(a)

the purpose of the report was to give the committee an understanding of the  position of the Council, on a monthly basis, with respect to its forecast outturn; the earliest opportunity to consider the forecast outturn was May;

(b)

as of the end of May 2023, the Council was forecasting a potential overspend of £8.1m for the full year; the report detailed some specific areas as to where the pressures currently existed: the Council had undertaken a number of by-elections which would have had a direct impact upon the budget, there were some legacy savings in corporate services, the home to school transport budget was having an impact as well as the People’s directorate overspending  on strategic care packages and community connections;

(c)

the forecast savings against the Council in the capital programme were included in the report;

(d)

in terms of the £8.1m figure, it wasn’t considered unusual for this sum to be stated during this period; there was a legal requirement for the Council to balance its books;

(e)

Whilst the Cabinet Member and Interim Strategic Director for Finance stated they were concerned about the state of the budget, it was also highlighted that the savings status of the Council was positive and moving in the right direction.

(f)

it was a national trend that council’s across the country were in a similar position in terms of their budget forecasts, especially due to the impact of the cost of living crisis, mortgage rate increases and homelessness;

(g)

the scale of homelessness was having an impact upon the Council; there had never been an overtly homelessness problem such as was evident now. Post covid and as a consequence of the cost of living crisis was having an impact. It was considered that 20 people were competing for every one rented accommodation in the city. Strategic methodologies were required to be put in place to solve the problem;

(h)

the pressure placed upon the childrens services budget was not unique to Plymouth as it was a nationwide issue; the Council recently had an Ofsted inspection in which a number of recommendations for improvement were made. An improvement board was set up to ensure the right decisions were being made locally. Nationally, it was considered that the Council wasn’t adequately funded given the demographics that existed in the city;

(i)

the Strategic Director for Finance was the Chair of the Society of Unitary Treasurers and their three main issues for conversation and action was adults, childrens and homelessness;

(j)

there was enough coverage in the budget for the external factors affecting the Council, such as fuel costs, inflation and the war in Ukraine etc, as these were built into the budget base however this would be monitored;

(k)

trying to look back at financial trends over the past few years was complex due to the impact of covid and the recent cost of living crisis; assurance was provided that every directorate at the Council was under immense scrutiny so part of the one off savings to balance the books included holding vacancies. There was a cost to that whereby did the council have the correct resources to move the Council forward;

(l)

the Cabinet Member for Finance encouraged the Committee to invite the Chief Executive to the committee to discuss with the committee the new risk to the risk register (number 25) regarding senior interim posts, the HR issues surrounding workforce delivery and sickness, and the impact this was having upon the council’s budget;

1.

to invite the Chief Executive to the Performance, Finance and Customer Focus Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting scheduled for September in order to discuss the scale of senior interim posts (as detailed in the operation risk register, number 25), specifically focusing upon the HR issues surrounding workforce delivery and the staff absence including short and long term sickness, and the impact interim posts was having upon the council’s budget;

2.

to note The forecast revenue monitoring position at Period 2 as set out in this report in the sum of £8.140m.

3.

to note The Capital Budget 2023-2028 is revised to £544.214m as shown in Table 4.