Agenda item

The Committee noted a report of the Corporate Director, Resources which provided details of the final outturn for both the General Fund and the Housing Revenue Account for 2013/14 (for copy see file of Minutes).

The Corporate Director, resources informed the Committee that both the balance sheet position and reserves were in a strong position.  He added that the cash limit reserves had increased across all service groupings to £23m and that the general reserves had increased to £28m.  It was explained that the two biggest increases had been equal pay and early retirement/voluntary redundancy and had had a beneficial outcome on the financial planning for the authority.

Councillor Temple asked where the money came from in the reserves.  He was informed by the Corporate Director, Resources that £5m was from general reserves and £10m from cash limit reserves, taken from service groupings.  Councillor Temple went on to ask why the earmarked reserves had increased if transferring money out of service budgets.  He was advised that this was generated by revenue account performance.  Councillor Temple asked to speak to the Corporate Director after the meeting to help understand how reserves could increase at a time of austerity.

The Corporate Director, Resources referred to equal pay claims being set up following job evaluation in 2012.  A new structure was put in place and enough money had been built into the budget to cover the MTFP period.  This had enabled the authority to push back the pressure on the base budget until 2017/18.

Mr Hoban asked if the differences could be explained in the variance of the use of earmarked reserves, on page 32 of the report.  The Assistant Head of Finance, Corporate Finance explained that the first figure was the budget use of reserves and that the budget is reported to Cabinet every quarter.  The figure of £24m was from the revised budget carried out during the year.  At the end of the year the actual underspend is dealt with, which gives the difference of £32m.  Work is ongoing with services for them to provide a more accurate forecast during the year.  He pointed out that Neighbourhood Services would wait until funding and grants had been secured at the year end.

Resolved:

That the report is noted.