Agenda item

The Leader of the Council introduced the report. He commented that an overspend of £8.6m had now been forecast. The outcome of the voluntary redundancy scheme was awaited which could reduce this overspend further. The Council was on track to balance the budget by the end of the financial year. He welcomed the extra £2.4m Adult Social Care Winter Pressures grant received from the Government, particularly as this Council had put more resources than most other councils into acute settings to prevent delays in discharging patients.

In the ensuing debate, the following comments were made:

·         The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care commented that an agreement had been reached with partners on how the extra £2.4m Adult Social Care Winter Pressures grant would be spent to avoid any unnecessary delay in its use

·         The Leader welcomed the extra £6.6m funding from the Government for the pothole challenge but indicated that it was not covered in the period 6 report. This funding was an in-year capital investment which would enable the Council to accelerate its existing programme

·         A member from outside the Cabinet queried the one-off saving of £0.5m following the risk review of fire insurance liabilities. The Chief Financial Officer explained that after examining insurance reserves including current liabilities, the trend of liabilities and the liability position had any buildings been affected by fire, it was considered that the previous balance of £1.8m should be reduced to £1.3m. This position would be kept under review

·         A member from outside the Cabinet asked if individual councillors would be consulted as part of the allocation process for the use of the additional funding for potholes. The Leader responded that the funding was a capital in-year resource and therefore its allocation had not been delegated to local members.   

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

a)    endorsed the Cabinet Member's conclusions concerning revenue budget monitoring up to 30 September 2018;

b)    noted the current progress regarding savings plans approved by Council in February 2018;

c)    noted the current progress on the additional management savings plans to address the forecast position, in particular that the forecast overspend is reducing; and

d)    recommended Council approves the use of £2.4 million Adult Social Care Winter Pressures grant and updates the revenue budget cash limits accordingly.