Cabinet, at its meeting on 10 July 2024, considered a report from the Head of Financial Services on the Financial Outturn Report 2023/24. Cllr Ed Turner, Deputy Leader (Statutory) and Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management and Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services, have been invited to present the report and answer questions. The Committee is asked to consider the report and agree any recommendations.

Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services introduced the report, which provided an update on the Council’s financial outturn for the financial year ending 31 March 2024. The report was considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 10 July 2024.

In response to questions, the Panel was advised that:

·       The £4million dividend payment from ODS was viewed as a ‘catch-up’ of dividends that had not been paid in previous years.

·       Before the COVID-19 pandemic, ODS had only paid dividends to the value of approximately £1.6m and then the Council experienced issues with its Housing Management System which meant uncertainty and delays in relation to ODS’ accounting position. This all meant that the £4m ‘backdated’ dividend was not expected and had not been budgeted for.

·       ODS’ outturn position for 2021/22 and 2022/23 was more positive than was expected; if the £4m dividend placed ODS under too much financial pressure then it would not have been paid to the Council.

·       It was anticipated that ODS would still be in a position to pay the dividend which the Council had budgeted for in 2024/25.

·       The Scrutiny Committee had requested an update report on the Leisure contract, including matters pertaining to the previous provider; a separate item would therefore not be submitted to the Panel on this topic.

·       In respect of the £310k additional income from the ZEZ for 2023/24, the Council was not anticipating that additional money from the County Council and, in addition, the Council was reimbursed for some funds it had set aside to establish the ZEZ as the County Council had received Government funding for that purpose.

·       The staffing pressures in the Customer Contact Centre should reflect a value of £113k, not £113m as stated in the report; the pressures were largely as a result of maternity and sickness leave.

·       There was still a long way to go in terms of transitioning residents’ contact with the Council to online means; a lot of work had been done in relation to automated forms, but there was still more to do in terms of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

·       The erroneous letters which had been sent out in 2023/24 in relation to Council Tax did cause some increase in demand, but they were not a major cause of increase in demand at the Customer Contact Centre.

·       The £370k savings in Community Services (staffing in parks, youth ambition and localities team) related to some savings in salaries, but also additional income from the previous leisure contract.

·       The Head of Financial Services would clarify what the £350k savings in Elections would have been spent on and report back to the Panel.

·       In relation to the local cost of benefits, £336k of the adverse variance was attributed to local authority errors, which the Council would attempt to recover from claimants. The majority of the rest of the adverse variance was attributed to a ‘quirk’ of the housing benefit system, whereby benefit paid to charitable organisations providing supported accommodation to vulnerable clients which were not Registered Providers (as was the case in respect of one of the larger supported accommodation providers in Oxfordshire) was not subsidised by the Department for Work and Pensions.

·       The Head of Financial Services would separate out the ODS Client function and the ODS dividend in future monitoring reports.

·       The entry on page 39 of the agenda pack, in relation to ‘S20 – Environmental Sustainability’ under ‘Development’ showed a £466k underspend which related to ZEZ income received in respect of 2022/23 and the repayment of funds that the Council had set aside to establish the ZEZ as the County Council had received Government funding for that purpose.

·       Consideration was still being given to OX Place becoming a Registered Provider, however this work had been de-prioritised for now as there were more pressing matters that needed to be addressed first.

·       The Head of Financial Services would clarify what the budget B0159 ‘Redbridge Masterplan’ (page 41 of the agenda pack) was due to be spent on; the timescales associated with that project; and the reasons why only £4,562 of a budget of £102,675 in 2023/24 had been spent and report back to the Panel.

·       The Head of Financial Services would consider the presentation of ‘variation’ in respect of Capital monitoring, to see if it could be aligned with the way in which all other figures were reported in financial reporting (in terms of ensuring consistency in the use of brackets and whether they indicated an underspend or an overspend).

The Panel requested:

·       That the Head of Financial Services clarify what the £350k savings in Elections would have been spent on and report back to the Panel.

·       That the Head of Financial Services clarify what the budget B0159 ‘Redbridge Masterplan’ (page 41 of the agenda pack) was due to be spent on; the timescales associated with that project; and the reasons why only £4,562 of a budget of £102,675 in 2023/24 had been spent and report back to the Panel.

The Panel noted the report; there were no recommendations.

Nigel Kennedy, Head of Financial Services left the meeting and did not return.