Agenda item
FINANCE REPORT
To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) detailing the latest financial position and progress against the agreed budget strategy.
Decision:
RESOLVED that Cabinet –
(a) note the budgets
set for 2019/20 and progress against the agreed budget strategy;
(b) approve the revised guidance relating to
Business Rate Relief criteria to be published on the Council’s website and that
the transparent scoring matrix is introduced with immediate effect as detailed
in Appendix 6 and Section 6.2 of the report, and
(c) approve the
write-off of Business Rates as detailed in Appendix 7 and Section 6.3 of the
report.
Minutes:
Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill presented the
report detailing the latest financial position and progress against the agreed
budget strategy. He provided a summary
of the Council’s financial position as follows –
·
the net
revenue budget for 2019/20 was £198.538m (£194.418m in 2018/19)
·
an
overspend of £1.614m was forecast for service and corporate budgets
·
highlighted
current risks and assumptions relating to individual service areas
·
detailed
required savings and efficiencies of £5.672m with an approved allocation of
£616k from the Savings Achievement Contingency to offset known non-achievement
savings (approximately 11% of the total savings identified)
·
provided a general
update on the Capital Plan, Housing Revenue Account and Housing Capital Plan.
Cabinet was also asked to approve the revised
guidance relating to Business Rate Relief criteria and to approve the write off
of Business Rates totalling £57k.
Councillor Mark Young referred to the
additional costs arising from the recent storm damage in the county, including
flooding incidents, both in terms of remedial and flood defence works and asked
that those costs be identified within the regular finance reports to Cabinet in
future as a known risk. The Head of
Finance and Property advised that in addition to pressures within the Highways
Service, there would also be impacts on other service areas, such as leisure
and social services, and an assessment of those wider impacts would also need
to be undertaken. It was agreed that the
impact of the storm damage be included as part of Cabinet’s regular finance
report in future.
RESOLVED that Cabinet –
(a) note the budgets
set for 2019/20 and progress against the agreed budget strategy;
(b) approve the revised guidance relating to
Business Rate Relief criteria to be published on the Council’s website and that
the transparent scoring matrix is introduced with immediate effect as detailed
in Appendix 6 and Section 6.2 of the report, and
(c) approve the
write-off of Business Rates as detailed in Appendix 7 and Section 6.3 of the
report.
Supporting documents:
- FINANCE REPORT 180220, item 7. PDF 148 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 1, item 7. PDF 229 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 2, item 7. PDF 437 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 3, item 7. PDF 457 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 4, item 7. PDF 193 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 5, item 7. PDF 393 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 6, item 7. PDF 337 KB
- FINANCE REPORT - APP 7, item 7. PDF 224 KB