Agenda item

The Section 151 Officer provided Members of the Committee with a detailed Budget Monitoring Report. The purpose of the report was to update the Committee on the financial position of the Council following the first quarter’s budget monitoring exercise for the General Fund, the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Capital Programme and Treasury Management activity.

A presentation on the Budget Monitoring Report for Quarter 1 was provided and discussed by the Section 151 Officer. Members were reminded that the General Fund covers all services except the Housing Revenue Account. No known budget pressures were identified on the general fund at the end of Quarter 1.

At the end of the first Quarter there was a significant issue to report regarding the overall position for the HRA, as the reduction in income caused by voids was at a higher level than budgeted for.

A Member queried voids and if it was possible to split out those that were empty and could be due to relets and those that were purposely left vacant awaiting development / being demolished.

There remained a great deal of uncertainty regarding the future funding of Local Government. The change in Government after the general election made trying to predict what may be in the Spending Review for 2024, extremely difficult.

There were no significant financial issues to report regarding capital expenditure at

the end of the first quarter.

Further information could be found in the appendices to the report.

Moved by Councillor Justin Gilbody and seconded by Councillor Jane Yates

RESOLVED that: 1) the Finance and Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee     notes the monitoring position of the General Fund at the end of the first           quarter as detailed in Appendix 1 to the report (A net favourable   variance of £0.576m against the profiled budget) and the key issues            highlighted within this report; and,

2)    the Finance and Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee notes the position on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the Capital Programme and Treasury Management at the end of the first quarter (Appendices 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6).