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Economy, Place, Access and Transport Scrutiny Committee |
25th March 2025 |
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Report of the Assistant Director - Finance |
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2024/25 Finance and Performance Monitor 3
Summary
1. This report sets out the projected 2024/25 financial position and the performance position for the period covering 1 April 2024 to 31 December 2024. This is the third report of the financial year and assesses performance against budgets, including progress in delivering the Council’s savings programme.
2. This report outlines the Council’s continued challenging financial position with a forecast overspend for 2024/25 of £2.6m which is a huge improvement on the c£11m forecast overspend we have previously seen at this stage in the financial year. The forecast also assumes we can release some earmarked reserves to offset the overall position.
3. However, this is still a forecast overspend and therefore, whilst it is incredibly positive that the position is much improved, there is work still to do to ensure the continued financial resilience of the Council. It remains that the Council cannot afford to keep spending at this level. The general reserve is £6.9m and, whilst we have other earmarked reserves that we could call on if required, continued overspending will quickly see the Council exhaust its reserves.
4. As outlined in previous reports, the existing cost control measures remain in place, and further action is needed to bring spending down to an affordable level, both within the current financial year and over the medium term, to safeguard the Council’s financial resilience and stability. The impact that this work is having can be clearly seen in this latest forecast and the Council’s track record of delivering savings, along with robust financial management, provides a sound platform to continue to be able to deal with future challenges.
5. If we continue to take action and make any difficult decisions now, this will ensure the future financial stability of the Council and that we can continue to provide services for our residents. It is vital that mitigations are delivered, and the forecast overspend is reduced.
6. Local government continues to be in challenging times, with worsening performance in a number of sectors nationally. The majority of performance indicators chosen to support and monitor the Council Plan in York, continue to show a generally positive and stable trend against this difficult financial picture and shows the hard work from staff, partners and the city to tackle these challenges.
7. This set of indicators are the high-level measurable element of our performance framework, and in newly available data up to Q3 there has been positive performance in areas such as; The survival of newly born businesses after one year has been consistently higher in York than national and regional averages, there has been an increase in net additional homes provided and housing consents approved compared to the same period last year, we have seen a narrowing of the gap, and therefore a reduction in health inequalities, between the highest and lowest ward in York for the % of year 6 children recorded as overweight and the number of households with children in temporary accommodation continues to be lower than previous years. The % of children achieving a Good Level of Development at Foundation Stage continues to be high compared to benchmarks and our building services indicators continue to show a positive direction of travel with a high percentage of repairs completed on first visit alongside the low number of void properties.
8. Alongside the Council plan indicators there are a number of areas of positive performance from across the Council. In 2024, over 39,000 eligible households in York subscribed to the new Garden Waste Subscription scheme. Work is underway to prepare for the 2025 scheme which will run for the full season from March to December. Queen Street bridge was demolished during Q3, and other public spaces are emerging from the ground, with good progress being made on major projects. In order to help young people move around the city, the £1 bus fare initiative for 16 to 18 year olds has been used by more than 250,000 young people so far. The Council has recently successfully delivered a local by-election, ensuring it delivers on its statutory duties.
9. The Council have placed nearly 300 migrant children into York schools this year, highlighting their commitment to support our most vulnerable residents. KS4 and KS5 outcomes remain significantly above average, York has a high proportion of 5 year olds achieving a good level of development and the second lowest number of children who receive an ‘Elective Home Education’ in the region. There has been a reduction in numbers of Children’s Social Care agency staff to zero. The Council recently ran a targeted Pension Credit campaign using the Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) platform to identify eligible residents and maximise their income. To date, the initiative has resulted in 100 pensioner households in York receiving over £662,700 per year in Pension Credit. This campaign has helped combat rising pensioner poverty and adult social care costs.
10. There has been a smooth transfer into the council of an external homelessness service. In addition, an extra £87,000 has been secured to support the expected rise in rough sleeping with up to 29 extra emergency beds and additional support this winter. The extra funding reflects the rise in rough sleeping nationally and the funds will contribute to bed and breakfast for rough sleepers with the lowest support needs, other accommodation options as well as extra staffing support.
