Issue - meetings

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director Accountancy, P Maddock, introduced the report on comparison between the original estimates for the period ended 10 June and the actual expenditure or income as applicable.

The meeting noted that:

·         The salaries schedule showed an underspend of £144,000 or 2.5%. At the first quarter last year the underspend was 3.6%;

·         Resources was showing the largest underspend of £92,000, this relates mainly to Revenues and Housing Benefits;

·         Communities showed an underspend of £37,000 relating to Communities Policy as the Assistant Director – Private Sector Housing post became vacant during the period, and Housing Management;

·         The investment interest was broadly on target with the budget. Interest rates were now only a little over 0.1% and money was primarily being held short term because of the significant capital commitments coming up;

·         Development Control income at Month 3 was down on expectations;

·         Fees and charges were £49,000 lower than the budget to date and pre-application charges were £7,000 higher than expected;

·         Building Control income was £33,000 higher than the budgeted figure at the end of the first quarter. The ring-fenced account had assumed a deficit of £129,000 for this year due to the amount of scanning work required, however based on income levels to date this looked likely to be better than expected;

·         Income from MOT’s carried out by Fleet Operations was in line with expectations;

·         Car Parking income appears broadly on target with expectations at month 3;

·         Local Land Charge income was £3,000 above expectations;

·         Expenditure and income relating to Bed and Breakfast placements was on the increase;

·         Growth of £28,000 was allowed for in 2016/17 with a further £12,000 in 2017/18. The 2016/17 actual was nearer the 2017/18 original position than the revised 2016/17 and there were no signs of expenditure levels abating. Some new initiatives were being pursued in an effort to stem the increase and additional government funding in the form of Flexible Homeless Grant was being used to fund programmes such as the Zinc Arts Scheme in Ongar;

·         The waste and leisure management contracts showed some underspend due to timing. The latter particularly, as payments didn’t commence until July;

·         The Housing Repairs Fund showed an underspend of £62,000. There were underspends showing on both Planned Maintenance and Responsive work;

·         Income from Building Control and probably Car Parking look likely to exceed the budget; and

·         The Shopping park was now open for business with only one or two units still to be let.

Councillor Patel wanted to know why the Chief Executive’s budget had doubled. He was told that was because more staff had moved into his purview.

Councillor Patel also wondered why the disabled facilities grant was underspent. He was told that this went in peaks and troughs over the year; there was no specific reason for this.

Mr Maddock noted that this was the sixth year of operation for the Business Rates Retention Scheme whereby a proportion of rates collected were retained by the Council. There were proposals that all Business Rates be retained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21

(Director of Resources) To consider the attached report (FPM-010-2017/18).

The Director of Resources presented the first quarterly financial monitoring on key areas of income and expenditure for 2017/18, which covered the period from 1 April 2017 to 30 June 2017. The report provided details of the revenue budgets, the Continuing Services Budget and District Development Fund as well as the Capital budgets which included the Major Capital schemes.

A few points were highlighted as follows, as they were of particular interest;

·                     The salaries schedule showed an underspend of £144,000 or 2.5% compared to the first quarter last year the underspend was 3.6%;

·                     Investment interest had been broadly on target and money was primarily being held short term because of the significant capital commitments coming up.

·                     The Development Control income was down on expectations with fees and charges £49,000 lower than the budget to date and pre-application charges £7,000 higher than expected. There had been fewer major schemes come through so far this year, which could be due to developers awaiting the publishing of the Local Plan;

·                     The Building Control income was £33,000 higher than the budgeted and would be affected later, if at all by the Local Plan. The ring-fenced account had assumed a deficit of £129,000 for the amount of scanning work required, however based on income levels to date it looked likely to be better than expected;

·                     The Public Hire licence income and other licensing was above expectations, although the Public Hire figures included £27,000 which related to future years, so in reality income relating to 2016/17 was £7,000 down;

·                     The income from MOT’s carried out by Fleet Operations was in line with expectations. The account was budgeted to show a deficit of around £62,000 however this had included an estimate for business rates which had proved to be too high should reduce the deficit to less than £50,000. A report on options for joint occupation of the depot was going to Cabinet on 7 September 2017 and the Director of Neighbourhoods was completing a report on the overspend on the construction of the depot for Cabinet on 12 October 2017;

·                     Expenditure and income relating to Bed and Breakfast placements was increasing with most eligible for Housing Benefit and although some would be reimbursed by the Department for Work and Pensions, it would only be around 50%. Some new initiatives were being pursued in an effort to stem the increase and additional government funding in the form of a Flexible Homeless Grant, such as the Zinc Arts scheme in Ongar;

·                      The Council had collected a total of £9,995,028 and had made payments of £8,596,002, which had meant a benefit from holding £1,399,026 of cash from the effective collection of non-domestic rates for the Council.

The Cabinet Sub-Committee were still concerned by the income from the MOT’s carried out by the Fleet Operations and advised that this would need to be kept under review.

Resolved:

(1)          That the revenue and capital financial monitoring report for the first quarter of 2017/18 be noted.

Reasons for Decision

To note the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19