Agenda item

Report number: PAS/WS/23/007

[Councillor John Augustine arrived at 5.15pm during the consideration of this item.]

The Cabinet Member for Resources presented report number PAS/WS/23/007, which included the full year end financial position and the performance dashboard for the period January to March 2023. 

The Cabinet Member drew the Committee’s attention to the financial outturn summary which showed a deficit of £0.6m.  The underlying cause for this was the slow recovery in relation to income streams. The Committee was reminded that if it wished to speak in detail on Exempt Appendix F – Aged debt over 90 days, which would need to be conducted with a vote to go into a private session.

She then highlighted a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which members might wish to be aware of as they prepared to scrutinise the dashboards over the coming months, being:

·         As the dashboards related to Quarter 4, a full year’s data was available on:

-              Council Tax and business rates.

-              Housing delivery.

·         A new indicator had been included since the Quarter 3 report around damp and mould, given the current national focus on the issue.

·         The covering report included additional data in relation to the cost of living, which would in future be embedded in the main dashboards.

The Cabinet Member informed the Committee if there were issues where it would like to ask questions, and the relevant information was not available tonight or further information was needed, written responses would be provided to the Committee. Or the Committee could invite the relevant Portfolio Holder to a future meeting for further discussions. 

Attached to the Quarter 4 performance and year-end-financial outturn position for 2022 to 2023 were a number of appendices as follows:  

-      Appendix A: Key Performance Indicator Dashboards

-      Appendix B: Income and expenditure report

-      Appendix C: Capital Programme

-      Appendix D: Earmarked reserves

-      Appendix E: Strategic Risk Register

-      EXEMPT Appendix F – Aged debt over 90 days

The Committee considered the KPI’s and did not raise any issues.

The Service Manager (Finance and Procurement), presented the financial element of the report and drew the Committee’s attention to a number of headlines, being:

-      Pages 25 to 26: Deficit of £0.6m

-      Page 26: The graph showing the £1.5m reduced income, £1.2m of that related to a reduction in car park income. 

-      High inflation during the year had impacted on fuel and utilities, and this was set out across individual areas in Appendix B. 

The Committee considered the report and asked questions on the financial aspect of the report, to which responses were provided.  In particular discussions were held on interest rates received on council investments; car parking income and investment income and the counter parties set out in the council’s Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2023 to 2024.

In response to a question about the impact of the high inflation rate, the Cabinet Member advised that high inflation was a risk to the council’s budget.  However, the budget assumptions were reviewed on a monthly basis to ensure the budget was on track. 

In response to a question raised about future external borrowing, the Cabinet Member advised that external borrowing could have an effect on future projects.  The council would be monitoring interest rates before borrowing externally, and would look at each project on its merits, and could delay projects, if necessary.

At the conclusion of the discussions, the Committee noted the year end 2022 to 2023 revenue and capital positions as detailed in report number PAS/WS/23/007 and attached appendices.