Agenda item

That the current management position on the 2021/22 accounts be noted:

(a)  The council’s forecast cumulative deficit and improvement as at the end of June 2021/22 of £1.325m.

(b)  The forecast General Fund revenue position for 2021/22 as at the end of June 2021 is a £5.575m overspend;

(c)  The progress towards the 2021/22 savings programme;

(d)  The work being done by all parties across the Council to verify the savings identified in the 21/22 budget and action being taken to mitigate the budget gap in the current financial year by 30/9/21;

(e)  The current DSG cumulative deficit is £23.775m and in-year forecast as at the end of June 2021/22 is £4.885m deficit.

(f)  The current forecast spend on Transformation to deliver savings;

(g)  The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is forecast to spend to budget for as at the end of June 2021.

(h)  Approve the capital budgets carry forward from 2020/21

(i)  Note that the current capital programme is unaffordable, and a number of schemes are being reviewed to determine whether they can be stopped or their scope reduced.

(j)  Note that funding assumptions in some schemes that had been included in the capital programme as funded from capital receipts have been updated.

(k)  Note the forecast capital spend for 2021/22, pending review of the programme.

(l)  Note that the capital schemes that have been missed in the 2021/22 budget process will be passed to Council for approval in November 2021.

(m)  Note that a number of capital schemes in the programme have already commenced without business cases coming to Cabinet for approval.  These will come to future Cabinet meetings for retrospective decisions as financial governance is improved

The Section 151 Officer summarised a report that set out the estimated forecast position for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and the Capital Programme to the end of June 2021.

The Cabinet noted the considerable work that had been undertaken during this period to verify the 2021/22 budget position and start to address the wide range of financial issues set out in the s114 notice and subsequent reports to Cabinet and Council.  The current forecast for the in year position was an overspend of £5.575m, which was an improvement of £1.325m on the previous period.  The Cabinet noted the update on DSG and HRA and also noted that work was commencing on the collection fund with an anticipated completion date of 31 October.  In view of the scale of work ongoing and to be completed, there was uncertainty in the forecasts and they were likely change from the position reported at the end of first quarter.

The Cabinet noted the report.

Resolved –  That the current management position on the 2021/22 accounts be noted:

(a)  The council’s forecast cumulative deficit and improvement as at the end of June 2021/22 of £1.325m;

(b)  The forecast General Fund revenue position for 2021/22 as at the end of June 2021 was a £5.575m overspend;

(c)  The progress towards the 2021/22 savings programme;

(d)  The work being done by all parties across the Council to verify the savings identified in the 21/22 budget and action being taken to mitigate the budget gap in the current financial year by 30/9/21;

(e)  The current DSG cumulative deficit was £23.775m and in-year forecast as at the end of June 2021/22 was £4.885m deficit.

(f)  The current forecast spend on Transformation to deliver savings;

(g)  The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was forecast to spend to budget for as at the end of June 2021;

(h)  Approved the capital budgets carry forward from 2020/21;

(i)  Noted that the current capital programme was unaffordable, and a number of schemes were being reviewed to determine whether they could be stopped or their scope reduced.

(j)  Noted that funding assumptions in some schemes that had been included in the capital programme as funded from capital receipts had been updated.

(k)  Noted the forecast capital spend for 2021/22, pending review of the programme.

(l)  Noted that the capital schemes that had been missed in the 2021/22 budget process would be passed to Council for approval in November 2021.

(m)  Noted that a number of capital schemes in the programme had already commenced without business cases coming to Cabinet for approval.  These would come to future Cabinet meetings for retrospective decisions as financial governance was improved.