Agenda item

BUDGET MONITORING P4 2023/24
Executive Summary		This report summarises the budget monitoring position for the revenue account, capital programme and reserves statement to the end of July 2023. The overall position at the end of July 2023 shows a £3,905,574 underspend for the current financial year on the revenue account, this is however currently expected to deliver a full year overspend of £25,000.
Options considered		Not applicable
Consultation(s)		Cabinet Member Section 151 officer Budget Managers
Recommendations		It is recommended that Cabinet: 1) Note the contents of the report and the current budget monitoring position. Recommend the following to Full Council: 2) 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. 3) 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. 4) That a new capital budget of £1.040m is added to the capital programme in respect of the Local Authority Housing Fund. 5) 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. 6) 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. 7) 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.
Reasons for recommendations		To update members on the current budget monitoring position for the Council.
Background papers		Finance system budget monitoring reports \\fs\Accounts\Budget Monitoring\BUDGET MONITORING\2023-24\Period 4\Report\Final Report & Appendicies\Budget Monitoring P4 2023-24.doc
Wards affected	All
Cabinet member(s)	Cllr Lucy Shires
Contact Officer	s151 Tina Stanley, Tina.stankley@north-norfolk.gov.uk

Links to key documents:
Corporate Plan:	Budgets set to support the Corporate Plan objectives.
Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)	Budget process in line with MTFS
Council Policies & Strategies	Service Budgets set in line with the council policies and strategies,

Corporate Governance:
Is this a key decision		no
Has the public interest test been applied		Not an exempt item
Details of any previous decision(s) on this matter		N/A

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 by Cllr T Adams, seconded by W Fredericks and