Meeting documents

Cabinet
Wednesday, 5th March, 2008

Bath & North East Somerset Council

MEETING:

Cabinet

MEETING DATE:

5th March 2008

AGENDA ITEM NUMBER

12

TITLE:

Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring, Cash Limits and Virements - April 2007 to January 2008

EXECUTIVE FORWARD PLAN REFERENCE:

   

E

1677

WARD:

All

AN OPEN PUBLIC ITEM

List of attachments to this report

Appendix 1.pdf: Revenue & Capital Monitoring Commentary 

Appendix 2.pdf: Revenue Monitoring Statement: All Council Spending 

Appendix 3 Capital Monitor.pdf: Capital Monitoring Statement: All Council Spending

Appendix 4(i).pdf: Proposed Revenue Virements 2007/08 

Appendix 4(ii).pdf: Revised Revenue Portfolio Cash Limits 2007/08 

Appendix 5i Capital Virements.pdf: Capital Programme Movements 2007/08 

Appendix 5ii Capital Cashlimits.pdf: Revised Capital Portfolio Cash Limits 2007/08

Appendix 6.pdf: List of Carry Forward Requests

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report presents the monitoring information for the Authority as a whole for the financial year 2007/08 to the end of January 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 January and the year end projections detail in Appendix 3 of this report are noted.

2.4 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 COMMUNITY STRATEGY OUTCOMES

4.1 The report concerns the financial management of the Council which underpins implementation of the corporate plan, and hence the delivery of community strategy outcomes.

5 CORPORATE IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES

5.1 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 2007 through the Budget setting process.

6 CPA KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY

6.1 The report provides the Cabinet with information on financial performance against the Council's budget as required under the "Financial Management" Key Line of Enquiry, which is part of the Use of Resources element of the CPA.

7 THE REPORT

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

7.2 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.

7.3 Appendix 1 highlights significant areas of over and under spends. Appendix 2 outlines the Council's current revenue financial position for the 2007/08 financial year to the end of January 2008 by cabinet portfolio. At the beginning of the financial year early indications were that there could be a potential overspend of £4,248,000. Following management actions to reduce this overspend, the September Cabinet report indicated a potential year end forecast overspend of £1,928,000. Management have continued with actions to mitigate the potential overspends resulting in the improved position of a £214,000 forecast overspend.

7.4 A significant element of the current year's potential overspends have been mitigated by one off short term budget solutions. Permanent solutions have been developed as part of the 2008/09 budget proposals thus mitigating these ongoing pressures. However additional pressures in Customer Services (£349,000) and Children Services (£200,000) have emerged which currently forecast a potential overspend of £549,000. (See Appendix 1 - Customer Services and Children Services.)

7.5 Appendix 3 outlines the Council's current capital financial position for the same period, showing spend to the end of January 2008 totalling £26.83m or 84% of profiled spend.

7.6 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.

7.7 There are no revenue budget virements which require cabinet approval. Technical budget adjustments are shown in Appendix 4(i) for information purposes.

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

7.9 Requests for budget under spends to be carried forward to 2008/09 amounting to £903,000 are listed in Appendix 6 and will be considered at the July Cabinet meeting.

8 RISK MANAGEMENT

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

9 RATIONALE

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

10 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 None.

11 CONSULTATION

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

12 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

12.1 This report deals with issues of a corporate nature.

13 ADVICE SOUGHT

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

Contact person

Paul Fox - 01225 477468 ; Irene Draper - 01225 477325
Paul_Fox@bathnes.gov.uk Irene Draper@bathnes.gov.uk

Sponsoring Cabinet Member

Cllr Malcolm Hanney

Background papers

Budget Management Scheme

Please contact the report author if you need to access this report in an alternative format