11. To progress with the changes needed to implement the previously announced Childcare reforms to help parents with early years childcare and provide more children with access to high quality early years education, the council has undertaken a deep dive into sufficiency for both early years and wraparound care. Progress reports have been presented to Executive and the Children, Culture and Communities Scrutiny Committee. A report went to the Children, Culture and Communities Scrutiny Committee in November to inform on work taking place to develop a neighbourhood working model as a way of delivering improved outcomes for individuals, communities and the wider system of services in the city. The design principles for the model were approved at Executive in December.
12. In order to improve outcomes for those in need and to manage costs, the council has internally launched a practice model framework and assurance forum in adult social care. There has been a transformation in Healthy Child services, with the introduction of skill mix teams and the recruitment into specialist roles. The Health Trainer team are the best performing stop smoking service in the country, with an over 80% 4-week quit rate (national 57% and regional 65%).
13. We are listening to residents within Our Big Budget Conversation, a consultation on budget priorities taking place over 4 stages during 2024-25. The final stage of the consultation closed at the end of Q3 and asked people to provide thoughts on proposals to help the council balance its budget based on feedback from the previous two stages. York remains committed to improving stock condition and tenant experiences, and results from the 2023-24 Regulator for Social Housing return were published for residents with the current consultation underway.
14. Council Plan Progress Reports, providing an update of activity against each of the plan’s seven priorities, will be published on an annual basis and sit alongside a six-monthly snapshot of progress available on the Council’s website (https://www.york.gov.uk/council-plan-1/snapshot-progress-council-plan/5). The reports complement the Finance and Performance Monitor, providing a narrative for the steps that the Council is taking to meet its ambitions.
Financial Summary and Mitigation Strategy
15. The current forecast is that there will be an overspend of £2.6m. This is despite the additional budget allocated through the 2024/25 budget process and ongoing action being taken by managers across the Council to try and reduce expenditure. Adult Social Care remains an area of concern, however action is being taken within the directorate to mitigate against this forecast overspend.
16. If the Council continues to spend at the current level, and no action is taken, then we will continue to overspend and will exhaust our reserves and any other available funding. The current level of expenditure is unaffordable and therefore we must continue the work started in the previous financial year to identify and take the necessary actions to reduce expenditure.
17. As outlined in previous reports to Executive, we have continued to see recurring overspends across both Adult and Children’s Social Care. However, the underspends and mitigations that have allowed us to balance the budget at year end have generally been one off. Whilst the use of reserves to fund an overspend is appropriate as a one-off measure, it does not remove the need to identify ongoing savings to ensure the overall position is balanced. The budget report considered by Executive in February 2024 also included an assessment of risks associated with the budget, which included the need to secure further savings and effectively manage cost pressures.
18. Members will be aware that the financial position of local government is a national challenge and that the pressures being seen across both Adult and Children’s Social Care are not something that is unique to York. Many Councils are experiencing significant financial pressures and struggling to balance their budgets now, so it is vital that we continue the work started last year to reduce our expenditure down to a sustainable level both within the current financial year and over the medium term.
19. Given the scale of the financial challenge, and the expected impact on budgets in future years, it is vital that every effort is made to balance the overall position. It is recognised that this will require difficult decisions to be made to protect services for vulnerable residents. The Financial Strategy report elsewhere on this agenda outlines proposals for balancing the budget in 2025/26.
20. Corporate control measures are in place, but it is possible that they will not deliver the scale of reduction needed within the year. Other savings proposals, including service reductions, may also be needed. Officers will continue to carefully monitor spend, identify further mitigation, and review reserves and other funding to make every effort to reduce this forecast position. However, it is possible that it will not be reduced to the point that the outturn will be within the approved budget. The Council has £6.9m of general reserves that would need to be called on if this were the case. As outlined in previous reports, any use of the general reserve would require additional savings to be made in the following year to replenish the reserve and ensure it remains at the recommended minimum level.
