The first ‘Task & Finish Group’ from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee presented their paper to the Committee last week after looking at the levels of balances and reserves within the council.
Led by Cllr Geoff Lumley, with assistance from Cllrs Whittle and Hutchinson, as well as senior officers at the council seven recommendations were put forward to the Committee.
Amongst those recommendations was one approving the use of £5m from the council’s current reserves and balances to aid the “very difficult task of a balancing the budget in the next three years”.
Buys time
Cllr Lumley pointed out,
“It’s quite a move that the Managing Director supported it. When Mr Burbage supports something like that, tectonic plates must’ve have clashed.”
Cllr Whittle, added that the move would allow the administration to,
“Buy time to get us over the hump.”
Hopes of pump priming
Cllr Hutchinson reiterated that the money could be used only once and hoped it could be used for pump priming measures to help in the coming difficult years to produce ongoing savings.
All members of the committee approved the recommendation:
- Analyses of reserves and balances included in reports to Cabinet and Full Council for both the budget and closure of accounts to be in a consistent format for purposes of comparison
- Reports on reserves and balances to be made to Cabinet on a regular basis as part of the quarterly reports on performance and finance in addition to the annual budget report and the report on the draft outturn position
- Having reviewed the council’s reserves and balances, with the emphasis on the budget carry forward reserve and earmarked service reserves, the Task Group accepts that an amount of £5m can be allocated from the total sum of reserves and balances on a one-off basis to assist delivery of the budget strategy in 2014/15, and in particular to allow time to examine how a more sustainable savings strategy can be developed for future years
- However, the Task Group acknowledges that the use of reserves and balances to assist delivery of the budget strategy in 2014/15 will only allow time for the development of a sustainable budget savings strategy to be implemented from 2015/16, and that the use of £5m to assist delivery of the 2014/15 budget strategy will only be possible provided there is no significant budget overspend in 2013/14
- Looking forward, the Task Group recommends that the Council should build on the improved monitoring and reporting processes for reserves and balances put in place by officers during the 2013/14 financial year
- In particular, and as part of the improved process for reviewing reserves and balances, the Task Group feels the Council should maintain its scrutiny of the arrangements for budget carry forwards and that members of the Task Group should be given the opportunity to review proposed carry forward amounts each year and make a recommendation of the amount of carry forward budgets for inclusion in the draft accounts submitted to the Audit Committee for approval in June each year
- Furthermore, and following the process adopted for the first time this year, the Task Group feels that the process for reviewing the use of carry forward budgets in the following year is a valuable part of the scrutiny process and that it should continue in future with reports made to the Task group on a half-yearly basis
For full details, see the embedded report below.
