Agenda item - General Fund - Provisional Revenue Out-turn 2007/08

This report presents the projected 2007/08 out-turn position on the Council’s General Fund Revenue Account, Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Collection Fund and Public Sector Agreements (PSAs) for 2007/08, and asks Members to consider requests for under-spent project budgets to be carried forward and resultant transfers to reserves.

RESOLVED: (i) That the provisional out-turn position be noted;

(ii) That a report be requested for the next meeting of the Executive justifying why, in the light of the 2007/08 underspend on the Housing & Adult Social Services budget, any carry forward provision for unexpected social care costs (£275k), which was provided for within contingency but remained unresolved, as set out in paragraph 50 of the report, should be released;

(iii) That the requests to carry forward funds into 2008/09, totalling £1,513k for general fund services, as detailed in Annex 4 and summarised in paragraph 51 of the report, be approved;

(iv) That the request to carry forward £8.4k for the housing revenue account, as detailed in Annex 4 and summarised in paragraph 54 of the report, be approved;

(v) That consideration of the requests for additional funding of £28k for the Guildhall Orchestra and of £38k for IT development bids, as highlighted in paragraph 68 of the report, be deferred until a July meeting of the Executive, together with any other urgent supplementary estimates or calls on contingency provision, and officers be requested to ensure that comprehensive financial information is provided to support any proposals;

(vi) That the maintenance of the Neighbourhoods Trading Account at £300k by releasing £144k from the General Fund, as set out in paragraph 62 of the report, be agreed;

(vii) That the release of £20k from contingency provision to support the Newgate Market budget be agreed;

(viii) That the transfer of the remaining underspend to revenue reserves be approved;

(ix) That the enhanced priority placed by the Director of Resources on the need to address the issues identified as part of future monitoring rounds be noted;

(x) That it be agreed that Third Quarter monitoring reports be presented to the Executive in future and that these be restored to the forward programme.

REASON: To enable the Executive to set a revised budget in 2007/08 and monitor it effectively.

Members received a report which presented the projected 2007/08 out-turn position on the Council’s General Fund Revenue Account, Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Collection Fund and Public Sector Agreements (PSAs) for 2007/08, and asked them to consider requests for under-spent project budgets to be carried forward and resultant transfers to reserves.

All General Fund portfolio areas except Children’s Services, Leisure and Culture and Chief Executives Department had managed to out-turn within their budget level of funding. Overall these areas had combined to provide an underspend of £2.56m. In addition corporate budget areas had also contributed a £3.76m underspend providing an overall underspend of £6.32m.

Additional information on the shortfall of income at Newgate Market and the IT Development Plan bids had been circulated to Members.

Members noted that the Council’s finances were in a strong position thanks to careful budgeting, and strenuous attempts by officers to ensure that spending was brought back into line with the set budgets. There was a need to improve the monitoring of expenditure and income through the year and the need to move to monthly reporting in the long term had been discussed. It was reported that that there would not be an officer capacity issue preventing the restoration of the Third Quarter monitoring reports to Executive Member and Advisory Panels (EMAPs) and ultimately to the Executive, along with more frequent exception reporting for material differences to budget income and expenditure, which would assist Executive Members in the planning processes.

RESOLVED: (i) That the provisional out-turn position be noted;

(ii) That a report be requested for the next meeting of the Executive justifying why, in the light of the 2007/08 underspend on the Housing & Adult Social Services budget, any carry forward provision for unexpected social care costs (£275k), which was provided for within contingency but remained unresolved, as set out in paragraph 50 of the report, should be released;¹

(iii) That the requests to carry forward funds into 2008/09, totalling £1,513k for general fund services, as detailed in Annex 4 and summarised in paragraph 51 of the report, be approved;²

(iv) That the request to carry forward £8.4k for the housing revenue account, as detailed in Annex 4 and summarised in paragraph 54 of the report, be approved;

(v) That consideration of the requests for additional funding of £28k for the Guildhall Orchestra and of £38k for IT development bids, as highlighted in paragraph 68 of the report, be deferred until a July meeting of the Executive, together with any other urgent supplementary estimates or calls on contingency provision, and officers be requested to ensure that comprehensive financial information is provided to support any proposals;³

(vi) That the maintenance of the Neighbourhoods Trading Account at £300k by releasing £144k from the General Fund, as set out in paragraph 62 of the report, be agreed;

(vii) That the release of £20k from contingency provision to support the Newgate Market budget be agreed;

(viii) That the transfer of the remaining underspend to revenue reserves be approved;

(ix) That the enhanced priority placed by the Director of Resources on the need to address the issues identified as part of future monitoring rounds be noted;

(x) That it be agreed that Third Quarter monitoring reports be presented to the Executive in future and that these be restored to the forward programme.⁴

REASON: To enable the Executive to set a revised budget in 2007/08 and monitor it effectively.