Agenda item

To consider the report of the Chief Finance Officer (copy enclosed).

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Finance Officer providing details of the revenue and capital budgets Provisional Outturn position for the year ended 31 March 2025. Movements in relation to the Council’s General Fund and Earmarked Reserves and requests to carry forward Revenue / Capital Commitments into 2025 / 26 were also detailed.

It was noted that the draft Statement of Accounts was published on 30 May 2025 and therefore the figures detailed in the outturn report were subject to audit. 

The report provided detailed information regarding:

·                2024 / 25 Final Budget including approved amendments.

·                2024 / 25 Provisional Outturn – The report detailed budget variances and Appendices 1 and 2 provided a detailed analysis of the variances attributed to the underspend. Those underspends carried forward into the next financial year to fund expenditure commitments were set out in Appendix 2.

·                General Fund Balance - It was reported that this would remain above the minimum recommended level of £2.6m.

·                Earmarked Reserves - Appendix 3 to the report provided a breakdown of Earmarked Reserves and it was noted that there had been a net increase of £1.637m from 1 April 2024. 

·                2024 / 25 Provisional Capital Outturn – The Capital Programme outturn with requested carry forwards was set out in Appendix 4 to the report, along with reasons for any slippage during 2024 / 25.

The Chairperson moved that reference in recommendation (i)(c) to ‘…the Reserves detailed in (c) above’ should be amended to read ‘…(b) above’ as the Reserves referred to were detailed in recommendation (i)(b). He then put the recommendations as set out in the report, subject to his amendment. This was duly seconded.

Councillor R H Siddall proposed that recommendation (i) (c) be amended to include the Leader of the Council. This was duly seconded.

There was some discussion regarding keeping Members informed and use of Working Groups. The Chief Executive confirmed that once the resource was allocated engagement with Members would take place regardless, however he was happy to take a steer from Members’ if they felt a Working Group / the Leaders’ Group should be included. The Chief Finance Officer advised that the Finance Working Group would be involved and receive a regular update, however meetings of this Working Group had yet to be scheduled.

The Chief Finance Officer provided some additional information in response to comments made during the date, this included:

·                How it was important for Officers to understand the 2024 / 25 performance, identify any appropriate learning and apply these to the 2025 / 26 budget process. A report would be brought back to a future meeting of the of the Committee detailing any changes required to the current year’s budget.

·                In respect of car parks, Members were advised that revenue from car parks should be referred to as residual surplus to the process of managing traffic and the Officer highlighted the operation issues and technical restrictions related to car parking revenue.

·                The feasibility study for cemeteries related to the reduced capacity in some of the Council’s cemeteries and acquiring additional land to extend the current cemetery. The Assistant Director – Customer Services and Operations advised of an associated planning application which had resulted in the feasibility study being paused. She noted that the Council would need to acquire some additional land in the future because of the reduced level of capacity in at least one of its cemeteries.

The Chairperson moved the recommendations set out in the report, subject to the amendment to (i) (c) as he had advised earlier.

Councillor Siddall proposed that recommendation (i) (c) be amended to include the Leader of the Council. This amendment was duly seconded and agreed.

The Chairperson put the revised recommendations, and these were duly agreed.

RESOLVED

(i)             That:

(a)        the Provisional Outturn position for the 2024 / 25 revenue budget as detailed at Appendix 1 to the reportbe noted along with reasons for significant variances;

(b)        the £853k surplus be transferred to Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) (£500k) and Transformation (£353k) Reserves;

(c)        the Chief Executive be granted delegated authority in consultation with the Chairperson of this Committee and Leader of the Council to apply funds from the Reserves detailed in (b) above, with any such decisions then being openly communicated to the Strategy and Resources Committee (S&R) through routine reporting at the earliest opportunity.

(ii)            That the revenue commitments detailed in Appendix 2 to the reportbe approved to be brought forward into 2025 / 26;

(iii)           That the movements in earmarked reserves in Appendix 3 to the reportbe approved;

(iv)           That the Provisional Outturn position for the 2024 / 25 capital budget in Appendix 4 to the reportbe noted and the proposed capital commitments be approved to be brought forward into 2025 / 26;

(v)            That the requests for 2025 / 26 capital and revenue budgets be updated with proposed amendments in Appendix 5 to the report, to be funded via various sources of fund.