Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2014/076

Contact: Kathy Wilcox, Chief Accountant Tel: (01865) 323981

Report by Chief Finance Officer (CA6).

The report focuses on the delivery of the Directorate Business Strategies that were agreed as part of the Service and Resource Planning Process for 2014/15 – 2017/18.  Parts 1 and 2 include projections for revenue, reserves and balances as at the end of August 2014.   Capital Programme monitoring and an update to the Capital Programme is included in Part 3.  Part 4 sets out a change to un-ringfenced grant funding in 2014/15. 

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)          note the report and annexes including the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 3 and changes set out in paragraph 63;

(b)         approve the virement requests set out in Annex 2a and the supplementary estimate requests in Annex 2e;

(c)          delegate the approval of virements relating to the restructuring of Commercial Services (EE2) within Environment & Economy as set out in Annex 2a(b) and paragraph 53 and the implementation of saving 14EE31 relating to the consolidation of print services (paragraph 54);

(d)         approve the write off of invoices totalling £39,246.67 as set out in paragraph 62;

(e)          approve the new joint reserve for the Thames Valley Control Centre (paragraph 73);

(f)           approve the £0.480m contribution to capital from the Catering Investment Fund to part fund the capital scheme for the delivery of Universal Infant Free School Meals (paragraph 74);

(g)         approve the contribution of £0.532m of developer contributions funding to King Alfred’s Academy to secure additional school places (paragraph 97);

(h)         approve the outline business cases for the three City Deal schemes and release a total budget of £2.132m for detailed design and procurement (paragraph 99);

(i)           approve to delegateauthority for the approval of land purchase and advanced utility diversions ahead of full business case approval by Cabinet to the Chief Finance Officer and Director for Environment & Economy (paragraph 100); 

(j)           approve the budget increase of £0.610m on the A423 Southern bypass Kennington and Hinksey Hill roundabouts scheme (paragraph 101);

(k)          approve the forward funding of the Didcot Station Car Park Expansion to enable early delivery of the scheme in advance of receiving the grant through the Local Growth Fund (subject to final confirmation of the Local Growth Fund allocation) (paragraph 102);

(l)           approve the inclusion of the £2m contribution to the Advanced Manufacturing Hub in Culham as part of Chief Executive’s Office capital programme to enable the full delivery of this City Deal scheme (paragraph 103);

(m)        approve the updated capital programme in Annex 8 (changes to the Capital Programme are set out in Annex 7c); and

(n)         RECOMMEND Council to:

           (i)        approve the release of £2.751m contingency to Children’s Social Care (CEF2-3) within CE&F on a one – off basis (paragraphs 55-56);

            (ii)      agree that that £1.500m one – off funding from the Older People and Physical Disability Pooled Budget reserves will be used to offset part of the in – year pressure across  ...  view the full agenda text for item 94

Recommendations Agreed.

Cabinet had before them a report which outlined the delivery of the Directorate Business Strategies that were agreed as part of the Service and Resource Planning Process for 2014/15 – 2017/18.  The report included projections for revenue, reserves and balances as at the end of August 2014,  Capital Programme monitoring and an update to the Capital Programme. It also set out a change to un-ringfenced grant funding in 2014/15. 

Councillor Nick Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, expressed concern over the level of overspend in the report, whilst acknowledging the plan to reduce the overspend outlined in paragraph 30 of the report.  He questioned why the Highways Services Contract Management Fee had been reduced and whether the Council were equipped to cope with the rising level of local authority children in care.

He further expressed concern over the way the current road works around Oxford had been executed, whilst acknowledging that the timings of the 3 major schemes being undertaken were due to constraints imposed by Central Government Funding.  The delays had meant that people were avoiding coming into the City which was bad for the Economy.

He welcomed the works being undertaken on the A34, though in his opinion doing both schemes together was unfortunate.

In response, Councillor Stratford, Cabinet Member for Finance acknowledged that there was a continuing pressure with more children being referred to the Council.  A temporary one-off funding from reserves had been used but a long term solution needed to be identified.

In introducing the report, Councillor Stratford indicated that the overspend forecast would need to be reduced through management action and/or the use of one off funding during the year.  Whilst action was being taken to manage the position in the year, there was underlying pressure on both Childrens’ and Adult Social Care.  Any temporary use of balances to address these issues would need to be made up next year and could not be repeated.

Councillor Heathcoat, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care confirmed that plans were in place to address the overspend within her area.  She referred to paragraphs 27 and 28 of the report which outlined the huge amount of work being undertaken within her area including the fact that over 90% of social care clients were now being supported to live in their own homes.

In relation to Highways, Councillor Nimmo Smith, Cabinet Member for Environment reminded the Cabinet that the works being undertaken currently were building a better future for Oxfordshire had been identified back in 2009 but had been cancelled due to lack of funding.

RESOLVED:  to:

(a)          note the report and annexes including the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 3 and changes set out in paragraph 63;

(b)          approve the virement requests set out in Annex 2a and the supplementary estimate requests in Annex 2e;

(c)          delegate the approval of virements relating to the restructuring of Commercial Services (EE2) within Environment & Economy as set out in Annex 2a(b) and paragraph 53 and the implementation of saving 14EE31  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94