Issue - meetings

It was proposed by Councillor D Saunders and seconded by the Cllr Ashbee, and Members agreed the recommendations set out in the report, namely:

“That Council approves a supplementary General Fund Revenue Budget of £48,000 for the appointment of two interim property surveyors, to be wholly funded from an associated increase in property income streams.” 

Members considered the budget monitoring report for the second quarter of 2022/23. This was the second budget monitoring report for this year. Cabinet was forecasting an overspend of just over £1.9 million against the General Fund revenue budget. One of the main factors causing this overspend was the additional demands in the housing service with more homeless placements. In response to this, the Council had reviewed and was delivering its homelessness strategy action plan. Cabinet was regularly monitoring the levels of homelessness and had been recruiting more staff and commissioning new services to address the increasing need for support.

Other financial pressures that were detailed in the report included additional agency staffing requirements in the waste and recycling service, higher gas and electricity costs and income shortfalls. Cabinet was determined to improve the commercial performance of the Council and was pleased to recommend that the appointment of two property surveyors, who would be tasked with increasing the Council’s property income streams.

Cabinet was assured that Council could primarily fund the forecast overspend of £1.9m from applying a £1.1m expected surplus from our retained business rates income. However, the Cabinet remained committed to ensuring the Council had a sound financial footing and this had been at the front of Cabinet’s mind when developing next year’s budget. The General Fund Capital Programme was showing a substantial underspend. This was in part due to the phasing and timing of a number of grant funded projects, some of which were recommended to be slipped into later years of the programme. Cabinet was pleased to report that the HRA was forecast to largely come in on budget. Cabinet was asked to approve a number of budget adjustments that were detailed within the Cabinet report.

Councillor David Saunders proposed, Councillor Pugh seconded and Cabinet agreed the following:

1.  To notes the following:

i) The General Fund revenue budget 2022/23 forecast position;

ii) The General Fund Capital Programme 2022/23 forecast position;

iii) The Housing Revenue Account position.

2.  To approve a £100,000 General Fund revenue budget virement to the Community Safety budget to facilitate the continued provision of showers, toilets and utilities for the traveller community currently located on land at Ramsgate Port and to fund associated legal costs, to be funded from a corresponding reduction in the corporate contingency budget;

3.  To recommend to Council that a supplementary General Revenue Budget of £48,000 for the appointment of two interim property surveyors be approved, to be wholly funded from an associated increase in property income streams; and

4.  To the 2022/23 Capital Programme budget adjustments, numbered i to ii, as set out in section 6.4 and Annex 1 to the cabinet report.