Purpose of
Report
1.
To
report the final year end position for revenue and capital
expenditure against budget for the financial year
2022/23.
Strategic
Objectives
2.
The
allocation of financial resources within the revenue and capital
budgets needs to match the objectives agreed by the council.
The outturn report shows how these resources have been used in
year.
Background
3.
The
attached papers contain summarised schedules of revenue and capital
expenditure for 2022/23; they also present an explanation of the
significant variances against budget. This is presented by
service. All the figures in this report are pre-Audit and may
be subject to some change following the conclusion of the audit of
the Statement of Accounts.
Revenue outturn
2022/23
4. In
February 2022 the council approved a net expenditure budget of
£15.1 million. The budget was further amended to include
one-off budgets that had been carried forward from the previous
financial year. With the inclusion of budget carry forwards
and other in-year changes, the working budget for 2022/23 was
increased to £21.2 million.
5.
Against
the working budget of £21.2 million, net expenditure at year
end was £17.8 million. This equates to a favourable
variation of £3.4 million, which has been transferred to the
council’s reserves. A detailed summary by service is
shown in table 1 below.
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Table
1: summary of revenue budgets and variance
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Summary
of revenue budgets and variance
|
Budget
£000
|
Actual
£000
|
Variance
£000
|
Notes
|
|
|
Strategic
Management Team
|
852
|
839
|
(13)
|
|
|
|
Corporate
Services
|
2,702
|
2,446
|
(256)
|
|
|
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Development
& Corporate Landlord
|
895
|
1,127
|
112
|
|
|
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Finance
|
462
|
324
|
(138)
|
(a)
|
|
|
Housing
& Environment
|
5,856
|
6,159
|
303
|
|
|
|
Legal
& Democratic
|
1,313
|
1,307
|
(6)
|
|
|
|
Partnerships
|
2,609
|
2,298
|
(311)
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|
|
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Planning
|
230
|
732
|
502
|
|
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Policy
& Programmes
|
6,807
|
2,523
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(4,164)
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|
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Contingency
|
(526)
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0
|
526
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|
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Service
expenditure
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21,200
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17,765
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(3,444)
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|
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Investment
income
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(1,675)
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(3,791)
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(2,116)
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(b)
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Net
expenditure
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19,525
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13,974
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(5,560)
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Notes:
a.
Finance line
contains housing benefits and rent allowances funded by government
grant as shown in table 2 below.
b.
The
council’s treasury management outturn report will be
considered by joint Audit and Governance Committee, Cabinet and
Council.
Table 2: housing
benefits and rent allowances
|
|
Budget
£000
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Actual
£000
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Variance
£000
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Rent
allowance payments
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17,507
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18,261
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(754)
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Government
subsidy income
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(17,054)
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(17,745)
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(691)
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Rent
allowance overpayments
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(724)
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(690)
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34
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Net
Position
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(271)
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(174)
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97
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6.
Appendix 1 analyses income and expenditure across service
areas. This appendix shows that the expenditure budget was
£62.1 million compared to an actual spend of £60.6
million. The income budget was £40.9 million compared to
actual income of £42.9 million. The year-end variance of
over £3.4 million is therefore primarily found in the income
budget.
7.
Table 3 below provides a further analysis of the revenue outturn
position.
Table 3:
variations between budgeted and actual revenue income and
expenditure
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TRANSFERS
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VARIANCES
BREAKDOWN
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Service
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Total
Variance
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Under-spend c/fwd. to
2023/24
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Grant
Income transferred to reserves
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Net Variances after
Transfers
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Employee
Costs
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Other
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£000
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£000
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£000
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£000
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£000
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£000
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Strategic
Management
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(13)
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41
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0
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28
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(49)
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77
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Corporate
Services
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(256)
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0
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0
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(256)
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(190)
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(66)
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Development
& Corporate Landlord
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112
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400
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0
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512
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(2)
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515
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Finance
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(138)
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0
|
0
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(138)
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64
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(202)
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Housing
& Environment
|
304
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33
|
0
|
337
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42
|
295
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Legal
& Democratic
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(6)
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63
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33
|
90
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144
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(54)
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Partnerships
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(311)
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0
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0
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(311)
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15
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(326)
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Planning
|
502
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0
|
0
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502
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10
|
492
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Policy
& Programmes
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(4,164)
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3,603
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41
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(520)
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(11)
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(509)
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Contingency
|
526
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0
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0
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526
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626
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(100)
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Direct
service expenditure
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(3,444)
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4,140
|
74
|
771
|
649
|
122
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Investment
income
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(2,116)
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0
|
0
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(2,116)
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0
|
(2,116)
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Net
expenditure
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(5,560)
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4,140
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74
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(1,345)
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649
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(1,994)
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Budgets carried
forward to 2023/24
8.
