Agenda item

Jaclyn Gibson, Chief Finance Officer:

a)    presented Performance Scrutiny Committee the second quarter’s performance (up to 30^th September)

b)    explained that Covid19 had taken its toll on the financial resilience of the Council as income streams had plummeted and there had been a requirement to incur costs to ensure services were being provided throughout this difficult period and to respond to consequences of the pandemic. The impacts of this were not restricted to the current financial year but would have a significant impact over the period of the current MTFS and possibly beyond. In terms of the current financial year, 2020/21, the key challenges faced were in respect of:

·         Exceptional costs of dealing with Covid19 and increased service demand

·         Loss of income

In response to calls from the sector the Government had allocated a total of £4.6bn of general purpose grant funding to support local authorities to cover expenditure related pressures and announced an income compensation scheme to recompense councils for approx 75p in every £1 of lost sales, fees and charges income. To date the council had received funding support of £1.877m for Covid19 related pressures and was forecasted to receive £2.980m through the income compensation scheme. There had however been no additional financial support provided to the Housing Revenue Account.

c)    provided information on the Council’s:

·         General Fund Revenue Account - the General Fund Summary was currently projecting a forecast budget shortfall of £183,968 (appendix A provided a forecast General Fund Summary), resulting in general balance at the year-end of £2,338,220 (subject to any final contributions to earmarked reserves). There were a significant number of forecast year-end variations in income and expenditure against the approved budget, primarily as a result of Covid19 along with variances arising from measures taken to address the budget pressures and the financial support provided by government. Full details of the main variances were provided in appendix B.

The most significant impact of Covid19 had been on the Council’s income streams with monthly income levels plummeting across a range of discretionary services as well as through investments and rental streams, as a result of the shutdown of the economy and its likely phased path to recovery. The most significant of income losses had been:

-       Car Parking

-       Development Management, Land Charges & Building Control

-       Leisure, Recreation & Tourism

-       Christmas Market

-       Commercial Rents

-       Treasury Management

-       Court Cost Charges

-       Other Income Areas

·         Housing Revenue Account – the HRA was projecting an in-year variance of a £479,378 underspend, which would increase the general balances to £1,400,449 at the end of 2020/21. Although the forecast position was an underspend there were a number of forecast year-end variations in income and expenditure as a result of Covid19 along with variances arising from measures taken to address the budget pressures. Full details of the main variances were provided in appendix D.

Significant pressures facing the HRA was in relation to its income streams, primarily its housing rent income, was as follows:

-       Housing Rents

-       Housing Voids

-       Treasury Management

-       Court Cost Charges

·         Housing Repairs Service – the HRS was forecasting a surplus of £169,909 in 2020/21. Appendix E provided a forecast summary, with full details of the main variances provided in appendix F.

d)    provided information on:

·         General Investment Programme – the original General Investment Programme for 2020/21 in the MTFS 2020-25 amounted to £15.586m. this was increased to £16.430m following quarter 4 approvals and year end re-profiles from 2019/20. There were no changes to the programme at quarter 1 but at quarter 2 the programme had been reduced by £5.326m to £11,104m as shown at paragraph 7.2.

the overall spending on the General Investment Programme for the first and second quarter was £0.58m, which was 5.2% of the 2020/21 programme and 10% of the active programme. This was detailed further at Appendix J.

·         Housing Investment Programme – the original Housing Investment Programme for 2020/21 in the MTFS 2020-25 amounted to £25.640m. This was increased to £28.505m following approvals and year end re-profiles as part of the 2019/20 outturn. This had been further adjusted to £29.324m during the first quarter of 2020/21 and adjusted to £22.286m during quarter 2. A summary of the changes were shown in paragraph 7.9.

e)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Question: The cancellation of the Christmas Market had proved to be the right decision. Members asked for an update for the Christmas Market 2021?

Response: Next years Christmas Market was being looked at and officers were starting to scenario plan for the amount of stalls and overcrowding etc. The Virtual Christmas Market for 2020 launched on 20 November.

Question: Members asked what the additional spend in City Hall was?

Response: This was in relation to The Terrace and Managed Workspace, not just City Hall and the supply of additional cleaning products. There had been an increase in the cleaning regime within the buildings due to staff and tenants still working at these sites.

Question: Members asked if there was a long-term strategy for car parking to try and increase usage and income?

Response: There was a strategy for car parking which needed a comprehensive review.

Question: Members asked if independent stalls could be linked to the market to help the shops in the Bailgate?

Response: The Virtual Christmas Market would measure how many visits the site has had etc. Local businesses were advertised through this with the ambition for the Virtual Christmas Market to run alongside the actual market next year.

Question: Members asked how the Council stood with regard to the monies given in phase 1 for WGC and asked if we still had money to move this forward from phase 1?

Response: The money was reprofiled into 2021/22 due to Covid19 slowing down the work. In line with the Executive report in 2019, at this stage only funding for Phase 1a had been allocated.  Grant funding was currently being sought for future phases.

RESOLVED that:

1.    Performance Scrutiny Committee recommend that Executive look at a long-term car parking strategy.

2.    That the report be noted.