Issue - meetings

Cllr L Shires – Portfolio Holder for Finance and Assets introduced the report and stated that the budget position could fluctuate significantly, but the projected full year overspend of £25k was expected to come from IT costs and returns from the cancelled Mammoth Marathon. She added that she welcomed comments on the format of the report to ensure Members fully understood the financial information provided.

Questions and Discussion

       i.          Cllr C Cushing noted that there had been a number of additions to the budget since February, and asked whether there was a systemic reason for this, and whether the Finance Team were able to cope with the significant changes. Cllr L Shires replied that on issues such as the Marram’s footpath expenditure, it was a matter of health and safety, though it was right to ask why the Council had not been more proactive in maintaining the footpath to avoid unexpected costs. It was noted that public conveniences in Holt had been hit by a car, and additional funding was required to repair and improve the facility. Cllr L Shires stated that many other budget additions were the result of external funding received, and would not negatively impact the Council’s finances.

      ii.          Cllr C Cushing stated that external audit sign-offs were known to be two years behind schedule, and in addition to EY’s limited resources there had also been resource limitations in the Finance Team, and sought assurance that the Team would be given adequate resource to meet requirements. He added that the report contained much more information than was required for a quarterly update, and suggested that it may help to make reports more concise going forward. Cllr L Shires replied that a fine balance had to be found on the level of information provided as it was sometimes helpful to include all information to be able to drill down into issues. She added that she did aim to make the reports as accessible as possible, and additional training could be arranged if required.

     iii.          The Chairman referred to the backlog in annual accounts sign-off and asked whether the financial starting position of each year could be considered sound, and not subject to change. He added that this represented a risk which had not been recognised in section nine of the report, and asked whether there was a reason for this. Cllr J Toye stated that this issue was discussed at GRAC where it had been acknowledged as a risk, but remained hopeful that the 20/21 accounts would be signed-off by the end of the week, with an expectation for the 21/22 accounts to be signed-off by March 2024. He added that despite the concerns, the Council was clear of many financial issues faced by other authorities. It was noted that several accounting disagreements on the annual accounts which had delayed sign-off related to recording practices rather than financial discrepancies, with a pension fund allocation the final issue that had to be agreed for sign-off. The Chairman acknowledged the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44

Decision

RESOLVED

To recommend to Full Council:

1)    That a new capital budget of £0.050m is added to the capital programme to fund repair works to the Marrams Footpath, with funding coming from the Council’s Capital Receipts.

2)    That a new capital budget of £0.370m is added to the capital programme to demolish and rebuild the Public Conveniences at Albert Street, Holt with £0.120m to be funded from an insurance claim and £0.250m to be funded from the Council’s Capital Receipts.

3)    That a new capital budget of £1.040m is added to the capital programme in respect of the Local Authority Housing Fund.

4)    That the current Provision of Temporary Accommodation Budget is increased by £0.178m to £0.983m for 2023/24 following receipt of the Local Authority Housing Fund grant.

5)    That a capital budget of £1.458m be added to the capital programme for the Rural England Prosperity Fund expenditure and £0.266m be added to the capital programme for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund expenditure as shown in paragraph 4.7 and note that this will be funded by external funding.

6)    That a capital budget of £14.610m be added to the capital programme as shown in paragraph 4.8 and note that the project will be funded by external funding. 

Reason for the decision:

To update members on the current budget monitoring position for the Council.

In the absence of the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Property & Assets, the Chairman introduced this item. He said that there were various capital projects that needed to be included in the capital programme for the current budget year and there was a recommendation to Full Council to that effect.

The Chairman advised members that the interest budget was forecast to be £250k above budget, due to higher interest rates. This would be used to finance any short-term borrowing costs, should they occur.

He concluded by saying that there was a smaller than forecast overspend for the year of £25k, it was anticipated that an updated position would be provided when the period 6 report came forward.

Members were invited to speak:

Cllr C Cushing referred to page 30 of the report and the requirement to repay the Covid grants which had incurred almost £200k of interest. He asked, given that it was known that this funding would need to be paid back to the Government, why it had not been set aside in a reserve. The S151 Officer replied that the request for repayment from Government came with no warning and the money was held in an account that was not instantly accessible and there was no time to move it to an accessible account in the timescale given, so short term borrowing was implemented. She added that all local authorities were in the same position, adding to the difficulty in accessing funding.

Cllr Cushing then asked if there was a further update about employee costs and the pay award. He asked if there was an update on this and whether the £550k set aside would be sufficient. The S151 Officer replied that negotiations were ongoing. The Council had budgeted for a 5% increase and it looked as though it may be slightly higher than this.

Cllr N Dixon referred to page 23 of the report and the list of recommendations to Full Council. He asked whether any of the capital budget requests had been included in the 2023/2024 Budget forecast when the budget was set by Full Council in February. The S151 Officer confirmed that they were not. She said that the first one was an urgent request and the second one was due to an unanticipated incident. The remaining recommendations referred to matters that had been approved in principle and members were aware of them but they had not been included in the capital programme. She confirmed that they were all fully funded.

The Chief Executive said that recommendations 4 – 7 had been reported before. He said that the Statutory Officers had reviewed all of the decisions taken in recent months and whilst the award of the funds had been reported to members, they had not been included in the capital programme. The recommendations would rectify this omission.

Cllr Dixon replied that it was expected to have to make some corrections but it was the number and magnitude of the requests that was surprising.

It was proposed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40