Issue - meetings

The Head of Accountancy presented this report, which detailed the Council’s performance with regard to its key corporate actions, performance indicators, General Fund, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and capital programme for 2010/11.

Minor corrections

It was noted that some minor grammatical corrections were required to action seven, listed under paragraph 21 and the first sentence in paragraph 24. It was suggested that paragraph 14 should detail by how much the Council had exceeded the target to increase the number of young people taking part in positive activities and that paragraph 18 should detail by how much the Council had exceeded its target regarding community clear-up events.

General Fund

The Head of Accountancy explained that the underspend on the General Fund was due to increased income from planning applications and the blue bin scheme. The Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder stated that he was not overly concerned about an underspend caused by increased income.

HRA

The Head of Accountancy explained that the overspend was due to the £1 million loan to fund capital expenditure on the Council’s equity share housing and the money from the revenue account to bring the extra expenditure up to £2 million. The Head of Accountancy agreed to ascertain whether the extra funding from revenues had been approved when the review was agreed or whether it would be agreed when February’s Council approved the estimates in the budget.

Business Workshops

It was noted that the business workshops had been well attended and it was agreed to find out how these had been advertised, as not all small businesses had been made aware of the event.

The Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder NOTED the report.

Consideration was given to the third quarter Integrated Business Monitoring report and in particular,

·         the success of the recycling and composting rate

·         that achieving a 10% reduction in CO₂ emissions from the Council’s operations was unlikely to be met

·         the figures relating to Supported Housing / Rent Income / Recharged Departmental and Overhead Accounts shown in Appendix A under Housing Revenue Account were incorrect

·         the impact of the withdrawal of subsidy in respect of Community Transport was not yet known

The Portfolio Holder NOTED the projected expenditure and performance position.

The Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder received and noted a report containing headline information about the Council’s performance with regard to its key corporate actions, performance indicators, General Fund, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and capital programme for 2010-11.  The report identified relevant links between budget and performance, and potential opportunities for the reallocation of resources to reflect ongoing and emerging policy priorities.

The Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder expressed concern at the reduction in the level of income from planning applications.  He noted with enthusiasm initial soundings from central Government that Local Planning Authorities might eventually be given the power to determine the level of planning application fees within their own administrative areas and, therefore, assume responsibility for the overall level of resultant income.   In response to a question from Councillor Jose Hales, the Executive Director (Corporate Services) said that the Executive Management Team would be reviewing the use of consultants across the Council in the interests of reducing costs.  The Portfolio Holder welcomed this, but stressed that care was needed to secure a balance between cost-cutting and the use of consultants in order to maintain effectiveness.

In response to a question from Councillor Tumi Hawkins, the Executive Director (Corporate Services) gave further details about the impact on the Community Youth Bus of the withdrawal of Local Public Services Agreement grant support.  The Policy and Performance Manager undertook to clarify the situation and report back.

Consideration was given to the contents of the report and accompanying appendices relating to projected expenditure and performance at the end of the 2010/11 second quarter. As a result of the ensuing discussion, the following issues were raised:

·         The £10k underspend on Homelessness; this may reduce depending on client needs

·         The £20k overspend in Development Control; this was due to the requirement to seek specialist external legal advice

·         The underspend in respect of Concessionary Fares. This function was expected to be taken over by the County Council in April 2011

·         A balance of £109k savings was required in order to balance the required savings target

·         The target relating to enhanced street cleansing within 10 of the larger villages would progress to red if funding was not reinstated

·         Additional funding in respect of the Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership would be considered during the budget setting process in February 2011

·         It was confirmed that the Member Development Charter was signed by the Leader, the Leader of the main Opposition Group and the Chief Executive at Cabinet on 11 November 2010

·         It was expected that £274k for ICT Development would be spent by the end of the financial year

The Portfolio Holder NOTED the report.

The Head of Accountancy presented this report which provided the Finance Portfolio Holder with a monthly position statement on the General Fund, HRA and Capital Expenditure.

The Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder noted that the projected outturns based on August 2010 reports showed the following variances:

General Fund:                         £119,500 or 0.77% underspend

Housing Revenue Account:             £24,800 or 0.11% underspend

Capital:                                    £1,800 or 0.02% underspend

The Head of Accountancy explained that the projected variance for the General Fund based on the latest information available to him was an overspend of £12,700 or 0.08%.

It was noted that the income from the planning section was now projected to be £700,000, which would be £200,000 less than originally expected, although it was noted that income from Building Control was likely to be higher than anticipated.

The Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder NOTED the report.

The Policy and Performance Manager presented the report which was to be received by the Policy and Performance Portfolio Holder also.  The report identified relevant links between budget and performance and invited Portfolio Holders to identify opportunities to reallocate resources to reflect ongoing and emerging policy priorities.

Forecast Underspend

The Portfolio Holder noted that the forecast net underspend at 1.32% remained well within the target 3% of Revised Net District Council Expenditure and that it was very early in the year to consider reallocation.

The HRA predicted underspend of £41,600 related to an as yet unfilled vacancy and was a very small proportion of the services budget.

Success in managing down spending in this current financial year would not prevent the authority facing dilemmas in coming years, focus must be maintained on the bigger picture.

The Portfolio Holder NOTED the report.