Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 The report presents the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2007/08. The report refers to known potential pressures for the current year, as a preface to a request to carry forward specific budget items to 2008/09, and to write-off overspends where recovery in future years, in combination with containing those pressures in the current year, would have an adverse impact on continuing service delivery.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The provisional revenue budget outturn for 2007/08 as set out in Appendix 2 at £778,000 underspent is noted.

2.2 The carry forward proposals and write-off requests listed in the tables in Appendix 4 as exceptions to the Budget Management Scheme. The approval of write-off requests is conditional upon action plans being in place to meet the ongoing implications in 2008/09 onwards.

2.3 The creation of earmarked reserves totalling £700k as listed in paragraph 1.15 of Appendix 1 and the transfer to the Exceptional Risk Reserve of £751k as proposed in paragraph 1.22 of Appendix 1.

2.4 That any resulting surplus arising from decisions made should be returned to unallocated general fund reserves.

2.5 The revenue virements for 2007/08 and 2008/09 as listed in Appendix 5(i) and 5(iii).

2.6 The provisional outturn of the 2007/08 capital programme (Appendix 6) is noted.

2.7 The capital slippage as listed in Appendix 7.

2.8 The adjustments to the 2007/08 capital programme as detailed in Appendix 8.

2.9 The reserves position shown in appendix 9 is noted, and that as a result of the outturn the council's reserves strategy is two years ahead of target (Appendix 1 paragraph 1.22).

2.10 The emerging pressures for 2008/09 (Appendix 1 paragraph 1.10) are noted and that action plans are being prepared by Strategic Directors and Divisional Directors to address these implications.

2.11 The Treasury Management Outturn position (Appendix 10) is noted.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 These are contained throughout the report and appendices.

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 report.

6 CPA KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY

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

7 THE REPORT

7.1 This report provides information about the Council's financial performance against its revenue and capital budgets in 2007/08. The report also provides information on the Council's Treasury Management position and performance during 2007/08.

7.2 Details of and commentary on the outturn position for the revenue and capital budgets are provided in Appendices 1-9. The Treasury Management outturn position is presented in Appendix 10.

7.3 The Corporate Audit Committee will approve the statutory final accounts of the Council. This report presents the provisional outturn in the form that is routinely reported throughout the year as part of budget monitoring.

7.4 The Cabinet received financial reports throughout the year highlighting the known pressure areas, and identifying those actions that could be taken to reduce these to manageable proportions.

7.5 A Budget Management Scheme (BMS) is in force, which specifies how over and under spending should be treated in any year.

7.6 Under the Budget Management Scheme all overspends should be carried forward, subject to a proposal from the service to recover them. At least 60% of any under spends can also be carried forward providing that the management of all overspendings have been agreed within a Strategic Director's service areas and also providing these under spends were reported at the latest in January 2008. If not reported by then, they are considered "windfall" and should not be carried forward unless the Cabinet expressly approves such carry forwards.

8 RISK MANAGEMENT

8.1 The report author and Lead Cabinet member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

9 RATIONALE

9.1 The recommendations made are based upon the Budget Management Scheme and a consideration of the Council's latest financial position and reserves strategy.

10 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 Appendix 4 lists all options that can be considered in making a decision on carry forwards and write offs from 2007/08 to 2008/09.

11 CONSULTATION

11.1 Cabinet members; Other B&NES Services; Section 151 Finance Officer; Chief Executive; Monitoring Officer

11.2 The provisional outturn report has been discussed at Strategic Directors Group and Assistant Directors Group during May/June.

12 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

12.1 Corporate;

13 ADVICE SOUGHT

13.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor), Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Resources & Support Services), Strategic Directors' Group & Divisional Directors' Group have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.