Councillor Phil Davies introduced a report by the Acting Section 151 Officer, setting out the revenue position for 2014/15, which at Month 9 (December 2014) showed a projected General Fund overspend of £0.82 million (0.3% of the net revenue budget).  This was a small improvement on the £0.85 million projected overspend reported at Month 8 as shown in Graph 1 of the report.

The report indicated that the Adult Social Services projected overspend had increased in the month by £52,000 to £2.77 million.  The overspend was mainly due to slippage or non-delivery of in year savings and continued demand pressures.  The forecast overspend within Children’s Services had reduced further with a forecast overspend now of £196,000 (down from the Month 8 projection of £330,000). The overspend largely related to the non-achievement of in year transport savings as well as costs of external placements.  The Families and Wellbeing Directorate had implemented a number of management actions to help compensate and/or limit any adverse variances. 

Councillor P. Davies asked officers and Cabinet Members to bear down on any possible slippage in savings as it was important to balance the books.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  that at Month 9 (December 2014), the full year forecast projected a General Fund overspend of £825,000 be noted;

(2)  the changes in budget allocations relating to the pay award, revised depreciation charges and re-modelling savings as detailed in paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2 in the report, which did not impact on the General Fund position; and 

(3)  the risks relating to non-delivery of savings as detailed in the report and the continued requirement for mitigation and actions to be identified be noted.