Issue - meetings

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND;

That Council;

1.    Approve the carry forward of unspent reserve funded budgets from 2017/18 to 2018/19 (see Appendix D of the report to Cabinet, £315k slippage into 2018/19)

2.    Approve the use of the Housing Revenue Account surplus to fund an increased Revenue Contribution to Capital

Decision

RESOLVED TO RECOMMEND;

That Council;

1.     Approve the carry forward of unspent reserve funded budgets from 2017/18 to 2018/19 (see Appendix D of the report to Cabinet, £315k slippage into 2018/19)

2.     Approve the use of the Housing Revenue Account surplus to fund an increased Revenue Contribution to Capital

Reason for decision

To agree details of the provisional outturn position for the:

· General Fund

· Housing Revenue Account

· Capital Programme

Corporate objectives

Delivering an efficient and modern council

Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer comments

Monitoring Officer:  

No further comments to add.

S.151 Officer:

This is a S.151 Officer report.

Advice

Cllr Elliot introduced the report and expressed his view that we are getting better at managing and forecasting, also recognised the challenges ahead of us to meet future saving targets.

JDeane added that this year we finished within 0.4% of budget, commenting that there are some positives to be drawn on accuracy and forecasting and adding that with expected reductions in government funding over next few years we will see a more challenging budgetary environment. 

Cllr Sutton referred to the £240k generated by volume of planning applications.  JDoe confirmed it was a good year for income.

Cllr Williams commented that we have made quite significant savings and have better financial control in terms of coming in on budget and producing our budget.  Emphasising that the saving requirements referred to are going to be significant in terms of challenge.

Cllr Tindall referred to the £1.2m mentioned in the report as retained for upgrade fire safety work, advising he read somewhere that central government will pay for replacement of panels for remedial work arising from Grenfell fallout.  He asked, is it the intention that this fire safety work will be panel replacement? In which case, if read correctly, the government will be funding it?

MGaynor advised we do not have any buildings where we could apply for funding, this upgrade work is to ensure we are doing the upmost to ensure all our tenants and leaseholders are safe in all of our buildings.

Cllr Griffiths advised there was some panelling on a new build, which was changed, but would not have qualified for funding due to building height.  There was also another build still in the planning stages where there was intention to use panels, for which the plans were changed.

Recommendations agreed.

Voting

None.