Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer).

Decision made (unanimously):

1.    Cabinet notes and accepts the recommendations of the Scrutiny Budget and Performance Panel made at its meeting on 14 September 2020.

2.    Cabinet notes the contents of this report including the forecast £29,000 underspend in 2020/21.

3.    Cabinet approves the allocation of the £150,000 staffing savings target and the £37,000 residual shared services savings target against the £499,000 forecast staffing underspend.

4.    Cabinet approves the use of general reserves for one-off increases to the revenue budget in relation to the following items:

a)    Dial-a-ride £20,000

b)    IDOX Enterprise and Capability Review £26,000

c)    Extra Care preparatory work £50,000

5.    Cabinet approves the re-profiled budgets for the capital programme, which reflects forecasted underspend against the existing budgets, as detailed in Appendix C.

The Cabinet Member (Finance, Property and Assets) presented a report of the Deputy Director of Finance (Section 151 officer) explaining the Council’s overall financial position for quarter 1 of the financial year 2020-21.  He stressed that due to the circumstances surrounding CO-VID 19 re-profiling may need to take place again.

Councillor Bretherton asked a question with regard to the Bellis Way Playground. He said that there had been forecast of £20k and the budget was now £30k. The Director of Neighbourhoods and Development confirmed that the budget was £30k (match funding). The Cabinet Member for Environment agreed to investigate and report back after the meeting.

Decision made (unanimously):

1.    Cabinet notes and accepts the recommendations of the Scrutiny Budget and Performance Panel made at its meeting on 14 September 2020.

2.    Cabinet notes the contents of this report including the forecast £29,000 underspend in 2020/21.

3.    Cabinet approves the allocation of the £150,000 staffing savings target and the £37,000 residual shared services savings target against the £499,000 forecast staffing underspend.

4.    Cabinet approves the use of general reserves for one-off increases to the revenue budget in relation to the following items:

a)    Dial-a-ride £20,000

b)    IDOX Enterprise and Capability Review £26,000

c)    Extra Care preparatory work £50,000

5.    Cabinet approves the re-profiled budgets for the capital programme, which reflects forecasted underspend against the existing budgets, as detailed in Appendix C.

Reasons for Decision

The Cabinet’s decisions reflect the recommendations of the Section 151 officer, which will ensure the Council’s best overall financial position.

1.    The overall forecast for 2020/21 for the revenue budget is a net surplus of £29,000.  A summary of the variances by directorate is shown in Table 1, and a detailed list of the main variances within each directorate is shown in Table 2.

2.    In addition, it is requested that £67,000 (Table 3) is allocated against the current general fund balance of £4.239m leaving £4.172m remaining. It should be noted that this use of the general fund will be reviewed throughout the financial year and may not be required if further underspends are identified in 2020/21.

3.    The forecasts for staffing costs are an overall saving of £499,000.  It is recommended to allocate the full £150,000 staffing savings target.  Also, it is recommended to allocate an additional £37,000 from the areas of forecasted underspending to cover the deficit against the shared services savings figure.

4.    The report outlines the impact Covid-19 has had on the budget in 2020/21 including the additional grant funding received and the management of the business grant schemes.

5.    The total capital spend including commitments in 2020/21 is £2.768m, which is 29% of the total budget of £9,614.  Appendix C gives the details for individual schemes and the revised forecasts, both for 2020/21 and the following 3 years.

Cabinet approved a number of one – off revenue budget increases for the following reasons:

Dial-a-ride

A delegated decision was approved in June to provide grant support of £20,000 per year to the delivery of Dial-a-Ride service in South Ribble.  It is requested to use the general reserve to fund the cost in 2020-21.

IDOX Enterprise and Capability Review £26,000

In January 2020 Cabinet approved this capital scheme for £146,000, which has been added to the capital programme.  Approval was also given to fund one-off revenue setup costs of £20,000 using the surplus in 2019-20.  However, at outturn the cost was expected to be higher but we did not yet have the exact figure.  Therefore no carry forward request was made and instead it is now requested to use the general reserve to fund the confirmed cost.

Extra Care preparatory work £50,000

The capital programme includes a £10m budget for constructing a new Extra Care facility. As per the Extra Care Scheme report, it is requested to use the general reserve to create a revenue budget of £50,000  for the initial feasibility study and business case as well as financial and legal advice.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None, for the reasons given above.