Decision

Resolved that: Executive is informed of the following:

Revenue:

·         The Provisional Revenue Outturn is +£9.4m/ 5.1% adverse to Budget (Budget £183.4m, Provisional Revenue Outturn £192.9m). Several year-end adjustments are required to the Provisional Revenue Outturn because of specific reserve related transactions and obligations noted below. As a result of these adjustments, the Adjusted Provisional Revenue Outturn (the key Revenue outturn metric) is +£5.5m/ 3.0% adverse to Budget (Budget £183.4m, Adjusted Provisional Revenue Outturn £188.9m). The Adjusted Provisional Revenue Outturn is -£3.0m/ 1.7% favourable compared to the Q3 forecasts, (Q3 Outturn £192.0m, Adjusted Provisional Revenue Outturn £188.9m). Note: all values in this report are pre IFRS 16 (lease) adjustment – the impact of which is not expected to be material. The material year end adjustments are as follows:

o   A Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) overspend of +£8.8m. The overspend is subject to a statutory override, enabling the Council to transfer this overspend to a separate reserve, thereby protecting the Council’s General Fund. The DSG overspend was -£5m favourable vs the Budget. The year-end cumulative DSG reserve balance is £25m.

o   A Public Health Grant underspend of -£358k. Public Health funds are ringfenced and cannot be deployed in support of the Council’s General Fund position. This adjustment is required to transfer this value to the Public Health reserve.

o   A Capital Financing & Management Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) adjustment of -£5.1m. MRP is a statutory capital financing adjustment between the General Fund and unusable reserves relating to the provision for the repayment of capital debt.

·         In accordance with the Council’s policy on the use of flexible capital receipts, £4.3m of capital receipts has been applied to transformation expenditure in both the Provisional Revenue Outturn and Adjusted Provisional Revenue Outturn.

Capital:

·         The Provisional Capital Outturn is £44.2m of expenditure against an approved expenditure programme of £60.9m. Of the £44.2m capital expenditure incurred, £15.0m was funded by the Council. The remaining £29.2m was financed from external sources, primarily grants, the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 contributions.

·         Reprofiling planned capital expenditure between 2025/26 and 2026/27 results in an adjusted net underspend of £3.1m/ 5.1% against budget. The reprofiling adjustments are as follows:

o   £14.3m of planned expenditure to be reprofiled into financial years 2026/27 and 2027/28 – see Appendix A.

o    £0.7m of funding proposed to be brought forward from approved expenditure from financial year 2026/27 into financial year 2025/26 – see Appendix B.

·         The impact of required capital financing on the Council’s Capital Financing Requirement (CFR) and liability benchmark which identifies the Council as a long-term borrower of funding can be found in the 2025/26 Annual Treasury Management Review which is due at Governance Committee on 28 July 2026.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      Report is to note only

therefore it will be implemented immediately.