The Interim Deputy Head of Finance presented a report providing Cabinet with an update on the Council’s financial performance for the year ended 31^st March 2019. She referred to the council’s net revenue budget and final outturn for 2018-19 (Table 1 in the report) and explained that the overall outturn at 31^st March 2019 was an underspend of £429,000 which had been transferred to the Council Fund, bringing the total Fund balance to £8.776 million in line with the principles set out in the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). Directorate budgets provided a net underspend of £1.142 million, after draw down from reserves of £7.7 million, and Council Wide budgets a net underspend of £6.711 million, after draw down from reserves of £2.3 million. These were offset by the requirement to provide new earmarked reserves for a range of new future risks and expenditure commitments. The net position also took into account accrued council tax income of £670,000 during the financial year.

The Interim Deputy Head of Finance reported that the Council had received a number of one-off grants from Welsh Government, including grants for schools totalling almost £1 million, which had eased the pressure on these budgets for 2018-19 only. This was in addition to any other opportunities taken to maximise existing grant funding streams. Without these the net underspend on Directorate and Council Wide budgets would have been much lower.

The Interim Deputy Head of Finance provided an update on prior year budget reductions and referred members to Appendix 1, and table 2 which provided a summary per directorate. Of the £2.604 million of prior year budget proposals outstanding, £1.593 million had been realised, leaving a balance of £1.011 million. She outlined the position with Budget Reductions for 2018-19 and the action required to achieve them in 2019-20.

The report provided a commentary on the financial position for each main service area and comments on the most significant variances. It also included budgets, provisions and services which were Council Wide and not managed by an individual Directorate.     

The Interim Deputy Head of Finance provided an update on the Council’s capital programme for 2018-19 currently totalling £35.474 million, of which £31.933 million was met from BCBC resources, including capital receipts and revenue contributions from earmarked reserves, with the remaining £4.224 million coming from external resources. She then updated Members on the earmarked reserves and explained that the final draw down from reserves was £9.996 million as detailed in table 5 of the report.    

The Deputy Leader thanked the Interim Deputy Head of Finance for presenting the report and thanked the Finance Team for keeping the authority safe and secure. It was good to show a surplus in light of the challenges and pressures and the “one-offs” could not be relied on going forward. The authority still needed to make significant savings.

The Leader agreed that the authority was facing a bleak financial future. Initial work had been undertaken in terms of planning and it was apparent that they would not be able to balance the books without making significant savings, increasing Council Tax by a higher level than in previous years and losing posts and people from the organisation on a scale not seen before. He was certain austerity would not end any time soon and it was becoming more and more difficult to make the cuts.

RESOLVED:            Cabinet noted the actual revenue and capital outturn position for 2018-19.