Agenda item

The Corporate Plan Performance & Financial Report - Quarter 3 - 2017/18

 

The Service Director Finance will present his Corporate Plan Performance and Finance report for quarter 3 of the 2017/18 financial year.

 

Note: 

 

In relation to items 3 & 4 please find detailed below, for reference and information purposes, the links to:

 

·         the full suite of Budget papers

2018/19 Budget Papers and Treasury Management Strategy

 

·         the Corporate Finance Performance Information for the first nine months to the end of December 2017

Qtr 3 Performance Monitoring

Minutes:

The Strategic Finance Manager spoke to the item, which provided an update on the quarter 3 position.

 

The committee heard how the overspend within quarter 3 was in line with that of quarter 2.  The position had improved quarter on quarter overall with reductions in overspend in Place due to measures being put in place coming to fruition earlier than expected, however the situation had deteriorated somewhat in People, with the impact of spending on adult social care and looked after children noted.  The overspend of 1m was offset by a corporate underspend of 4m, which was largely due to savings on capital financing, where plans to de-risk interest rate exposure were expected to come to fruition in 2018/19.  Consequently the authority had benefitted from low interest rates.

 

Approval had been sought to write off bad debt of £0.888m, of which £0.660m was from the General Fund and £0.228 from the Housing Revenue Account.

 

It was noted that the financial situation was greatly improved on the previous year where there had been £10m of service overspend in quarter 3, but that this overspend needed to be permanently corrected to avoid impacting on the medium term financial strategy.

 

Members questioned whether there was confidence that overspend was being managed correctly and the committee heard how robust plans were in place in each directorate to do so, but that these took time to deliver.  It was noted that a further improved forecast was expected for quarter 4.

 

With regards to arrears the current position was just in excess of £29m, and Members heard how 38% of old trade debt had been collected at quarter 3 against a target of 40%. Council Tax collection rates were forecast at 95.97% against a stretch target of 96.4%, and Business Rate collection rates were forecast at 97.55% against a stretch target of 97.4%.

 

Members noted the revised borrowing strategy to actively de-risk the debt portfolio somewhat, in order to protect the Council from rising interest rates.

 

The Committee were made aware of details of 25 external funding bids to seek 80m.  Members questioned the impact of Brexit on funding, and it was noted that access to funds such as ERDF and ESIF would be reduced, but that the Council would seek to maximise access to any source of external funds.

 

The Committee discussed the availability of land for housing, and it was noted that the Local Plan was expected to be adopted later in 2018 which would set targets for housing growth.  Members questioned the sufficiency of supply in advance of the adoption of the Local Plan, and it was agreed to provide Members with detail of the current details of the 5 year deliverable housing land supply.

 

RESOLVED:-

(i)            That details of the 5 year deliverable housing land supply be circulated to Members;

(ii)          That the Strategic Finance Manager be thanked for the presentation; and

(iii)         That the content of the report and presentation be noted.

Supporting documents:

 

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