Issue - meetings
Revenue Monitoring 2018/19 Quarter 3 (To December 2018)
Meeting: 18/02/2019 - Cabinet (Item 51)
51 Revenue Monitoring 2018/19 Quarter 3 (To December 2018) 
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Councillor Janette Williamson, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, said: “The Council set a balanced, sustainable and fair budget in March 2018, despite significant government cuts and increasing demand for costly, specialist children’s social care services. “Setting the budget under such difficult circumstances was tough but we continued to protect those services most important to our most vulnerable and target our resources to the areas that matters most to our communities. “While keeping within our budget remains a challenge, as demand continues to rise, we are confident we have the plans and expertise in place to deliver a balanced budget for the current year, as we have consistently done.” |
The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources introduced a report which set out the projected revenue position for 2018/19 as at the end of Quarter 3
(31 December 2018).
The forecast outturn position as at the end of Quarter 3 was a potential overspend of £0.720m. This was an improvement on Quarter 2 (£0.907m). All services were actioning mitigating savings to offset the potential overspend so that a balanced position could be reported at the end of the year.
Since the 2018/19 budget was set in March 2018, several areas of pressure across the Council had arisen as a result of increasing demand. To ensure these pressures did not materialise a robust programme of mitigation had been actioned, but in the current economic climate it was increasingly difficult to contain these pressures without impacting on service delivery.
The report provided an update on the achievement of savings proposals for 2018/19. Some of these proposals were not being realised, but areas to offset these via other means were being identified and implemented so that the total savings target could be met by the end of the year.
In addition to formal Quarterly reporting to Cabinet, the budget position was reported monthly at Directorate Management Team meetings and the Strategic Leadership Team. This was to ensure any early warning highlighting pressures could be collectively resolved. The outcome of quarterly monitoring and any medium to long term effects was fed into the Medium Term Financial Strategy to ensure that impacts could be assessed against the council’s future financial sustainability.
This was a key decision which affected all Wards within the Borough.
RESOLVED: That:
(1) The Quarter 3 forecast to the year-end of a £0.720m overspend which incorporates a number of adverse variances be noted.
(2) Officers continue to identify actions and take measures to effectively manage the overall budget and reduce the impact of any adverse projected pressures that may result in overspends.