Agenda item

To receive budget monitoring information for Quarter 3 of 2014/15, and agree necessary changes to the Capital Programme.

Cabinet received a report detailing the budget monitoring position for Quarter 3 of 2014-15 for both revenue and capital budgets and including an update on key activity data.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement introduced the report and in particular he referred to the following:

Revenue Budget:

1. That early signs had caused concern when an overspend had been initially predicted for 2014/15.  This was no longer the case as improved predictions were now reported owing to the hard work and determination of Directors and Cabinet Members to manage budgets effectively.
2. The current net position variance against the budget was predicted as £5.48million, predicted to rise to £6million following further management action. Since the figures had been compiled, good news had been received from the Government regarding the cost of supporting unaccompanied minors seeking asylum.  The changes would increase the council’s budget by approximately £1.4million and increasing the projected underspend accordingly.
3. KCC was legally obligated to roll forward £341,000 for commitments made to the Kent Youth Employment Programme for 2015/16.  In addition to this, should the underspend be realised, other roll forwards would take place, namely £2million for the Troubled Families Programme and £70,000 for the County Coroners Service.  It had also been considered that a roll forward of £2.2million might be needed in order to continue the Kent Support and Assistance Service but this had been included in the Governments funding announcement and was therefore no longer necessary.
4. He looked at each Directorate in turn:

·         Social Care, Health and Wellbeing presented a balanced overall position. Pressures remained in the areas of domiciliary care and as a result of the timing of realisation of transformation savings but these were offset by savings elsewhere, such as nursing and residential care.

·         Growth Environment and Transport continued to experience waste tonnage increases but efforts in the area of waste disposal had created economies that had offset those pressures by more than 50%.  Pressures remained on the Kent Freedom Pass and Young Persons Travel Card and on Home to School SEN Transport, the latter being partly offset by income from other authorities of £500,000 and reduced demand for other home to school transport.

5. Generally the revenue budget report was positive and the outlook optimistic.

Capital budget:

1. The current working budget was reported at £356million with an actual outturn of £259million a very large proportion of that variance was as a result of rephrasing of projects and these were detailed in full within the report.

Andy Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and procurement spoke to the item.  He clarified that the underlying position after roll forward requests was a £3m underspend against a total budget of nearly one billion.  The news on the costs of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum was welcomed an would increase that underspend to approximately £4.5million but difficult negotiations would continue to seek clarity on the position for future years.  Finally Mr Wood confirmed that there were reasons for concern within the indicative January and February figures and that he was confident that the underspend would be achieved.

Mr Carter reiterated the points made about the asylum budget; he welcomed the news from government but confirmed that negotiations would continue in respect of future years.  He also reminded members that as a result of  a motion put forward by Mr Truelove at County Council work was underway to identify road maintenance projects that may be funded from some of the underspend.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Mr Matthew Balfour, spoke to the item.  He reported to members that the increase in waste tonnage was largely a result of the improvement in the economic climate and congratulated Officers and his predecessor as Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport on the work done in other areas to partially address this.  He welcomed the Leader’s comments regarding road maintenance and relished the opportunity to make improvements in that area.