21. The delivery of savings plans continues to be a clear priority for all officers during the year. Corporate Directors and Directors will keep Executive Members informed of progress on a regular basis.
Financial Analysis
22. The Council’s net budget is £149m. Following on from previous years, the challenge of delivering savings continues with c£14m to be achieved to reach a balanced budget. The latest forecasts indicate the Council is facing net financial pressures of £2.6m and an overview of this forecast, on a directorate by directorate basis, is outlined in Table 1 below.
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Service area |
Net budget £’000 |
2024/25 Q2 Forecast Variation £’000 |
2024/25 Q3 Forecast Variation £’000 |
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Children & Education |
28,659 |
1,111 |
994 |
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Adult Social Care & Integration |
46,807 |
3,286 |
3,608 |
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Transport, Environment & Planning |
23,464 |
-610 |
-859 |
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Housing & Communities |
6,779 |
790 |
711 |
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Corporate & Central Services |
42,983 |
-132 |
-149 |
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Sub Total |
148,692 |
4,445 |
4,305 |
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Contingency |
576 |
-576 |
-576 |
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Use of earmarked reserves |
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-1,089 |
-1,089 |
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Total including contingency |
149,268 |
2,780 |
2,640 |
Table 1: Finance overview
Directorate Analysis
Transport, Environment and Planning
23. The directorate is forecasting an underspend of £859k and the table below summarises the latest forecasts by service area.
|
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2024/25 Budget £’000 |
Forecast Outturn Variance £’000 |
Forecast Outturn Variance % |
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Transport |
7,078 |
-490 |
-7 |
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Fleet |
-127 |
0 |
0 |
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Highways |
5,008 |
-250 |
-5 |
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Parking Services |
-8,348 |
-58 |
-1 |
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Waste |
14,536 |
-383 |
-3 |
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Public Realm |
3,422 |
5 |
0 |
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Emergency Planning |
145 |
0 |
0 |
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Planning Services |
89 |
329 |
366 |
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Public Protection |
809 |
-6 |
-1 |
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Community Safety |
715 |
-6 |
-1 |
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Management |
137 |
0 |
0 |
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TOTAL |
23,464 |
-859 |
-4 |
24. Within Transport there was an underspend of £4901k across the service. There is a forecast underspend against the Concessionary Fares budget of £329k as numbers of concessionary passengers have not fully returned to pre pandemic levels although the saving is lower than 2023/24.
25. Car park income at the end of November remains within 1% of budget as transactions have reduced by 7% but income per transaction increased by 12%. These are the same as reported at the last monitor. Total income is c5% higher than 2023/24 in line with budget. Respark and season ticket income are also in line with budget expectations. This will continue to be monitored closely as the budget is c £2m higher than last year.
26. The Waste budget is forecasting to be underspent by £383k compared to budget (-4%). The main variations relate to additional income selling excess tonnage capacity at Allerton Waste Recover Plant (£200k), additional commercial waste income (£60k), and continued strong recycling income levels and trade waste income (£260k). Elsewhere there are underspends forecast within Waste Collection (£42k) and the bulky waste service (£40k).
27. The garden waste subscription service was introduced in August 2024. There have been approximately 39,000 subscribers to the new scheme which has given revenue of £764k which is £136k below budget but given the part year impact, the performance is very strong. The Waste Strategy budget is forecast to be over budget by £148k primarily as there will be costs incurred dealing with he 2025/26 scheme in year.
28. Within the Highways area there is an anticipated further underspend of £250k as electricity prices have reduced for unmetered supply to a lower level than assumed in the budget.
29. Across planning services there is a shortfall in income from building control as the service has at this time very limited staffing resources and primarily only able to provide the statutory service. Should this situation continue to the end of 2024/25 the net reduction in income will be in the region of £277k.
