Sarah Cox, Principal Accountant, introduced the report of the Director of Finance and Investment which set out the Council’s revenue and capital monitoring position for 2019/20 quarter 2. An adverse revenue position of £429,000 was currently forecast, which was a £238,000 increase from Quarter 1 forecast position of £198,000). This was largely due to income targets not being fully met and increased costs from the Coroners Service. Some pressures were forecast to be mitigated by employee vacancy savings.

Responding to comments from Members, Sarah Cox commented that there were ways of checking income targets with Service Level Agreements to ensure that they were achievable.

With regard to mitigation plans for the forecast budget deficit, David Armstrong, Assistant Chief Executive, commented that a series of measures were in place to scrutinise spending even more closely.

The Chair reminded Members that in relation to the budget, plans were in place for all four scrutiny committees to be invited to two scrutiny budget workshops in January, 2020.

On a motion by the Chair, duly seconded, it was –

Resolved – That the report be noted.