Lead Member – Councillor David Minnery – Portfolio Holder for Finance

Report of the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance [s151 Officer] TO FOLLOW

Contact: James Walton      Tel: 01743 255001

RESOLVED:

i.     That the recommended level of general balances to support the 2018/19 revenue budget at £17.081m, noting that the projected balance will be below this for 2018/19, be approved;

ii.    That the projected recommended level of general reserves be noted for the following four years at £18.830m in 2019/20, £18.879m in 2020/21, £31.518m in 2021/22 and £40.037m in 2022/23.

iii.   That it be noted that further consideration will be made of the implications of figures contained within this report and should there be any material change required, this will be reported to Council on 22 February 2018.

      The Portfolio Holder for Finance presented a technical report from the Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance [s151 Officer] on the robustness of the estimates made for the purposes of the budget calculations and the adequacy of the proposed reserves.

      Responding to a Member’s query regarding the number of staff redundancies to be implemented by the end of March 2018, the Chief Executive stated that      these were voluntary and savings were to be made before the end of the next financial year, 2018/2019.  He stated that, until the outcome of the voluntary         redundancy scheme and the impact of the digital transformation had been assessed, the level of compulsory redundancies could not be projected.  He also             stressed that structural changes were to be made within teams and this would have an impact on future staffing.

      The Head of Finance, Governance and Assurance [s151 Officer] explained that the reserves calculation was a risk based assessment based on the current          Financial Strategy and that before 2022/23 the Council should be reducingthe funding gap and thus reducing the risk in later years.

      RESOLVED:

i.     That the recommended level of general balances to support the 2018/19 revenue budget at £17.081m, noting that the projected balance will be below this for 2018/19, be approved;

ii.    That the projected recommended level of general reserves be noted for the following four years at £18.830m in 2019/20, £18.879m in 2020/21, £31.518m in 2021/22 and £40.037m in 2022/23.

iii.   That it be noted that further consideration will be made of the implications of figures contained within this report and should there be any material change required, this will be reported to Council on 22 February 2018.