Issue - meetings

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee had considered the report and financial position at its recent meeting and the Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder was pleased to see that work to reduce underspendings continued to yield good results, which were now within the agreed tolerance range of +/- 3%.  It was noted that six of the nine missed targets related to housing completions, which were beyond the Council’s control.  The Chief Executive commended the excellent performance, which had been achieved with staff resources half as many of those at neighbouring authorities.

Cabinet NOTED the contents of the report and that

(a)               levels of underspending were all within the target range of +/- 3%;

(b)               overall the authority had succeeded in achieving most objectives that it set out to do; and

(c)        the Performance Management Portal was launched in June 2009.

The full Statement is a detailed document to meet the statutory requirement to comply with technical accounting standards. It is included on the agenda for robust review by Members prior to approval by the Corporate Governance Committee at its meeting next Monday 29 June 2009 and is available on modern.gov.

The essential features are:

·                      Balances, i.e. how much money have we got to spend in the future

These have turned out to be slightly higher than we estimated back in February 2009 when we reported on the revised estimates

On the General Fund, which shows the cost of services for the whole community, we now have £8.1 million as at 31st March 2009 compared to a revised estimate of £7.9 million.

On the Housing Revenue Account, which shows the cost of council housing, we now have £3.1 million as at 31st March 2009 compared to a revised estimate of £3.0 million.

On Capital, which includes expenditure which will be of benefit for many future years, we are also better off by £0.3 million, being the year end balance of capital receipts from the sale of assets.

These figures will be built in to future projections. The underspendings are much lower than in previous years and the Council has met its target of being within 3% of budget on each of the above accounts.

·                      Financial stewardship

This is demonstrated by:

(a)               The Council’s Chief Executive (as the statutory officer responsible for the proper administration of the Council’s financial affairs), Greg Harlock, certifying that the accounts present fairly the financial position of the Council (page 9 of the Statement). This is equivalent to the true and fair view in company accounts and is not a guarantee that everything is accurate to the nearest penny;

(b)               An annual governance statement for ensuring sound management and systems which is signed by the Leader, Ray Manning, and the Chief Executive but is the responsibility of Members and senior officers generally. This covers corporate governance, internal control, risk management , etc. (pages 13 to 26);

and will hopefully be demonstrated by our external auditors, the Audit Commission, giving an unqualified audit opinion on the Statement of Accounts by 30th September. The Auditor’s report to the Corporate Governance Committee in September will also demonstrate whether the Council has complied with increasingly complex accounting issues, many of which have no effect on the financial position of the Council.

·                      The Statement also includes an explanatory foreword which attempts to give a basic introduction to the Council’s finances (pages 2 to 8) 

The Head of Accountancy presented a report to provide the Portfolio Holder with an update to the previous provisional outturn report.  The Portfolio Holder was advised that the figures in the report would be subject to finalisation and approval by the External Auditors of the Final Accounts. 

The Portfolio Holder was further advised that there had been some unexpected movements in the accounts since the previous provisional outturn report, but that it was expected that the final results would be within the 3% target range. 

Questions and Comments

The General Fund underspend had increased by £200,000.

The Housing Revenue Account would be ‘fine tuned’ at the end of the year.

It was confirmed that the overspend on the working estimate for Housing Repairs had come about as a result of more repair work being undertaken than forecast.  It was noted that the DLO had performed much of this work and, as a result, the DLO deficit (estimated at approximately £40,000) had been eliminated.

The Portfolio Holder was advised that the £400,000 underspend in 2007/08 had been added into the disabled adaptations budget for 2009/10.

The Portfolio Holder was further advised that a Rollovers Report would be presented at his July meeting.

The Portfolio Holder was advised that final data for the concessionary fares scheme was awaited.

The Portfolio Holder was advised that departmental staff overspends were generally due to the costs of recruitment and that underspends corresponded with vacancies.

The report was NOTED.

Adrian Burns, Head of Accountancy, was in attendance for this item.

The Portfolio Holder advised the meeting that he had asked for the report to be presented to allow the opportunity for discussion, as there had been significant changes to the financial projections made between November and December 2008.

The Head of Accountancy advised the Portfolio Holder that the main items accounting for the significant changes in the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Accounts were highlighted in paragraph 6 of the report, and further advised of the factors behind each item.

The Portfolio Holder was further advised of the Housing Futures recharge from the Housing Revenue Account to the General Fund.  The Head of Accountancy said that he believed that the recharge had been initiated following a meeting between the Housing Futures Project Manager, the Principal Accountant, Housing, and the consultants, and undertook to provide feedback to the Portfolio Holder of the reasons for the recharge at this stage.

Action:  Adrian Burns

In reply to a question the Head of Accountancy advised the Portfolio Holder that estimates were reviewed by managers in November / December.  Part of the reason for the variation was due to the recalculation of Recharges and the Benefit Holding accounts, whereas other accounts were managed on an ongoing basis.  The Portfolio Holder requested that the differentiation between these two types of account be clarified for Member benefit.

Action: Adrian Burns

The Portfolio Holder commented that there had been large variations between the November and December updates but that these variations had been atypical, reflecting the current turbulent economic situation.

The Head of Accountancy advised the Portfolio Holder that it was anticipated that there would be little change to the financial position in the January update.

The report was NOTED.

The Updated Financial Position to 31 August 2008 will be tabled at the meeting.

Cabinet NOTED the report. 

The Finance Portfolio Holder presented this item as an update to the July Financial Position, part of the Integrated Business Monitoring Report as presented at item 15 on the agenda (see minute 41 above).

Cabinet NOTED the report. 

Cabinet NOTED the projected expenditure position and referred the report to the next meeting of the Finance Portfolio Holder for more detailed consideration.

Cabinet further AGREED that the first call on the additional £545,870 revenue element of the Housing & Planning Delivery Grant would be to address the potential planning overspends indicated in the report. 

The Finance Portfolio Holder presented a report which provided Cabinet with the first 2008-09 monitoring report against budgets and the Corporate Plan performance measures.

Cabinet NOTED the projected expenditure position and referred the report to the next meeting of the Finance Portfolio Holder for more detailed consideration.

Cabinet further AGREED that the first call on the additional £545,870 revenue element of the Housing & Planning Delivery Grant would be to address the potential planning overspends indicated in the report. 

The Corporate Manager, Finance and Support Services presented the report and explained that the figures in paragraphs 2(a) and 11 should read: 

He explained that the report highlighted key areas where over and under spends might become issues.  He added that figures were currently unavailable for a number of indicators, but provisional data indicated that there should not be a problem.

It was confirmed that work was ongoing to identify further savings to meet the Gershon Efficiency target shortfall.

The Portfolio Holder undertook to establish whether a press release detailing savings within the Council’s annual efficiency statement had been released.

The Portfolio Holder was informed that the Integrated Business Monitoring Report would be presented to Cabinet in September after being updated to reflect updated information for the current financial year, by the end of August.

The Portfolio Holder NOTED the report.