As
shown in table 3 of the £3.4 million favourable variance to
budget, £4.1 million represents slippage in one-off budgets
that have been agreed as budget carry forwards to 2023/24. A
further £75,000 of unbudgeted grant income received in year
has been transferred to reserves for future expenditure.
9.
The most significant carry forwards were in Policy and Programmes,
representing £1.6 million for Didcot Garden Town and Gateway
projects, and £0.8 million for Berinsfield regeneration.
The one-off corporate transformation budget was underspent by
£765,000. Work on this project will continue in the new
financial year and the full underspend is to be carried forward to
2023/24.
10.
Details of all
the carried forward budgets are included in Appendix
2. The unbudgeted
grant income received in the financial year was £74,000. This
income will be transferred to reserves and set against expenditure
in 2023/24. The breakdown of this funding is shown in table 4
below.
Table
4: Grant funding transferred to reserves
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Grant
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£
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You
Move funding
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40,750
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Domestic Abuse
safe accommodation support
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33,568
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Total
|
74,318
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Employee
costs
11. Employment costs
shows an overall overspend of £649,000 for the
year, which is net
of the managed vacancy factor set at the beginning of the
year.
12. Corporate
services underspent by £190,000. This was primarily
because staff in Front of House were seconded to other services and
recruitment for the vacancies proved difficult.
13. The over spend of
£64,000 in Finance is due to the use of more expensive
temporary staff across the service.
14. The overspend in
Legal Services was primarily the result of vacancies, which were
difficult to fill. The use of more expensive agency staff to
provide the work resulted in the overspend of
£144,000.
Other variances
over £50,000
15. Excluding the
carry forwards to 2023/24, grant income transferred to reserves and
employee cost variances, net revenue expenditure was £213,000
overspent against
working budget. The significant
variations from budget are shown in table 3 and are explained
below.
Development &
Corporate Landlord
16. Cornerstone
income has not shown the increase anticipated in the budget and the
Arts Centre and café ended the year with a £430,000
overspend.
17. Use of car parks
has not returned to pre-pandemic levels and despite an increase in
charges income was down by £115,000 at the end of the
year.
Housing &
Environment
18. The waste service
was overspent by £361,000. Waste collection and street
cleansing services were overspent by £298,000.
Costs associated with recycling were £167,000 above
budget due to a higher indexation increase than expected to the
contract payments and a decrease in recycling tonnage. On
refuse collection there was an overspend of £25,000, again
caused in part by the higher indexation increase, plus a reduction
in bulky waste bookings. Street cleansing was also overspent
by £105,000 primarily due to the indexation increase and towns
and parishes leaving the dog bin emptying service.
19. The garden waste
service overspent by £158,000. There were fewer
customers than anticipated during the year, which resulted in a
loss of income of £88,000. The additional costs of
consultants and higher indexation to the contract payments resulted
in an overspend of £66,000.
Partnerships
20.
There
was an underspend of £256,000 on the Five Councils’
Partnership contract. We
have reviewed contract payments made to date in light of services
recently returned in house. We have reprofiled partner
contributions across the life of the contract and made accruals for
adjusted sums now due.
Planning
21.
Planning income
was under budget by £454,000. This is primarily a result
of developers delaying major application submissions.
22.
