Agenda item

To consider a report from the Director for Digital & Resources, a copy is attached as item 8.

Before the Committee was a report by the Director for Digital & Resources, copies of which had been circulated to all Members and a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of these minutes as Item 8.

The report outlined the revenue financial monitoring position for the end of the 2019/20 financial year for Joint Strategic Committee, Adur District and Worthing Borough Councils. At the time of publication, the Statements of Accounts were completed, with the audit scheduled to commence on 4 August 2020. Any adjustments that emerged as the audit proceeded will be reported to members later in the year.

The final position for the operational services was an underspend in Adur District Council of £154k and an overspend in Worthing Borough Council of £548k. This was a variation to the projections reported at quarter 3 when operational outturns were predicted to be an underspend of £96k in Adur and an overspend in Worthing of £94k (including the revenue contribution to capital). In the last quarter of the year increasing operational budget pressures had been identified in part related to the Covid 19 emergency, particularly in Worthing, and the Corporate Leadership Team were updated.

Overall outturn positions were underspends of £1,259,099 in Adur District Council and £1,144,334 in Worthing Borough Council. After allowance for proposed carry forward of budgets in 2019/20, this represented a 13.6% underspend against the budget for Adur and 7.2% for Worthing.

The table at 4.5 below set out the components contributing to the underspend in 2019/20, with the most significant being lower capital borrowing costs, additional income from commercial property investments and contingency budgets which were not required.

The outturn figures included proposed carry forward requests, detailed in appendix 6, that would need to be met from those underspends which related to committed spend that was now planned for 2020/21: Adur District Council £80,700 and Worthing Borough Council £157,500. 

The outcome was higher overall than what was forecast in the quarter 3 monitoring report when net underspends of £887,000 and £1,106,000 were being projected in Adur and Worthing respectively.  However, in light of the Covid 19 budget pressures identified elsewhere on the agenda, this was welcome as it would assist the Councils in managing a difficult financial position in 2020/21. The areas that had contributed to the net movement were highlighted in the report and appendix 5(b).

The recommendations in the report were proposed by Councillor Daniel Humphreys, seconded by Councillor Carson Albury and unanimously approved.

Decision: 

The Joint Strategic Committee recommended that Adur District Council, at its meeting on 16th July 2020 and Worthing Borough Council at its meeting on 14th July 2020:-

(a) noted the overall final outturn for 2019/20;

(b) approved the net appropriations to General Fund Reserves in the year as detailed in paragraph 6.2 totalling: Adur District Council £1,072,315 Worthing Borough Council £905,486; 

(c) agreed the net carry over of revenue budget to 2020/21 funded from reserves as detailed in appendix 6: Adur District Council £80,700 Worthing Borough Council £157,500.

Call In:

There is no call-in for recommendations to meetings of Adur and Worthing Councils.