Council considered a report of the Head of Financial Services, submitted to the City Executive Board on 13 June 2018, updating Council on finance risk and performance at the end of the 2017/18 financial year and seeking agreement for new and carried forward financial requests for 2018/19.

Councillor Turner, Board Member for Finance and Asset Management, presented the report and moved the recommendations which were adopted on being seconded and put to the vote.

The Chair of the Scrutiny Finance Panel confirmed the Panel had considered the report and financial requests

Council resolved to:

1. Establish budgetary provision of £364k in the General Fund in respect of the new bids shown in paragraph 6 and Appendix D or the report;
2. Establish budgetary provision of £70k in respect of the new HRA bids as detailed in paragraphs 16 to 19 and Appendix D of the report.

The Head of Financial Services and Head of Business Improvement had submitted a report to update Members on Finance, Risk and Performance as at the end of the financial year.

Councillor Turner introduced the report. The overall financial position remained favourable with expenditure on target and a slight increase in the anticipated surplus. There was favourable variance in both the Housing Revenue Account and the Capital Programme. In relation to Performance Management the overall picture was positive with twelve of the sixteen corporate performance measures delivered as planned and four falling short (of which one was the number of visitors to the Council’s leisure centres, see above). Of the new scheme requests, £200k for City Centre  Improvements was recognised as important (and chimed with a previous recommendation from Scrutiny Committee).

Councillor Chapman, in his role as Board Member for Customer Focused Services, was pleased to note the favourable variance of Direct Services and looked forward to their continued positive performance.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.    Note the financial outturn and performance of the Council for the year 2017/18 and also the position on risks outstanding as at 31st March 2018;

2.    Agree the carry forward requests in respect of the General Fund and recommend to Council the establishment of budgetary provision of £364k in respect of the new bids shown in paragraph 6 and Appendix D;

3.    Agree the additional transfer to the General Fund Capital Financing Reserve of £533k detailed in paragraph 2 a;

4.    Agree the carry forward requests outlined in paragraph 16 to 19 in respect of the HRA as detailed in Appendix D and recommend to Council the establishment of budgetary provision of £70k in respect of the new bids;

5.    Agree the additional transfer to the HRA Contributions to HRA Projects Reserve of £0.550 million detailed in paragraph 2 (c);

6.    Note the underspend against the latest budget on the Capital Programme of £636k detailed in appendix B, the funding for which will be returned to Capital Financing Resources; and

7.    Agree to allow the roll forward of all CIL related allocations, totalling £130k in 2018/19, detailed in paragraph 9.