Agenda item

To present to the Committee a forecast of the outturn position against the General Fund revenue budget, Housing Revenue Account and capital programme for 2021/22, in order to give an expectation of possible variances against budget.

The Accountancy Manager introduced the Budget Monitoring Report for Q3 which covered the expected financial position of the year 2021/22 and brought Members attention to the following key areas:

General Fund

• Table 1 showed an expected underspend of £396k, with the main changes from Q2 being the Covid-19 impact, waste and recycling, housing benefit and ICT.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

• Expected to have an overspend of £836k, the main areas of pressure were rents and service charges and repairs and maintenance.

Capital Programme

• There had been areas of slippage within the Capital Programme in particular with the Canal, Multi Service Contract Vehicles, Cycling and Walking Plan and Brimscombe Port.
• The Water Source Heat Pumps had cost slightly more than expected at Q2 and this was being reviewed.
• HRA had a small overspend overall and further details would be taken to Housing Committee.
• A breakdown of Service Committees and Covid summary could be found in the appendixes.

Councillor Davies asked for clarification over the overspend for ICT. The Accountancy Manager confirmed that a lot of work had been undertaken to gain a better understanding of the contracts in place and there was an increased expectation in the budget for next year. The Chief Executive provided further confirmation that the IT team had audited the software that had been purchased and the budgets were showing that they were starting to get on top of this.

In response to questions the Accountancy Manager confirmed that:

• The pressure on the HRA caused by voids was a net loss of income of £451k.
• They were investigating why the number of tenants leaving properties remained high.
• In terms of the properties sold at Littlecombe, the sale prices had covered the borrowing costs.
• They were looking to learn lessons regarding the uninsured costs listed in paragraph 5.7 and insurance would be reviewed to check it was appropriate.

Councillor Ross asked whether the burden of the cost of lateral flow tests could be lessened for Stroud District Council staff or whether tests could be provided to Community Hubs. The Chief Executive confirmed that it was a question that they had considered and that they would be providing lateral flow tests to front line staff. They had also asked Group Leaders for their thoughts as the cost of providing tests to all staff would be approximately £5k a week.

Proposed by Councillor Brine and seconded by Councillor Turner.

Councillor Davies expressed concerns about the underspend and stated that one of the reasons for underspend was staff vacancies. Staff vacancies overstretched teams and it was important that the council paid attention to this.

Councillor Hurst brought Members attention to the issue with void properties and wondered whether bringing the housing maintenance service in house had been a contributing factor. Councillor Ross confirmed that void work was carried out by contractors rather than in house and that there was more than one issue causing the problems with void properties.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.