Agenda item

The Cabinet had before them a report (CA6) which set out the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2013/14, including actual expenditure and income for the year compared to the budgeted position.  The figures shown in the report reflected the Council’s draft Statement of Accounts for 2013/14 which would be submitted to the Audit and Governance Committee on 2 July 2014 following certification by the Chief Finance Officer, prior to external audit.  The report also set out proposals for the use of any revenue underspends from 2013/14 in 2014/15 and noted whether these had been used to manage overspends or to support the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan. 

Councillor Nick Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, whilst congratulating the finance team on such a good result, highlighted a number of underspends in directorates expressing concern as to whether the underspends were disguising stresses in the system and that many of the underspends were achieved by unfilled staff vacancies.

In particular, he expressed concern over the half a million underspend in the Social & Community Services Budget and the underlying pressures, particlarily in Adult Social Care where he believed costs would rise year on year with the increasing numbers of both the very frail elderely and adults with learning difficulties

In relation to recommendation 6(b)(i) he urged the Cabinet to ensure that contractors looked into proposals properly before starting work.

Councillor Fatemian in moving the recommendations drew attention to Annex 1 and the excellent outturn figure of £1.3m and the underspend of £0.3 m.  He congratulated officers an staff for their efforts over the year to produce such a good result.

In response to Councillor Hards, Councillor Fatemian acknowledged that the service faced some of the greatest pressures and assured Councillor Hards that a significant amount of detailed planning took place around increased demand and that the situation would continue to be monitored.  In a recent survey, 90% of service users had rated the service as good or excellent.

Councillor Heathcoat highlighted the £4.3m expenditure by Social & Community Services in 2013/14 welcoming the Extra Care Housing project that had provided 50 rented flats and the delivery of the dementia care programme to enhance the lives of residents and the commencement of the joint control room in partnership with Berkshire Fire Service.

RESOLVED:

(a)          in respect of the 2013/14 outturn to:

              i.                note the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2013/14 along with the year end position on balances and reserves as set out in the report;

            ii.                approve the carry-forwards and virements as set out in Annex 2a;

           iii.                recommend Council to approve the virements greater than £0.5m for Children, Education & Families, Social & Community Services and Environment & Economy Directorates as set out in Annex 2a;

           iv.                agree that the surplus on the On-Street Parking Account at the end of the 2013/14 financial year, so far as not applied to particular eligible purposes in accordance with Section 55(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, be carried forward in the account to the 2014/15 financial year.

(b)          in respect of the 2014/15 revenue budget and Capital Programme to:

             i.             approve the virements for 2014/15 as set out in Annex 7;

            ii.             approve the allocation of £1.740m funding to the Didcot Parkway Station Forecourt project from corporate capital programme contingencies in order to increase the total budget by £1.365m to £8.055m;

           iii.             note the approval of the £1.800m increase in the budget and full business case for the Kennington/Hinksey Hill Interchange scheme by the Leader of the Council and Chief Finance Officer.