Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Audit and Procurement Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place), which set out the forecast outturn position for revenue and capital expenditure and the Council’s treasury management activity at Quarter 2 of the 2019/20 financial year (to September 2019).

The Committee noted that the report had been considered by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 19th November 2019. 

The headline revenue forecast for 2019/20 was a net balanced budget. At the same point in 2018/19 there was a projected overspend of £0.5m.  The headline capital position reported £4.8m of expenditure rescheduled into 2020/21.

The largest area of budget pressure and the biggest movement since Quarter 1 was services for housing and homelessness, which were projecting an overspend of £2.8m for the year.  There were other overspends in services relating to Looked after Children Placements and Special Education Needs (SEN) Transport with compensating below budget expenditure in corporate areas.

The Council’s capital spending was projected to be £218.7m for the year and included major scheme expenditure including investment in the A46 Link Road, Coventry Station Masterplan, Whitley South infrastructure and the National Battery Plant.  The position assumed the addition of £0.5m to the Capital Programme in 2019/20 for Waste Containers, which was approved by the Cabinet, due to the need to fund this expenditure from Prudential Borrowing.  The borrowing was to be funded from the additional income generated from the containers.

With regard to the Net Asset Management Revenue Account, expenditure was anticipated to be £1.9m less than budget because of lower costs of capital financing, higher investment income and higher loan income.  Other corporate budgets reflected lower than budgeted pension costs linked to an early payment arrangement with the West Midlands Pension Fund (£2m), uncommitted resources related to one-off social care funding (£1m), Coventry and Warwickshire Business Rate Pool income in excess of budget (£1.1m), projected additional savings from the Friargate Project (£0.75m) and lower than budgeted levy costs (£0.6m). It was recommended that a contribution be made from this area into reserves for managing the costs of major.

The Committee indicated that they were aware there had been some realigning / reshaping of services across the authority and, in light of the overspend identified, sought clarification on whether there had been any realigning or reshaping of the SEN Transport service.  In addition, the Committee requested information on the Capital Programme, in particular the level of expenditure within the Programme that related to the A46 link road and how much has been spent to date on the project.  Officers undertook to provide this information to the Committee.

RESOLVED that, the Audit and Procurement Committee:

1.  Consider and note the proposals in the report and indicate that they have no recommendations to the Cabinet.

2.  Request further information in relation to whether the SEN Transport Service has undertaken any service realignment and the level of expenditure within the Capital Programme that related to the A46 link road and how much has been spent to date on the project.