Agenda item

(Director of Finance & ICT) To consider the attached report (FPM-004-2013/14)

The Director of Finance and ICT provided an overall summary of the revenue outturn for the financial year 2012/13.

The Director of Finance and ICT stated that the net expenditure for the Continuing Services Budget (CSB) for 2012/13 totalled £14.294 million, which had been £441,000 (3.0%) below the original estimate and £483,000 (3.3%) below the revised. When this had been compared to a gross expenditure budget of approximately £83 million, the variances could be restated as 0.5% and under 0.6% respectively. An analysis of the changes between CSB and District Development Fund (DDF) expenditure illustrated where the main variances in revenue expenditure had occurred.

The CSB expenditure had been £441,000 below the original estimate and £483,000 lower than the revised, with variances arising on both the opening CSB and the in year figures. The opening CSB had been £457,000 lower than the revised estimate and the in year figures and £26,000 lower than the revised estimate. Throughout recent years salary savings had made up a proportion of this saving. The actual salary spending for the authority in total, including agency costs had been £19.092 million compared against an original estimate of £19.526 million, with much of the saving of £434,000 being attributed to Housing Services, Finance & ICT and Environment and Street Scene. The largest monetary saving had been related to Housing so broadly half of the overall saving fell on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) or Housing Repairs Fund rather than on the General Fund. The saving had been lower than in 2011/12 (2.2% compared to 4.8%) however a sizeable amount of the saving had been built into the Probable Outturn. The saving over and above the revised estimate amounted to £127,000,(0.7%) of which £76,000 related to the General Fund.

The Director of Finance and ICT advised that there were a number of other CSB savings when compared to the revised, these included an underspend of £195,000 on Housing Benefits due in part to adjustments relating to past years and the identification of overpayments.  In 2011/12 Housing Benefits staff created £1.1m in debts for Housing Benefit overpayments where as in 2012/13 the figure had been in excess of £1.3m. This had showed as additional income due to the Council and therefore reduced Housing Benefit Net Expenditure. The Gross Expenditure on Benefits including Council Tax had been £47m, so even a small percentage variance, (in this case less than half of one per cent), would produce quite large figures in terms of under or overspend. Other savings had been £96,000 savings on directorate admin and support budgets, £58,000 savings on Building Maintenance  and £34,000  unspent monies relating to the Corporate Improvement and Training budgets.

The DDF reduced between the Original and Revised position by some £647,000, this had been due to a mixture of items brought forward, rephased into future years and new items identified during 2012/13. The largest item introduced into the revised estimates had been a credit of £237,000 for interest on a compensation payment relating to the construction of the M25 on council owned land which had been ongoing since 1992 and due to the complex legal issues involved had only just been resolved.

Capital Expenditure charged to Revenue had been reduced by £1m in the revised estimate to enable a transfer to be made to a new Self Financing Reserve without creating a too larger deficit on the HRA. The reserve had been created by a Council resolution when the 2013/14 budget had been set with the purpose of setting aside resources (£3.18m per annum for 10 years) to repay the variable rate debt when it fell due in March 2022. The aforementioned £1m reduction had been offset by an increased charge to the Major Repairs Reserve. The Balance on this Reserve at 31 March 2013 had been nearly £10m. The Portfolio Holder for Housing pointed out that if Members wanted to consider changing the decision it would be a matter for Full Council.

Decisions:

(1)                 That the overall 2012/13 revenue out-turn for the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) be noted;

(2)                 That the carry forward of £836,000 District Development Fund expenditure be noted ; and

(3)                 That the carry forward of £170,000 HRA Service Enhancement Fund expenditure be noted.

Reasons for proposed decision:

To note the provisional revenue outturn.

Other options for action:

No other options available.