Issue - meetings

The report set out the Revenue and Capital position for Buckinghamshire Council for the financial year 2021/22.

RESOLVED –

That the report, including the risks and opportunities contained within it, be noted.

Councillor John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources, Property and Assets introduced the report which set out the Revenue and Capital position for Buckinghamshire Council for the financial year 2021/22.  In the first year of the new council, budgets had been agreed on a Directorate basis and have been re-configured into Portfolios following the election and appointment of Cabinet Members.  The appendix provided further detail for each Portfolio and information about performance relating to overdue debts and late payments of commercial debt.

The forecast revenue budget outturn was summarised in Figure 1 of the Cabinet report.  The outturn variances were split between Business as Usual and those relating to the Covid-19 response.  Overall, a £0.5m adverse variance was forecast after allowing for £4.9m of mitigations (paragraph 11 in Appendix 1) of the overall pressures reported by Portfolio. This comprised:

·                  £1.4m adverse variance on Covid related spend and;

·                  £0.9m favourable variation on BAU.

The £0.5m adverse variance broadly, therefore, comprised the proportion of Covid income losses not funded from the government’s compensation scheme or BAU variances.  The Council would continue to lobby Government for full recovery of income losses impacted by Covid.  Furthermore, Portfolio’s would seek to find mitigating actions in order to bring forecast spend back in line with the approved budget.

There was the potential for an additional opportunity saving of £1m from Disabled Facility Grants (DFG) which reflected a continuation of the position from 2020/21.

The Directorates’ forecast for the Capital Programme was summarised in Figure 2 of the Cabinet report and reflected an expected £3.0m of slippage.  Further details for each portfolio were also detailed in Appendix 1.  To reduce the amount of slippage in this financial year, budget profiles had been reviewed and slippage would be reviewed as part of the carry forward process.

RESOLVED –

That the report, including the risks and opportunities contained within it, be noted.