Agenda item

To consider a report from the Director of Resources on the provisional outturn position for the 2023/24 financial year for revenue, capital and reserves.

Suggested time 30 minutes

Councillor Cushing referred to discussions at the recent Governance, Risk and Audit Committee (GRAC) meeting on the delay in getting the Council’s 21/22 and 22/23 accounts externally audited and that it could mean a variance of up to a £1m in the council’s accounts.

The Director of Resources (DoR) stated that the position on the accounts may change but it would be a surprise if the general fund changed a lot as the budget adjustments were normally to do with capital and valuations which don’t greatly affect the revenue position. The accounts though won’t be full audited but there will be some checks on those two years of accounts.

The DoR added that the timetable was for the 21/22 and 22/23 accounts to go the GRAC meeting in December and the effects of the audit would only affect the reserve balances rather than the whole budget setting process for 2025/26.

Councillor Dixon asked about the level of underspends and overspends within the budget and what controls there were in place to assess these.

The DoR advised that service managers were being reminded of the need to achieve the budget savings and the intention for the September round of meetings is that the budget monitoring report will have a section on the achievement of the £975K savings that are needed as well as the additional £250K target.

Councillor Hankins asked what the reason was for the £492K variance in the waste management budget.

The DoR advised that this could be due to fluctuations in the waste prices to landfill, additional contractor costs, debt write off and performance clauses pay back.

Resolved – that the report is noted.