Council and councillors

Report No.193/2018 was received from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Mr G Brown, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environment, Property and Finance introduced the report the purpose of which was to inform Cabinet and all Members of the full year forecast position as at Quarter 2 for 2018/19 and to alert them to any issues that may impact on the Medium Term Financial Plan to enable them to maintain sound financial management of the Council’s operations.

The detailed report included at Appendix A gave an update on;

·         Revenue budget (section 1)

·         Capital budget (section 2)

·         Corporate finance updates (section 3)

·         Debts and treasury matters (section 4)

During discussion the following points were raised;

i.      The Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan was currently being updated as part of the budget and significant work had been done to identify savings in order to mitigate the potential £1million funding gap;

ii.    The Local Government Finance Settlement would be received in early December 2018 which was earlier than in previous years;

iii.   The underspend in Childrens Services detailed on page 12, was well received..  It was recognised that this had a positive impact they had on the children concerned, and was achieved through the hard work and commitment of the Fostering Team and Foster Carers; and

iv.   Mr Hemsley noted that early intervention in many areas had resulted in cost savings.

DECISIONS:

Cabinet:

1)    NOTED the 2018/19 revenue and capital outturn position as at Quarter 2 (Appendix A, section 1 and section 2)

2)    RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL to keep the Green Waste charge at £35 for 2019/20, reduced the discounted fee to £26 and delegated authority to the Director for Places to set this fee annually subject to the fee not increasing beyond this amount (see appendix 3, para 3.9.3-3.9.4)

3)    NOTED the intention to use the earmarked social care reserve to fund additional Disabled Facilities spending should the existing spending projection hold true.

4)    APPROVED use of the Winter Care funding of £135k received from Government to meet cost pressures.

5)    RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL to fund £85k from prudential borrowing on investigation works to determine future property maintenance requirements on Council owned assets.

Reasons for the decisions

The Quarter 2 position is broadly as expected and is positive in light of the Medium Term financial outlook.

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Mrs G Curtis joined the meeting.

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