Decision details

The purpose of this report is to set out the Council’s financial performance against its revenue budget in the financial year 2016/17. Given the scale of Government funding cuts, departments have inevitably been under pressure to provide services with less funding. The outturn position is largely consistent with forecasts presented during the year and the main issues have been highlighted in previous monitoring reports.

1.         Approve the following proposed transfers to earmarked reserves:

a)         savings within the Corporate Resources Department (as set out in Appendix B, paragraphs 1.1, 2.1, 3.1 and 4.2 of the attached report);

b)         £107,000 to the elections reserve;

c)         the overall underspend of £20,000 in City Development & Neighbourhoods to the relevant divisional reserves (as set out in Appendix B, paragraph 6 of the report);

d)         one off savings of £1.5m in Adult Social Care to support preventative work carried out by the voluntary sector (as set out in Appendix B, paragraph 12.9), subject to uses of the new fund being subject to formal decisions based on individual business cases;

e)         one-off savings of £1.6m in Adult Social Care to the managed reserves strategy, to support future budgets;

f)          savings of £1.7m in Public Health & Sports Services to a departmental reserve for initiatives to support the service in achieving its savings targets (as set out in Appendix B, paragraph 13.8 of the report);

g)         savings of £7.360m in corporate budgets to fund the Economic Action Plan (as described in Appendix B, paragraph 18.6 of the report).

2.         Approve the following budget reductions consequent to spending reviews:

a)         reductions to the Neighbourhoods and Environmental Services budget of £12,500 in 2017/18, rising to £271,000 in 2018/19, in respect of Regulatory Services and Community Safety (as detailed in Appendix B, paragraph 8.2 of the report);

b)         reductions in the Public Health & Sports Services budget of £245,000 from 2017/18, in respect of savings in sexual health services (as detailed in Appendix B, paragraph 13.9 of the report);

c)         reductions in the Public Health & Sports Services budget of £270,000 from 2017/18, in respect of savings in lifestyles services (as detailed in Appendix B, paragraph 13.10 of the report).

NOTE: The decision did not meet the criteria of a Key Decision and was, therefore, taken as a Non-Key decision.

Please Note:  This decision was Called-In under Rule 12 of Part 4D of the Council’s Constitution and the Call-in was considered by the Overview Select Committee at its meeting on 14 September 2017.  The Committee resolved that, “in accordance with Procedure Rule 12(g)(ii) of Part 4D of the Council’s Constitution (City Mayor and Executive Procedure Rules), the call-in of the Executive decision taken by the City Mayor on 10 July 2017 regarding the Revenue Budget Monitoring Outturn 2016/17 be withdrawn by this Committee.”

At the end of each year, the Executive and Overview Select Committee receive a report on the budget outturn for the previous year.  Usually, a number of reserves transfers are proposed, consequent to the position reported. The opportunity is also taken to give effect to some completed spending reviews.

Not applicable