Agenda item

Cabinet

1. Noted the provisional financial outturn position for 2021-22.

Cabinet Resolves to Recommend

2. To recommends to Council to approve the following General Fund reserve movements in respect of 2021-22:

• £0.009m surplus Filming income to be transferred to the Dacorum Development
• Reserve, to be drawn down in 2022-23 for work on town centre improvements.
• £0.216m surplus CIL admin income to be transferred to the Dacorum Development Reserve to support the costs of CIL administration in future years.
• £0.565m overall General Fund surplus to be transferred to a new reserve- Inflationary Pressures- in order to meet unexpected inflationary pressures brought about by fluctuations in the current economy.
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Cabinet Resolves to Recommend

3. That Council approves the following General Fund reserve movements in respect of 2022-23:

• £0.022m draw down from the Dacorum Development reserve to support the cost of the Armed Forces event in 2022-23.
• £0.020m draw down from the Dacorum Development reserve to support the cost of the Queen’s Baton relay event in 2022-23.
• £0.150m reserve draw down from the Dacorum Development reserve for Berkhamsted Leisure Centre redevelopment planning.
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Cabinet Resolves to Recommend

4. That Council approve an HRA transfer of £0.020m to the HRA Lift sinking fund reserve.

Cabinet Resolves to Recommend

5. That Council approves to approve the following slippage on the capital programme:

• £2.777m to be slipped to 2022-23 in respect of General Fund capital schemes.

·         £0.595m to be slipped to 2022-23 in respect of Housing Revenue Account capital schemes

Decision

1. That Cabinet notes the provisional financial outturn position for 2021-22.

2. That Cabinet recommends to Council to approve the following General Fund reserve movements in respect of 2021-22:

 £0.009m surplus Filming income to be transferred to the Dacorum Development Reserve, to be drawn down in 2022-23 for work on town centre improvements.

 £0.216m surplus CIL admin income to be transferred to the Dacorum Development Reserve to support the costs of CIL administration in future years.

 £0.565m overall General Fund surplus to be transferred to a new reserve- Inflationary Pressures- in order to meet unexpected inflationary pressures brought about by fluctuations in the current economy.

3. That Cabinet recommends to Council to approve the following General Fund reserve movements in respect of 2022-23:

 £0.022m draw down from the Dacorum Development reserve to support the cost of the Armed Forces event in 2022-23.

 £0.020m draw down from the Dacorum Development reserve to support the cost of the Queen’s Baton relay event in 2022-23.

 £0.150m reserve draw down from the Dacorum Development reserve for Berkhamsted Leisure Centre redevelopment planning.

4. That Cabinet recommends to Council to approve an HRA transfer of £0.020m to the HRA Lift sinking fund reserve.

5. That Cabinet recommends to Council to approve the following slippage on the capital programme:

 £2.777m to be slipped to 2022-23 in respect of General Fund capital schemes.

 £0.595m to be slipped to 2022-23 in respect of Housing Revenue Account capital schemes.

Corporate Objectives

A clean, safe and enjoyable environment Building strong and vibrant communities Cabinet www.dacorum.gov.uk Ensuring economic growth and prosperity Providing good quality affordable homes, in particular for those most in need Ensuring efficient, effective and modern service delivery Climate and ecological emergency

Statutory Officer Comments:

Deputy Monitoring Officer:

No comments to add to the report.

Deputy S151 Officer:

.This is a Deputy s151 Officer report.

Advice

NHowcutt introduced the report and said that it had been through the Finance & Resource OSC last week and now had been added to the report. It would also be going to the various other Scrutiny committee in terms of various sections for housing and SPAE.

In summery the year-end position for 21-22 the council had a surplus of 56500k, primarily in relation to the changes at year-end in a split between the HRA and general fund costs, which meant that the general fund had a surplus at year-end. At that moment in time the paper recommended that the money be placed in to an inflation reserve, for 22-22, that was taking place feedback from Cabinet, Scrutiny group around what the council was putting in place to provide for that potential pressure as it comes about. Other recommendations in the report and one that seemed to stand out was the fact that surplus filming income was being put into a specific reserve to be drawn down in 22-23, to invest in the local community and give back to those residents that would have been impacted by some of the filming, showing that some of the commercial benches they’re doing will give back to local communities and the local high-street. A positive from that perspective.

There was still some surplus in the CIL admin, so that is just about smoo9thing out the costs of CIL over multiple years, its s technical adjustment more than anything else.

In terms of capital they did have slippage in 21-22, they were slipping 2.8 million in the general fund and 0.6 million in the HRA. The capital programme was not proposed to change as it was approved previously at Council. This was around delivering it in a different financial year.

He was happy to take questions.

Cllr Barratt referred to the filming surplus was only £9000 which he said was disappointing.

NHowcutt said that that was the surplus compared to budget so it was not necessarily the problem and that there was a lot of income around parking and other areas that had been in the baseline budget for several years. This was the surplus achieved rather than just the bottom line profit. There were several 100’s thousand pounds of income but also £100,000 of expenses incurred in setting that up and arranging them.

Cllr Barratt asked what the profit was.

NHowcutt said not off the top of his head but would get back to him on that. He said that one of the big things to realise with filming was that residents and businesses also make a lot of money out of it, they are paid directly for inconvenience or indirectly through the increase in terms of GDP in the local area, the attraction that comes about and the positivity created when you see Dacorum in many guises on the TV. It is about self-promotion more than anything else.

Cllr Barratt said that he thought it was fantastic which was why he was disappointed to only see £9000.

Cllr Williams said that other committee also had got quite fixated on this, as Nigel said there was a lot more to this and now they had employed an officer to look after it. He also said that people often think that you can charge a lot for using the street and things however its counties policy to encourage filing that we do not charge for using the highways so there are charges around the peripheries of blocking roads etc. He said that through the parking service he was always consulted on each of the filing requests they always make sure that as a minimum they were making up for any lost revenue and covering any costs being cut so they are not out of pocket.

NHowcutt said that as the council becomes more filming positive they would make use of the money when they use one of their assets. If they were to use the Old Town Half or a week, that is where they would make a considerable amount of income. When you block of roads that is not where they make the money but if they become more filming positive and were more open to filming, that is when they will come back and might want the Forum for example, or a cemetery site, that sort of promotion will lead too bigger revenue streams. If Parish councils are making money out of filming then that was only a positive for the local community.

Cllr Barratt understood that the filming officer was compiling a register of assets such as the memorial hall and they would be on the register that the filing companies have access too, if they could do that across the borough then that would be a useful thing.

Cllr Williams said that he discussed in another meeting that a film crew wanted a hall; they were only filming 2 hours across lunch and were paying £200 for the whole day.

NHowcutt said they they did have assets that they want to maximise the use of, such as Queen Victoria Hall, which is well located but underused at the moment, if they could find other ways of using those sites where they can potentially make more money. He said it was in its infancy and they were developing it and will see how it goes. As part of that, they were looking at the fees.