Purpose

The report presents the revenue and capital
outturn for 2023/24. The report also refers to requests to carry
forward specific revenue budget items to 2024/25 and to write-off
revenue over budgets where recovery in future years would have an
adverse impact on continuing service delivery. It also refers to
requests to re-phase specific capital budget items to 2024/25 and
to remove net capital underspends.

Decision

(1) 
To note the revenue budget outturn on budget
position for 2023/24, after allowing for carry forwards and
transfers to reserves.
 
(2) 
To approve the revenue carry forward proposals
listed in the tables in paragraph 3.7 of the report.
 
(3) 
To agree that all other over budgets are written-off
as an exception to the Budget Management Rules for
2023/24.
 
(4) 
To approve the transfer of £0.13m from
corporate earmarked reserves.
 
(5) 
To note the revenue virements for 2023/24 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 paragraph 3.21 of the
report.
 
(7) 
To note the outturn position of the 2023/24 capital
programme in paragraph 3.34, 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 of the report. 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 2023/24, highlighting a material improvement in
the position at year end with a minor adverse revenue outturn
position of £0.13m after allowing for agreed transfers
to/from reserves and carry forwards. This is an improvement of
£1.71m from the reported position in the Quarter 3
forecast.
 
The carry forward of specific revenue
budget items to 2024/25 and write-off of revenue over budgets is
required where recovery in future years would have an adverse
impact on continuing service delivery.
 
The £0.13m adverse variance
being funded from the Revenue Budget Contingency earmarked reserve
will 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 2024/25 with a considerable
impact on service delivery especially in light
of the challenging economic environment in 2024/25 and
possibly beyond.