Scrutiny committee is recommended to note the overall outturn position of the council as well as the outturn of individual service areas.
Minutes:
The committee considered the report of the head of finance on the final year position for revenue and capital expenditure against the budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
Councillor Rouane, Leader of the council, introduced the item. He noted that there was a £5.3 million favourable variance to budget. However, he noted that whilst this could reflect that the council was doing things better it could also reflect that council had not delivered on anticipated projects or reflect accountancy practice of accounting for a project in year one. It was therefore necessary to review each budget line. He welcomed the positive news on investment income whilst noting that this was not anticipated to continue.
In welcoming the report, the committee requested faster reporting in future years. The view was expressed that the council should consider using the general convention for variances – red for negative and black for positive. In using red for positive and black for negative the view was expressed that this could confuse readers of the report. The committee welcomed the encouraging National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) income.
Responses were provided to a number of questions as set out below:
· The cancelled project referenced in paragraph 20 of the report related to Abbey Sports Centre in Berinsfield. A potential alternative project was being brought forward.
· Savings had been made to staffing budgets in the planning service as a result of the transformation programme but the fall in planning fee income had off set this.
· The commercialisation budget did not currently include any specific projects for income generation.
· In response to a question in respect of an anticipated increase in planning fees, officers responded that the government had recently consulted on increasing national planning fees, but no figure had been agreed which made it difficult to anticipate an income budget. In addition, the Joint Local Plan did not propose any additional housing and therefore it was unlikely to impact future fee income. Due to the instability in the housing market a number of large application sites had not come forward which had also impacted income.
· In response to a suggestion that the treasury management outturn report should be brought to the Scrutiny Committee for consideration, officers responded that Council had agreed that the Joint Audit and Governance Committee, in line with most other local authority arrangements, should have responsibility for ensuring effective review of the treasury management strategy and policies. Whilst the committee is a joint committee only South members consider and vote on matters specific to South Oxfordshire.
Committee members expressed concern regarding the slippage in a number of capital projects with particular reference to the delayed flood alleviation scheme in Wheatley (now implemented) and the Wallingfod cemetery repairs. The committee noted that officers were undertaking a capital programme challenge to address this. Officers undertook to provide the committee with details of the profiling for capital projects together with updates on their delivery and an explanation for any delays.
RESOLVED: to
1. welcome the report,
2. note the overall outturn position of the council as well as the individual service areas subject to the issues raised by the committee and detailed in the minutes of the meeting.
Supporting documents: