Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report presents the monitoring information for the Authority as a whole for the financial year 2008/09 to the end of July 2008.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Cabinet agrees that:

2.1 Strategic Directors should continue to work towards managing within budget in the current year for their respective service areas, and to manage below budget where possible by not committing unnecessary expenditure, through tight budgetary control.

2.2 This year's revenue budget position as shown in Appendix 2 is noted.

2.3 The capital expenditure position for the Council in the financial year to the end of July and the year end projections detail in Appendix 3 of this report are noted.

2.4 The revenue virements listed for approval in Appendix 4(i) are agreed.

2.5 The changes in the capital programme listed in Appendix 5(i) are noted.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The financial implications are contained within the body of the report.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

4.1 The Annual Financial and Service Planning process allocates scarce resources across services with alignment of these resources towards our corporate improvement priorities as set out in the Corporate Plan. This report monitors how the Council is performing against the financial targets set in February 2008 through the Budget setting process.

5 THE REPORT

5.1 The Budget Management Scheme requires that the Council Cabinet consider the revenue and capital monitoring position four times a year.

5.2 For revenue, where overspent, services are expected to seek compensating savings to try and bring budgets back to balance. The Budget Management Scheme states that if overspending occurs it must be recovered.

5.3 Appendix 1 highlights significant areas of forecast over and under spends. Appendix 2 outlines the Council's current revenue financial position for the 2008/09 financial year to the end of July 2008 by cabinet portfolio. The current forecast outturn position is an overspend of 0.24% or £531k. It is expected that by the end of the financial year that Council Directors will have implemented actions to ensure that spending is in line with budget.

5.4 Appendix 3 outlines the current position for the 2008/09 Capital budget, currently forecasting spend of £55.791m which is £0.781m less that the revised budget of £58.010m. The total programme forecast to 2012/13 is for expenditure of £318.338m which is £10.915m or 3.4% greater than budget, and plans are either in place or being developed to reduce costs and/or increase funding to ensure that the capital programme is financially balanced over the 5 year period.

5.5 The Council's financial position, along with its financial management arrangements and controls are fundamental to continuing to plan and provide services in a managed way. Close monitoring of the financial situation provides information on new risks and pressures in service areas, and appropriate management actions are then identified and agreed to manage and mitigate those risks.

5.6 Revenue budget virements which require cabinet approval are listed in Appendix 4(i). Technical budget adjustments are shown in Appendix 4(i) for information purposes.

5.7 Changes to the capital programme are listed in Appendix 5(i), while Appendix 5(ii) provides the updated capital programme allocated by portfolio.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 A risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations has been undertaken, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

7 EQUALITIES

7.1 This report provides information about the financial performance of the Council and therefore no specific equalities impact assessment has been carried out on the report.

8 RATIONALE

8.1 The report is presented as part of the reporting of financial management and budgetary control required by the Council.

9 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

9.1 None

10 CONSULTATION

10.1 Consultation will be carried out with the Leader of The Council, Other B&NES Services, Section 151 Finance Officer, Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer.

11 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

11.1 This report deals with issues of a corporate nature.

12 ADVICE SOUGHT

12.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer will have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.