Members received and considered the report of the Chief Finance Officer on the Revenue Budget and Capital Programme Monitoring Quarter 2 2021/22. The report updated Members on the Council’s finances as at the end of September 2021 and Collection Fund performance.  It was noted that the report had been scrutinised by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) on 22 November 2021 and a copy of the Minutes arising from the OSC meeting had been appended to the report for Cabinet’s consideration.

Since the Quarter 1 Monitoring Report, there had been no reportable virements.

At the end of Quarter 2, the Revenue Budget showed a deficit of £93,000, against the approved budget drawdown from Reserves of £2.7m.  Overall the deficit on the cost of services was attributed to various overspends/deficits including planning appeal and potential judicial review costs, staff costs to cover long term sickness and special projects, increased net cost of the Rough Sleeping Initiativeand a shortfall of £474,000 in the Financial Stability Programme’s savings target.  The Council was expecting to receive an additional £75,000 from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities in relation to the sales, fees and charges compensation scheme for irrecoverable income losses suffered during the pandemic.

The Capital Programme forecast as at 30 September 2021 was £9.223m, which was £53.519m lower than the approved revised budget.  This was due to timing differences and the approved five-year programme was still on target to be delivered.  The position was summarised in Appendix B to the report, the main changes were concerned with Housing Development schemes, the Property Investment Strategy and Temporary Accommodation purchases.

The forecast impact on Reserves was a reduction of £3.395m against the planned use of £3.319m, a slight increase of £76,000 mainly due to the forecast Revenue Budget overspend.

The Council Tax collection rate at the end of Quarter 2 was 57.17% of the collectable debit and 58.98% of the budgeted yield, which was 1.41% and 3.11% respectively higher than the corresponding figures in 2020/21.  The Business Rates collection rate at the end of Quarter 2 was 46.68% of the collectable debit which was 6.3% lower than the corresponding figure in 2020/21.  This was considerably lower and possibly influenced by the extension of the business rate relief period to 30 June 2021.

The overspend and impact on reserves would be monitored by the Chief Finance Officer (CFO), in consultation with Heads of Service and Members.

On behalf of Cabinet, the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Finance and Performance Management thanked Robin Vennard, Assistant Director Resources for all his hard work over the last 20 years and wished him well for the future; Robin would be retiring at the end of the month.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.