Spend
on consultants for appeals work was overspent by
£25,000. These costs are not budgeted and additional
expertise is required to defend the council’s
decisions.
Policy
23.
A
one-off budget to fund climate change projects was not fully spent
in year due to staff vacancies, resulting in a £212,000
underspend. £96,000 of this underspend has been carried
forward to 2023/24.
24.
Neighbourhood
plans have progressed faster than anticipated, which has generated
addition grant funding. This has resulted in a £100,000
underspend.
25.
The
Homes for Ukraine budget shows an underspend of £99,000.
This is grant income that funds the work of officers supporting the
programme in teams across the council.
NNDR
26.
South achieved
£2.6 million more NNDR income than anticipated in the 2022/23
budget. The favourable
variance is primarily due to the release of business rates appeals
provisions which were built up over a ten-year period against the
2010 and 2017 valuations. Continuing the process started last
year, finance staff have been working with external advisors to
review and release a significant proportion of these
provisions.
27. This additional work carried out last year (the result of which
wasn’t built into the 2022/23 budget due to timing) to
identify premises that should be paying business rates has resulted
in an increase in NNDR tax base of £200,000.
28. This additional income, which is primarily one off also
generated an additional £0.6 million credit from the
Oxfordshire councils’ business rates pooling distribution
group.
Comparison to
previous year revenue outturn
29.
A
comparison of the 2021/22 revenue outturn to 2022/23 is shown in
table 5 below.
Table 5: 2021/22
and 2022/23 revenue outturn
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2021/22
Total
£000
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2022/23
Total
£000
|
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Income
|
(593)
|
(1,958)
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Expenditure
|
(5,556)
|
(1,485)
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Net
position before carried forward Budgets
|
(6,149)
|
(3,444)
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Carried
forward budgets
|
4,003
|
4,140
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Net
position after carried forward Budgets
|
(2,146)
|
696
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30.Although clearly
unforeseeable at the time, the level of prudent provision for the
ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021/22, and the extent
to which that contribution was required, contributed to the
significant underspend in 2021/22.
Capital outturn
2022/23
31.
The
original capital budget for 2022/23, including growth, was agreed
in February 2022 at over £33 million. Details of the changes
to the capital programme in year are summarised in table 6
below:
Table 6:
movement on capital programme
|
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2022/23
£000
|
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Original
capital budget
|
33,399
|
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Roll
forward from prior years
|
8,391
|
|
Schemes
deleted
|
(400)
|
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Additions
in year (externally funded)
|
6,430
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Additions
in year (other)
|
15
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Slippage
to future years
|
(22,402)
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Capital
programme 31 March 2022
|
25,433
|
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Made
up of:
|
|
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Approved
programme
|
13,627
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Provisional
programme
|
11,806
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Capital
programme 31 March 2022
|
25,433
|
|
|
|
32.
Capital
expenditure for 2022/23 was £9.5 million, a variance of
£4.1 million against the approved programme for the year of
£13.6 million. Details of these variances is shown in
appendix 3 to this report. Capital projects span several
years, and any underspends are rolled forward to the following
financial year.
33.
During the year,
budget holders review their projects and identify those where
delays mean that the current working budget will not be spent in
year. The budget profile is then moved to reflect the new
spend profile and budgets are slipped into future years if
applicable. Slipped budgets remain committed for use in future
years. During the year £22.4 million was slipped in this
way. A list of these schemes is shown in appendix
4.
Capital
receipts
34.
Capital receipts
in year amounted to £15,000. Repayments of Catalyst
loans make up this total.
Financial, legal
and any other implications
35.
The
financial implications are as set out in the body of the report.
There are no other implications of this report.
Conclusion
36.
The
2022/23 outturn position on revenue and capital was an underspend
against working budget for the year. Details of major
variances are detailed within this report and the
appendices.
Appendices
1.
Revenue outturn
– expenditure and income variance
2.
Revenue carry -
forward 2022/23 requests
3.
Capital outturn
– summary and commentary
4.
Capital outturn
– slippage
Background
Papers
·
Budget Papers for
2022/23
