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Issue - meetings

2025/26 Quarterly Finance Review Q3

 

 

Meeting: 11/03/2026 - Executive (Item 479)

479 Quarterly Finance Review Q3 pdf icon PDF 399 KB

Purpose:         

To detail the Council’s financial performance for Quarter Three 2025-2026.

 

Recommendations:

That the Executive resolves to:

  1. Note the Council’s Financial Performance for Quarter Three 2025-2026
  2. Delegate authority to the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance, to review earmarked reserves to mitigate against the financial risks identified in this report. See Sections 2.21 – 2.24.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, introduced the item, the purpose of which was to detail the Council’s financial performance for Quarter Three 2025-2026.

 

In his presentation Councillor Smith highlighted the following points:

 

·         At the end of Quarter three there was a cost-of-service underspend of £630,078.

·         The key factors contributing to the position were, additional income from Trade Waste, Development Management and the leisure contract.

·         There were no significant overspends to report for Quarter Three.

·         Investment income was better than budget due in the main to interest rates falling more slowly in the last year than had been anticipated at 2025/26 budget setting. The year end forecast was for an additional £596,000 of investment income above budget.

·         In terms of the Capital Programme, there were a number of projects ongoing that included, repairs at The Old Court, Chipping Norton Leisure Centre and Carterton Industrial Estate.

·         There was an underspend on the replacement waste fleet which had been rolled into a full waste vehicle strategy which should generate savings.

·         The Council was acquiring properties in the district for emergency accommodation, and advance negotiations were ongoing for a further six properties to be acquired.

·         The Witney PSDS project was now in the construction phase and had an estimated completion of March 2026.

·         S106 contributions had resulted in £1.6m distributed to Town and Parish Councils for projects.

 

Councillor Smith proposed accepting the recommendations in the report.

 

There were no alternative options detailed in the report.

 

Councillor Andy Graham, Leader of the Council, seconded the proposal.

 

This was voted on and agreed unanimously.

 

The Executive resolved to:

1.    Note the Council’s Financial Performance for Quarter Three 2025-2026

2.    Delegate authority to the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance, to review earmarked reserves to mitigate against the financial risks identified in this report. See Sections 2.21 – 2.24.

Meeting: 04/03/2026 - Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 103)

103 2025/26 Quarterly Finance Review Q3 pdf icon PDF 399 KB

Report to follow.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This was taken as first substantive item for pre-decision scrutiny.

 

Councillor Alaric Smith, Executive Member for Finance, introduced the 2025/26 Quarterly Finance Review Q3 report and highlighted:

·         The overall underspend of £630k against the profiled budget.

·         Development management income was up 70% on the previous year due to the receipt of major applications.

·         Trade waste income was up 21%.

·         Leisure contract had generated an additional £101k.

·         There were no significant overspends.

·         Treasury Management investment income was better than the budget due to interest rates being higher than expected.

·         There were a number of variances in the capital programme but asset repairs and fleet purchases were expected soon.

·         Two temporary accommodation properties had been acquired and a further six were in the pipeline.

·         Capital developer contributions of £6m had been paid out.

 

The Committee asked questions and noted from the responses of the Head of Finance that:

·         The purchase of temporary accommodation properties would result in savings in housing benefit, a conservate estimate was £350k per annum.

·         The additional leisure income was a result of inflation being higher than expected.

·         Money had been set aside for car park improvements, and some work (e.g. new signage) had already been undertaken.

 

The Chair thanked the Executive Member and officers for their work and time. There were no recommendations to the Executive.

 

 

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