Agenda item

Report attached.

The Cabinet considered a report of Councillor Vanessa Alexander, Portfolio Holder for Resources and Council Operations, regarding the draft financial spending of the Council up to the end of the financial year in March 2025. 

Members were advised that a further report would be provided once all the work was completed if there was any significant change to the position now reported.

Councillor Alexander provided a brief introduction to the report.

Councillor Khan commented that there were significant funds available within reserves and that the Opposition had made some suggestions about additional projects and expenditure at the Council’s Budget meeting in February 2025.  He asked if these funds could now be utilised.  Councillors Alexander and Dad responded that the Cabinet was currently looking at its priorities and would share some information on this in the near future.

Approval of the report was not deemed 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 revenue spend in 2024/25 of £16.122m.

The provisional revenue outturn position for the 2024/25 financial year was a total spend for the Council of £15.747m.  This gave a revenue underspend on net expenditure of £0.375m compared to the budget set at the start of the year.

Additional funding of £0.058m has been realised during the year compared to that set out in the budget.  This was mainly due to additional business rates top-up funding received above budget.

These brought the total net underspend for the year against the budget to £0.433m.

Table 1: Actual Performance Against Budgets

A total net underspend of £0.096m was reported to Cabinet on 22^nd January 2025.  The provisional outturn shows an increase to the overall net underspend of £0.337m, resulting in a total net underspend of £0.433m, compared with the working budget.  Table 2, included in the report, set out details of changes in the forecast variance by service since the last report at QTR3, with further detail being provided at Appendix 1 to the report.

The Final Accounts were still being prepared and would be reviewed by External Auditors once completed.  Therefore, the reported underspend of £0.433m was provisional and might change.

Variance by Service

Section 4 of the report included a narrative and additional tables (Nos 3 to 10) on Outturn by Service, Non-Service Areas and Funding for 2024/25, which provided more detailed information on the areas identified in Table 1 above.  Table 11 comprised the Reserves Outturn for 2024/25, which showed that the Council had recorded an increase in its useable reserves during the year of £3.73m, giving a closing balance of £29.84m.

There were no alternative options for consideration or reasons

Resolved                                 (1)   That Cabinet notes the provisional outturn of spend against the Revenue Budget for 2024/25 and the underspend in year of £0.433m.

(2)   That Cabinet agrees to transfer the underspend of £0.433m into the Underspends Reserve, with future decisions on usage to be approved by Cabinet and the Leader of the Council.