Decision details

(1)  To note the revenue budget outturn on budget position for 2021/22, after allowing for carry forwards and transfers to reserves.

(2)  To approve the revenue carry forward proposals listed in the tables in paragraph 3.30 of the report.

(3)  To approve that all other over budgets are written-off as an exception to the Budget Management Rules for 2021/22.

(4)  To approve the transfer of £4.03m to corporate earmarked reserves, the breakdown of which is detailed in paragraph 3.31 of the report.

(5)  To note the revenue virements for 2021/22 reported for information in Appendix 2(i) of the report.

(6)  To note the reserve positions and the use of flexible capital receipts shown in paragraphs 3.40-3.43 of the report.

(7)  To note the outturn position of the 2021/22 capital programme in paragraph 3.52, and the funding outlined in paragraph 3.54 of the report.

(8)  To approve the capital rephasing and write-off of net underspends as listed in Appendix 3 of the report. This reflects the outturn spend position on projects against final budgets as detailed in Appendix 4(ii) of the report.

The report identifies that, after allowing for carry forwards and transfers to corporate reserves, the Council delivered a favourable outturn position of £4.03m in 2021/22.

A favourable outturn position, considering the financial pressures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery period, demonstrates strong financial management across the organisation. Income has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels and unprecedented demand pressures continue in all core services, including Adult Social Care, Children’s Social Care and Education, Wellbeing Services and Waste Services.

The annual Medium-Term Financial Strategy and planning process allocates resources across services with alignment of these resources towards the Council’s corporate priorities. This report monitors how the Council has performed against the budget and Capital Programme set in February 2021.

The option to carry forward over budgeted spend could be considered which would mean that services would have to make up any deficits in 2022/23 with a considerable impact on service delivery especially in light of the challenging economic environment in 2022/23 and possibly beyond.