Council and councillors

(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 153/2015 from the Director for Resources was received.

The Portfolio Holder for Places (Development and Economy) and Resources, Mr T King, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to inform Cabinet and all members of the full year forecast position as at Quarter 1 for 2015/16 and to alert them to issues that may impact on the Medium Term Financial Plan to enable them to maintain sound financial management of the Council’s operations.

During Consideration the following points were noted:

      i.        There was substantial variation in some areas, however this was not unusual given that the budget had been set some time ago;

     ii.        Officers were commended for producing reports in plain language and also for the level of detail that had been provided;

    iii.        Capital investment may be required to develop smaller units at Oakham Enterprise Park.  The demand for small units had been very high and as such all these units had now been taken.  The manager continued to be approached by smaller businesses looking for premises; and

   iv.        Cabinet agreed that comments from Scrutiny Panels would be taken into account at a later stage.

DECISIONS

1)    Cabinet NOTED the 2015/16 revenue and capital outturn position as at Quarter 1;

2)    Cabinet RECOMMENDED the transfer of £80k refund of historic electricity charges to the Invest to Save Reserve;

3)    Cabinet RECOMMENDED to Council that the s31 grant of £55k received following the closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) is used to support 3 clients previously supported directly by the ILF (Appendix 1 para 1.50);

4)    Cabinet NOTED the proposed transfers from earmarked reserves as shown in the table at Appendix 1, para 1.45 (to be finalised and agreed in the 2015/16 outturn).

5)    Cabinet NOTED the split of Directorate budgets into new functional budget headings further to Council recommendation 2.4 (Report 59/2015) and recommends any changes;

6)    Cabinet NOTED that there are a number of functions which are forecast to be £25k overspent (highlighted in Appendices 4 to 6) but these forecast over spends can currently be contained within overall Directorate budgets.

7)    Cabinet NOTED that there is one function (Homecare) which is forecast to be in excess of £100k over budget but this can be contained within the overall Directorate budget as set out in Appendix 7;

8)    Cabinet NOTED that the impact of the announcement of the Care Act changes for 1 April 2016 has not yet been fully assessed but will be assessed in advance of Quarter 2.

9)    Cabinet RECOMMENDED that in light of existing Directorate under spends that Directors propose one-off in year budget savings and recurring budget savings as part of Quarter 2 for Cabinet to consider;

10)Cabinet NOTED that PeopleFirst savings for 2015/16 are likely to be achieved; and

11)Cabinet NOTED that the MTFP will be updated when further funding announcements are made by Government.

Reason(s) for the Decision(s)

As the Council is required to make savings over the medium term, the Q1 position was positive.