Agenda item

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director Accountancy, Mr Maddock, introduced the report on the revenue and capital financial monitoring for the second quarter of 2016/17, covering the period from 1 April to 30 September 2016.  Salaries monitoring data was presented as it represented a large proportion of the authorities expenditure and was an area where historically large under spends had been seen.

The Committee noted that:

·         The salaries schedule showed an underspend of £338,000 or 3%. At the half year stage last year the underspend was 2.7%;

·         Resources were showing the largest underspend of £121,000, relating to Revenues and Housing Benefits;

·         Neighbourhoods was showing an underspend of £117,000 relating mainly to Forward Planning and Grounds Maintenance and the £83,000 on Communities is related to the Housing Works Unit.

·         The investment interest is lower than the budget due to lower interest rates but this wasn’t entirely unexpected;

·         Development Control income at Month 6 was continuing the recent upward trend. Fees and charges were £151,000 higher than the budget to date and pre-application charges are £15,000 higher;

·         Building Control income was £56,000 higher than the budgeted figure at the end of the second quarter. Also the ring-fenced account was expected to show an improved position on that budgeted;

·         There was a lot of scanning work required to Building Control files and it was proposed to use some of the accumulated surplus to finance this work over the next few years;

·         Although Public Hire licence income and other licensing were above expectations, the Public Hire figures shown include £25,000 relating to future years so in reality income relating to 2016/17 was £4,000 down;

·         Income from MOT’s carried out by Fleet Operations was £27,000 below expectations;

·         Car Parking income was £3,000 above the estimate as at month 6;

·         Local Land Charge income was £3,000 below expectations. There have been fewer searches undertaken in recent months so the position will need to be monitored over the next few months;

·         Expenditure and income relating to Bed and Breakfast placements was on the increase. Most were eligible for Housing Benefit and although some will be re-imbursed by the Department for Work and Pensions it was only around 50%, leaving a similar amount to be funded from the General Fund; and

·         The Housing Repairs Fund showed an underspend of £420,000.

Business Rates

·         This was the fourth year of operation for the Business Rates Retention Scheme whereby a proportion of rates collected are retained by the Council;

·         For 2016/17 the funding retained by the authority after allowing for the Collection Fund deficit from 2015/16 was £3,435,000. This exceeded the government baseline of £3,050,000 by some £385,000. The actual position for 2016/17 will not be determined until May 2017;

·         Cash collection was important as the Council was required to make payments to the Government and other authorities based on their share of the rating list. These payments are fixed and have to be made even if no money is collected; and

·         At the end of September the total collected was £18,978,332 and payments out were £17,273,492, meaning the Council was holding £1,704,840 of cash and so the Council’s overall cash position was benefitting from the effective collection of non-domestic rates.

Councillor Patel asked about salaries and agency costs; did we have one agency that we used and who would call them in? He was told that the directorates concerned organised their own cover. There was no overarching contract. The agency used depended on the skills that were needed.  This was not done centrally through Human Resources (HR).

Councillor Patel asked if this was about policy and getting the best price. Mr Maddock replied that we had to negotiate for the best prices. Councillor Patel then asked at what point were agency staff called in. He was told that would be when no suitable internal candidate could be found, agency staff would be put in place until suitable staff could be recruited.

Councillor Kane asked if HR had an overview of all directorates and their agency staff. He was told that they did not, but costs were monitored and Audit did look at agency staff. Councillor Patel asked if this report could go onto our work programme. This was agreed by the Committee and should go to their March 2017 meeting.

RESOLVED:

(1)  That the Committee noted the revenue and capital financial monitoring report for the second quarter of 2016/17; and

(2)  That the Committee receive a future report on agency staff and their costs, by Directorate.