Purpose

This report provides the
Executive with details of the actual revenue expenditure for 2024/25 for the
General Fund.

 

The revised revenue budget set by
the Executive for the General Fund in February was predicting a contribution
from reserves of £285,700 in order to balance the budget. Although budget
monitoring had been indicating some pressure points during the year there have
also been some positive outcomes within services such that the overall outturn
position will be an underspend, of £437,893, after the proposed carry forwards,
which will be added to the Council’s reserves.

 

The main reasons for this were
higher than expected income in some areas, such as shopping centre
rents, car parking, and investment and commercial properties There was also
lower than expected spend in some areas, particularly employee costs due to
staff turnover, the local plan and for the homelessness service. However, there
continues to be a pressure on the budgets in the year in particular for vehicle
costs for the waste collection and street cleansing services.

 

This contribution to reserves,
rather than the expected draw down of reserves, will help towards the funding
gap identified for 2026/27 in the Medium-Term Finance Strategy and will reduce
the savings that need to be made from the Opportunities Plan.

 

However, there remains a need to
be cautious as the Council’s overall reserves position will not yet be
sufficient to go through to the end of the Finance Strategy period.
Contingencies are also needed the levels of Government’s financial support
remain uncertain and it is likely that the Fair Funding Review will come into
force during the 2026/27 financial year along with a business rate reset, both
of which are not expected to have a favourable
outcome for lower tier authorities.

Decision

RESOLVED that the Executive:-

 

(a)  notes
the contents of the report; and

 

(b)  agrees
the carry forward figure of £212,000