Meeting documents

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 November 2008.

2 RECOMMENDATION

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 November 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

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 November 2008 by cabinet portfolio. The current forecast outturn position is an underspend of 1.43% or £1.658m.

5.4 Appendix 3 outlines the current position for the 2008/09 Capital budget, currently forecasting spend of £76.937m which is £17.640m less that the revised budget of £94.577m. The total programme forecast to 2012/13 is for expenditure of £399.683m which is £26.296m or 6.2% lower than budget.

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 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.