Agenda item

To review and scrutinise the Quarter 2 finance report as presented to Cabinet on 3 November 2020.

The committee reviewed the Quarter 2 Finance Report, which had been presented to Cabinet on3 November 2020.

The Cabinet paper reported an overspend of £27.6m for 2020/21; an improvement of £15.5m since quarter 1.  The report itself summarised the main changes since the previous quarter and set out analysis by individual directorate for the Committee’s review. 

Despite the improvement in the period, only a small amount of this reduced financial pressure for 2021/22 – because for example, underspends on the contingency budget were already built into the budget process.

The Executive Director for Corporate Development explained that there were also additional items affecting the finance teams during the current pandemic including receiving significant funding from the Government to pass on to others.

Following a question regarding the forecasting of overspends, The Executive Director advised that in Adults and Children in particular there had been additional demand especially in relation to the process of securing places for people coming out of hospital.  In Legal and Democratic, currently the costs of PPE and storage in respect of excess deaths had been charged to this service as their budget was quite small.  In respect of the Place Directorate, there had been a loss of income in respect of car parking as a result of the current pandemic. Cllr Sutton thanked the Director for the explanation which she felt would be useful in trying to manage the public’s expectations.

In response to a question from the Chairman regarding whether there was an early indication that the second lockdown will have an adverse effect of the figures, the Executive Director for Corporate Development highlighted the differences between Covid and non Covid spend. The majority of pressures the Council was experiencing were Covid related. In terms of the impact of the second lockdown the Government were providing additional funding, but the key variable was business rates and council tax and whether the lockdown carried on beyond early December. If not he felt there was enough cautionary measures in place to manage.

In respect of unachievable savings, the Acting Corporate Director of Commissioning advised that £2m of savings were significantly impacted due to Covid, efficiencies had been made in respect of utilisation and the changes to how services were delivered.  The service had already gone through a significant amount of change and a number of areas were highlighted in respect of increased workflow.   The CCG received additional funding for hospital discharges and plans were in place to recover this. It was important to ensure that the correct support and rehabilitation took place at the right time.

In terms of the cost of agency staff, the Executive Director for Corporate Development undertook to provide details outside of the meeting.

In response to a question regarding the amount of funding town and Parish Council were likely to receive, the Corporate Director for Finance and Commercial advised that officers were working with the DAPTC and had agreed that information would be shared with them by 3 December 2020. Returns would need to be back by 31 January 2021 to enable the Council to review in February 2021.

The Vice-Chairman asked about capital receipts and the potential for savings with home working.  The Executive Director for Corporate Development advised that the Cabinet had agreed in October the Asset Management Strategy.  There was a surplus of properties as a result of the councils coming together. There were limited assumptions for this year but there would be a plan coming forward in respect of property rationalisation in the near future.

Noted