The Committee is asked to consider the Financial Management Report.

The Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance and the Chief Financial Officer to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance introduced the report which set out the revenue and capital outturn position for 2017/2018.  He highlighted the £829,000 underspend and praised the Finance Team for their continued hard work in achieving savings.  He highlighted recent investments and advised the Scrutiny Committee that, subject to any comments received, the report would be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 11 July 2018.  Finally, he congratulated the Finance Team for winning the Team of the Year award at the Swale Stars ceremony.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance invited Members’ comments.

A Member referred to the additional income from Beach Huts on page 7 and asked how many Huts were owned and rented out by Swale Borough Council (SBC)?  The Chief Financial Officer agreed to find out.

A Member sought clarification on the £29k underspend of Members’ Allowances on page 9.  The Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance advised that some allowances were not claimed.

In response to a question, the Chief Financial Officer advised that ‘Corporate Items’ as referred to on page 10 were detailed on pages 28 to 29 of the report and were non-service costs that related to the whole Council.  In response to the same Member, the Chief Financial Officer explained what the costs were.

There was a discussion around Members Localism Grants (page 31) and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance confirmed that most of the grant money had been spent.  He explained the reasons why grant money was sometimes unspent and highlighted the strict monitoring process that was followed.

A Member drew attention to the £44k underspend on public conveniences cleaning on page 33 of the report.  In response, the Chief Financial Officer advised that the underspend was as a result of savings on the cleaning contract, and the savings would be reinvested into improving the facilities.

In response to a Member’s question on the difference between Revenue Rollover Requests and Revenue Operational Bid Requests, the Chief Financial Officer explained that Operational Bid Requests were made to a general underspend pool and Revenue Rollover Requests were from within an individual service area.  The Chief Financial Officer agreed to make the wording more clear.

A Member praised the format of the report and Members congratulated the Finance Team and compared them favourably to other less well-managed Councils.

POST MEETING NOTE:  The follow up information requested was provided by the Chief Financial Officer and circulated to all Members of the Scrutiny Committee the day after the meeting.

Resolved:

(1)  That the gross revenue underspend on services of £829,000 (including £1,917,000 additional income) be noted.

(2)  That the revenue services rollovers of £571,660 and the setting up of new reserves as set out in Table 3 in Appendix I for approval be noted.

(3)  That the revenue service bids of £288,060, as set out in Table 4 in Appendix I be noted.

(4)  That the topping up of the Performance Fund and Regeneration Funds by £300,000 each from the General Fund and the Business Rates Volatility Reserve be noted.

(5)  That the delegation to the Chief Financial Officer to allocate uncommitted underspends to reserve funds be noted.

(6)  That the capital expenditure of £11,491,000 as detailed in paragraph 8 and Table 8 in Appendix I be noted.

(7)  That the capital rollovers of £2,027,970 as detailed in Table 8 in Appendix I for approval be noted.