Decision Maker: Cabinet

Outcome: Recommendations Approved

Is Key Decision?: Yes

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: November 18, 2024

Purpose: To consider the budget management report for the 2nd quarter of the 2024/25 financial year to the end of September 2024.

Content: Cabinet approved the following:   1.  General Fund (Revenue) – A balanced outturn on an approved budget of £160.202m. This includes the £11.4m of mitigations identified during Quarter 1 that is now being proactively managed within services.  Further action has been identified to contain pressures that have arisen during Q2 including the curtailment of a number of projects. The 24/25 Pay award has been settled within the £2.6m set aside for this and the balance of £1.228m has been used to offset pressures. 2.  Virements in accordance with the council’s constitution and includes mitigations agreed in Quarter 1 that require Cabinet approval. The values shown are the net impact on departments forecast allowing for offsetting underspends. These are funded through the Recovery Actions agreed at Q1, other underspends and further actions proposed for the second half of 2024/25.   3.  In addition to the virements in the table below, there are a further 2 virements required, as follows:   ·  A £250k saving on Fees and Charges across all directorates is held in contingency, and should be distributed; and ·  A £2.660m figure held in contingency in respect of the pay award needs distributing, noting this is offset by the saving on the pay award in the table below.   Cabinet Virements to approve (Revenue) £m   Temporary or Permanent   Operational Matters       Supporting vulnerable young people through investment in EHCP processing, Educational Psychologist and Home to School Transport 1.353 Temporary (addressed in MTFS)   Supporting increasing number of vulnerable adults 3.603 Temporary (addressed in MTFS)   Temporary Accommodation 4.401 Temporary (addressed in MTFS)   Procured additional external resources to fund the balance sheet review and interims to deliver the backlog accounts 0.600 Temporary   Other Recovery Actions from Q1 -2.963 Temporary Reduction in Slough Children First contract costs -2.166 Temporary Reduction in Non-Departmental Cost and Balance Sheet contributions -3.735 Temporary Reduction in assumed use of 2024/25 Pay Award (including SCF) -1.228 Permanent Removal of historic saving in respect of the integration of support services 0.235 Permanent Deferral of purchase of Library Stock -0.100 Temporary TOTAL 0.000     4.  General Fund (GF) (Capital) – The revised capital budget is £35.428m with a projected outturn of £25.294m resulting in underspend of £10.134m. This compares to a £1.868m forecast underspend in Quarter 1.   5.  Approve the following virement which require Cabinet approval in accordance with the council’s constitution.    Cabinet Virements to approve (Capital) £m Arbour Vale capital works – Release unused contingency from the car park budget and increase the classroom budget 0.500   6.  Housing Revenue Account (HRA Revenue) – An underspend of £3.478m is forecast, in line with budget. This compares to a £3.734m forecast underspend in Quarter 1.    7.  Housing Revenue Account (HRA Capital) – The revised capital budget is £25.003m with a projected outturn of £19.641m resulting in an underspend of £5.362m. This compares to a £8.062m forecast underspend in Quarter 1.   8.  Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) – There is an overspend of £0.254m in the Schools Block due to higher than anticipated costs for growth in 2024/25. Further details are set out in para. 8 of this report including the risks This compares to a forecast overspend of £0.155m in Quarter 1.   9.  Council Tax and Business Rates collection – As at the 30 September, actual Council Tax collected was 54.26% (target 55.50%) and actual Business Rate collected was 57.41% (target 56.60%).   10.Sundry Debt – Total outstanding sundry debt including adult social care debt as at the 30 September 2024 was £9.743m. Based on the age profile of the debt, £5.914m is the calculated bad debt provision (61%).   11.  Financial Resilience – The Council is committed to improving financial resilience, moving towards financial sustainability and improvement in governance and process as laid out in the Directions issued by Government and a capitalisation direction for exceptional finance support in 2024/25.   12.  Once the Council has concluded the outstanding financial accounts, a formal financial resilience statement will be prepared.