Issue - meetings

Budget Monitoring Report Year End outturn

Meeting: 13/07/2022 - Cabinet (for meetings after 18 January 2023 see "Executive") (Item 43)

43 Budget Monitoring Report Year End outturn PDF 756 KB

Purpose:

To provide details of the Council’s financial performance at the end of 2021/2022, the key movements to reserves and the capital budget including the unspent funds rolled over.

Recommendation:

That Cabinet resolves to:

a) Note the 2021/22 end of year financial performance.

b) Recommend to Council to approve the carry forward of Capital Budget of £14,399,348 as detailed in Annex B

c) Recommend to Council to approve the transfers to and between Earmarked Reserves as detailed in the report

d) Delegate authority to the Chief Finance Officer to spend from the Project Contingency Earmarked Reserve to fund ad hoc investigation, advice and consultancy services for potential investments and projects.

Minutes:

Councillor Levy, Cabinet Member for Finance, thanked officers and the previous administration for ensuring the Council is in a sound financial position. Due to financial support from central government during COVID and the Council’s low spending there is a surplus. It is however important to deliver the services that residents expect, particularly during a cost of living crisis. Also funding is needed to improve the Council’s estate and work towards decarbonisation. An underspend of £300,000 in the year plus reserves means there is £750,000 available for new initiatives. There was an underspend on capital of £14.4m which would be carried forward. It is important that the Chief Finance Officer has the flexibility to look for new opportunities. He added that there would be some difficult decisions ahead.

Resolved that Cabinet: