The Committee is asked to consider the Financial Outturn Report for 2015/16. 

The Head of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance have been invited to attend the meeting.

The Chairman welcomed the Head of Finance and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance to the meeting, and invited them to introduce the report.  The Cabinet Member thanked the Head of Finance, the finance team, officers and the Budget Task Force for their work, and advised that the format of the report had been updated to reflect feedback made by the Scrutiny Committee when it had last considered this report.  Whilst there had been an underspend, the Cabinet Member considered that this had been the best year ever, in financial terms for the Council, as it was important to have funds available for the future, which was uncertain. 

The Chairman referred to the report and invited Members to consider the report page by page, reminding Members that the report had already been considered by the Cabinet.

Members asked the Cabinet Member and Head of Finance questions on the report.  In response to a question concerning the underspend and whether it was good budgeting to have so much of an underspend, the Cabinet Member advised budgets were set and monitored, however, it was difficult to anticipate what would happen in the future and there would be variations, such as additional income.  It was important that officers did not feel the need to spend the money just to use up the budget. The Head of Finance reiterated this, referring to additional income and savings on contracts, and that there was good management of the budget.  A discussion ensued regarding budget savings on contracts, in terms of whether the level of service had been affected, and whether more could be done to make the service better. Attention was also drawn to paragraph 1.4 of the report which identified the funding gap for future years.  In response to a question, the Head of Finance explained the term ‘over-recovery’ of business rates and that only 40% of the growth was kept by the Council.

Members asked further questions regarding the level of savings relating to staff vacancies; the grant rollovers and whether it would be possible to have more information about the total grant, what had been spent, and the balance, rather than just the rollover amount; the underspend on refuse collection and contract performance, and whether there should be more promotion of recycling/food waste (which the Cabinet Member for Environment and Rural Affairs would be asked to respond to);  an update regarding the Empty Property Review; an explanation of why expenditure had been incurred as a result of increased National Insurance contributions for Members; the underspend in the Localism Grants and what the underspend was being used for; the £60k allocated for expenditure relating to Footpath ZF5 and whether the Cabinet Member could provide more information about the potential future cost of the project; whether there should be more funds rolled over for street nameplates; what the £10k rollover for community engagement was for; and what the procedure was for applications for events to be funded by the Regeneration Fund.

The Head of Finance undertook to provide written answers to the questions raised by Members at the meeting.

Resolved:

(1) That the report be noted.