Issue - meetings

Councillor Willmott submits a report that shows a summary position comparing spending with the budget.  The report is the second in the regular cycle of reports for the 2009/2010 financial year showing the budget issues that have arisen so far.  Cabinet is asked to approve the recommendations set out in Paragraph 3 of the report.

A minute extract from the meeting of the Performance and Value for Money Select Committee held on 9 December 2009 will be circulated as soon as it is available.

Councillor Patel submitted a report that showed a summary position comparing spending with the budget. The report was the second in the regular cycle of reports for the 2009/10 financial year showing the budget issues that had arisen so far.

Councillor Grant asked what action was being taken regarding the efficiency savings targets, noting that this would increase pressure on savings in the future. Councillor Patel responded that the challenging targets were recognised and procedures were in place to achieve these. The Chief Finance Officer stated that the efficiency savings were targets set by Government, and would not result in a gap in the budget, as this was a different exercise.

RESOLVED;

                        that Cabinet:

1)     notes the changes made to the original approved budget for 2009/10;

2)     notes the expenditure to date and the budgetary issues which have emerged so far this year;

3)     notes the proposals put forward to ensure that spending is contained within the Divisional budgets;

4)     notes the progress made so far towards achieving the efficiency target;

5)     approves additional expenditure of up to £1m to facilitate the split of housing and revenues systems; such expenditure is expected to be recovered as discussed in paragraph 6.2.3 of the report.