Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses were noted.

DECISION

1.    To note the Council’s projected outturn position against General Fund, Dedicated Schools Budget, Housing Revenue Account and earmarked

a.    reserves for 2020-21, based on forecasts as at 31st August 2020;

2.    To note the Council’s projected outturn position on the capital programme;

3.    To note that there are no equalities implications directly resulting from this report, as set out in Section 4 of the report.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, RESOURCES (N. MURTON)

(Interim Chief Accountant (T. Harlock)

Councillor Candida Ronald, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector, introduced the report monitoring the Council’s budget position at period 5. She highlighted the financial challenges the Council faced in particular due to the current pandemic and also the many underlying service pressures.

The report set out savings targets for the year including those which the Council was no longer expecting to make. A significant use of Council reserves was forecast.

The Mayor thanked Councillor Candida Ronald for her presentation and highlighted how vital it was for the Council to meet its budget challenges. Whilst he welcomed the further government grants recently announced he reported that the pandemic had also caused serious additional challenges beyond the level of support provided and in any case every effort needed to be made to control the Council’s budgets.

The Mayor noted the Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses. In particular, the request to be clear how far the pandemic was impacting on specific budgets. He proposed the recommendations to Cabinet, and they were agreed without dissent. It was:

RESOLVED

1.    To note the Council’s projected outturn position against General Fund, Dedicated Schools Budget, Housing Revenue Account and earmarked

a.    reserves for 2020-21, based on forecasts as at 31st August 2020;

2.    To note the Council’s projected outturn position on the capital programme;

3.    To note that there are no equalities implications directly resulting from this report, as set out in Section 4 of the report.

Members are asked to refer to the report included in the Cabinet agenda 28^th October, 2020.

The Committee received a presentation from Councillor Candida Ronald (Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector); supported by Neville Murton (Corporate Director, Resources); and Kevin Bartle (Interim Divisional Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit) regarding the Council’s projected outturn position against General Fund, Dedicated Schools Budget, Housing Revenue Account and earmarked reserves for 2020-21, based on forecasts as at 31st August 2020. The main points arising from the discussion are outlined as follows;

The Committee:

A.   Noted that with regard to future Government money that LBTH might receive and in particular regarding the Foregone earnings (i.e. the difference between earnings actually achieved and the earnings that could have been achieved).

B.   Noted that this was forecast as being £7m;

C.   Noted that LBTH had submitted a formal claim at the end of September;

D.   Noted that there were a couple points requiring clarification as to what LBTH could and could not claim for;

E.   Noted that it was considered LBTH would not receive the total amount being claimed and it was anticipated that the Council would have a short fall of potential £1m. However, LBTH will continue to keep this under review;

F.    Noted that the main reason for this is where the Government considers that the Council has made a conscious decision to not collect income. The best example of this being where a decision was made to provide free parking permits for essential workers and NHS staff. The Government considers this to be a local decision that the Council has made so it will not reimburse the income foregone;

G.   Noted that previously it had been assumed that LBTH would get that back as a legitimate loss of income due to Covid;

H.   Noted with regards to the social inequality that has been highlighted by the pandemic e.g. the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) where prior to the pandemic savings had been agreed. However, with a budget greatly reduced LBTH is still moving ahead with those savings.

I.     Therefore, asked if there has already been enough adjustment given the inequalities that has been highlighted as a result of the pandemic;

J.    Noted that the overspending in the DSG is something that has been discussed with the Department of Education (DfE) and LBTH is restricted to what it can do within the plan that has been agreed with the DfE; 

K.   Noted that in terms of the social inequalities LBTH is considering about how to rebuild and recover after the pandemic. However, the Council does have a legal responsibility to set a balanced budget and with the risks LBTH currently faces in terms of the overspends and  demographic pressures means that the Council does not have much room for manoeuvre in terms of identifying new areas of spend at the same time as protecting programmes to address inequality such as the Council Tax reduction scheme which we know will be really important to residents as the Borough rebuilds after the pandemic;

L.    Asked about (i) the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7