Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report is the third quarterly monitoring report for the Authority as a whole for the financial year 2006/07and covers the nine months to the end of December 2006. The report also includes a number of budget virement requests for both revenue and capital that require Council Executive agreement or are reported for information purposes as prescribed by the Budget Management Scheme.

1.2 The report also presents the opening revenue budget cash limits for 2007/08, and includes a number of budget transfer requests that require Council Executive agreement or are reported for information purposes as required by the Budget Management Scheme.

2 RECOMMENDATION

The Council Executive resolves that:

2.1 Directors 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 budget control.

2.2 This year's revenue budget position as highlighted in Table 1 of Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 is noted.

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

2.4 The 2006/07 virements listed in Appendix 4(i) are approved and the changes in the capital programme listed in Appendix 5(i) are noted.

2.5 The 2007/08 virements listed in Appendix 6(i) are approved.

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 2006 through the Budget setting report.

6 CPA KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY

6.1 The report provides the Executive 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 Executive consider the revenue and capital monitoring position on a quarterly basis.

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 provides details of the current revenue budget position for 2006/07 highlighting a projected year-end overspend of £476,000 (or 0.48% of net budget). However, it should be noted that at present the service pressures highlighted in 2006/07 are only being balanced as result of the forecast underspend on capital financing charges and interest on balances. Directors have agreed to 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 budget control.

7.4 Appendix 2 provides details of the revenue position by Executive Portfolio. Appendix 3 outlines the Council's current capital financial position for the same period and shows spend to the end of December 2006 totalling £26.242m or 79.7% of profiled spend, with a year end forecast spend of £49.385m or 3.5% below budget.

7.5 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.

VIREMENT REQUESTS 2006/07

7.6 Revenue budget virements requiring Council Executive approval are listed in Appendix 4(i) together with an explanation of why the virement is necessary.
Appendix 4(ii) indicates the effect upon service and portfolio cash limits if these proposals are approved. The majority of these arise from clarification of budget management responsibilities following the Council's management restructure.

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

VIREMENT REQUESTS 2007/08

7.8 The revenue and capital budgets for 2007/08 were agreed by Council on 20^th February 2007.

7.9 Due to reporting timescales, some of the effects of the 2006/07 revenue virements contained in this report were not able to be included in the 2007/08 cash limits as presented in the Council's budget report. These adjustments therefore require changes to 2007/08 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.

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 Executive Councillor for Resources, 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 (Resources Director) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.