The Chief Officer Finance, Performance and Change presented a report which provided Cabinet with an update on the Council’s revenue financial performance for the year ended 31st March 2023.

She explained that Table 1 highlighted the comparison of budget against actual outturn at 31st March 2023. Table 2 highlighted the Covid-19 expenditure claims for 2022-23.

The Chief Officer Finance, Performance and Change stated that when the budget was set for 2022-23, very little funding was allocated to directorates for pay and price inflation, as most had not been determined for

the forthcoming year. The majority of the provision was retained centrally within council wide budgets, to be allocated as further information was known about specific contractual price increases. Section 3.1.13 of the report highlighted the technical adjustments from quarter 4.

 The Chief Officer Finance, Performance and Change outlined the budget reductions that were outstanding from 2021-22 that had been carried forward. Table 4 outlined the budget reductions for 2022-23 with 3.2.4 of the report highlighting the most significant reduction proposals.

The Chief Officer Finance, Performance and Change highlighted the appendices to the report which provided the following information:

• Appendix 1 - Prior Year Budget Reductions Monitoring
• Appendix 2 - 2022-23 Risk Tracker Budget Reduction Proposals March 2023
• Appendix 3 Revenue Budget Monitoring 2022-23
• Appendix 4 - Earmarked Reserves Quarter 4

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources thanked the Officers for the report. He asked with regards to the underspend in other Council wide budgets , how much of the underspend needs to be retained in the base budget and how much can be spent for other priorities.

 The Chief Officer Finance, Performance and Change explained that this would be reviewed again through the process of setting next years budget. However a number of underspends should be carefully considered, for example the significant underspend on our Capital Financing as well as the Council Tax Reduction scheme. Borrowing costs are going up and therefore taking money from areas of underspend need to be more closely and carefully considered.

Further questions and discussions were had on this report which can be found here.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet noted the revenue outturn position for 2022-23.