Agenda item

Report attached.

The Cabinet considered a joint report of Councillor Noordad Aziz, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Transformation, Education and Skills, and Councillor Vanessa Alexander, Portfolio Holder for Resources and Council Operations, regarding the financial spending of the Council up to the end of December 2024 for the financial year 2024/25 and the forecast impact on the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2024/25 to 2026/27.

Councillor Aziz provided a brief introduction to the report.  A positive variance of £96k was forecast as at Quarter 3.  However, there were still some potential budget pressures ahead, including costs around the waste disposal site/waste transfer station and food waste collections.  The Council needed to remain prudent as regards its expenditure.

Approval of the report was not considered to be a key decision.

Reasons for Decision

At the Full Council meeting on 27^th February 2024, Council had agreed the General Fund Revenue Budget for 2024/25.  This had set a budget for the Council’s total spend in 2024/25 of £16.122M.

The current forecast spend to the end of the financial year in March 2025 was £16.026M.  This brought the forecast underspend for the year against the budget to £0.096M.  Further analysis of changes in forecast spend were shown in Section 4 of the report.  A summary is as shown below.

Table 1: Forecast Performance Against Budgets

The current forecast spend to the end of the financial year showed an increase of £0.011M from the last report at QTR2, which brought the forecast underspend for the year against the budget to £0.096M.  Two further tables in the report (Nos. 2 to 3) set out details of changes by service since the last report at QTR2 and the most significant changes in the forecast variance.

Section 4 of the report included a narrative and additional tables (Nos 4 to 11) on Variance by Service, which provided more detailed information on the areas identified in Table 1 above.

Reserves

The Council was currently forecasting a reduction of £8.618M in its usable reserves during the year, bringing them to £17.486M at the end of the year.  Forecast movements in reserves were shown in Table 12 of the report.  The most significant movements in reserves were the forecast spending on the capital programme.

Potential Pressures and Risks in Year

Although the forecast underspend at Quarter 3 stood at £0.096M, there were some further pressures and risks that needed to be considered, some of which were not currently built into any financial forecasts.

The main pressures/risks to be considered were related to the matters outlined below:

• Waste Disposal Site/Transfer Station;
• Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre;
• Crematorium/Cremators;
• Food Waste Collections;
• Hyndburn Leisure;
• Housing Benefit Supported / Exempt Accommodation; and
• Pay Award.

A more comprehensive description of the above issues was set out in the report.

These pressures/risks would need to be considered over the course of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy along with an appropriate action plan to ensure the Council could meet any future predicted budget gaps. 

There were no alternative options for consideration or reasons

Resolved                                 (1)   That the Cabinet notes the report and asks Corporate Management Team to continue to monitor the financial position of the Council over the remaining months of the year.

(2)   That Cabinet notes the pressures and risks highlighted in Section 5 of the report and that regular updates will be provided on any potential impact on the current forecast underspend in year and the future Medium Term Financial Strategy.