The Director of Resources introduced the report which provided a summary of the year-end revenue position for the 2021/22 financial year as at the end of March 2021 and an overview of budget performance to enable the Committee to take ownership of the budgets and provide robust challenge and scrutiny to Officers on the performance of those budgets.

The report detailed the conditional offer of Exceptional Financial Support from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities of £10.7m and that the reduced amount of £6.360m had been agreed by Ministers following receipt of additional grant funding and underspend. The Committee was advised that the figure had reduced further to £5.846m and the conditions of acceptance were appended to the report.

The report detailed the revenue budget and outturn position broken down by directorate, and the Director of Resources outlined the reasons for any variance for each directorate. Detail was provided on the level of reserves and the Committee was reminded that the Council had been criticised for the low level of earmarked reserves in the External Assurance Review and therefore they had been increased in response.

Members discussed the report in detail and officers responded to questions on various matters including the reasons for the favourable variance in Adult Care and Health.

It was moved by Councillor Janette Williamson, seconded by Councillor Jean Robinson, that the recommendations detailed within the report be agreed.

It was moved by Councillor Jo Bird, seconded by Councillor Pat Cleary, that the recommendations within the report be agreed, subject to the inclusion of the following –

“A further report be submitted to Policy & Resources Committee, by its first meeting in September, regarding the Real Living Wage being paid to all workers delivering Council services.”

Further information was sought from the Director of Resources, who informed the Committee that the feasibility of the proposal had been undertaken with an estimated cost to the Council of £600k to £1.2m, which was considered to be unaffordable, therefore any report that would be submitted to the Policy & Resources Committee as a consequence of the motion would advise the Committee that the proposal was not affordable.

On a motion by Councillor Paul Stuart, seconded by Councillor Janette Williamson, the Committee agreed to move to the vote. The motion as amended was put and lost (2:13).

The original motion was therefore put and agreed unanimously. It was therefore –

Resolved – That

(1)  it be noted that the draft, unaudited outturn variance for 2021/22 is a balanced position, after utilising exceptional financing support.

(2)  the requirement to utilise £5.846m of exceptional financial support, in line with the relevant guidance (see Appendix 2), subject to external audit, be noted.

(3)  the Director of Resources be authorised to accept the revised offer of exceptional financial support from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as referred to in Section 3.11 of the report.

(4)  the impact of funding and expenditure as a direct consequence of Covid-19, including the additional funding sources which have been identified, as referred to in section 3.10 of this report be noted.

(5)  transfers to earmarked Reserves, as detailed in the report, be approved.