Agenda item

Purpose: To report on the in-year financial performance of the Council’s revenue budgets.

Resolved that the Quarter Three forecast of £3.4m under spent be noted.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      Report is to note only

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 10) concerning the in-year financial performance of the Council’s revenue budgets as at Quarter Three of 2020/21.

Councillor Ross Mackinnon advised that usually the Revenue and Capital Quarterly Monitoring reports would be brought together but it had been decided to bring the Revenue report through earlier prior to the Council meeting on 2 March 2021. The Quarter Three forecast was an under spend of £3.4m which was 2.7% of the Council’s 2020/21 net revenue budget of £131m. This was mainly due to underspends in the People Directorate of £3.2m – Adult Social Care (£1.8m), Children and Family Services (£1m) and Education (£360k). It was recognised that it was a significant change from the previous quarter. At year end there would be a further reconciliation between the Covid-19 non-ring fenced Government grant where the Council would apportion as much cost and income losses to the Government funding as appropriate which would then mean any under spend would flow into the Council’s general reserve. Further discussions on the budget would take place at the Council meeting on 2 March 2021.  

Councillor Jeff Brooks stated that he had tried to understand the difficulties in managing the budget and he felt that people would rather see the Council using the under spend. It was a tragedy that Covid was having a positive impact on the budget particularly in Adult Social Care but Councillor Brooks had mentioned at the last Executive meeting that he could see an overspend of at least £3m being reported at year end. The budget position had changed considerably in a matter of three weeks and he felt that the forecasting needed to improve which was why he wanted to look back at the MTFS outturn for the previous year. Councillor Ross Mackinnon responded that it was not down to inaccurate modelling but the second wave of Covid had had an unfortunate impact on the budget. The MTFS was built over a four year period and Officers and Members would continually monitor the budget position over that period and make any necessary changes to the model.

Councillor Dominic Boeck felt that Councillor Brooks had made some good points but the Council had faced and continued to face uncertainty due to the effects of Covid. Some of the things which had been anticipated to happen over the last year had not actually arisen, such as the numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, and therefore there would always be a degree of uncertainty around the process.

Councillor Alan Macro referred to the graph on page 206 of the agenda and the fact that the vertical axis was showing dates rather than numbers. He felt that the number of excess deaths had been made worse by the Conservative Government’s actions, inactions and the reluctance to impose lockdowns. For every person who died there was a family who was grieving. Councillor Graham Bridgman agreed that the number of deaths in care homes in particular had been tragic but a large majority of the homes were not in the Council’s control. In respect of the Government’s role he admitted that there had been difficulties and problems at the outset but these had been addressed and that the Government had done well particularly around testing and vaccinations. Every death was a tragedy for both that person’s family and the staff who had been treating them and it was not appropriate to lay the blame on the Government in the midst of a pandemic.

Councillor Erik Pattenden referred to the £1m under spend in Children and Family Services and asked what could be done in a short space of time to help address the problems the young people were experiencing in West Berkshire at present. Councillor Dominic Boeck was not sure that it would be possible to use the £1m under spend without defining exactly what projects it would be supporting. It would be a matter for the budget discussion at Council on 2 March.

Councillor Tony Vickers referred to recent e-mails he had received about funding of early years settings and he wondered whether the Council would be in a position to support them. Councillor Dominic Boeck thanked Councillor Vickers for raising this issue and advised that a letter would be going out in the next couple of days to all early years settings advising them of how they could apply for grant funding.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Other options considered: None.