Purpose

The report provides the Executive with details of the actual revenue expenditure for 2025/26 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 £56,000 in order to balance the budget.  Although budget monitoring had been indicating some pressure points during the year there have also been some positives outcomes within services such that the overall outturn position will be an underspend of £566,321, 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, planning income, 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, grounds maintenance and street cleansing services.

This contribution to reserves, rather than the expected draw down of reserves, will help towards the funding gap identified for 2027/28 and 2028/29 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 need to be kept under review as they may need to help fund the accelerated corporate priorities and/or the initial costs of Local Government Reorganisation.

Decision

RESOLVED that the Executive:

(a) notes the contents of the report;

(b) agrees the carry forward figure of £30,000.