Agenda item

Finance Update: March 2021

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the report that detailed the latest financial position.

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot informed that he was pleased to report a favourable movement of £775K in service variances since the January monitoring report. However, this is offset by a number of non-service movements which include transferring £748K to capital to cover some Covid related capital costs, an additional £485K is transferred to the Covid earmarked reserve and a reduction of £173k in anticipated Covid fees and charges funding for December 2020 to March 2021.

Over the past months, a total of £4.535k has been transferred to earmarked reserves. The Covid-19 reserve now stands at £3.485M and general reserves have reduced to £6.473M just £100K above the minimum level.  The Lead Member provided the following highlights.

The second tranche of £2.486M in Fees and Charges compensation had been received.

The Savings tracker showed that since September last year unachievable savings had increased by £540K but £300K of this related to a management fee that will now be received in the next financial year and we will have achieved £4.7M of the projected £7 million, the shortfall is caused by Covid-19

Land Charge income has gradually increased over the year and the negative variance has fallen to £15K on the £240K budget. Being optimistic he viewed this as a lead indicator that our local economy was starting to come back into life.

He had previously mentioned the increased workload that Covid has brought for the Revenues and Benefits team. The team were at the forefront of administering the governments business support grants that support our retail and hospitality sector. Up to now there had been 33 different grants many with different eligibility criteria. This was a challenge the team were happy to accepted and so far, nearly £13M had been distributed to local businesses.

Lastly he mentioned that there had been significant slippages of more than £30 million in the capital programme. For members who are interested there was a detailed variance and slippage report at appendix D.

The Lead Member for Climate Change, Sustainability, Parks and Countryside thanked the Lead Member and officers for looking after our finances and provided such a robust report.  It was good to see previsions were in place for next year.

Mr Hill addressed Cabinet and referred to item 32 of appendix I on agenda pack page 173 called the Council Tax Hardship Relief.  He said that back in February a statement was given that  the council got £564K from the Government and that this year it was expected to get £599K. last year it was used to provide £150 discount to people on council tax reduction scheme.  It was said that it was intended to replicate last year’s scheme.  Could you please confirm that the Government distributed the £599k and that this would be replicated last year’s scheme. 

The Lead Member informed that not all of this year’s funding had been spent and it would be rolled over to support residents under hardship.  The Director for Resources informed that the money for next year had not yet been received but it was anticipated it would be soon and we were anticipating replicating the scheme, however next year we should have more leeway in how we use it to help those in hardship.  With regards to moving this year’s fund forward we also needed to be mindful that claims could still be made for the current year and goes to those who need it.  There may also be more people who become eligible for the hardship fund when furlough scheme ends and the impact of the pandemic increases. 

Resolved unanimously:  that Cabinet:

 

i)       Notes the report including:

a.     The Council’s projected revenue and capital position for 2020/21; and

b.     The budget movements.

ii)     Agrees the capital variances and notes the slippage which will be recommended to Council for formal approval.

 

 

Supporting documents: