Meeting documents

Council Overall Revenue Budget Monitor

Financial Monitoring Statement: All Portfolios

REVENUE SPENDING

ACTUAL TO DATE

YEAR END FORECAST

All Portfolio's For period to

Actual Spend or (Income)

Budgeted Spend or (Income)

Over or (under) spend

Forecast Spend or (Income)

Budgeted Spend or (Income)

Forecast over or (under) spend

ADV/FAV

NOTE

Dec-04

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

Transport & Highways

2,854

3,258

(404)

4,304

4,343

(38)

FAV

1

Life Long Learning

58,117

57,832

286

81,250

81,186

65

ADV

2

Social Services

26,431

28,152

(1,721)

39,071

37,536

1,535

ADV

3

Economic Development

(1,170)

(1,085)

(85)

(2,195)

(1,876)

(319)

FAV

4

Sustainability & the Environment

8,785

9,287

(502)

12,324

12,426

(102)

FAV

5

Resources

8,947

9,784

(838)

12,086

13,067

(982)

FAV

6

Leader

2,249

2,661

(412)

3,499

3,562

(63)

FAV

7

Tourism, Leisure & Culture

1,488

1,679

(191)

3,502

3,415

87

ADV

8

Community Safety and Housing Services

3,867

4,251

(384)

5,664

5,674

(10)

FAV

9

TOTAL

111,568

115,819

(4,251)

159,506

159,332

173

ADV

Note: "ADV" indicates an adverse variance, "FAV" a favourable variance, and a "( )" in the over and under spend columns indicates an under spend or overachievement of income

Note 1: Highways Maintenance continues to experience pressure on its patching and surfacing budgets, with a potential shortfall of £30,000, as well as cost pressures in Street Lighting of £35,000. These pressures can be funded from the stronger car park fee performance. Car Parking fees, in particular fines income, are better than expected, (£162,000 under spend). Part of the additional income will fund BWR transport projects and Highways Maintenance pressures. Corporate saving requirement on transport not identified. This is a Council wide initiative (£40,000 overspend).

Note 2: Strategic Management projected £110,000 overspend is due to new school openings, increased school rents, schools central budgets and higher than expected school redundancies. Special Education £11,000 projected under spend is due to higher than expected income from Recoupment. School Improvement £42,000 projected under spend is due to staff vacancies. Access £68,000 overspend is due to Home to School transport. Non School Funding projected £61,000 savings is higher than expected due to lower than anticipated Nursery Grant payments.

Note 3: Children's Placement and Leaving Care budget £70,000 overspend partly off-set by salary savings. Residential/nursing budgets £1,380,000 overspend due to price pressures and increase in number of mental health placements. Savings target on Mental Health services will not be achieved. Additional panels to review mental health placements have been set up. Work with independent sector residential and nursing providers is underway to review fee levels. Revised and tightened eligibility criteria have recently been approved. Elderly Persons Homes: Overspend of £210,00 mainly due to delay in closure of Woodside and Tyndale EPHs but also partly due to additional staffing required to meet CSCI registration standards and the purchasing of replacement beds in the independent sector. Other £100,000 under spend due to non-essential budget freeze.

Note 4: Economic Development projected overspend of £41,000 due to increased costs of Christmas lighting contract partly offset by reduced operating costs in Administration. Commercial Estate forecast £400,000 under spend due to recent rent reviews being settled at higher than expected levels. A carry forward of £60,000 will be requested in respect of Land Registration costs. 2005/06 income targets have been adjusted to reflect the latest information. Corporate Estate forecast is projected at £100,000 overspend. A carry forward will be requested, to be funded from the vacation of Frome Road and North Parade. Corporate Performance Unit "good" CPA result will reduce Audit Commission fees and print costs (£60,000 under spend).

Note 5: Development Control £45,000 under spend due to significant increase in planning fee income, in part due to increase in volume of applications in advance of anticipated price increase from April 2005. Planning Policy forecast £145,000 under spend as Local Plan expenditure will be lower than budgeted in the current year, this money will be required in future years.

Public Conveniences £62,000 overspend due to closures being delayed after Overview and Scrutiny Panel. Waste Management and Disposal (£38,000 under spend) and Recycling (£21,00 under spend, waste arisings have increased by over 5% this year. The Waste Strategy review has been instigated to provide the long term solution to the waste and refuse pressures identified. Additional expected waste gate fees have been negotiated down to achieve an overall saving. Waste Operations (Transfer and Civic Amenity Sites) £45,000 overspend from refuse collection and organics waste pilots received insufficient funding and ambitious trade waste income is not being achieved. HWRC and transfer operations reflect additional hire costs due to procurement delay and rising fuel prices. Action has been taken to reduce overtime costs.

Note 6: Corporate Support Services projected under spend £7,000. Resources Services £4,000 overspend comprising an under spend of £40,000 in Resources Management committed to funding overspends in other services in Resources and an overspend of £44,000 in Revenue's & Benefits due to additional staff recruited to deal with increased workload.Temp Agency £20,000 overspend reflects continued financial plan saving requirement despite initiative which was not pursued. Linear Way Trading £31,000 overspend from poor print sales (probably matching council savings elsewhere).

Note 6 (cont): CS Divisional Overheads potential efficiency savings from Peoplelink and Agresso etc, to be realised within service administration teams. The trading environment within commercial services shows adverse £20,000 for catering in lower secondary school meals (now mitigated by a price increase) this is being offset by employee savings on cleaning. Three secondary school catering contracts have been lost, which will cause additional £20,000 pressure. A provision has been included for the Danka misrepresentation case. Refuse Collection (including Business) £85,000 overspend due to cost and organics waste pilots received insufficient funding and ambitious trade waste income target is not being achieved. HWRC and transfer operations reflect additional hire costs due to procurement delay and rising fuel prices. Taken action to reduce overtime costs. LA's Divisional Overheads and Operations Overheads potential efficiency savings from Peoplelink and Agresso etc, to be realised within service administration teams. Recharge of officer time to Waste Strategy Review.

Note 6 (cont): The £1,177,00 under spend against Loan Charges arises from the delay in needing to borrow as a result of continued good cash flow. This reflects the relatively low spend on capital schemes. Interest received is largely payable to schools and the Pensions Fund (£101,000 under spend). Unfunded Pensions £50,000 under spend from charges from other administering bodies in respect of pensioners of previous Authorities are diminishing. Housing Benefit Rent Allowances overspend from closure of the 2003/04 accounts, preparation of the end of year claim for Benefit Subsidy revealed a shortfall against the estimated subsidy. Further investigation has highlighted a potential shortfall of £350,000 for 2004/05. The shortfall is partly due to the Council making payments in benefit categories that do not attract subsidy.

Note 7: Customer Access £160,000 under spend allocated within Financial Plan, used to fund Contact Centre (£61,000), Counter Services (£6,000) and Info Plus (£90,000). Communications and Marketing budgets and forecasts (£18,000 under spend) revised October 2004. Youth Services £44,000 projected under spend is due to vacancy management.

Note 8: Bath Central Library and Keynsham Library staff vacancies reflected within forecast under spend of £8,000 and £6,000 respectively. Business Development forecast overspend of £19,000 assumes that budgeted sponsorship income will not be achieved and that income from the sale of materials will be reinvested in the service. Tourism Bureau forecast overspend provides for unfunded accommodation charge of £20,000 to be made in 2004-2005; under spend in year to date due to delay in contract completion and thus payments to BTP; payment to be made quarterly in future.

Note 8 (cont): Heritage: Roman Baths visitor numbers and admissions income have improved, although spending per head has reduced due to the increased proportion of group visitors. This small increase in income has been exceeded by lower than budgeted visitors and income generated by the Museum of Costume. The figures include an overspend of £90,000 which will be carried forward for recovery in 2005/06 as part of the Business Plan agreed by Council. Leisure: Staff variance within Leisure and Amenity Services offset by £25,000 vacancy savings within Active Leisure Team. Leisure Facilities Support public provision of Chew Valley School Leisure facilities is now managed in-house and £38,000 remains as net forecast overspend. This is a commitment to achieve £600,000 lottery grant funding. This deficit will be recovered in future years.

Note 9: Environment and Consumer underspend of £44,000 through vacancy manageemnt, request made to carry forward underspend to implement Best Value Improvement Programme (BVIP). Housing Services £65,000 underspend due to vacancies creating savings. St.Johns Court £50,000 overspend for rent income shortfall due to low tenancy rates during service review. Mobile/Temporary Accommodation £40,000 overspend due to Housing Benefit not being recouped at budgeted rate. Support Services £15,000 underspend from expenditure on training frozen to reduce current overspend. Land Charges dramatic fall in activity in the housing market has meant that for the last few months income from land charges has significantly reduced. Forecasts for the remainder of the financial year have been revised to anticipate a shortfall in the income budget of £163,000. Coroners £7,000 overspend as the Council has received a share of the charge for additional unbudgeted redundancy costs.

Budget Reconciliation

The overall monitoring position for these services is

Budget per last report

159,332

that they are currently

£4,251,000

Underspent

Virements

and by the end of this financial year

Current budget

159,332

they are forecast to be

£173,000

Overspent