To report the provisional financial outturn position for 2024/25 for revenue and capital budgets.

ChildrenCHTHE MEMBER the The member for finance and corporate services introduced the report.  It was noted that the financial position the current administration had inherited was dire with quarter 1 forecast of £13.8m on a revenue budget of £193.3m.  However, today the final outturn position for 2024/25 showed an underspend of £0.5m on a budget of £212.8m.  It was also highlighted that the draft statement of accounts had been published, one month earlier than the statutory requirements, which put the council in the top 3% of councils in the country. 

It was noted that this year’s multi year settlement will not be kind to this council given the Labour Government’s removal of the Rural Services Grant and reduction in the central government grant.  On that basis, it was confirmed, to place £0.5m underspend in the general reserve fund which increased it to £10.1m. 

It was noted that in November 2024 cabinet approved a transfer of £11m from business rates risk reserve to establish a budget resilience reserve to mitigate against in-year cost pressures.  At this outturn position it was confirmed that a planned transfer of £4m from the budget resilience reservice would be applied to cost pressures in adult social care and temporary accommodation budgets in the community well-being directorate in 2024/25.    

It was confirmed that the earmarked reserves and general balances policy statement for 2025/26 would be carried forward on 31 March 2025 to manage future emerging risks and in-year budgetary pressures over the medium-term period.

It was highlighted that the Children Young People directorate budget delivered an underspend of £2.8m in 2025/26 and the planned savings of £2.3m had been delivered in full. It was confirmed that the additional budget of £2.3m, following the budget amendment in February 2024, was never given to the directorate from reserves in 2024/25.  The reserves were not used by the directorate in the year but had been used as part of the year end close down process to manage the whole council position.  It was also noted that the £2.3m had always been reported separately and transparently throughout the year in the quarterly reports and was presented as an underspend in Table 1 of the 2024/25 revenue outturn. 

It was noted that the Community and Wellbeing directorate had faced some significant challenges this year with increased demand and included a transfer from the budget resilience reserve of £4m, which still left a £1.5m overspend.

It was confirmed that Appendix A showed the details of the outturn position by directorate which totalled a £0.5m underspend. 

Regarding deliver of savings, the council approved £19.5m of savings for 2024/25 which comprised of directorate savings of £11.6m and £7.9m of council wide savings. It was noted that £10.9m of savings had been delivered and where savings had not been recurrently delivered in 2024/25 a focused review of the original proposals and planned activity had been undertaken and revised saving plans had been developed where appropriate.  The individual savings plans were included in Appendix D of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9