Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Executive (enclosed)

1.     That the full year forecast position for the 2016/17 revenue budget and capital investment programme be noted.

2.     That the forecast position on the Council’s reserves be noted.

3.     To request Full Council to grant approval for the contribution of £150,000 from in-year revenue underspends to the Change Management Reserve to finance one-off redundancy and pension strain costs arising from transformation and shared services strategies.

4.     To request Full Council to grant approval venue underspends to the Change Management Reserve to the Buildings Maintenance Reserve to finance one-off costs relating to office utilisation and transformational change.

5.     To request Full Council to grant approval of the following increases and additions to the capital programme:

a.     £20k increase in the CCTV capital budget to complete the installation of CCTV equipment to be funded from underspends on the CCTV revenue maintenance budget.

b.     £27k budget increase for Ranglett’s recreation project for woks to the surrounding roads to meet LCC requirements for a crossing.

c.      £100k increase in the Astley 2020 budget to increase the Council’s match funding for a HLF grant bid from £100k to £200K to secure a £2m HLF grant that is necessary to meet the scope of works required to fully renovate the Hall.

d.     £2.947m for the purchase of HCA employment land to be funded through the sale of Council residential land and prudential borrowing.

e.     £2.2m for the Bank Hall project of which the Council will act as the accountable body for receiving requests for HLF grant. The grant money will be paid to the Council and the Council will then pay monies over to the claimants.

6.            To request Full Council to note the changes to the capitalprogramme to reflect delivery in 2016/17 and 2017/18

The Executive Member (Resources) presented the report of the Chief Finance Officer that set out the provisional revenue and capital outturn figures for the Council as compared against the budgets and efficiency savings targets set for the financial year 2016/17.

The latest net revenue budget was £18.960m which had been amended to include approved slippage from 2015/16 and any other transfers from reserves. A full schedule of the investment budgets carried forward from 2015/16 and the new (non-recurrent) investment budgets introduced in the 2016/17 budget was appended to the report together with expenditure to date against these projects. The Council’s approved revenue budget for 2016/17 included target savings of £150,000 from management of the staffing establishment which had already been achieved.

Following the recommendations made in September 2016 budget monitoring report, in year revenue underspends had been set aside to fund the Retail Grants Programme, Local Development Framework costs anticipated in 2017/18 and investment in the Public Realm works capital scheme.

The provisional outturn position for the Council based upon actual spend in the first nine months of the financial year was appended to the report and adjusted for future spend based upon assumptions regarding vacancies and service delivery.  The latest forecast of capital expenditure in 2016/17 is £14.563m

The projected revenue outturn was currently showing a forecasted underspend of £298,000 against budget although no action was required at this stage.

In the 2016/17 budget, the expected net income for Market Walk after deducting financing costs is £1.002m, with the latest projection also showing a forecast outturn of £1.002m.

The Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy proposed that working balances would reach £4.0m over the three year lifespan of the MTFS to 20118/19 due to financial risks facing the Council. A budgeted contribution of £500k was contained within the new investment package for 2016/17. The current forecast to the end of December showed that the General Fund closing balance could be around £3.483m by the end of the financial year and following approval of the recommendations in the report, the forecast balance would be £3.283m and in line to achieve the target of £4.0m by 2018/19

Decision:

1.     That the full year forecast position for the 2016/17 revenue budget and capital investment programme be noted.

2.     That the forecast position on the Council’s reserves be noted.

3.     To request Full Council to grant approval for the contribution of £150,000 from in-year revenue underspends to the Change Management Reserve to finance one-off redundancy and pension strain costs arising from transformation and shared services strategies.

4.     To request Full Council to grant approval venue underspends to the Change Management Reserve to the Buildings Maintenance Reserve to finance one-off costs relating to office utilisation and transformational change.

5.     To request Full Council to grant approval of the following increases and additions to the capital programme:

a.     £20k increase in the CCTV capital budget to complete the installation of CCTV equipment to be funded from underspends on the CCTV revenue maintenance budget.

b.     £27k budget  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63