Purpose

To receive a report on the provisional forecast position of the Council for the first quarter of the 2025/26 financial year to the end of June 2025.

Decision

Cabinet noted:

1. 1The issuance of the Commissioners’ sixth instruction

Instruction Note 6 –  Budget management – Instruction for immediate application

1. 2The financial position of the Council as set out in the report, specifically that the revenue budget position at Quarter 1 reflects a net overspend of £20.729m and the Corporate Leadership Team has to date identified initial mitigations, pending validation, of some £7m and are committed to developing further mitigations.
2. 3A further report be brought back to October Cabinet, updating the position and validated mitigations
3. 4Commissioners’ suggestion that the Executive Director of Regeneration, Housing and Environment present a comprehensive update to Cabinet in October on the issues relating to the pressures on Temporary Accommodation including mitigations.
4. 5The technical Budget Adjustments and contingency allocations as set out in the report.

Cabinet approved:

1. 6Additional and amended schemes incorporated into the Capital Programme totalling £0.782m, relating to final grant settlements and s106 funded schemes (Appendix 2 Table 8)
2. 7Reprofiling of capital budgets totalling £12.753m from 2025/26 to later years (Appendix 2 Table 9)
3. 8 The drawdown of £1.373m from the budget smoothing reserve to support the Finance Improvement Programme (£1.373m was included in the budget 2025/26 and MTFS to 2028/29 approved budget in the reserves section but was not previously put forward formally as a recommendation to Cabinet)