1.        PURPOSE OF REPORT AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1     This report provides a financial analysis of the committee’s services in the second quarter of 2015/16. The information is provided specifically for the Strategic Planning, Sustainability & Transport Committee. 

1.2     The intention of the report is to ensure the Committee is regularly informed of performance and to enable it to take timely action where it is appropriate.

2.        INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

2.1     The Head of Finance & Resources is the Responsible Financial Officer, and has overall responsibility for budgetary control and financial management. However in practice day to day budgetary control is delegated to service managers, with assistance and advice from their director and the finance section. It is best practice however to provide updates to the Committee on performance and this report is the second of four updates for 2015/16.

Revenue

2.2     The budget used in this report is the agreed estimate for 2015/16 including the carry forward resources agreed by Cabinet in April 2015.  Actual expenditure to September 2015 includes all major accruals for goods and services received but not paid for by the end of the quarter.

2.3     An analysis that is summarised at service area, of the full year’s budget, the profiled budget to September 2015 and expenditure to September 2015 is attached as Appendix A. The financial analysis is based on direct expenditure only. This removes the influence of internal recharges and accounting adjustments upon the variance analysis.  An indicative projected year end outturn figure is also shown.

2.4     Appendix A shows that actual spend is on target overall with a positive variance 2015 of £89,293 at the end of the second quarter. This variance incorporates variances that relate to the provision of transport services where surpluses are ring-fenced to transportation and cannot be utilised to cover the cost of other council services.

2.5     The predicted outturn figures show only the major variances and these suggest a likely adverse variance of £109,000 at year end. This will be tempered by the smaller positive variances within the Committee’s services. A brief explanation of the major variances is included against each significant variance in the Appendix.

Capital

2.6     The Committee has capital funding for the Infrastructure Improvements and some work is set to commence this year on the bridges gyratory system. Current projections suggest that despite the later than intended start the programme will be completed during 2017/18.

3.        AVAILABLE OPTIONS

3.1     Option 1 – The Committee could chose not to receive quarterly budget monitoring reports or receive the reports at a more regular frequency. However the current frequency is considered good practice and has been in place for many years at this Council, enabling an appropriate level of monitoring and timely action where necessary.

3.2     Option 2 - The committee could consider the details set out in Appendix A and propose alternative actions to those set out. However the details set out in this report follow on from the first quarter’s monitoring report. The current report shows that the planned actions are being implemented with the appropriate effect on resources.

3.3     Option 3 - The committee could consider the details set out in Appendix A and agree to note the details reported by officers.

4.        PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1     The recommended option is Option 3. The Committee should note the budget performance set out in Appendix A to this report and the actions that have been taken.

4.2     The year-end variance reported at £109,000 positive, will be further mitigated by the minor budget variances that have been projected to be zero at the year-end as a most likely result would be a low level positive variance when all of these services areas are combined.

4.3     This information will be collated into an overarching report of the strategic budget position to Policy and Resources Committee. The strategic position is currently in balance and it is expected that Policy & Resources Committee will utilise positive variance such as this to support areas of budget pressure during this year. The Council will follow good practice and officers will continue to control expenditure against budget to reduce the currently predicted year end over spend in other committees where this is occurring. 

5.       CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

5.1     This is the second report to this committee on the 2015/16 performance against budget. The previous report showed a high predicted positive variance which has reduced in this second quarter as a result of actions taken most especially in Planning, this has increased employee costs.

6.       NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

6.1     Officers will continue to take all possible actions to control the budget and utilise resources effectively.

6.2     The high level details contained in this report will be reported to Policy & Resources Committee as a strategic overview of budget monitoring across the organisation.

7.       CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

8.        REPORT APPENDICES

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·         Appendix A: Budget Monitoring Report 2016/17 to 2020/21

9.        BACKGROUND PAPERS

None