Meeting documents

Cabinet
Wednesday, 4th March, 2009

Bath & North East Somerset Council

MEETING:

Cabinet

MEETING DATE:

4th March 2009

AGENDA ITEM NUMBER

12

TITLE:

Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring, Cash Limits and Virements - April 2008 to January 2009

EXECUTIVE FORWARD PLAN REFERENCE:

   

E

1863

WARD:

All

AN OPEN PUBLIC ITEM

List of attachments to this report

Appendix 1: Revenue & Capital Monitoring Commentary Appendix 2: Revenue Monitoring Statement: All Council Spending Appendix 3: Capital Monitoring Statement: All Council Spending Appendices 4(i) & 4(ii): Proposed Revenue Virements & Revised Revenue Cash Limits 2008/09 Appendices 5(i) & 5(ii): Capital Programme Movements & Revised Capital Cash Limits 2008/09 onwards Appendices 6(i) & 6(ii): Proposed Revenue Virements & Revised Revenue Cash Limits 2009/10

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report presents the financial monitoring information for the Authority as a whole for the financial year 2008/09 to the end of January 2009.

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 January 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.

2.6 The revenue virements for 2009/10 listed in Appendix 6(i) are agreed.

2.7 That should early determination of any carry-forwards requests be required, this be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Resources in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Chief Executive.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

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

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

4.1 The annual service and resource 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 January 2009 by Cabinet portfolio. The current forecast outturn position is an underspend of 1.79% or £2.074m.

5.4 The 2009/10 budget assumes no net under or overspend in 2008/09 after taking account of any carry forwards. While this report indicates a £2.074m underspend, there remain significant risk factors not taken account of in that total, and in addition, carry forward requests of £1.282m have been logged. The 2009/10 budget assumption remains reasonable in that context.

5.5 Cabinet will need to consider the carry forward requests in light of the actual out-turn at it's meeting on 1st July. Should there be a need to agree any carry forwards prior to that date, it is proposed that this is delegated to the Cabinet Member for Resources in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and Chief Executive.

5.6 Appendix 3 outlines the current position for the 2008/09 Capital budget, currently forecasting spend of £83.503m which is £6.666m less that the revised budget of £90.169m. The total programme forecast to 2012/13 is for expenditure of £462.486m which is £4.699m or 1.0% lower than budget.

5.7 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.

5.8 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.

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

5.10 The revenue & capital budgets for 2009/10 were agreed by Council on 17th February 2009

5.11 Due to reporting timescales, some of the effects of the 2008/09 revenue virements contained in this report were not able to be included in the 2009/10 cash limits as presented in the Council's budget report. These adjustments therefore require changes to 2009/10 revenue cash limits as well. The budget transfers requests are listed in Appendix 6(i). Appendix 6(ii) indicates the effect upon service and portfolio cash limits if these proposals are approved.

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 The substance of this report is part of the Council's risk management process. The key risks in the Council's budget are assessed annually by each Strategic Director, with these risks re-assessed on a monthly basis as part of the budget monitoring process.

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 has been carried out with the Deputy Leader of The Council & Cabinet Member for Resources, Strategic Directors, 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.

Contact person

Paul Fox - 01225 477468 ; Jamie Whittard - 01225 477213
Paul_Fox@bathnes.gov.uk Jamie_Whittard@bathnes.gov.uk

Sponsoring Cabinet Member

Cllr Malcolm Hanney

Background papers

Budget Management Scheme

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