City Development
30. Across City Development Directorate which covers Local Plan, Regeneration and Economy Teams it is assumed that the revenue budget of £710k will be on target. There are no reported variances at Monitor 3.
Performance – Service Delivery
31. This performance report is based upon the city outcome and council delivery indicators included in the Performance Framework for the Council Plan (2023-2027) which was launched in September 2023. Wider or historic strategic and operational performance information is published quarterly on the Council’s open data platform; www.yorkopendata.org.uk
32. The Executive for the Council Plan (2023-2027) agreed a core set of indicators to help monitor the Council priorities and these provide the structure for performance updates in this report. Some indicators are not measured on a quarterly basis and the DoT (Direction of Travel) is calculated on the latest three results whether they are annual or quarterly.
33. A summary of the city outcome and council delivery indicators by council plan theme are shown in the paragraphs below along with the latest data for all of the core indicator set.
34. Universal Credit Claimants – At the end of November 2024 there were 13,863 people, in York, on Universal Credit. Although this is the highest figure to date, surpassing the previous high of 13,236 in February 2021, it is low compared to the region or nationally, and represents 10% of the working population in York, compared to 19% regionally and 17% nationally. The figures dropped to a low of 11,054 in May 2022 but they have steadily increased since then. This is a mixture of increased claimants and people who have been migrating over from other legacy benefits (Tax Credits, Housing Benefit, Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income-related Employment and Support Allowance), with the picture becoming clearer in 2025 as DWP expects/plans for all people on these legacy benefits to have moved over to Universal Credit in the year.
35. There are two types of claimant: those in employment and those not. Both types have been gradually increasing in the last 12 months with the number of those not in employment increasing as claimants of legacy benefits are migrated across to Universal Credit. The increase in the number of those in employment may be attributed to a higher percentage of part time workers (27.9% in York, 23.6% regionally and 23.4% nationally). In the region, York has the 2nd highest number of part time workers and the highest number of claimants in employment but the lowest proportion of claimants not in employment.
38. % of vacant city centre shops – At the end of November 2024, there were 47 vacant shops in the city centre which equates to 7.45% of all city centre shops. This is 10 shops lower than at the same point in 2023 and much lower than the latest national benchmark in 2023-24 of 14%. The York figures have remained stable for a number of years.
39. Business start ups – Figures for 2022-23 showed 870 new business start-ups for York, which is higher than in the previous year (746 in 2021-22). The York figure is at only a slightly lower level to that seen before the pandemic (932 in 2019-20). The year to date figure up to the end of February 2024 of 767 new start ups is at a similar level to last year. The monthly figures for business start ups in York came from a regionally paid for dataset but this has now come to an end. Alternative sources of this information are being sought.
41. % of working age population in employment (16-64) – In Q1 2024-25, 77.8% of the working age population were in employment, which is higher than the national and regional figures (75.5% and 73.1% respectively) and the York performance gives the city a ranking of second regionally. The figure for Q1 2024-25 in York remains fairly high overall but is lower than the figures seen for the previous two years.
42. % of Total Employees working for an Accredited Living Wage/Good Business Charter employer – 16% of employees worked for an Accredited Living Wage employer and 13.5% worked for an Accredited Good Business Charter employer in 2023-24, which are at the same level as last year.
43. Survival of Newly Born Businesses post 1 year – In York, 175 businesses were created in Q3 2023-24, down 3% on a year ago. There were 160 business closures in the same quarter, which is 3% higher than in 2022-23. The survival rate post 1 year has been consistently around 94% in York for the last 4 years, with the latest figure of 93.9%. The York figures have been consistently higher than the National and Regional rates (92.3% and 91.7% respectively).
44. Area Wide Traffic Levels – Between 2011-12 and 2016-17, the number of vehicles on the city’s roads increased year on year to a high of 2.2 million. Following this, the numbers decreased to a low of 1.75m in 2020-21. However, the covid pandemic brought with it numerous national lockdowns and local restrictions so the decrease in traffic levels was to be expected. Since then, figures had increased to 2.08m in 2022-23 although the latest figures show a slight reduction to 2.02m vehicles in 2023-24.
