Agenda item

Consider report by Director, Finance & Corporate Governance (copy attached.)

2.1       There had been circulated copies of a report by the Director Finance & Corporate Governance providing the Committee with budgetary control statements for the Council’s General Fund based on actual expenditure and income on 30 September 2021, along with explanations of the major variances identified between projected outturn expenditure/income and the approved budget. The Council had continued to experience impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic into the new financial year with a number of variations from budget evident. The report explained that due to the very challenging operating environment it remained essential that the Council continued to operate as efficiently as possible to ensure that any financial implications not yet clear could be managed as the financial year progressed.

2.2         The approved new corporate structure had been reflected in the report. Forecasts had been completed at the second quarter of 2021/22 at 30 September that projected the Council to be in a balanced position at the financial year end. The position required a further draw down of £0.620m from the COVID-19 reserve compared to the reported position at the end of the first quarter of the current year. The forecast position included the carry forward of resources from 2020/21. Impacts from COVID-19 were expected to continue in to 2022/23, the COVID-19 reserve would be drawn down as required to meet identified financial pressures. The latest forecast included all known pressures including loss of income, confirmed Scottish Government funding, the effects of the continued freeze on discretionary spend and assumptions around delivery of Financial Plan savings.

2.3         The report outlined that significant confirmed funding was in place for 2021/22, with a commitment that additional expenditure incurred through the Integration Joint Board (IJB) delivering Health & Social Care services be funded by the Scottish Government. The report detailed the breakdown of confirmed COVID-19 funding for 2021/22, stating that a total of £31.563M was available. The total COVID-19 funding was split between funding which had been ring-fenced to be used for a specific purpose (£13.411m) such as education recovery, IJB funding, admin funding and funding to support communities, and that which could be used more generally by the Council to address COVID-19 pressures (£18.152m). Full details of funding available was provided in Appendix 2 to the report. There had been an ongoing impact on the delivery of planned Financial Plan savings during 2021/22 as a result of the diversion of management time to the pandemic during 2020/21 and into 2021/22.  The level of savings required by the financial plan, totalled £9.301, in 2021/22 and an analysis of delivery of savings had been updated and provided in Appendix 3 to the report.   Following the September month end savings of £2.491m had been delivered permanently, £1.964m (21%) was profiled to be delivered by 31 March 2022 and £4.846m (52%) was to be delivered on a temporary basis through alternative savings.  The Director, Finance & Corporate Governance answered Members questions regarding the report and explained that reports were made regularly to the Scottish Government on a range of matters, including the impact of COVID-19 on the Council’s ability to deliver fiscal savings.

DECISION

AGREED to:-

(a)          note the projected corporate monitoring position reported at 30 September 2021, the remaining pressures identified, the underlying cost drivers of this position and the identified areas of financial risk as reflected in Appendix 1 to the report;

(b)          note the COVID-19 funding detailed in Appendix 2 to the report;

(c)          note the progress made in achieving Financial Plan savings in Appendix 3; and

(d)          approve the virements contained in Appendix 4 & 5 to the report.