Purpose

The report presents the revenue and capital
outturn for 2024/25.

Decision

(1) 
To note the revenue budget outturn on budget
position for 2024/25, after allowing for carry forwards and
transfers to reserves.
 
(2) 
To approve the revenue
carry forward proposals listed in the tables in paragraph 3.6 of
the report.
 
(3) 
To approve that all other over budgets are written
off as an exception to the Budget Management Rules for
2024/25.
 
(4) 
To approve the transfer of £0.21m from
corporate earmarked reserves.
 
(5) 
To note the revenue virements for 2024/25 reported
for information in Appendix 2(i) of the
report.
 
(6) 
To note the reserve positions and the use of
flexible capital receipts shown in paragraphs 3.17 to 3.19 of the
report.
 
(7) 
To note the outturn position of the 2024/25 capital
programme in paragraph 3.33, and the funding outlined in paragraph
3.36 of the report.
 
(8) 
To approve the capital rephasing and write-off of
net underspends as listed in Appendix 3. This reflects the outturn
spend position on projects against final budgets as detailed in
Appendix 4(ii) of the report.

Reasons for the decision

The report presents the revenue and
capital outturn for 2024/25, highlighting a material improvement in
the position at year end with a minor adverse revenue outturn
position of £0.21m after allowing for agreed transfers
to/from reserves and carry forwards. This is an improvement of
£0.77m from the reported position in the Quarter 3
forecast.
 
The carry-forward of specific revenue
budget items to 2025/26 and write-off of revenue over budgets is
necessary where recovery in future years would have an adverse
impact on continuing service delivery.
 
The £0.21m adverse variance is
funded from the Revenue Budget Contingency earmarked reserve to
give an on-budget position.

Alternative options considered

The option to carry forward over
budgeted spend could be considered which would mean that services
would have to make up any deficits in 2025/26 with a considerable
impact on service delivery especially in light
of the challenging economic environment in 2025/26 and
possibly beyond.