Report of the Director of Finance, Governance and Assurance is attached.

Contact James Walton      Tel. 01743 258915

It was proposed by the Leader, Councillor Nutting, and seconded by Councillor Minnery, that the report of the Director of Finance, Governance and Assurance on the Financial Outturn 2018/19, a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes, and the recommendations therein be received and agreed.

Members commented on the uncertainty caused by the Comprehensive Spending Review and the Fair Funding Review, and the marked difference in funding between urban and rural areas, with a difference of around 50% more funding per-capita in favour of urban areas.

Members raised concerns regarding the impact of increases in statutory spending for Children’s Services and Adult Social Services and unbudgeted pressures; on low interest rates on funds held in the bank; and, the financial risk of proposed spending on large projects.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Corporate Support, Councillor Minnery responded that the Council was working to deliver a sustainable budget and it was to be expected that during the year there would be deviations from the budget set at the start of the financial year.  He agreed that there had been unexpected growth in the expenditure for Children’s Services, reflected nationally, and congratulated the Service on its achievement in keeping costs down. He reminded Members that the interest rates referred to were on accounts where access to funds was required for cash flow and so were realistic for that type of account. 

The Leader, Councillor Nutting, responded that the County’s Members of Parliament had been made aware of the unfairness in the funding formulas between rural and urban areas.  He commented on the level of Member confusion between capital and revenue budgets. 

RESOLVED:

i)     That it be noted that the outturn for the revenue budget for 2018/19 is a controllable underspend of £0.167m.  This represents 0.03% of the original gross budget of £561.950m.

ii)    That it be noted that the level of the General Fund balance after adjusting for the outturn underspend and insurance position stands at £15.537m, which is above the anticipated level assessed in February 2019.

iii)   That it be noted that the Outturn for the Housing Revenue Account for 2018/19 is an underspend of £3.859m and the level of the Housing Revenue Account reserve stands at £9.813m (2017/18 £8.225m).

iv)   That it be noted that the increase in the level of Earmarked Reserves and Provisions (excluding delegated school balances) of £4.986m in 2018/19 and the reasons for this.

v)    That it be noted that the level of school balances stand at £4.178m (2017/18 £5.381m).

vi)   That the net budget variations of £0.848m to the 2018/19 capital programme, detailed in Appendix 5 / Table 11 and the re-profiled 2018/19 capital budget of £60.703m be approved

vii)  That the re-profiled capital budgets of £69.243m for 2019/20, including slippage of £15.728m from 2018/19, £22.181m for 2020/21 and £16.001m for 2021/22 as detailed in Appendix 5 / Table 15 be approved

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viii)That the outturn expenditure set out in Appendix 5 of £50.975m, representing 76% of the revised capital budget for 2018/19 be accepted.

ix)   That retaining a balance of capital receipts set aside of £20.515m as at 31st March 2019 to generate a one-off Minimum Revenue Provision saving of £0.621m in 2019/20 be approved.