Decision details

Key Decision identified as Financial Management 2019/20 in the Notice of Key Decisions published on 11 September 2019.

Reserved for Council.

Councillor L D Carter, Cabinet Member for Finance, Commercial Services and the Economy presented the report of the Assistant Director: Finance & Human Resources, Chief Finance Officer.

Cabinet Members noted that the net outturn position for 2019/20 was currently projected to be within budget at year end after applying funding from the Council’s contingency.  The centrally held contingency was available to meet funding pressures and any unforeseen costs with any balance remaining at year-end used to support the medium term service and financial planning strategy in future years.  The current projection was that just over £2.2m of the contingency would still be available at year-end.

This was a positive position as £6.1m savings were required to balance the 2019/20 budget although significant pressures were being experienced in a number of service areas.  The aim was to reduce the impact of those pressures and improve the overall position further during the remainder of the year.

Adult Social Care was currently projected to be £0.983m over budget, due to the cost of purchasing care packages.  A cost improvement plan was in place and being closely monitored.  Children’s Safeguarding & Family Support continued to be a key pressure area with additional investment of £2.079m required, mainly due to the cost of placements for Looked after Children.  This position was after applying £1.647m one off balanced and contingencies, set aside at last year end to support the delivery of the cost improvement plan.  A cost improvement plan was in place which was design to delivery efficiencies over the remainder of the year and medium term. 

There were a number of variations from the approved budget, including some beneficial variances as set out in the report.  

The funding outlook for the medium term was still very uncertain. The Government had announced a one year Spending Round for 2020/21 on 4 September 2019 and confirmed that the implementation of proposed changes to the local government finance system due in April 2020 would be deferred until April 2021.  The headline announcements in the Spending Round for 20/21 were positive, with additional funding announced for Social Care and no reductions to specific grants.  However, detailed information at a local authority level would not be available until the Local Government Finance Settlement which was expected in early December so the actual impact on the Council would not be known until then.  Using the limited information that was available, it was currently anticipated that the Council would need to identify around £25m further savings over the next 2 years (2020/21 – 2021/22)  on top of the £123m already delivered to the end of 2019/20 and work to develop the 2020/21 budget strategy was underway.

The Capital programme totalled £64.3m which included all approvals since he budget was set. Projected spend was 94.9% of the budget allocation.  There were a number of new allocations and slippage which required approval and these were listed in Appendix 3 to the report.

The Income monitoring position was noted; sales ledger collection was above target, but council tax and NNDR collection was slightly behind target.   

Councillor Carter commended the efforts of the Chief Financial Officer and all Council teams delivering services to the people of Telford & Wrekin. 

RESOLVED –

(a)  that it be noted that 2019/20 revenue spending is currently projected to be within budget and work will continue with SMT to sustain this position; and the use of the contingency detailed in section 5 of the report be approved;

(b)  that the Chief Operating Officer/Chief Executive, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Commercial Services and the Borough Economy, be authorised to agree the use of the Brexit preparation grant allocated to the Council as detailed in section 5.2 of the report;

(c)  that the position in relation to capital spend be noted and to RECOMMEND TO COUNCIL that the changes to the capital programme detailed in Appendix 3 to the report be approved; and

(d)  the collection rates for NNDR, council tax and sales ledger be noted.