Council Overall Budget Monitor

Financial Monitoring Statement: All Portfolios

SERVICE 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-02

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

Transportation & Planning Policy

4,606

4,806

(199)

6,614

6,462

152

ADV

1

Education

52,505

52,665

(160)

70,221

69,946

276

ADV

2

Social Services

25,664

23,445

2,219

31,603

31,153

450

ADV

3

Customer Satisfaction, Best Value & E-Government

(1,164)

(1,417)

254

(1,808)

(2,016)

208

ADV

4

Economic Regeneration & Environment

7,518

7,669

(151)

10,117

10,144

(27)

FAV

5

Resource Planning & Support Services

11,766

10,512

1,255

13,447

13,487

(40)

FAV

6

Culture & Leisure

1,661

1,917

(256)

3,361

3,415

(55)

FAV

7

Community Safety and Housing Services

8,612

9,510

(898)

11,888

11,901

(13)

FAV

8

TOTAL

111,170

109,107

2,063

145,443

144,491

952

ADV

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

NOTE 1: Corporate savings target of £80,000 (£40,000 carried forward from 2001/02) for transport not yet identified, network management overspend of £62,000 due to additional cost on highway maintenance and transportation overspend of £157,000 due to concessionary fares and bus revenue support due to increased demand and service provision. These overspends are partly offset by the car parking service and Park & Ride where income is currently ahead of target and a year end favourable balance of £172,000 and staff savings within the Access service.

NOTE 2: The ISB is projected to overspend by £230,000 due to higher pupil numbers than estimated and an increase in statementing costs. There is an estimated overspend of £28,000 on Access due to Home to School Transport and the Music Service as well as an overspend of £31,000 on Non School funding due to an increase in the number of 4 year old children attending nursery settings. The Youth & Community service is expected to underspend by £23,000 due to a restructuring.

NOTE 3: Children's Services: There is an overspend on children's placements (£300,000) partly offset by underspends on the children's salaries budgets and the fostering budgets. This relates almost entirely to a single placement for a young person and the reported £250,000 overspend assumes that we will not be able to resolve the placement difficulties by the end of the year. Adult Services is forecast to overspend by £150,000 due to overspends on the purchase of domicilary care budgets and the requirement to reimburse some preserved rights funding. Elderly Persons Homes: There is an overspend against the salaries budgets partially offset by additional income and savings achieved by the early closure of Greenacres (c£50,000).

NOTE 4: Property Services : The October forecast included a £116k recovery of part of the additional costs of Asset Management Planning, now charged to Corporate Repairs & Maintenance. Corporate Estate: Main reasons for the forecast overspend are: unplanned delays in relocating staff to Plymouth House, and in releasing space in Abbey Chambers and the Guildhall, enabling savings in other properties. This is kept under close review, and the year end outturn forecast of £300,000 overspend is the most likely estimate, based on present knowledge. Targets for commercial estate rental income were raised in the 2002/03 budget and in the present commercial letting market are likely to be underachieved by £25,000 this financial year.

NOTE 5: Economic Development predicted overspend of £23,000 due to additional staffing costs with the Local Partnerships section. Cleansing is estimated to overspend by £24,000. These overspends are offset by underspends on Waste Disposal (£33,000) and Planning Services (£41,000).

NOTE 6: Corporate Support Services: £65,000 underspend predicted for year end position, this includes underspends on legal fees, Chairman's financial plan item and scrutiny, due to delays in implementation. Resources Services: Emergency Management - Central Government Grant cut; but Council duties increased. Spending and income being closely controlled and monitored. Pressure on costs still high, due to extra duties re the Firefighters' strikes, in addition to other duties required by central government. Revenues & Benefits - Revised forecasts are reviewed monthly with the Head of Service to seek reductions in cost or increased income. Given the present level of service delivery problems (which are reducing), it seems likely that the Year End overspend will be around £155,000. This includes best estimates of the cost of clearing the benefits backlog and the cost of introducing Tax Credits later this year. Resources Management, Business Services & Strategic Resources Planning: Moratorium on all non essential spending to offset as as possible other overspends. This is particularly affecting divisional training budgets.

Corporate Budgets: External Audit fees projected to be £142,000 over budget due to increase in core charge mainly due to Comprehensive Performance Assessment work. The £150,000 budgeted contribution from revenue to the HRA is not required this year due to the closure of the HRA. Loan Charges are expected to underspend by £74,000. There is a £102,000 underspend on budget for increase in insurance premiums. Operations: Trading forecast to overspend by £178,000 due to an overspends predicted in Leisure Services of £289,000 (income below budget and staff related costs) and Commercial Services (£89,000) partly offset by favourable forecasts in the following areas:- Direct Services (£133,000) and Operations Overheads (£66,000).

NOTE 7: Heritage forecast a favourable year end position of £89,000 underspent, with admissions income higher than anticipated. Tourism - predicting year end overspend of £4,000 due to shortfalls in income achieved by the TIC, particularly accommodation booking fees, partly offset by salary savings in the Tourism Bureau. Leisure Services are predicted to overspend by £30,000 due to costs of the Leisure Trust Financial Plan Item. The Arts Service is expected to overspend slightly by £1,000.

NOTE 8: Housing Services - Spa Care Line projected to overspend by £90,000. A contract has now been negotiated with Attendo - though not all staff were redeployed and so some additional redundancy costs have been incurred.Temporary accommodation is projected to overspend by £80,000 due to steady growth in demand since stock transfer. These overspends are partly offset by vacancy management savings of £70,000 in Assessment & Commissioning. Public Protection predicted to underspend by £94,000 due to increase levels of income achieved by the Land Charges and Building Regulation functions. Environment & Consumer Services are expected to underspend by £30,000. In accordance with the Budget Management Scheme, the Director (EED) recommends the carry forwards of underspends in Public Protection and Environment & Consumer to fund Best Value Improvement Plan actions and to assist in meeting the 03/04 budgets proposals. The Coroners budget is expected to overspend by £7,000 and Magistrates by £4,000.

Budget Reconciliation

The overall monitoring position for these services is

Budget per last report

144,557

that they are currently

£2,063,000

Overspent

Virements

(66)

and by the end of this financial year

Current budget

144,491

they are forecast to be

£952,000

Overspent