Issue - meetings

The Leader’s Portfolio

To consider report FIN/531 of the Head of Corporate Finance, which was referred to the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 6 September 2021.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)         notes the projected outturn for the year 2021/2022 as summarised in this report FIN/531..

b)         notes the potential overspend on HRA responsive repairs as shown in paragraph 8.4 of report FIN/531.

c)         notes that the ICT budget has been increased by £100,000 for Hardware Renewals and that this will be funded from the ICT Renewals Reserve.

d)         approves the increase the capital budget by £35,000 in 2021/22 to purchase a Legal Case Management System this will be funded from New Burdens grant received from the government.

e)         approves the draw down from the existing refurbishment of playgrounds future schemes for the two play schemes as identified in paragraph 9.9 of report FIN/531 which will be funded from available S106 (subject to delegated approval).

Reasons for the Recommendations

To report to Councillors on the projected outturn for the year compared to the approved budget.

The Leader presented report FIN/531 of the Head of Corporate Finance. The report set out a summary of the Council’s actual revenue and capital spending for the Quarter 1 of the 2021-2022 financial year. The figures showed an expected overspend of in the revenue budget of £1.529mill, but with use of the ‘use of approved coronavirus budgets’ reserve of £1.008mil and Grants’ relating to sales, fees and charges of £250k, the predicted revised deficit would be £271k. It was explained the majority of the deficit was directly or indirect Covid related. The HRA was showing an underspend of £5k currently but that figure did not account for the potential repairs and maintenance overspend which was being investigated.

The capital budget expenditure to end of Quarter 1 was £9.033mil and with an estimate total capital spend for the year of £54.356mil. The report also detailed proposed redistribute funds within the ICT budget and proposals with regard to the Unsupervised Play Investment Programme.

Councillor Khan presented the Overview and Scrutiny Commission’s comments on the report to the Cabinet following consideration of the matter at its meeting on 6 September 2021, which included that they noted that the majority of the reasons overspent for this quarter were still Covid related and that they would want to be monitoring this in the next few Quarters’ report, especially regarding K2 Crawley.

Councillor Crow spoken on the report acknowledging the uncertain times that the Council was functioning in, also added his support with regards to Recommendation 5 relating to the refurbishment ofplaygrounds.

Councillors Irvine and C Mullins also spoke regarding to issues relating respectively their Portfolios as part of the discussion on the report. 

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)         notes the projected outturn for the year 2021/2022 as summarised in this reportFIN/531

b)         notes the potential overspend on HRA responsive repairs as shown in paragraph 8.4 of reportFIN/531.

c)         notes that theICT budget hasbeen increased by £100,000 for HardwareRenewals and thatthis will be fundedfrom theICT RenewalsReserve.

d)         approves the increasethe capital budgetby £35,000 in 2021/22to purchase aLegal Case Management Systemthis willbe fundedfrom NewBurdens grant received fromthe government.

e)         approves thedraw down fromthe existingrefurbishment ofplaygrounds futureschemes forthe two play schemes asidentified in paragraph 9.9of report FIN/531which willbe fundedfrom available S106 (subjectto delegated approval).

Reasons for the Recommendations

To report to Councillors on the projected outturn for the year compared to the approved budget.

To consider report FIN/531 of the Head of Corporate Finance.

The Commission considered report FIN/531 of the Head of Corporate Finance on the quarter 1 budget monitoring, which set out a summary of the Council’s actual revenue and capital spending for the quarters to June 2021 together with the main variations from the approved spending levels and impact on future budgets.

During the discussion with the Leader of the Council and Chief Accountant, the following comments were made:

·         Recognition that the budget was overspent for this quarter.  The majority of the reasons were still Covid related (for example people not signing up to use services following the easing of restrictions, number of planning applications received).  The situation would be monitored over the next few months and continued to be reported in future monitoring reports.

·         Confirmation was provided that Everyone Active had developed additional advertising campaigns to promote K2 Crawley.  There may be additional ways (secondary spend) to encourage attendance at venues. 

·         There was a query surrounding attendance analysis at K2 Crawley.  It was felt that once there was a level of normality, and if then, usage levels had not returned to pre-pandemic levels then further analysis may be required.  However currently there was too much uncertainty surrounding attendance levels.

·         Acknowledgement that whilst individuals’ household income had been affected, leisure facilities would continue to be impacted. There was recognition that Covid had resulted in behavioural change and until there was overriding confidence that Covid would not be a concern, then leisure provision would remain a challenging area but it was hopefully not a long term issue.  There was also an impact on other services throughout the town as a result of Coronavirus.

·         Recognition that the council gave advice to businesses during and post pandemic as well as working in partnership with the business community and MRBD. It was also hoped that there would be further green development in the future.

·         Acknowledgement that the review of essential car users’ savings anticipated figure was unlikely to be realised but was based on what would be reasonable.

RESOLVED

That the Commission notes the report and requests that the views expressed during the debate, are fed back to the Cabinet through the Commission’s Comment sheet.