Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director of Finance. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategic Regeneration.]

This report will provide an update on the Quarter 2 budget monitoring and will seek approval for any budget changes required to respond to the changing financial scenario and the delivery of the MTFS.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Strategic Regeneration introduced this report which provided an update on the Quarter 2 budget monitoring and sought approval for any budget changes required to respond to the changing financial scenario and the delivery of the MTFS.

The Cabinet Member was pleased to be able to report that the General Fund budget position and delivery of agreed savings was in a more robust position this financial year, and believed that this was due to the decisions taken when setting this year’s budget which sought to ensure that these were set to be as realistic as possible within the overall available resource envelope.

The Cabinet Member noted that the final agreed 2019/20 Budget reflected a number of actions taken to de-risk the base budget position. This mainly focussed on addressing the budget pressures in the two People related services which had been significantly overspent in 2018/19. These actions were intended to provide greater confidence of managing within the agreed budget as well as delivering agreed budget reduction proposals.

The Cabinet Member informed the GF revenue forecast of £5.2m overspend presented had remained stable at the level reported in Qtr1 and was significantly below the £15.9m reported in the same period in 2018/19 (which was before the application of budget contingencies of £6.6m in that year). This evidenced that the approach to setting the budget was sound and was having the intended consequence. Two of the most significant budget pressures driving the forecast overspend had been considered in the draft 2020/21 Budget/MTFS 2020-2025 proposals. Officers continued to focus on strategies to bring the in-year overspend down with the aim of achieving a balanced outturn by year end.

The Cabinet Member closed by drawing Member’s attention to two final points. The first was the increased forecast DSG overspend now standing at £5.1m. This was a matter of real concern and pressure needed to be put on Government to recognise this issue and come forward with a sustainable solution. The second point was that there was a new appendix to the quarterly budget update reports which provided Members with a record of debt write-offs across the various debt fields.

In response to questions from Councillor Dennison, the following information was provided:

• Regarding the spending pressure on the housing General Fund and temporary accommodation, Officers forecast that the Council would receive enough flexible Housing Support Grant to continue to support this function through to next year. The Council had been taking action that would seek to ease pressure in future years, such as through the Community Benefit Society.
• Regarding the savings on Alexandra House which would not be achieved, Officers noted the original saving represented a wider savings across the estate.

• Regarding the High Road West Business, the Cabinet Member noted there were a number of conversations taking place, not only with the Council but with the GLA and Mayor of London. Talks were focusing on looking at increasing the number of social housing units provided within the scheme. Thus  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107