45. Index of Cycling activity – Prior to the pandemic, cycling levels in the city were around 41% (2019) above the baseline taken in 2009. The latest data shows that cycling levels in 2023 were 13% above the baseline. The pandemic had a huge effect on how people travel around, and how much they travel. Other cities with high levels of cycling have also seen falls in activity. In York, cycling levels appear to have fallen because of a decline in commuting (as a result of more working from home), although travel patterns are still settling down. York has a strong walking and cycling heritage, but if we are to achieve our climate and traffic reduction targets and see a long-term, sustainable increase in rates of cycling, we need to enable more people to choose the bicycle as the primary way of getting around. There is much more to be done to encourage even more people towards riding, wheeling and walking in the future, and we have recently carried out an extensive consultation to better understand what changes we can make to help support residents to make the change to cycling, and how we can support our cycling communities. Data for 2024 will be available in 2025.
46. Index of pedestrians walking to and from the City Centre – From a baseline in 2009-10 (36,919), there has been a 25% increase in the number of pedestrians walking to and from the city centre in 2023-24. This is 1%pt higher than in 2022-23 and remains high compared to previous years. Data is gathered on an annual basis over the course of one day; it is a count of pedestrians crossing an inner cordon set just beyond the inner ring road and includes off-road routes such as riverside paths.
47. % of customers arriving at York station by sustainable modes of transport – In 2023, 78% of customers arrived at York station by sustainable modes of transport which is an increase from 60% in 2022 (the survey was delayed in 2022 so didn’t take place until January 2023 which may have affected the result, and in addition, two of the usual counting locations were missed which may explain the lower than usual percentage). The data is usually gathered by an annual survey which takes place for a five-hour period in seven locations around the station. Members of the public are asked how they arrive at the station and the results are flow weighted to take into account the split of people arriving at each entrance. Data for 2024 will be available in mid 2025.
48. The number of CYC electric vehicle recharging points - There were 103 CYC electric recharging points at the end of Q3 2024-25, which is the same as at the same point in the previous year.
49. When looking at all providers of EV charging, the latest data collated by ZapMap, a charging locator app, shows that for York the total number of publicly available charging devices (all speeds) was 146 at the end of Q1 2024-25 which is a reduction from 221 at Q1 2023-24. The number of those which were rapid chargers was 36 at the end of Q1 2024-25 which is a reduction from 42 at Q1 2023-24. A charging device may have more than one connecter and be able to charge more than one vehicle at a time so the figures do not show total charging capacity but are an indication of and can be used to compare York to national and regional rates. The rate of devices available (all speeds) per 100,000 population was 71.4 for York compared to 55.9 Regionally and 97.4 Nationally.
50. % of Principal/Non-principal roads where maintenance should be considered – In 2023-24, the percentage of principal roads in York, from local figures, where maintenance should be considered was 11% (the same as in 2021-22). There are two processes for collecting this indicator, a local one for providing the figures above, and a one-off SCANNER survey which is used by the DfT for benchmarking. The latest York figure for SCANNER is 2% for principal roads and this is slightly lower than the latest available benchmarks in 2023-24 (National average 4% and Regional average 3%).
51. The percentage of non-principal roads in York, from local figures, where maintenance should be considered was 25% in 2023-24 (slightly higher than 23% in 2021-22). Like the above indicator, there are two processes for collecting this indicator, a local one for providing the figures above, and a one-off SCANNER survey which is used by the DfT for benchmarking. The latest York figure for SCANNER is 4% for non-principal roads which is lower than the latest benchmarks in 2023-24 (National average 7% and Regional average 4%). Data for 2024-25 will be available in June 2025. Please note SCANNER surveys were not carried out in York in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
· There has been a total of 339 net housing completions. This represents more than double the number of housing completions compared to the same monitoring period last year. The main features of the housing completions that were carried out are:
o 309 homes (91.2%) were completed on housing sites (Use Class 3).
