Issue - meetings
Financial Monitoring Period 7
Meeting: 03/12/2025 - Cabinet (Item 10.)
10. Financial Monitoring Period 7 
PDF 2 MB
Lead Member – Councillor Roger Evans, Portfolio Holder for Finance
Lead Officer – James Walton, Executive Director (S151)
REPORT TO FOLLOW
Decision:
RESOLVED
A. To ensure actions taken by officers under the declared Financial Emergency are focussed to ensure all spending and income generation over the remainder of the financial year is scrutinised to actively improve the Council’s projected year end position. Action must predominantly focus on reducing spend, increasing income, delivering remaining savings and mitigating in-year spending pressures.
B. To support the continued use of Operations Boards, which have been in place from August 2025, to challenge all in-year spending, and more recently have been further enhanced to bring greater Service Director scrutiny. The impact of these boards will continue to inform future Finance Monitoring reports.
C. To consider the projected spend over budget at Period 7 of £50.746m.
D. To consider the indicative level of savings delivery at Period 7 of £20.917m (34.94%).
E. To support the proposal for a minimum value of £5m for the General Fund Balance and the ringfencing of a Contingency Fund of £5.478m.
F. To support the proposed application for Exceptional Financial Support of £71.361m made up of £21.466m for revenue monitoring pressures, up to £10m for transformation activity and up to £38.895m for NWRR write off costs (should this be necessary). The decision on the final application will be made by the s151 Officer in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance.
Meeting: 01/12/2025 - Transformation and Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 38)
38 Financial Monitoring Period 7 PDF 2 MB
To scrutinise performance at Period 7 and identify issues that may require further investigation by an overview and scrutiny committee.
REPORT TO FOLLOW
Minutes:
The Executive Director (S151) presented the period 7 financial monitoring report, detailing a projected overspend of £50.746 million for the year, with significant pressures in adult social care, children's services, and infrastructure, and outlined the risk scenarios, contingency planning, and the rationale for the figures used in the exceptional financial support application.
Members were advised that a deep dive exercise was conducted to remove optimism bias from projections, moving savings into green, amber, or red categories based on deliverability, and ensuring that the central scenario reflects the most realistic outcome agreed by Service Directors.
A request for a copy of financial tables in an excel format was received to facilitate easier analysis and sorting.
Concerns were raised about the Council's ability to achieve financial sustainability beyond the current year, prompting discussion of the improvement plan, ongoing reliance on exceptional financial support, and the need for structural changes and service cuts to ensure future stability.
Members were cautioned against viewing exceptional financial support as a permanent solution, noting the risks of accumulating debt and interest costs, and the need to avoid a situation where borrowing is required to service existing debt.
Members noted the report.