Agenda item

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

The Committee considered the report of the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) presenting the Budget Monitoring position for revenue and capital budgets for the period ended 31 May 2025 (period 2). The report also informed Members of movements in relation to the Council’s General Fund and Earmarked Reserves and requested virements along with any budget requests for both revenue and capital budgets.

It was noted that this report was brough forward for consideration with the agreement of the Chairperson as the Council required certainty on the available budgets for 2025 / 26 to carry out its operations in a timely manner.

The CFO presented the report which provided detailed information including:

·                Revenue Budget Monitoring (p2) – The main variances were detailed in Appendix 1 to the report. A virement for the contingency budget of £328k to fund Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) was set out in Appendix 3 to the report.

·                Capital Budget Monitoring (p2) – The forecast for the capital budget projected an overspend of £29k against the revised 2025 / 26 Capital Programme and the main project details were set out in Appendix 2 to the report.

·                Virements – A set of virements was set out in Appendix 3 to the report.

·                Budget Requests – A total of £145k of budget requests is proposed and set out in Appendix 3 to the report. Appendix 5 to the report would help reconcile the revised budget back to the original budget, thus providing a clear audit trail to the original budget approved by the Council.

·                Reserves – Movements on Reserves for the year 2025 / 26 were set out in Appendix 4 to the report.

·                Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) Brief Update – A summary was showing in table 2 to the report and Appendix 6 provided more detail.

·                Funding – New Homes Bonus finished at the end of the year and the Extended Producer Responsibility had increased.

A debate ensued and in response to a question Members were advised that recommendation (i)c was a corporate position, taking account of the balance sheet position and potential approached to pay and contracts. It would give some reassurance that Officers and Members were working together.

Councillor W Stamp proposed an amendment to recommendation (i)c to include the Leader of the Council in the decision making process. This was duly seconded.

The Leader of the Council highlighted the update to the Capital Programme, particularly the new play site equipment allocated to deliver a new accessible play site at West Maldon Community Centre. The play site would be delivered in honour of the late Councillor Flo Shaughnessy and Members noted that Mr Shaughnessy was in attendance at the meeting. The Leader highlighted that the Council was changing the programme of updates across the District and work for play areas and parks was changing from a five year programme to three years to fit into the life of the Council.

The CFO advised that he would be closely reviewing the Leisure Contract as it was not yet known what the impact in terms of capital investment or footfall was going to be. In response to a request for a six-monthly report on the finance of the Leisure Contract, reporting any changes or any forecast changes, the CFO suggested that this be incorporated into the routine financial reporting. As well as the Leisure Contract the report could also pick up on any areas of significant contractual activity. The Chief Executive reported that the Council had put in place contract meetings and a formal governance framework to monitor contract performance which would be reported to Members through the Finance Working Group.

The Chairperson then moved the recommendations set out in the report with the amendment to (i)c as proposed by Councillor Stamp. This was duly seconded and agreed.

RESOLVED

(i)             That

a.          for the revenue budget monitoring forecast position for Period 2 (31 May 2025) an overspend of £226k against the net service budget of £12,620k be noted. This is offset against a funding surplus of £422k – thus an overall surplus of £196k is forecast for the full year. Further information can be found at Appendix 1 to the report along with reasons for significant variances;

b.          for the capital budget monitoring positions for Period 2 (31 May 2025) a total capital delivery profile set at £6,502k against revised budget of £6,472k be noted (an addition £29k worth of capital budget). Further information can be found at Appendix 2 to the report along with reasons for significant variances;

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 Contingency Budget post virements (Appendix 3 to the report), with any impact on the net expenditure position then being openly communicated to the Strategy and Resources Committee (S&R) through routine reporting at the earliest opportunity.

(ii)            That the virements (cost neutral to the budget) and budget requests totalling £174k detailed in Appendix 3 to the report be approved to be processed and updated on the ledger;

(iii)           That the movements in both the General Fund Balance and Earmarked Reserves in Appendix 4 to the reportbe noted. Should the forecast remain unchanged, the impact will be an additional £196k increase to the General Fund balance, totalling £8,777k; and

(iv)           That the revenue budget reconciliation in Appendix 5 to the report be noted.

(v)            That the Committee requests that Officers begin planning for future savings as outlined in the revised MTFS position in Appendix 6 to the report and confirms that use of reserves in future years before LGR is a reasonable approach in the current circumstances.