(a)

the Council currently had a debt of £4.1m and since the last Finance Monitoring Report was submitted to the panel for scrutiny a significant improvement of approximately £2m had been made;

(b)

the Council acknowledged that expenditure was slow in the final quarter of the year and that would allow the Council to draw back on some of the areas where expenditure was predicted and would reduce the deficit; in consideration of the fees and charges that were uplifted on 1 December the Council was already beginning to see an improvement;

(c)

the Council had a working balance of £8.4m which was considered the ‘rainy day fund’ and was currently approximately 4% of the Council’s net budget and the industry standard considered it should be closer to 5%; the external auditors report said that that should be topped up and not diminished. In terms of general reserves and provisions the Council was ensuring adequate money was put aside for bad debt, and insurance claims, risk. The Council was currently set at £4.1m in month 8 with the hope that by month 9 the debt would be approximately £3m; however if by 31 March the gap was not accounted for then the working balance would be considered;

(d)

the Council was following the CIPFA guidance and recommendations that the working balance should be approximately 5% of the Council’s net budget and had no intention to further challenge the 4%;

(e)

the Council did not ‘fudge’ its accounts in order to balance its finances; in terms of energy predictions the energy usage was predicted based upon average weather and cold snaps were considered and included within that. With regards to gritting, lorries had been out numerous times on numerous days and it was considered that grit would be purchased in the future which would be covered within the budget. An overspend forecast for energy was predicted earlier in the year and £3.3m was still accounted for and within the budget;

(f)

the original budget for the current year indicated that £350k would be put into the working balance; this was an ongoing process that had been undertaken for a few years on advice from the external auditor however a decision was made so that this money was not moved in this year;

(g)

a written response would be provided to Members upon the additional expenditure under the Chief Executive’s Office referring to the pressure on additional Member allowances;

(h)

the Council was required to get to a balanced position for its budget by 31 March 2023 and the working balances would be used to achieve this if absolutely required however were continuing to identify if other savings could be made to fill the gap;

(i)

ICT savings had been carried over however additional pressures were present this year with ICT inflation and increased licensing costs; the Council was working towards achieving those savings and Delt had been asked to make £1m savings last year with a further £600k savings this year which they were working towards. In terms of Harm FM, structural repairs and maintenance had been reduced in the budget due to the early exit of Windsor House and the forthcoming exit of Midland House will ensure the balances were realigned – the council was able to bring forward an early exit for both buildings for the end of this year;

(j)

the outcomes of Treasury Management were submitted to the Audit and Governance Committee and then on to full council for consideration; extra contingency had been included for next year’s budget;

(k)

a proposal for aged old debt for housing benefit overpayment and recovery was currently being considered.

1.

that the Council’s working balances were protected as much as possible, however if any of the Council’s reserves were used to balance the budget then a written explanation would be provided to the Performance, Finance and Customer Focus Overview and Scrutiny Committee detailing how much money was required and for what purposes;

2.

that a written response would be provided to Members upon the additional expenditure under the Chief Executive’s Office referring to the pressure on additional Member allowances;

3.

that an update would be provided at future scrutiny meetings as to the movement between reserves;

4.

to note the report.