Agenda item

(To receive a report by Michelle Grady, Assistant Director – Finance, which invites the Board to consider a report on the Review of Financial Performance for 2021/22 which is due to be presented to the Executive on 5 July 2022. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Director – Finance, which invited the Board to consider a report on the Review of Financial Performance 2021/22 which would be presented to the Executive on 5 July 2022.

The Board noted that the total service revenue spending, excluding schools, was underspent by £13.582m and the revenue spending for schools had also underspent by £17m, which would carry forward to 2022/23. The full revenue outturn position was set out at table C.

The net capital expenditure was £100.4m which was £50.049m less than planned due to slippage in the delivery of works. Further details were set out at table D.

It was proposed that the surplus underspend of £7.392m be transferred to the Development Fund earmarked reserve for Local Highways works in the four Highways areas (£5.000m) and carried forward to the 2022/23 contingency budget to help deal with inflationary pressures (£2.392m).

No further covid-19 funding was expected.

The Board supported the recommendations to the Executive and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·       Discussions on the allocation of underspends did not take place until the end of the financial year once the exact amounts and financial pressures were known. Each directorate would keep 1% of its underspend.

·       The loss of £24m of government funding over the last two years had impacted significantly on the Highways budget. The additional funding proposed for Highways was supported by the Board given the state of the roads and footpaths were a main area of concern for local residents and led to several claims against the Council for pothole damage. A number of roads needed significant investment, particularly in rural areas which were affected by large agricultural machinery and urban areas due to the volume of traffic. The Highways Asset Management Plan would help to determine where the funding should be allocated according to priority.

·       The Green Masterplan was a project included within the Development Fund. As part of the Green Agenda and in response to the rising cost of energy, the Council was investigating how it could get energy saving aids, such as solar panels PV and heat recovery, into the Council’s buildings.

·       The Council was facing considerable financial volatility and uncertainty due to inflation, on-going pay negotiations which were likely to be higher than budgeted for, higher energy costs when the current procurement deals for gas and electricity come to an end, and the increase in the national living wage which would impact on the Council’s contracts with providers.

·       The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government had announced at the Local Government Association Conference that there would be a consultation on a two-year financial settlement shortly. The fairer funding review, which was due this calendar year, may see limited redistribution across councils.

·       It was suggested that the ringfenced funding of £335,000 for civil parking enforcement and permitting should be used to employ more parking attendants across the county.

·       It was also suggested that some of the underspend proposed for the contingency budget should be allocated to the Green Masterplan to fund energy saving schemes.

RESOLVED :

1.    That the recommendations to the Executive, as set out in the report, be supported;

That a summary of the comments made be passed on to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item.