Agenda item

To receive an update from the Director of Resources on the Council’s financial performance and projected outturn for 2025/26 for the revenue account, capital programme and reserves statement as at the end of July 2025.

Cllr Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Estates and Property Services introduced the report. She explained this was Period 4 and the first monitoring since the budget was set in February. Last year the Finance Team had made a change in the way they monitored the budget, so it now included a projection to year end. Outturn this time last year forecast a deficit of £1.3m. Because of the subsequent focus in the organisation, as reported in July the Council had £600k to put in general reserves. The Budget in February 2025 created a new reserve of £515K to support with the Council’s Homelessness budget. Cllr Shires explained they were projecting a small surplus of £138k at year end.

Cllr Cushing questioned what confidence the Committee could have that the forecast was accurate given past estimates and the variance of 22% last year. Cllr Shires was currently very confident. With food waste collections coming in, it was inevitable that would bring some changes along the way but if everything remained stable then she was as confident as she could be on the figures provided. Cllr Shires reiterated the Council could only control what was within its powers in house and external pressures and influences could have an impact that was not anticipated. Cllr Cushing agreed some variance was natural but would not expect a variance running into millions as per the previous year. Cllr Shires said when the budget was set in 2024/25, the Finance Team had changed how they monitored that budget process and that had always been openly communicated. There had been a collective push from Officers to save money and as the year progressed they could see that improvement due to having an early warning system in place. This was also about considering where the Council would be in the future financially and not just about setting the budget for the current year. Cllr Shires was already meeting with the ADFA and had been for some time in looking at the budget for 2026/27.

The Chair had a query on the use of £500k in reserves that Environmental Health anticipated using and wondered what that spend was on. Cllr Shires explained that was a cost they had decided would be funded by the budget so not a new change but something they were expecting to spend from reserves. Cllr Shires agreed to provide an exact reason in writing. The Chair also wondered with regards to dog waste and litter bins if that was the total savings listed on Pg.87 and Cllr Shires explained that with the small increase in the charge for emptying those bins that was the income the Council was predicting to make from that. 

In relation to general funds and how much council tax came from 2^nd homes, Cllr Bayes asked if there was a breakdown of those figures. Cllr Shires referred the Committee to Pg.86 and the Second Home Premium reserve which was where the share NNDC took from the premium charges could be seen. That was then put into reserves for supporting homelessness.

Cllr Fletcher asked to what the Extended Responsibility Producer referred and Cllr Shires replied that she believed it was for food waste collections. Cllr Fletcher also referred to the removal of the Youth Council Budget and the £9k saving, saying that he felt the Council should be encouraging interest in local Government in our younger community and not potentially curbing it. Cllr Shires said the creation of the Youth Council was one of her proposals and the vision of what that would be didn’t really work for younger people who were very busy in education and carving out their future lives. Asking them to come to meetings did not appeal despite the incredible efforts of Officer Denny in trying to find a format that excited younger people. Cllr Varley had reached out to schools to see if it was possible to work out a different model for that project going forward. So, the money had been reduced as not all required at this time for such things as travel, but the Council was still pursuing that alternative and being steered by young people in what excited them and had continuity as the turnover of those young people naturally moved on.

RESOLVED to make the following recommendations to Full Council:

a)       Note the contents of the report and the current forecast year end position.

b)       Approval is requested from Full Council to decrease the 2025/26 capital budget for the Mundesley Coastal Defence scheme to £1,139,806 to reflect the apportionment of £250k from external contributions to the Cromer Scheme.

c)       Approval is requested from Full Council to increase the 2025/26 capital budget for the Cromer Coastal Defences scheme to £1,096,067 to reflect the apportionment of £250k from external contributions from the Mundesley Scheme.

d)       Note the contents of the Q1 Treasury Management update report, appendix F.