Agenda item

(Item 9 – report of Mr John Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support and Mr A Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement)

Cabinet received an exception report, which detailed the main movements in the financial position of Kent County Council since cabinet last received a full quarterly monitoring report in March 2013.

Mr Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support introduced the report to Cabinet and in particular drew attention to the following information pertaining to the Revenue budget:

·    That there had been an increase in the underspend of £750,000 and it now totalled £9.25 million excluding schools.  He reminded members that £5 million was already committed in the recently approved budget for 2013/14 and that £2 million had been rolled forward to re-phased projects.  There remained a small underspend to carry forward into difficult economic times and he thanked the Directorates for the careful way in which they had conducted spending and managed efficiency savings.

·    That there were no signs that the picture would be significantly different in the following month, not reported here and it was likely that the underspend report at the end of the year would be as predicted.

·    Education, Learning and Skills Directorate, largely owing to the popularity of the Freedom Pass, continued to see a reduction in the Home to School transport costs but this was largely negated by the increase in demand for SEN home to school transport

·    Specialist Children’s Services spending remained constant, with no indication that numbers would reduce in the future.

He continued to describe changes to the Capital programme as follows:

·    The Capital Budget over three years remained healthy at £6.68 million an achievement of which he was proud in the current economic climate.  He further reported a variation of £1.325 million.

·    That there had been significant re-phasing of projects after the 2013/14 budget had been announced.  This level of re-phasing was normal and the result of issues such as delays to being in a position to apply for planning permission for example.

·    A potential issue that cabinet members should be aware of was negotiations to determine final contract costs for the Cyclopark project and whether an overspend would be required. This would be reported once final costs were known.

The Leader reiterated the gratitude expressed by Mr Simmonds to each Directorate for their hard work and in particular Mr Wood and the Finance Directorate for helping to create a healthy budget in difficult circumstances.

Mr Daley, representing the Liberal Democrat group commented that the new session may bring a chance to debate how some of the underspend could be spent in the future.

Mr Cowan, Leader of the Labour group sought clarification of the number of children in care and Mr Wood confirmed that the numbers were relatively static.  A small increase could be identified but was not significant in financial terms. 

Mr Ireland confirmed that although the numbers fluctuated slightly from week to week but over a longer period it was static as confirmed by Mr Wood.

In response to questions from Mr Carter, Mr Simmonds and Mr Wood reported the following:

·    That a further, approximately £4 million was secured and awaited from Icelandic Bank repayments and once received the total would be at £42 million.  Furthermore he was confident that 100% of the funds would be recovered and that there would also be paid an element of interest, although this figure was not yet confirmed

·    That the target for capital receipts had been met and exceeded. The excess would be carried over to help meet the ambitious target for next 2014/15.

It was RESOLVED: