Agenda and minutes

Report of Head of Financial Services

The Head of Financial Services introduced a report to provide summary information regarding the provisional outturn for 2007/08 and the timetable for completion of the closure of the accounts process.   Members also received information regarding the carry forward of underspent/overspent revenue budgets and capital slippage for Members’ consideration.

Members considered the Provisional Revenue and Capital Outturn 2007/08 and agreed a number of recommendations to be considered by Cabinet prior to their determination of the same report.

Resolved:-

That the following recommendations be referred to Cabinet prior to their consideration of the 2007/08 Revenue and Capital Outturn report:-

(1)        That the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and General Fund revenue outturn position for 2007/08 be noted.

(2)               That the transfers to Provisions and Reserves actioned by the Head of Financial Services be noted and endorsed, but Officers be requested to prepare a further note for the Panel on the risks associated with the Luneside East Regeneration project.

(3)        That in respect of the revenue outturn variances:-

·            The Panel notes the positive management action in Council Housing Services that has brought about improvements and savings in respect of voids management and bad debts, and major repairs contract management.

·            The Panel notes the significant improvements and savings generated in City Contract (Direct) Services (CC(D)S).

·            The Panel notes that Officers are undertaking further analyses of the outturn variances to assess any ongoing implications for future years’ budgets.

·            That Officers report back to the next available Panel meeting, with the appropriate officer representation to present and answer questions, the reasons and circumstances that have resulted in the various over and underspends highlighted in the report, and why in some circumstances they had not been reported into the quarterly Performance Review Team meetings, for the following services:-

·                Council Housing

·                Legal and Human Resources

·                Information & Customer Services

·                Health & Strategic Housing

·                CC(D)S

·                Property Services

·                Cultural Services (in particular details of individual Festivals and Events including the Maritime Festival, and information on the Heysham Mossgate carry forward request)

·                Planning Services

·                Economic Development & Tourism (in particular information about the Storey CIC and Carnforth MTI capital slippage requests)

·            That the relevant Cabinet Member(s) also be invited to attend in respect of those services highlighted above.

(4)               That in respect of the requests for carrying forward underspends, and approach for considering overspends, Cabinet should aim to maximise how these could contribute to delivering the savings and efficiencies targets set out in the 2008/9 Corporate Plan/Medium Term Financial Strategy, and the Council Housing 30 year Business Plan.

(5)       That the Panel notes the HRA and General Fund capital outturn as set out in Section 4 of the report and that a further report on Luneside will be taken to Cabinet in due course, and recommends to Cabinet that the slippage requests set out in Appendix J be approved.

(6)               That the Panel notes the timetable for the completion and reporting of the closure of the 2007/8 accounts as set out in section 6 of the report and also the Annual  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

Report of Accountancy Services Manager

The Accountancy Services Manager presented a report to provide the Panel with details of the 2007/08 Backward Looking Annual Efficiency Statement.  It was reported that the Panel received regular updates in the Council’s progress against the Value for Money/Efficiency Strategy and the report detailed the cumulative efficiency savings achieved by 31^st March 2008.

Members were advised that the Council had exceeded its Gershon efficiency targets as set by the Government for 2007/08.  It was also reported that the 3 year targets set by the Government had concluded at 31^st March 2008 and a new set of 3 year targets would be implemented, which Officers were already working towards achieveing.

Resolved:-

That the report be noted.