Agenda item

To consider financial monitoring information since the last Quarterly Report was received and to seek agreement to necessary changes to the capital programme.

(Item 5 – Report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement, Mr John Simmonds and Corporate Director for Finance and Procurement, Andy Wood)

Cabinet received a report providing the budget monitoring position for January 2014-2015 for both revenue and capital budgets including an update on key activity data. 

Mr Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement introduced the report for members and in particular, referred to the following:

Revenue budget:

1. That the projected underspend for 2014/15 was currently £8.3million after management action, which would be reduced by scheduled roll forwards of projects including the Kent Youth Employment Programme, Troubled Families programme and the rephasing of local member grants.  These planned roll forwards were expected to reduce the underspend to approximately £5million.
2. That the key factors were as previously reported with pressures existing in the areas of:

·         Specialist Children’s Services as a result of continued demand pressures

·         Unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, although this pressure was reduced by the recent decision of the Minister to allow some netting-off of grant to be used toward costs of over 18s.

·         Domiciliary care

·         SEN transport

Capital budget:

3. The current working budget was currently £279million, with a working total of £238million the variation was attributable largely to the rephasing of projects which would be rolled over to the next financial year.

Mr Simmonds concluded by thanking Cabinet Members and Directors for the work that had been undertaken to turn the initial challenging predictions in to an underspend.

Mr Carter, Leader of the Council,  agreed that the management action deserved recognition and congratulated Directors accordingly.  He also requested that further work be undertaken on asylum costs, particularly for those under seeking asylum before they were 18 years old.  He welcomed the permission from the Home Office to vire grant to adult asylum seekers from those under 18, but reminded Members that this arrangement was not guaranteed to continue and therefore it would be necessary to assess the feasibility of managing support within the government grant by delivering it differently or building a solid evidence base to request further funding.

Mr Balfour, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, spoke to address the issue of waste tonnage costs, which although showing a reduction for the January report, had previously experienced a period of consistent growth.  He reported that evidence suggested the increase could be attributed to the recovery of the economy and the consequent purchase of goods, in packaging, by residents.  KCC was continuing to work with District Councils to lobby businesses to reduce packing in order to address the problem at source.

It was RESOLVED that