The report presented set out the estimated forecast revenue outturn position for 2023/24 for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and Public Health Grant.

The following points were made:

·       Member referred to recommendation 2 of the report and stated it would be helpful for committee members to have directorate budgets itemised as to what their mitigations were.

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.3.5 and questioned what affect would the

higher rates have and having some comparisons would have been beneficial to members.

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.9.2, Members needed to understand more about what the debt recovery team. It was also noted the good work being undertaken by the debt recovery team. Officers will take away action to look at the currently recruitment exercise. (see action point 17)

·       Member thanked officers for the detailed report.

·       It was recorded that a Member had had a lot of interaction with the financial inclusion team who undertook some amazing work for residents.

·       Member referred to paragraph 2.1, questioned how much of the hardship fund of £0.616m had been used this year. (see action point 18)

·       Member made a general statement in regard to Children’s social care, and this needed to be tackled nationally.

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.3.4, questioned how this overspend would impact those children.

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.4.3, commented on the cost of postage increases in year with the council trying to be more digital.

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.8.4, questioned whether the CO2 was now completely empty and if so could this be temporarily taken out of ratings. (see action point 19)

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.10.3, questioned why there had been a reduction in registrar services as the new Town Hall had more facilities to offer these services. (see action point 20)

·       Members also stated the council should be exploring more registrar services to generate more income.

·       Member referred to paragraph 4.1, Inflation, Energy Services, questioned the fluctuations and how could this be happening if the council had bulk purchased. (see action point 21)

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.15.5, questioned whether this additional level of income had been a positive income of an action that had been agreed by the council.

·       Member questioned when the financial accounts for 2020/21 would finally be completed.

·       Members questioned how confident officers were on the final figure.

·       Member stated the HRA Capital Program remained on track for delivery as no new capital programmes would commence.

·       Member referred to Right to Buy Receipts and questioned whether there was a business case that these could be used.

The meeting adjourned at 7.36pm.

The meeting reconvened at 7.38pm.

·       Member referred to paragraph 3.25, had concerns that the underspend had been achieved but these services had been reduced and were at risk of being lost. She questioned whether the best use of funding from external resources was being used.

·       Member requested an update home to school transport and whether everything was undertaken to ensure that every child got to school. (see action point 22)

·       Members noted and commented on the overspend against the ICT budget.

·       Member referred to the intervention commissioner costs and questioned was everything being done.

·       Members agreed that money being spent on garages could be better spent.

·       Member referred to page 43, Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) and questioned whether this had already moved. (see action point 23)

·       Member questioned the difference between the Tilbury Towns Fund (accelerated funding) and Tilbury and Grays Town Funds normal spends.

·       Member referred to the overspend of ICT and that every committee held had experienced some form of ICT issue.

·       Member raised concern on expenditure being spent on car parks and requested more information. (see action point 24)

·      Member referred to the Projects on Hold and that health and safety had to
 be a consideration when deciding which projects should be put on hold.

·      Member referred to paragraph 3.3.6 and questioned what the substantial shortfall in funding and what action was being undertaken. 

·     Member requested when grant money was received this could be coded to identify this as not council money but money that had been received into grants. Members were happy that this could be provided at a total level rather than individual projects.

·     Member requested that recommendation 1.1 be amended to add the following words “Dependent on previous years accounts being signed off”.

·     Member requested that recommendation 1.2 be amended to add the following words “The mitigating action figures are brought back to committee”.

Actions:

16.      Steven Mair to report comments made to the debt recovery team and provide feedback on team vacancies.

17.      Steven Mair to confirm figure on hardship fund.

18.      Steven Mair to confirm situation of CO2.

19.      Steven Mair to explore the reasons behind the shortfall of registrar services.

20.      Steven Mair to check whether energy contracts were in place.

21.      Steven Mair to provide update on school transport.

22.      Steven Mair to question whether the PRU had already moved.

23.      Steven Mair to obtain information on what car parks were expenditure

was being spent.

RESOLVED

1.    That Committee noted the overall forecast general fund outturn position for period 3 was an underspend of £1.036m. Dependent on previous years accounts being signed off.

2.    That Committee noted that directors with significant adverse variances would continue to review directorate budgets and identify mitigating actions to resolve the forecast pressure against the 2023/24 budget. The mitigating action figures are brought back to committee.

3.    That Committee noted the potential risks to the position listed noted in section 4 and the following specific risks noted within the report: a) There are an ongoing assessment of the investment portfolio values which will need to be reflected on an ongoing basis with the next update scheduled for Quarter 2. b) The requirement to change the accounting for cloud-based IT costs continues to be assessed in both the current and prior years and is likely to have a material short-term impact. c) There are ongoing wider financial accounting assessments related to prior periods which may also need to be considered. That Committee noted the HRA, DSG and Public Health project to deliver the budget within the existing funding envelopes.

4.    That Committee noted and comment on the capital programme, the current projected slippage of £7.46m and the impact on MRP.

5.    That Committee noted that the position will remain provisional as further substantive work is undertaken, notably in preparation of historic accounts, which could have an impact on current or future years.