o 243 homes (71.7%) resulted from the change of use of other buildings to residential use. The Cocoa Works site provided 172 of these properties.
o A total of 99 new build homes (29.2%) were completed.
o 4 homes were demolished during the monitoring period.
o Individual sites that saw the construction of five or less dwellings contributed just 37 (10.9%) additional homes.
o The most significant individual sites providing housing completions (Use Class C3) over the monitoring period have been 172 flats at the Cocoa Works, Haxby Road (Phase 1 Blocks A and B), Cherry Tree House (48), 218 Fifth Avenue (48), Germany Beck (16), Former Civil Service Club, Boroughbridge Road (11) and the former York City Football Club, Bootham Crescent.
· In addition to the 339 net additional homes completed, four care home developments were built during the monitoring period resulting in a net increase of 107 bedspaces. Using the nationally set ratio for communal establishments, this equates to a further 59 completed homes.
53. Net Housing Consents – Planning applications determined during the half year monitoring period of 1st April 2024 to 30th September 2024 resulted in the approval of 383 net additional homes and represents an increase of almost sixty approved homes compared to last year’s update covering the equivalent monitoring period.
54. The main features of the housing approvals are:
· 272 of all net homes consented (71%) were granted on traditional housing sites (Use Class C3).
· Sites granted approval on traditional housing sites (Use Class C3) included Station Yard, Wheldrake (139), Land at Moor Lane, Copmanthorpe (75), whilst the site at Hospital Fields Road & Ordnance Lane was granted consent for an additional 16 homes compared to its earlier approval for 85 homes. A further 36 homes were approved on sites of 5 homes or less.
· The Enterprise Rent-a-Car site at 15 Foss Islands Road was granted consent for 133 privately managed student accommodation studio flats.
· Two previously approved sites at Huntington South Moor New Lane Huntington (-20) and Chelmsford Place Fulford Road (-4) resulted in a total loss of 24 homes compared to their original consents.
o During the monitoring period, a further 282 homes were approved by Planning Committee through a resolution to grant planning permission subject to the execution of a section 106 agreement and recommended conditions. These sites are at draft housing allocation ST4: Land adjacent to Hull Road (162) and the Retreat, 107 Heslington Road (120). These sites are still awaiting full approval.
55. Housing Affordability: Private Sector Rents
The latest data the Council have accessed to was previously provided to the committee and included within the Housing affordability profiles produced annually at https://data.yorkopendata.org/dataset/housing-affordability-summary. We may have to consider other sources for this information as the source of this data, the Valuation Office, is consulting on whether to discontinue this dataset.
When looking at other data currently available to the council on private sector rents the following can be seen:
· The average private rent across all property types was £937 per month for York during 2022-23 compared to £960 Nationally and £709 Regionally. This was an increase for York from £868 the previous year and increases could also be seen in the national and regional figures.
· An average monthly private rent for a two-bed property is 32.78% of the median monthly salary of a person in York compared to 30.82% Nationally and 25.21% Regionally.
· These measures can be found on the supporting scrutiny scorecard with 2023-24 updates due by the current year-end.
56. Percentage of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting – The latest provisional data for the amount of household waste sent for reuse, recycling or composting was 44.8% within Q1 2024-25, which is a decrease from 46.4% during Q1 2023-24. The figures are broadly similar for total household waste collected (246.2kg per household from the same time last year (246.7kg)), reuse, recycling or composting waste per household (110kg from 111kg in 2023-24) and residual (approx. non-recycling) household waste has remained at 136kg per household. The increase in the number of households accounts for the decrease in the overall recycling figures.
57. % of Talkabout panel satisfied with their local area as a place to live – The second biannual resident satisfaction survey taken by the Talkabout panel took place during Q3 2024-25. Results from the Q3 2024-25 Talkabout survey showed that 80% of the panel were satisfied with York as a place to live, a five percentage point decrease from the previous survey, returning to the same level as Q3 2023-24. 80% were satisfied with their local area, consistent with results from Q3 2023-24, and consistently higher than the average from the Community Life Survey, which recorded the lowest level of satisfaction since the survey began in 2013-14, at 74%.
