9 which was a slight improvement on the previous month.  The forecast outturn for Working Balances for this financial year was expected to be in the region of £5.5million.

Following questions raised by the Committee, Mr Jack reported on the in-depth analysis involved in setting the required level of Working Balances.  He confirmed the intention to steadily increase the level of Working Balances until they reached £6 million. He suggested that, if the Committee so wished, a detailed report on the criteria for setting the level of Working Balances could be brought to a future meeting.

Mr Redmond reported that Business Rates collection was 90% as at Month 11 with the aim to increase this figure to 95% by the end of this financial year.  Following questions raised by the Committee, Mr Redmond confirmed that a significant proportion of the Business Rate deficit was attributable to appeals.  He confirmed that assessments of the ongoing impact of future successful appeals would be taken into consideration in setting the budget.  Mr Jack reported on the increased scrutiny of Business Ratepayers known to have defaulted in payment of previous Business Rates. 

Clarification was provided on the difference between usable and unusable reserves in response to questions from a Member of the Committee.  Mr Jack outlined the complexities of unusable reserves and the difficulties resulting from the requirement for Local Authority accounting practices to mirror those in the private sector.  Mr Jack confirmed that a report giving a detailed breakdown of the unusable reserves could be brought to a future meeting of the Committee if required. 

The Committee agreed to note the report.

Background papers:  None