Issue - meetings

(To receive a report from the Executive Director – Resources which provides an update on revenue spending compared with budgets for the financial year which started on 1 April 2021)

That the current position on the revenue budget be noted.

The Executive Director – Resources referred to some of the outcomes from the Spending Review announced at the end of October 2021.  It was reported that the Chancellor had announced £4.8bn of new funding for local government for the coming three years for use on general services, with further funding for social care reforms.  The local government finance settlement was due the week commencing 13 December 2021.  It was expected that it would be a one-year settlement.  A further £5.4bn over three years was announced for social care reforms, it was expected that this would be backloaded into the spending review position.  There would still be an expectation for local authorities to cover the demographic and contract price aspects through council tax.

The Assistant Director – Finance presented a report on Revenue Budget Monitoring – Quarter 2 to 30 September 2021.  The summary table set out on page 10 of the report showed the variances against each service area.  The overall revenue position was forecasting an underspend of £5.76m (excluding schools and Covid-19), this was a movement of £4.5m from the quarter 1 position.  This was mainly related to sources of income received over and above what was budgeted for in February 2021, this included, within the Resources directorate, a grant for £1.4m was received in relation to new responsibilities around domestic abuse, there had also been a net gain of £2m on business rates.

Appendix O in the report, set out the details of the Covid-19 grants which had been received. 

Councillor R B Parker, the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board highlighted to the Executive the main points in the Board’s Statement to the Executive.  It was highlighted that there was an underspend in Public Health due to redeployment of staff and additional grants received in relation to Covid-19.

During discussion by the Executive, the following points were noted:

·       It was noted that Covid-19 grants received from the government had distorted some of the underlying budgets.  The Council had adopted the strategy of maximising the use of those grants.

·       There had been a need to mitigate pressures in the home to school transport budget.  Some of the providers had been impacted by the campaign to recruit more HGV drivers.  This was an area under significant pressure, and it was noted that regular meetings had taken place with the Executive Councillor for Children’s Services, Community Safety and Procurement and the Executive Councillor for Highways, Transport and IT.

·       There would be pressures from sectors competing for the same staff, for example, care and leisure and hospitality, and transport roles competing with amazon and delivery companies.  It was queried how this would impact on budgets going forward.  Work was underway with the Executive Councillor for People Management, Legal and Corporate Property on how to attract and train the best staff.  It was noted that corporate figures for staff turnover were starting to return to pre-Covid-19 levels.

RESOLVED

That the current position on the revenue budget be noted.