Issue - meetings

Meeting: 16/06/2020 - Cabinet (Item 8)

8 Unitary Implementation Budget Outturn Report pdf icon PDF 755 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

The overall outturn for the Unitary Implementation Budget for 2019/20 was £9.939m which is an underspend of £2.910m against the original budget.  The last reported position (January 2020) reported a projected underspend of £1.157m.  The main reasons for the change in outturn was in Resources where the underspend increased by £1m; and in Deputy Chief Executive where the underspend increased by £650k.

RESOLVED: 

·       £620k is added to the 2020/21 Transition budget taking the total to £9.564m.

·       The balance on the Unitary Implementation reserve of £2.67m is transferred to the Transformation reserve.

 

 

 

Minutes:

Katrina Wood, Cabinet Member for Resources, introduced the report which requested that the remaining uncommitted transition budget (£2.67m) be transferred to the transformation reserve to help the ongoing delivery of the unitary transformation programme.  The overall outturn for the Unitary Implementation Budget for 2019/20 was £9.939m and was an underspend of £2.910m against the original budget.  The last reported position (January 2020) reported a projected underspend of £1.157m.  The main reasons for the change in outturn was in Resources where the underspend increased by £1m; and in Deputy Chief Executive where the underspend increased by £650k.  K Wood highlighted that all the other areas also came in under budget. 

 

The branding work had been undertaken in-house which had saved a considerable amount of money.  An underspend had also occurred because some work had been put on hold due to the pandemic and was the reason for the request for Cabinet to agree to carry forward some funding into the 2020/21 transition budget. The branding underspend was mostly due to the reprogramming of various work to 2020/2021 but also partly due to minimal spend on consultancy fees as the work was carried out by the in-house project management office.  In summary, K Wood requested that £620,000 be carried forward to the 2020/21 transition budget and the balance (£2.67m) of the unitary implementation reserve be transferred to the Transformation Reserve.

 

The following points were raised by members of the Cabinet:

·        The prudent approach, particularly to branding and consultancy fees was noted. 

·        A member of the Cabinet asked for reassurance to the public that the Council would not be building new premises.  K Wood confirmed that only existing council buildings were being used and there was no intention to build a new headquarters or increase the number of buildings in the future.

·        Rachael Shimmin, Chief Executive, stated that it was a fantastic achievement to see such a green outturn which was a testament to the staff and elected members in knowing and carrying out the work that needed to be undertaken.  The collaborative working had also been beneficial in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis.

RESOLVED:  Cabinet AGREED the recommendations that:

·       £620k was added to the 2020/21 Transition budget taking the total to £9.564m.

·       The balance on the Unitary Implementation reserve of £2.67m was transferred to the Transformation reserve.