Agenda item

Charter Trustees considered a report of the Treasurer that provided information on the actual expenditure compared to the profiled budget for the period ending 30 September 2023 and the forecast of expenditure to 31 March 2024 in comparison to the 2023/24 original budget (for copy of report, see file of minutes).

The Treasurer reported that the net expenditure was £10,730, an underspend of £27,249 against a profiled budget of £37,979.

It was anticipated that actual net expenditure at 31 March 2024 would be lower than the original budget of £75,958 by £6,691. The sum required to be drawn from reserves to balance the budget was expected to reduce from £15,477 to £8,786. The reserve balance would decrease to £69,032 as at 31 March 2024.

The Treasurer indicated that the report provided explanations for the main variances between actual expenditure and the budget that were mainly due to the projected underspend of the Mayor’s Hospitality budget.

The Treasurer advised that a report would be presented to the meeting on the 6 December 2023 to provide information to enable the Charter Trustees to determine the budget requirement for 2024/25 and the basic level of council tax for the financial years 2024/25 to 2027/28.

The Treasurer asked Trustees if they required a working group to be set up to look at the precept for 2024/25 given that the Trust previously agreed to keep the precept at the same level for 2024/25.

Trustees agreed that a working group was not necessary.

Resolved: (i) That the outturn position for the period ended 30 September 2023 be noted.

(ii) That the forecast of outturn to 31 March 2024 be noted.

(iii) That the 2024/25 Budget report be presented to the Charter Trustees meeting on 6 December 2023.