Agenda item

The Deputy Section 151 Officer presented the report to the Committee.  A Microsoft PowerPoint was also shown to the Committee that provided additional details.

It was stated the report had been provided to the previous inquorate meeting and had been submitted and approved by Executive on 28^th July 2025.

The report detailed the 2024/25 outturn position with regard to the General Fund (GF), the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the Capital Programme (CP), the Treasury Management (TM) activities, and the earmarked reserves position.

Summarised at the attached Appendix 1 was the GF outturn position – this showed the Current Budget compared to the final Outturn position.  Attached at Appendix 2 were the variances at service level.

The main variances against the current budget were shown in Table 1 of the report:

The use of earmarked reserves in 2024/25 was £2.119m.  This reflected the expenditure incurred on projects at 31^st March 2025, which had approval to use earmarked reserves.

At the end of the financial year, it had been necessary to agree transfers into reserves in preparation for future expenditure commitments, some from income received 2024/25.

Transfers to reserves totalled £5.773m – £1.575m higher than originally forecast (reflecting the outturn in Table 1).  These consisted of:

• £0.200m contribution to the IT Reserve to fund future expenditure requirements;
• £0.200m contribution to the Legal Costs Reserve in preparation to fund future specialist legal advice, on matters such as the APSE case or planning  applications;
• £0.100m contribution to the 3G Pitch Carpet Replacement Reserve, as a requirement of the grant conditions from an external funder;
• £0.350m contribution to the Building, Repair and Renewal Reserve to fund future unexpected works on the Council’s buildings, for repairs such as at Pleasley Vale Business Park or security such as the post room changes – this was included within the General Reserve;
• £0.300m transfer to the Vehicle Replacement Reserve to finance new vehicles instead of borrowing and incurring interest costs;
• £0.170m transfer to the National Non-Domestic Rates Growth Protection Reserve to mitigate  against future changes to the funding of the Council and help balance the final year of the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP);
• £0.200m contribution to the General Reserve in anticipation of any Local Government Reorganisation costs incurred by the Council; and,
• £0.055m transfer to the Transformation Reserve as the remainder of the in-year surplus.

Attached at Appendix 7 was a table showing the Council’s earmarked reserves position for both the GF and HRA.  After the transfers to reserves had been made as part of the report, the GF had total earmarked reserves of £24.673m and the HRA had £3.396m – both at 31^st of March 2025 (the total of £28.069m was shown in the Council’s 2024/25 Accounts).

Of this total figure was already an element of reserves committed to be spent.  This was from previous reports to the Committee or delegated decisions which were approved prior to 2025/26 (in most cases).

The amount committed was £20.718m for the GF and £1.572m for the HRA.  A brief description of the reserve and the unallocated balances of £3.955m and £1.824m respectively were provided at Appendix 7.  Should any of these reserves prove unnecessary in the future, they would be moved back into unallocated GF or HRA resources (whichever was most appropriate).

The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government could not yet inform where future loses in local authority budgets would occur – the Committee would be informed once known.

Attached at Appendix 3 and 4 was the HRA.  The HRA position showed a number of variances during 2025/26.  The main expenditure underspends were in relation to:

·       staff related budgets £0.178m within various sections of the HRA;

·       £0.401 increased income from services; and,

·       a combined saving of £0.275m against the stores-issues and sub-contractor cost budget.

A Member noted the HRA was performing better than expected.  The Deputy Section 151 Officer reaffirmed the HRA had brought in a surplus of £0.810m.  The report detailed this surplus had been used to fund a contribution to the HRA Development Reserve – this would be available to fund future expenditure requirements.

Attached at Appendix 5 of the report were details of the CP expenditure incurred by the Council in 2024/25 on a scheme-by-scheme basis.  The CP was summarised as follows:

In relation to the GF element of the CP during 2024/25, £8.535m was not undertaken.  The Roseland Park and Crematorium at Shirebrook, ICT infrastructure and Vehicle replacements were the main variances.

Additional details of the proposed carry forward amounts to 2025/26 were attached at Appendix 5 of the report were.   These requests had related to individual schemes that were still in progress, where there were outstanding commitments, or where the scheme had been delayed.  The carry forward amount was £13.822m with the impact on the 2025/26 capital programme.

A brief report on the TM activity of the Council for 2024/25 was attached at Appendix 6 – the Council had operated throughout 2024/25 within the Authorised and Operational Boundary limits approved in the TM Strategy (as approved by the Council January 2024).

Highlighted the key points from the summary report were:

• The overall borrowing requirement of the Council (the Capital Financing Requirement) – £129.960m at 31^st March 2025;
• Effective internal borrowing – £51.160m;
• The PWLB debt – £78.8m;
• £7.2m repayments of PWLB debt in year;
• No new PWLB borrowing was undertaken in 2024/25;
• PWLB interest paid in 2024/25 – £2.837m; and,
•  Interest received on investments – £1.272m.

The Council had operated in line with its agreed TM Strategy during the 2024/25 financial year.  This ensured lending and borrowing arrangements had been prudent and sustainable, minimising the risk of financial loss to the Council.  Effective management of these arrangements ensured that interest costs during 2024/25 were minimised in order to assist the Council’s revenue position whilst interest had receivable risen.

The ongoing work and investment required for Pleasley Vale Business Park were raised.  The Deputy Section 151 Officer informed the Council was aware of increasing costs and would continue reviewing the situation.

The Portfolio Holder for Resources understood the concern and stated more information on Pleasley Vale Business Park could be provided to a future meeting – there was a tremendous amount of work ongoing and still to organise, but all financial issues were closely monitored.

Moved by Councillor David Bennett and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor

RESOLVED that: 1) Members note the outturn position in respect of the 2024/25 financial         year;

2)    Members note the transfers to general fund earmarked reserves of £1.575m as outlined in detail in paragraph 2.3;

3)    Members note the transfers to HRA earmarked reserves of £0.810m as outlined in detail in paragraph 2.14; and,

4)    Members note the proposed carry forward of capital budgets detailed in Appendix 5 totalling £13.822m.