Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance & S151 Officer introduced this item to the Panel. He shared with them some presentation slides which will be appended to the minutes when published, a summary is set out below.

He was assisted during the presentation by the Business Analysis Manager (Economy & Growth), Team Manager (Parking Services) and Director for Partnership & Corporate Services.

Council Gross Expenditure Revenue Budget – 2020/21 £352m

£144m = Adults, Childrens and Public Health

£83m = Corporate Budgets inc. Housing Benefit & Tariff payments

£76m = Services to the public inc. Highways / Refuse Collection / Cleansing & Parks / Housing Services

£49m = Council Administered Dedicated Schools Grant

Less income = less money for services

•  We’re £5.6m down in lost parking and heritage income compared to April/May last year

•  That’s £91,000 a day - 14% of our daily spend on services

Summary of our financial pressures 2020/21

£18.9m - Loss of heritage income

£7.2m - Loss of parking income

£6.13m - Loss of income from commercial estate

£0.71m - Other losses of income

£32.13 - (SUBTOTAL) OF LOSS OF INCOME

£10m - Increased Expenditure - in supporting our most vulnerable in social care and responding to Covid-19 demands such as sourcing PPE

£42.13m - Projected deficit

How we’re tackling these in-year pressures

£20.7m - In-year savings including reviewing and reducing costs where demand has fallen, deferring projects, holding vacancies and using corporate mitigations

£10m - Government grant

£11.43m - Drawing down reserves

£0.00 - Projected deficit following these measures

Heritage Services – Covid-19 Impact

Timeline

·  Initial decline in Mandarin speaking visitors around the Lunar New Year period discussed with other leading UK visitor attractions, particularly those who have a high number of Chinese visitors.

·  In late February we saw a wave of cancellations from Italian and French school groups, who typically visit us in the Spring. This came as those governments introduced bans on overseas school groups.

·  By mid-March recommended the closure of the Roman Baths, Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery to the Leader of the Council, through the Chief Executive. This decision was approved and we closed on the 18th of March, ahead of the national lock-down which was introduced the following week.

·  At the point of closure COVID-19 had cost Heritage Services approximately £450k in lost revenue.

IMPACT OF CLOSURE:

Quarter 1 expected performance: 430,000 visitors and £6.7m revenue

The impact of the Roman Baths’ closure has come during a period when it would have been expecting to generate £50,000-£80,000 per day in admission revenue.

ONGOING IMPACT: The reopening capacity restrictions mean that the actual income generated through July and August will be significantly lower than the circa £80,000 per day generated in 2019. 

Reopening Scenario Summary

Planning for reopening started as soon as the doors were closed on the 18^th March - Range of scenarios developed looking at different reopening dates, differing demand levels and different combinations of sites opening.

The reopening scenario that was recommended to the Recovery Board, was to reopen the Roman  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18