Councillor Darcy (Cabinet Member for Finance and IT) introduced the report on the 2016/17 financial out turn. Councillor Darcy commented that –

·         2016/17 posed a number of challenges, which included the delivery of £23.871m of savings and the management of a £531.615m gross budget through a varied range of services and performance standards; 

·         the out turn was still subject an external audit review due to commence in June;

·         the Council will declare a balanced outturn position after the application of reserves and capital receipts; 

·         in 2016/17 the Council invested £90.423m in the City and this compared to £62m last year – a 45% increase. 

In addition to the recommendations within the report, Councillor Darcy proposed a further recommendation thanking the Chief Executive and Officers for their effort in ensuring a balanced budget positon at year-end.

Agreed to –

1.    note the provisional outturn position as at 31 March 2017;

2.    note the use of capital receipts - £0.267m - to write down Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) to ensure a balanced budget position is achieved in 2016/17;

3.    approve the additional transfers to and from reserves reflected within the outturn figures:

·         Release the Business Rates Reserve (£1.000m)

·         Transfer to Housing Benefits Overpayments Provision £1.000m

·         Release of Stock Transfer Release (£1.005m)

4.    approve the release of £0.350m from Working Balances and transfer to the redundancy reserve;

5.    note the Capital Report including the Capital Financing Requirement of £90.423m;

6.    express the Cabinet’s thanks to the Chief Executive and all Council Officers for the effort and contributions made to deliver a balanced budget.