Agenda item

That the following be noted:

·  The forecast year-end position for the General Fund revenue budgets is a net adverse variance of £292k.  The current forecast assumes Covid-19 pressures will be funded from additional grants received in year and will continue to be monitored monthly and reported alongside any grant funding provided to mitigate the spend or lost income.

·  That there are a number of exceptional issues, estimated to be £95m, not included in the forecast above that are included in the Capitalisation Direction request to DLUHC.

·  The DSG balance is forecast to be a cumulative deficit of £25.5m by the end of this financial year.

·  At end of December 2021, the HRA was forecasting a surplus of £0.927m for 2021/22, however this may change as work progresses on the Business Plan. Any surplus will be transferred to the HRA reserves at year-end.

·  The additions and reductions to the capital programme set out in appendix E.

·  The forecast capital programme outturn for the General Fund for 2021/22 is currently £55m, of which £12m is to be financed from new borrowing.

·  The forecast capital programme outturn for the HRA for 2021/22 is currently £13.0m.

The Director of Finance summarised the budget monitoring report for Quarter 3 to the end of December 2021.

The report set out the work undertaken to control spending and achieve savings during the year and the forecast year-end position for the General Fund was an overspend of £292k.  Further work would be required to reduce that figure by the end of the year.  The Cabinet recognised that that this figure excluded the estimated £95m of exceptional issues which were included in the capitalisation direction.

The report was noted.

Resolved –

That the following be noted:

·  The forecast year-end position for the General Fund revenue budgets was a net adverse variance of £292k.  The current forecast assumed Covid-19 pressures will be funded from additional grants received in year and will continue to be monitored monthly and reported alongside any grant funding provided to mitigate the spend or lost income.

·  That there were a number of exceptional issues, estimated to be £95m, not included in the forecast above that were included in the Capitalisation Direction request to DLUHC.

·  The DSG balance was forecast to be a cumulative deficit of £25.5m by the end of this financial year.

·  At end of December 2021, the HRA was forecasting a surplus of £0.927m for 2021/22, however this may change as work progresses on the Business Plan. Any surplus will be transferred to the HRA reserves at year-end.

·  The additions and reductions to the capital programme set out in appendix E.

·  The forecast capital programme outturn for the General Fund for 2021/22 was currently £55m, of which £12m is to be financed from new borrowing.

·  The forecast capital programme outturn for the HRA for 2021/22 was currently £13.0m.