Agenda item

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Senior Business Partner presented the Q3 position for the Council’s financial and performance monitoring for 2023/24.

The Senior Business Partner said that the revenue position had improved since Q2, from a £0.287m underspend to a predicted underspend of £0.665m, mostly due to grant income and which would be requested to be carried forward. She said that the biggest overspends were from the Crematorium, Streetwise vehicle hire and Planning income. She said that underspends were from homelessness grant income, utilities, leisure contract efficiencies, costs recovered and a delay in the HVO fuel project. 

The Senior Business Partner said that there was a capital underspend projected of £3.88m following a rephasing of projects and she referred the Group to Table 2 of the report. She said that the underspend arose from savings at the Crematorium, Bingham Leisure Centre, Gresham redevelopment and potential savings at Lutterell Hall. She said that there was also currently underspend with the Council’s Registered Housing Providers, and Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG).

The Senior Finance Business Partner referred the Group to paragraph 4.13 of the report which detailed the multi-asset funds and said that this also showed improvement since Q2.

In summary, the Senior Finance Business Partner said that the Council was in a good financial position.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the Q3 Performance Scorecards, as found at Appendix G.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that there were five indicators currently not reaching target, including the Transformation Strategy savings being below target mostly due to income from the Crematorium, additional Streetwise costs and income related to primary contracts. In relation to the usage of community facilities, he said that Sir Julian Cahn and Rushcliffe Country Park were performing well and that the Council was looking at improving usage at Gamston Community Hall and was introducing a new diary management system.

In relation to householder planning applications, the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that performance was continuing to improve and that December 2023 saw the Team achieve their best performance in two and half years. He said that the information was only showing in current performance reporting due to the legacy in the reporting timeframe and that last month’s performance stood at 89%.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Customer Services Team were receiving an increasing number of email enquiries and measures were being taken to meet that demand while continuing to answer customer phone calls.

The Vice Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked about the predicted underspend of £0.332 for the DFG given the significant demand on the grant.  The Senior Finance Business Partner referred to Appendix D and the two elements to the funding, mandatory funding and the Council’s discretionary top-up funding. She said that the underspend was from the discretionary funding as it was agreed at Cabinet in July 2022 to temporarily suspend that element of funding pending a national review of the formula. She said that the mandatory grant had been spent.

The Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group referred to Rushcliffe Oaks variance of £400k and asked whether this represented a loss or shortfall in income. The Senior Finance Business Partner confirmed that it represented a shortfall against predicted income as estimated in the original business case, which had since been revised to predict a more realistic income. She explained that the Crematorium was holding an average of 38 cremations a month and was performing well. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that much business was due to reputation and that this and business relationships were continuing to grow.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked about reporting on usage of community facilities and whether it included facilities managed by Lex Leisure. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that it only reported on Council managed facilities but agreed to look at whether it would be possible, whilst being mindful of potential commercial sensitivities, to provide usage information about the Community Hall in Bingham.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked about targets for responding to email enquiries and the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the target timeframe was within ten working days but he said that most were responded to much sooner and often within 48 hours.

The Vice Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group referred to the annuity charges and specifically what the £25k sinking fund for the Hook was allocated for and when the charges for West Park would end. She asked for an information breakdown and timespan for all of the West Bridgford special expenses. The Senior Finance Business Partner said that she would report this information back to the Group.

The Vice Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group referred to favourable variances arising from Homes for Ukraine and Homelessness funding and asked why this had not been spent during the year and whether the unspent funding going into reserves would be ringfenced. She asked how many Ukrainian families were hosted within the Borough. The Senior Finance Business Partner said that she would report back to the Group with this information.

The Vice Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked about traveller sites within the Borough and thought that the Council had a statutory requirement to provide thirteen permanent pitches by 2028 and seven before 2025. She asked whether there were any sites currently within the Borough and what would happen if the seven were not provided. The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that he was not aware of any currently and would report back to the Group with this information.

The Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group said that there was a site allocated as part of the Fairham development which would provide some provision in the future.

It was RESOLVED that the Corporate Overview Group considered:

a)    the expected revenue budget efficiency for the year of £0.665m and proposals to transfer to reserves

b)    the projected capital budget efficiencies of £3.880m including carry forwards of £0.430m to 2024/25

c)    the expected outturn position of £2.3k underspend for Special Expenses

d)    identified exceptions to judge whether further information is required.