Agenda item

(a)  Note the provisional outturn financial position of the council for 2018/19;

(b)  Approve the budget virements as listed in paragraph 7;

(c)  Approve the write offs as requested in paragraph 8;

(d)  Approve the commencement of a procurement process to procure residential leasehold property insurance for a term of three years with an option to extend for another two years, starting 1st April 2020. The detail is in paragraph 9;

(e)  Approve the write off of The Age Concern arrears of £154,245.90 (inclusive of VAT) as requested in paragraph 10.

The Service Lead Finance introduced a report that provided the Cabinet with the provisional revenue outturn for the 2018/19 financial year.  The Council’s approved revenue budget for 2018/19 was £105.422m and the provisional outturn was £105.473m.  There was provisional overspend of £0.051m, which was 0.05% of the budget, and this was a significant improvement on the forecast overspend of £3.275m reported at the end of the third quarter of the year.

The main reasons for movement since quarter 3 were summarised and it was noted that areas of overspend during the course of the year, such as temporary accommodation, schools PFI and adult social care had received some base budget growth for 2019/20 that should better reflect the increasing costs and pressures on these services.  It was noted that the Council had published its draft statement of accounts and these would be subject to audit by Grant Thornton.  The Cabinet welcomed the work that had been done to achieve an effectively break even position by year end, given the significant financial pressures on local authorities.

(Councillor Hussain joined the meeting)

The report also sought approval for virements and write off requests and agreement to commence tendering for residential property leasehold insurance.  These were considered and approved.

Resolved –

(a)  That the provisional outturn financial position of the Council for 2018/19 be noted;

(b)  That the budget virements as listed in paragraph 7 of the report be approved;

(c)  That the write offs as requested in paragraph 8 of the report be approved;

(d)  That the commencement of a procurement process to procure residential leasehold property insurance for a term of three years with an option to extend for another two years, starting 1st April 2020 be approved;

(e)  That the write off of The Age Concern arrears of £154,245.90 (inclusive of VAT) as requested in paragraph 10 of the report be approved.