Issue - meetings

Consider report by Chief Financial Officer.  (Copy attached.)

UNAUDITED REVENUE OUTURN

            There had been circulated copies of a report by the Chief Financial Officer providinga statement comparing final revenue outturn expenditure and income for 2017/18 with the final approved budget for the year and explanations for significant variances.  The report explained that an unaudited outturn underspend of £1.029m had been achieved in the 2017/18 revenue budget.  The £1.029m underspend (0.4% of final approved budget) was delivered following a number of earmarked balances approved by the Executive Committee during 2017/18.  In total, these amounted to £7.998 and related to a number of initiatives across departments and specifically included £2.442m of carry forward for Devolved School Management (DSM including PEF) and a £2m approved to support the 2018/19 Financial Plan.  A review of the provision for bad debts had identified a requirement for funding of £0.165m to ensure the provision remained in line with management’s assessment of high risk outstanding debts.  This revised the outturn net balance after bad debts to £0.864m.  A high level summary of the outturn position in each Council Department was detailed in section 4 of the report.   The Financial Services Manager answered questions relating to temporary savings, the level of savings for future years and the budget for adverse weather.

DECISION

(a)        AGREED:-

(i)         the content of the report and noted the outturn position for 2017/18 prior to Statutory Audit; and

(ii)        that the outturn net balance of £0.864m be directed to support delivery of the challenging 2018/19 Financial Plan; and

(iii)       the adjustments to previously approved earmarked balances noted in Appendix I to the report

(b)       NOTED that the draft unaudited outturn position would inform the budgetary control process during 2018/19 and financial planning process for the current and future years.