Decision

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

1. Note the Council is reporting a final outturn overspend of £0.655m for 2024/25 which is an improvement of £5.559m from Month 11.

1. Note the underspend of £30.572m within Service Directorates for 2024/25 and that the Corporate Contingency of £6.000m, has been released into the outturn position within budget lines Table 1.

1. Note that the planned use of reserves of £36.800m for Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Support towards the budget is to reduce by £36.145m to £0.655m, due to the underspend within budget lines (section 18).

1. Note that the full £36.884m Exceptional Financial Support (EFS: Capitalisation Direction) has been utilised for 2024/25.

1. Agree that the Council reaffirms its commitment to avoiding a Section 114 notice in 2025/26 by continuing and strengthening its financial management actions, with regular monitoring and reporting to ensure accountability.

1. Note the final outcome of the 2024/25 MTFP Savings, with £35.856m Achieved (89%) and £4.376m Unachieved (11%) as set out in Table 2 and Appendix J.

1. Note the in-year outturn overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant of £28.745m, a decrease of £1.993m from Month 11 (Appendix C).

1. Note the total forecast Dedicated Schools Grant year-end deficit of £62.656m as set out in Appendix C.

1. Note the collection rates for Council Tax and Business Rates as set out in sections 22 and 23.

1. Note the quarterly update from the Spend Control Board detailed in Appendix L.

1. Note the quarterly update on the prudential indicators detailed in Appendix O.

1. Note the outstanding debt position as detailed in Chart 2 and Appendix M.

1. Note the level of General Reserves is £63.200m (risk-based assessment – minimum £30m, maximum £60m) and repurpose of some specified earmarked reserves following a review of the Council’s balance sheet.

1. Note the Capital Programme expenditure for 2024/25 is £188.389m, against a budget of £149.259m (see Table 5).

1. Approve the acceleration and slippage of expenditure and associated impact on future year budgets as detailed in Table 6.

1. Approve the removal of underspends totalling £0.697m from the capital programme (see Table 6).

1. Approve additions to the Capital budget of £18.974m as detailed in para 40 and Table 6.