This meeting will include a report on the Council’s finances, and an update on the budget setting process for the 2025/26 financial year.

Q2 Budget Monitoring Report

This report provides a summary of the Council’s revenue and capital expenditure for the first six months of the 2024/25 financial year (April to September 2024).

The report shows a projected underspend of £0.205 million against the agreed revenue budget of £26.394 million.

Several service areas are forecasting significant variances from their budgets:

• Communities: Income at the Cornerstone arts centre and café in Didcot is forecast to be down against budget by £129,000. The report says:

  The newly formed management team are working through the agreed action plan for the centre, which has delivered a successful autumn season and together with already strong panto ticket sales, should show an improvement in the numbers by year end. In addition to this a separate project is underway to review and improve the café model.

• Housing and Environment: Garden waste income is forecast to be significantly down. The report says this is because the Council introduced a new permit scheme in April 2025, and current charges are being pro-rated until then.

• Legal and Democratic: This service area is forecasting an overspend due to the use of external legal advisors to support the Council’s work on the Joint Local Plan.¹

• Policy & Programmes: The forecasted underspend in this service area mainly relates to the Didcot Garden Town project, where funding is expected to cover future years' expenditure.

The report notes that a full review of the Council’s capital programme will be undertaken as part of the budget setting process for 2025/26.

Budget Setting 2025/26 Update

A report from the Council's Head of Finance will be considered.