58. Level of CO2 emissions across the city and from council buildings and operations – Emissions associated with council operations have been reducing across every category we measure, due to the work underway to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings and fleet electrification. However, improvements to the scope and accuracy of our reporting methodology mean that new emissions are now being recorded, resulting in an overall increase in reported operational emissions. Fully understanding our emissions is an important step in managing and mitigation our impact. Further details are available here: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s179414/Report.pdf. City-wide emissions have experienced a small increase in 2021, following post-covid restrictions. While this rebound is not unexpected, emissions have not returned to pre-covid levels following the long-term trend of emissions reduction since 2005. The rate of reduction over this time, however, is not sufficient to meet our net zero by 2030 ambition and significant emissions reductions are needed over the remaining years. Further details are available here: https://democracy.york.gov.uk/documents/s179439/EMDS_City%20Wide%20Emissions%202024.pdf
59. Number of trees planted (CYC) – During 2023-24, CYC planted 40 standard trees in the city’s parks and on highways. In addition, 1,200 trees (whips) were planted by the council’s ‘York Green Streets’ project, fully funded by a grant from White Rose Forest (secured in February 2024) including three years aftercare to support successful establishment. This forms part of the Council Plan 2023-2028 commitment to support biodiversity and nature by planting 4,000 new trees. The YGS project team is itself 100% externally funded by a £150,000 Forestry Commission grant to 31 March 2025. A further £40,000 has been secured from DEFRA to plant two new micro-woods in York’s urban area in the 2024-25 planting season in Holgate and Clifton Without wards.
60. Full year data for 2024-25 will not be available until May 2025, but numbers are likely to be comparable to last year as York Green Streets planted c1,800 trees (whips and standards) in April 2024.
Consultation
63. Not applicable.
Options
64. Not applicable.
Analysis
65. Not applicable.
Council Plan
66. Not applicable.
Implications
67. The recommendations in the report potentially have implications across several areas. However, at this stage
· Financial implications are contained throughout the main body of the report. The actions and recommendations contained in this report should ensure the continued financial stability and resilience of the Council both in the current year and in future years.
· Human Resources (HR), there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Legal The Council is under a statutory obligation to set a balanced budget on an annual basis. Under the Local Government Act 2003 it is required to monitor its budget during the financial year and take remedial action to address overspending and/or shortfalls of income.
· Procurement, there are no specific procurement implications to this report.
· Health and Wellbeing, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Environment and Climate action, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Affordability, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Equalities and Human Rights, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Data Protection and Privacy, there are no implications related to the recommendations.
· Communications, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
· Economy, there are no direct implications related to the recommendations.
Risk Management
68. An assessment of risks is completed as part of the annual budget setting exercise. These risks are managed effectively through regular reporting and corrective action being taken where necessary and appropriate.
69. The current financial position represents a significant risk to the Council's financial viability and therefore to ongoing service delivery. It is important to ensure that the mitigations and decisions outlined in this paper are delivered and that the overspend is reduced.
Recommendations
70. The Committee is asked to:
a. Note the finance and performance information.
b. Note that work will continue on identifying the savings needed to fully mitigate the forecast overspend.
Reason: to ensure expenditure is kept within the approved budget.
Contact Details
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Author: |
Chief Officer Responsible for the report: |
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Patrick LookerAD FinanceExt 1633
Ian Cunningham Head of Business Intelligence Ext 5749 |
Debbie MitchellDirector of Finance
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Report Approved |
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Date |
17/03/2025 |
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Wards Affected: List wards or tick box to indicate all |
All |
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For further information please contact the author of the report |
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Background Papers: None.
Annexes: EPAT Q3 24-25 Scrutiny Committee Scorecard