Issue - items at meetings - General Fund - Provisional Revenue Out-turn 2005/06

This report sets out the projected out-turn position on the Council’s General Fund Revenue Account, the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Commercial Services, the Collection Fund and the Public Sector Agreements (PSAs) for 2005/06.

RESOLVED: (i) That the provisional out-turn position, and especially the impact of overspending areas, as identified in paragraphs 16 and 17 of the report, be noted.

(ii) That the use of the underspend on the former DEDS service areas to repay the Venture Fund loan be approved.

(iii) That the requests to carry forward into 2006/07 funds totalling £1,158k for general fund services, as detailed in Annex 4 and summarised in paragraph 48, be approved, subject to the Directors of both Children’s and Adult Social Services implementing proposals to restrict expenditure on 2006/07 within agreed budget limits.

(iv) That the request to carry forward £19.8k for the Housing Revenue Account, as detailed in Annex 4 and summarised in paragraph 52, be approved.

(v) That the creation of a job evaluation reserve, as set out in paragraph 66, be approved.

(vi) That Officers be instructed to ensure that £100k of the underspend is earmarked for allocation to the York Pride / Ward Committee Neighbourhood Unit budgets, subject to no costs being incurred with re-billing when the results of the Council’s appeal against Capping are known.

(vii) That the transfer of the remaining underspend to revenue reserves be approved.

REASONS: In order to achieve a balanced budget and make best use of the underspend incurred in the 2004/05 financial year.

Members considered a report which set out the projected out-turn position on the Council’s General Fund Revenue Account, the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Commercial Services, the Collection Fund and the Public Sector Agreements (PSAs) for 2005/06.

It was reported that:

Most portfolio areas had out-turned within budgeted funding levels.
Three areas – Adult Social Services, Children’s Social Services and Treasury Management - had overspent, by a total of £1.488m.
The total projected net underspend was £1,550k reducing to £392k if all carry-forward requests in the report were approved. This represented a significant improvement on the £893k overspend projected in the second monitoring report.
The provisional HRA working balance was £5,116k, with a carry-forward request of £19.8k.
Commercial Services reported a deficit of £22k; details were set out in paragraphs 56 to 58.
There was a surplus of £165k on the Collection Fund, of which £133k would be available to the Council as part of the 2007/08 budget.
Approval was sought for a new reserve, utilising the underspend on the job evaluation budget.
The projected overall level of reserves was £4.964m, which was in line with the 2006/07 CPA Benchmark figure of £4.95m.

Members commented that departments had performed well in controlling expenditure, but that above budget expenditure in Adult and Children’s Social Services remained an ongoing concern that must be tackled. The overall underspend of £392k provided some “breathing space” in the context of the Council’s appeal against capping. If the appeal was successful, it would enable about £100k to be released to support the York Pride programme and restore some of the cuts to ward committee budgets.