Agenda item

To receive a report of the Deputy Leader & Cabinet Member for Finance and the Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement providing the budget monitoring position for January 2013-14 for both the revenue and capital budgets.

(1)     Cabinet receiveda reportproviding thebudgetmonitoringposition forJanuary2013-14 forboth revenueand capitalbudgets,includingan updateon keyactivitydata.

(2)     Ms Careyintroduced thereport for Cabinetandreferredin particularto thefollowing informationcontainedwithin it:

Revenue

i.     Thatan underspendof£14millionwas expected,reducedto£9.7millionafter the rephasingofprojectsand otheractions.

ii.       Emergencycosts relatedto thefloods werecurrently reportedat approx £2.3m.  Reserves hadbeen usedtomeetthesecosts andthisevidencedthe prudenceoftheadministration’sapproachto reservelevels.  £8.6mhad now beenallocatedtoKCC fromtheGovernment,£5.4millionofwhich wouldsit withinthe revenue budgetand wouldbe allocatedto repairprogrammes.

iii.     Aclaim wasbeing pursuedto theBellwynschemewhich sought afurther£1.2 of funding.

iv.      That  £4million  of  the  2014-15  budget  was  derived  from  the  predicted underspendand soit wascrucial thattheCouncil metthattarget inorder to fulfilits commitmentsfornext year.

v.    ChildrenServices continuedtoexperience pressuresrelatedto ‘agency’ costs andAsylum costs.  Inrelation tothelatterKCC continuedto invoice the Government forcostsrelated tothoseasylum seekingyoung peoplewho had exhausted allrights ofappealbut hadyet tobe deported,butas yetno payment had been agreed.

vi.      Anunderspendwas predictedforthe E&TDirectorateowing to areductionin waste tonnagebut thiswas likelyto bereducedby pressureselsewhere inthe budget.

vii.     Additionalgovernment fundinghad beenreceivedin respectofthe Council’s Schoolsprogramme

Capital

i.        The  working  budget  was  currently  £256million;  with  a  forecast  spend  of £225million.  A varianceof£31millionwhich couldbe largelyattributed tothe rephasingofprojectsthathad beendelayed fora variety ofreasons

(3)     Ms Careyconcludedthatthereport showedfurtherimprovements onthe lastreport consideredby Cabinet andit waspredicted thattheforecastunderspendwould be met, and exceeded.

(4)     Andy Wood,Director ofFinanceandProcurementspoke tothe item.  Hereferredto the£14millionunderspenddroppingto £9.8miillionafterrephasing andother managementactionsbut infactconfirmedthatthis figurehadbeenfurtherreduced by£1.2 millionlater inthe reportandthereforetheunderspendwas predictedat £8.7million.He thankedmembersand officersfor thework doneto achievethe underspendpredicted.

(5)     Mr BrazierCabinet Memberfor Environmentand Transportreportedthat the EnvironmentandTransportDirectoratecontinuedto worktoward resolutionofpot holeproblemscausedby thefloodingover Christmas andit wasexpected thatthe workwould be completedby May2014.

(6)     It was RESOLVEDthat

1.      thelatestmonitoringposition onboththerevenue andcapitalbudgets be noted;and

2.     the changestothecapitalprogrammeas detailedin theactionscolumnin table2 ofthe annex reports be agreed.