Issue - meetings

Budget Monitoring 2022/23: Report No.1

Meeting: 09/02/2023 - Council (Item 8)

8 Budget Monitoring 2022/23: Report No.1 pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Minutes:

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

 

“1. That Council approves a one-off supplementary General Fund 2022/23 revenue budget of £100,000 be approved for the creation of a fund for coastal projects; to be wholly funded from an external contribution from Southern Water.

 

2. That Council approves a supplementary General Fund revenue budget of £63,000 be approved for additional resources to support the delivery of regeneration schemes in the district; to be funded from a corresponding increase in the income budget for retained business rates.

 

3. That Council approves a supplementary General Fund revenue budget of £100,000 be approved for additional resources to support the delivery of property related services; to be funded from the Repairs Reserve.

 

4. That Council approves the 2022/23 supplementary capital budgets, numbered 1 to 4, as set out in section 5.”


Meeting: 24/11/2022 - Overview & Scrutiny Panel (Item 417)

417 Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring Report 2022/23 pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Matt Sanham, Acting Director of Operations introduced the report and made the following comments:

 

·  This report had already been taken to cabinet on 13 October 2022;

·  A forecast overspend had been made of just under £1.8 million against the General Fund revenue budget;

·  One of the main reasons for the overspend was the additional demand in the housing service with more homelessness placements;

·  In response to this the council had revised and was delivering on the new Homelessness Strategy Action Plan. Officer were regularly monitoring the levels of homelessness, recruiting new staff and commissioning new services to address the increasing need for support;

·  Additionally agency staff had been brought in by the waste and recycle service;

·  Gas and electricity cost increases had also affected the budget performance;

·  The General Fund Capital Programme reflected substantial underspend. This was due to the phasing and timing of grant funded projects some of which were recommended to be slipped into the later years of the capital programme;

·  In the HRA there was marginal cost overspend of £119k against the General Fund budget. On the other hand with the Capital Programme there proposals for the variations of a number of budgets so that the budget profile was closer matched to the revised expectations for the time and future spending

 

Members made comments and asked questions as follows:

 

·  Waste and Recycling: The Council relies heavily on agency staff. Was the council trying to investigate possible alternatives around growing staff in the service without relying more on agency staff?

·  The crematorium income: Increasing cost of gas would seriously affect cremation costs. Would these costs be passed on to families or would government assist councils?

·  The Coastal Project income from Southern Water: Some o the money had been offered to town councils to refurbish the lifts;

·  Ramsgate Town Council had been waiting for some feedback from TDC regarding this fund.

 

Matt Sanham responded to Member comments and questions as follows:

 

·  The council had always relied on agency staff for the waste and recycling service because on the nature of the business. If for example was unable to turn up to work, the council would be forced to resort to agency staff to ensure that the service was not disrupted;

·  Covid affected the service to an extent as crew staff work in close quarters. That meant that if one member of staff got covid, a number of the staff working in the same crew would most likely be affected. During covid there was an average of fifteen staff who would be off sick due to covid at any one time, forcing the council to resort to agency staff;

·  There was generally a shortage of HGV driver across the country and as a result costs or drivers were going up. In other sectors some HGV drivers were paid as much as £60k per year which the council could not afford;

·  Council was working on coming up with a training programme to train up new drivers, whilst retaining the current ones;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 417


Meeting: 13/10/2022 - Cabinet (Item 850)

850 Budget Monitoring 2022/23: Report No.1 pdf icon PDF 135 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet was advised that an overspend of just under £1.8 million against the General Fund revenue budget was anticipated. 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.

 

Officers were regularly monitoring the levels of homelessness and the Council would be recruiting more staff and commissioning new services to address the increasing need for support. Other financial pressures were detailed in the report, and included additional agency staffing requirements in the waste and recycling service and also higher gas and electricity costs.

 

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. In the HRA there was a marginal forecast overspend of £119,000 against the revenue budget, whereas within the capital programme it was being proposed that a number of budget variations be made so that the profile of the budget be closer matched to the revised expectations for the timing of future spending.

 

Councillor Whitehead and Councillor Yates spoke under Council Procedure 20.1.

 

Councillor David Saunders proposed Councillor Bob Bayford seconded and Cabinet agreed the following:

 

1. To note 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 recommend to Council that a one-off supplementary General Fund 2022/23 revenue budget of £100,000 be approved for the creation of a fund for coastal projects; to be wholly funded from an external contribution from Southern Water;

 

3. To recommend to Council that a supplementary General Fund revenue budget of £63,000 be approved for additional resources to support the delivery of regeneration schemes in the district; to be funded from a corresponding increase in the income budget for retained business rates;

 

4. To recommend to Council that a supplementary General Fund revenue budget of £100,000 be approved for additional resources to support the delivery of property related services; to be funded from the Repairs Reserve;

 

5. To agree to the 2022/23 Capital Programme budget adjustments and virements, numbered 1 to 8, as set out in section 5.3 and Annex 1 to the cabinet report;

 

6. To agree to the 2022/23 HRA Capital Programme budget adjustments and virements, numbered 7.4 to 7.6 in the report;

 

7. To recommend to Council for approval the 2022/23 supplementary capital budget, numbered 9 to 12, as set out in section 5.4 and Annex 1 to the report.