Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Environment and Finance & Governance and the Director of Finance submitted a report for the Executive’s consideration. The purpose of the report was to provide information on the Council’s financial position at Quarter Three 2021/22, including the projected effect of Covid-19 on the Council’s finances.

As reported in previous reports, the Covid-19 pandemic was continuing to have a significant impact on the Council’s financial position. That had made the management of the Council’s finances more difficult due to the constantly evolving situation and also the level of uncertainty regarding the financial effects of Covid-19 in 2021/22 and future years. Covid-19 financial pressures were being monitored separately from the normal non-Covid-19 financial position, and those were reported separately in paragraphs 66 to 95 of the submitted report.

The 2021/22 Revenue budget for the Council was £116,492,035. During Quarter One there was a number of transfers of services between directorates due to managerial changes, and the financial position was reported against the new directorate budgets. The Council’s outturn position for 2021/22 for non-Covid-19 elements was projected to be an overspend of £3.225m (2.8%). The split by directorate was shown in the table at paragraph 7 of the submitted report, with the Quarter Two position also included for information.

The overspend of £3.225m, when added to the estimated Covid-19 pressures of £1.821m, resulted in a total projected outturn pressure at year-end 2021/22 of £5.046m, an increase of £0.891m from the position reported at Quarter Two.

It was proposed that the total projected overspend in 2021/22 be covered by the full utilisation of the Social Care Demand Reserve of £0.5m and the Children’s Services Demand Reserve of £0.732m, which were created at the end of 2020/21. It was proposed that the remaining £3.814m of the total projected outturn pressure be funded from the £4.512m Covid Recovery Reserve, which was created during 2020/21 to cover the potential costs arising from the Covid-19 recovery in 2021/22 and future years.

£1.9m of additional budget efficiency savings were approved by Council on 24 February 2021 as part of the 2021/22 budget setting. There was also approximately £1m of savings approved in previous years relating to 2021/22.

As reported previously at Quarters One and Two it had not been possible to achieve one of the budget savings due to Covid-19 and that was detailed in paragraph 82 of the submitted report. Further information on the progress against budget savings was contained at paragraphs 14 to 17.

In terms of directorate variances, at Quarter Three, 24 areas were projected to be spent +/- £150,000 of the agreed budget. Where appropriate, the on-going effects of variances would be considered as part of future updates of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan. The detail of the variances contained in the table at paragraph 7 were set out in the submitted report:

·        Regeneration and Culture (see paragraphs 19 and 20);

·        Environment and Community Services (see paragraphs 21 to 29);

·        Public Health (see paragraph 30);

·        Adult Social Care (see paragraphs 31  ...  view the full minutes text for item 99