Agenda item

To consider a report from the Director for Digital, Sustainability & Resources, a copy is attached as item 6.

Before the Committee was a report by the Director for Digital, Sustainability and 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 6.

The report outlined the revenue financial monitoring position for the end of the 2020/21 financial year for the Joint Strategic Committee, Adur District and Worthing Borough Councils. At the time of publication, the Statements of Accounts were completed and with the audit scheduled to commence in August 2021. Any adjustments that emerge would be reported to members later in the year.

The final position for operational services were overspends in Adur District Council £876k and in Worthing Borough Council £3.7m. This was a variation to the projections reported at quarter 3 when operational outturns were predicted to be an overspend of £1.1m in Adur and £3.9m in Worthing.

Overall outturn positions were underspends of £641k in Adur District Council and £1.1m in Worthing Borough Council which were due largely to the level of government support received for the impact of Covid 19. After allowance for proposed carry forward of budgets in 2020/21, this represented a 5% underspend against the budget for Adur and 6.7% for Worthing. Significant variations in the last quarter of the year included lower than estimated expenditure on reactive maintenance and the receipt of additional emergency government funding.

The outturn figures included proposed carry forward requests, detailed in appendix 6, that would need to be met from those underspends. The budgets related to committed spend that was planned for delivery in 2021/22: Adur District Council £189,000 and Worthing Borough Council £242,000.

The outcome was an improvement overall from what was forecasted in the quarter 3 monitoring report ‘3rd Revenue Budget Monitoring Report(Q3)’ when net underspends of £223,000 and £13,000 were being projected in Adur and Worthing respectively. The main movements in the last quarter were set out in appendix 5b, with additional emergency funding and lower maintenance expenditure being the significant factors. The outturn position did help to assist the Councils in managing a difficult financial position in 2021/22 particularly in light of the budget pressures identified elsewhere on the agenda.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Elizabeth Sparkes, seconded by Councillor Angus Dunn and unanimously supported. 

Decision  

The Joint Strategic Committee

2.1       recommended that Adur District Council, at its meeting on 22nd July 2021 and Worthing Borough Council at its meeting on 20th July 2021:-

(a)        NOTED the overall final outturn for 2020/21;

(b)        APPROVED the net appropriations to General Fund Reserves in the year

as detailed in section 6 of the report totalling: Adur District Council  £5,326,227 Worthing Borough Council £8,700,773;

(c)        AGREED the net carry over of revenue budget to 2021/22 funded from reserves as detailed in appendix 6: Adur District Council £189,000 Worthing Borough Council £242,000.

2.2       delegated authority to the Executive Members for Resources in consultation with the Leaders and the Chief Executive the ability to release up to £250k from the Capacity Issues Reserve and the Building Maintenance Reserve to fund post pandemic recovery measures for the Councils’ communities and businesses as well as supporting preparations for important national events such as the Platinum Jubilee.

Call In: 

The call-in deadline for decision 2.2 will be 5.00pm on 23 July 2021.

There is no call-in for recommendations [2.1(a) to (c)] to Adur and Worthing Councils.