Venue: Teams Live
Contact: Lisa Richards
No. | Item |
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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. |
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To receive the notes of the last meeting. Minutes: Documents: · Notes of the last meeting held on 29 January 2021
Discussion · The Chair of Audit Committee reported that he had had discussions regarding the capital programme with the Chief Executive. The matter had also been debated by Audit Committee.
Outcomes: · Noted |
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Financial Overview and Forecast - Q3 2021 PDF 1017 KB To consider the Financial Forecast for both the revenue and capital budgets as at 31 December 2020. Additional documents: Minutes: Documents: · Financial Overview and Forecast as at 31 December 2020
Discussion: · The report identified the position at the end of quarter three (Q3) · An improvement over Q2 shows a projection of a year end overspend of approximately £500K · Cost reductions of £8.9M have been achieved, representing 72% of the target of £12.3M · Further assurances have been given regarding other cost reductions and it is predicted that £2.5M will be undelivered at year end · £1.6M of proposals are deemed undeliverable and will be written out of the budget – the remaining cost reductions will be delivered in the next financial year · School reserves had been expected to be drawn upon. The secondary sector remains in deficit but the deficit in school reserves has dropped to £1.9M. · A monthly claim is made against the Welsh Government’s hardship fund. To date, £9.3M has been drawn down. Lost income due to the pandemic is around £2M. Claims for furloughed staff total £567K. · The Hardship Fund is expected to be sufficient to support local authorities for the remainder of the financial year · Key financial risks remain the same · Council Tax collection loss is estimated to be £800K but £620K has been provided by the Welsh Government to offset this loss · An announcement had been made that a further £2.2M additional funding is being allocated by Welsh Government – this is unhypothecated and will be delivered on the RSG formula to support undelivered savings and digital transformation costs incurred by Councils · This funding has released the Authority’s own resources to establish a Covid Recovery Fund of £1.8M. As the additional funding had been unexpected the Authority had expected to cover these costs within the2020/21 budget. The new funding improves the projected end of year figure. · Members were reminded that the report covered the period to the end of December – the next meeting of the Panel will consider the position as at the end of February 2021 · It was noted that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) had anticipated using £1.3M of reserves but has instead made a contribution to reserves of £15K – progress on projects had been delayed due to the pandemic. Further details would be sought and circulated to Members. · Some Members were of the opinion that the report could be simplified and made easier to understand – the Head of Finance would consider how the report could be improved to achieve this. · Further clarity regarding the Council being in an under borrowed position was sought. The Council can only borrow to support capital costs. Within the capital programme each project is identified and how it will be funded. This determines the Capital Financing Requirement (CFR) which indicates how much borrowing is required to fund the programme. To date, because interest rates are so low, the Authority has used its cash reserves first before borrowing. Therefore, the Authority needs to borrow but has used other sources of funding and therefore remains under borrowed. CFR can only be set at a level that is ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |
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Date of Next Meeting The next meeting of the Finance Panel is scheduled to take place on Thursday 26 March 2021. Minutes: The next meeting is scheduled to take place on 26 March 2021 – this may be adjusted and will dependent on the February outturn being available. |