Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting will be held remotely. The meeting can be viewed live by pasting this link into your browser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPGSrKvjky4&feature=youtu.be

Contact: Carolyn Sinclair  Email: carolyn.sinclair@coventry.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

23.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

24.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 212 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 January, 2021 were agreed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

25.

Financial Impact of COVID-19 pdf icon PDF 326 KB

Briefing note

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board considered a briefing note of the Finance Manager, Corporate Finance which provided an update on the financial impacts on the Council resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. The note highlighted the overall level of 2020/21 Covid funding; the latest Covid impact within the January return to Government; the 2020/21 Quarter 3 financial reporting; business grants; and the 2021/22 budget impacts. Councillor Brown, Cabinet Member for Strategic Finance and Resources attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

 

The briefing note referred to the overall level of 2020/21 Covid funding, indicated that the Government had made a series of funding announcements throughout the period since March 2020 resulting in upwards of 45 separate Covid grant funding streams including those for business grants. A table detailing the non-business grant funding streams was set out which highlighted £47.2m to fund Council expenditure and £10m for external provider or programme spend, which mainly related to funding for Adult Social Care providers.  Most of these grants represented final allocations that had been made to the City Council, while several were initial allocations subject to monitoring/ verification.

 

Through 2020/21 all councils had been required to report their forecast of the financial impact of Covid in monthly returns to Government. The Council’s January return showed an overall impact of £52m. A breakdown of the areas of financial impact was set out. A further £5m related to estimated Business Rates and Council Tax (Collection Fund) losses for the year although accounting convention required that these losses were accounted for in the following financial year. These Collection Fund losses had been included in the Council’s budget setting forecasts for 2021/22.

 

The quarter 3 financial monitoring position included figures showing Covid funding of £33.8m and associated Covid pressures of £34.2m representing a shortfall of £0.4m. The position reported to Cabinet on 16 February, 2021 showed a forecast revenue overspend for the year of £33.3m. After the application of general Covid grant funding the net underspend was £0.5m. This position confirmed the position adopted earlier in the financial cycle that the Director of Finance would not need to issue a Section 114 notice. The Scrutiny Board were informed that although the Council appeared to be approaching a position whereby it could manage its Covid financial pressures in the current year on a forecast basis, there were caveats to this position.   The forecasting of some areas of costs and income losses remained assumption sensitive, even at the relatively late stage of the financial year. The briefing note set out examples of the challenges.

 

Information was provided on business grants and business rates reliefs. The extended Business Rates relief applied to all businesses with a rateable value below £51,000 and all businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in the early part of 2020/21. This resulted in reliefs totalling £49m, 100% of which had been processed by the Council. In addition, the initial small business grants, retail, hospitality and leisure business grants and local authority grants totalling £50.9m were paid  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

Capital Programme 2020/21 and 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Briefing Note

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Finance Manager Corporate Finance which provided an update on the Council’s capital programme for 2020/21 and 2021/22.

 

The briefing note included an appendix which gave an analysis of the Council’s estimated outturn capital spend for 2020/21; the planned programme for 2021/22; and the estimated remaining spend in each area for the following three years. The Board were informed that the quarter three estimated outturn reported to Cabinet on 23rd February was £230,943,000, the 2021/22 capital programme forecast was £220,406,000 and the 2022/23 to 2024/25 capital programme was £259,419,000. Further details were provided on the costs of individual schemes. A breakdown of the resources for the capital programme was set out. Attention was drawn to the £173,039,000 of grant funding included in the quarter 3 estimated outturn position. The significant size of the capital programme compared to previous years was highlighted. 

 

 The Board questioned the officers on a number of issues and responses were provided, matters raised included

·  Clarification that no funding had been lost due to time constraints caused by the covid pandemic

·  If local businesses were able to benefit from the schemes included in the capital programme.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

(1) The contents of the capital programme 2020/21 and 2021/22 be noted.

 

(2) Officers to establish whether any grants are available to local business or community organisations, and, if so, to circulate the details to members.

27.

Work Programme and Outstanding Issues pdf icon PDF 257 KB

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

Minutes:

The Board noted their work programme for the current municipal year.

28.

Any other items of Public Business

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

Minutes:

There were no additional items of public business.