Agenda item
Financial Outturn 2020/2021
Lead Member – Councillor Gwilym Butler – Portfolio Holder for Resources
Report of Executive Director of Resources attached
Contact: James Walton 01743 258915
Decision:
RESOLVED: to
A. Note that the outturn for the revenue budget for 2020/21 is a controllable underspend of £0.655m (0.11% of the original gross budget of £575.462m).
B. Note that the level of the General Fund balance after adjusting for the outturn underspend and insurance position stands at £14.091m, which is an increased balance when compared with March 2020, but is still significantly below the recommended level.
C. Note that the Council has been sufficiently provided with revenue funding relating to Covid-19 in 2020/21, and that therefore no additional costs have had to be funded by the Council’s base budget.
D. Note that the outturn for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2020/21 is an underspend of (£3.634m) and the level of the Housing Revenue Account reserve stands at £11.341m (£10.140m in 2019/20).
E. Note the increase in the level of Earmarked Reserves and Provisions (excluding delegated school balances) of £22.019 in 2020/21 and the reasons for this.
F. Note that the level of school balances stand at £5.995m (£1.891m in 2019/20).
H. Approve the re-profiled capital budgets of £157.430m for 2021/22, including slippage of £2.828m from 2020/21, £115.644m for 2022/23 and £15.070m for 2023/24 as detailed in Appendix 9 / Table 19.
I. Accept the outturn expenditure set out in Appendix 9 of £65.738m, representing 96% of the revised capital budget for 2020/21.
J. Approve retaining a balance of capital receipts set aside of £20.036m as at 31st March 2021 to generate a one-off Minimum Revenue Provision saving of £0.708m in 2021/22.
K. Approve the write off of the capital loan to SCC No.1 company up to the value of £0.450m with no General Fund impact
Minutes:
The Portfolio Holder for Resources presented the report providing a financial commentary on the 2020/21 Financial Year; a year dominated by the Coronavirus global pandemic. He paid tribute to staff managing the Council’s business during such a testing period and was confident that structures and staff were in place to deal with the issues ahead. Lobbying Central Government for fairer funding to the county remained a high priority.
The following issues were raised:
· Carry forward of unachieved savings and underperformance of the capital programme
· Underspending in many areas, including the housing revenue account, Broadband, highways
· Lack of clarity regarding the Shrewsbury shopping centres
· Unsustainable use of reserves
· Fairer funding and the need to lobby Central Government
The Executive Director of Resources commented that the Pandemic had had huge impacts on the Council, despite this, the Council had delivered £12M of savings and of the £7M not delivered some £4M had related directly to the Covid pandemic. Referring to the £7M, he stated that almost £6M of this would be carried forward to the next year so was delayed rather than undeliverable.
Responding to concerns relating to the Shrewsbury shopping centres, the Director of Resources confirmed that profit had been delivered from these schemes and overarching figures only could be provided. The Portfolio Holder added that the acquisition of the shopping centres had provided value for money as the investment of the monies used to purchase them would have resulted in a lower level of income.
The Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Assets commended excellent management during exceptional circumstances and drew particular attention to the £5.2M underspend in Adult Services despite Covid and the pandemic and added that the additional costs in public health could be attributed to the Pandemic as savings had not been able to be made.
Referring to the housing revenue account underspend he stated that stewardship of this lay with the Council’s arm’s length management company, Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing Association and illustrated the nature of developing projects that would inevitably result in greater expenditure in some years than others.
The Leader reiterated that detail to questions raised could have been provided if advance warning of the specific areas of concern had been highlighted ahead of the meeting and added that the Finance Task and Finish Group would be looking in detail at the budgets. Furthermore, a document detailing the overall financial position of the Council would be available in the near future.
RESOLVED: to
A. Note that the outturn for the revenue budget for 2020/21 is a controllable underspend of £0.655m (0.11% of the original gross budget of £575.462m).
B. Note that the level of the General Fund balance after adjusting for the outturn underspend and insurance position stands at £14.091m, which is an increased balance when compared with March 2020, but is still significantly below the recommended level.
C. Note that the Council has been sufficiently provided with revenue funding relating to Covid-19 in 2020/21, and that therefore no additional costs have had to be funded by the Council’s base budget.
D. Note that the outturn for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for 2020/21 is an underspend of (£3.634m) and the level of the Housing Revenue Account reserve stands at £11.341m (£10.140m in 2019/20).
E. Note the increase in the level of Earmarked Reserves and Provisions (excluding delegated school balances) of £22.019 in 2020/21 and the reasons for this.
F. Note that the level of school balances stand at £5.995m (£1.891m in 2019/20).
H. Approve the re-profiled capital budgets of £157.430m for 2021/22, including slippage of £2.828m from 2020/21, £115.644m for 2022/23 and £15.070m for 2023/24 as detailed in Appendix 9 / Table 19.
I. Accept the outturn expenditure set out in Appendix 9 of £65.738m, representing 96% of the revised capital budget for 2020/21.
J. Approve retaining a balance of capital receipts set aside of £20.036m as at 31st March 2021 to generate a one-off Minimum Revenue Provision saving of £0.708m in 2021/22.
K. Approve the write off of the capital loan to SCC No.1 company up to the value of £0.450m with no General Fund impact
Supporting documents:
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