Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Officer Resources.

The Leader advised that the Council had been criticised in previous years for their low levels of reserves, however over the last couple of years we have ensured that positive action had been taken to restore reserves to an acceptable level.

At this juncture, the Leader invited the Chief Officer Resources to provide an overview of the report. The Chief Officer Resources noted the key points contained in the reported and referred the Executive to the forecast position for the general reserve at year-end 2020/2021 which would be a decrease of £0.048m, to £6.387m. This balance would represent 4.72% of net revenue expenditure, £0.973m above the 4% target level of £5.414m. These figures indicated further progress towards strengthening the financial resilience of the Council and providing a buffer to deal with unexpected future issues. There would be a need to mitigate the forecast year end adverse variance if these had not been addressed, however the level of reserves would still be above the target level which the Council had set for ourselves.

The Leader welcomed the report and felt it demonstrated the Council’s commitment to manage our financial resilience. The Leader hoped that Budget Holders would continue to work hard to eradicate the budget deficits to prevent using monies from the Council’s reserves.

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and

·        considered the impact of the £0.248m adverse variance for 2020/2021 would have on the budgeted contribution to the General Reserve; and

·        the forecast decrease of the General Reserve in 2020/2021 to £6.387m, being 4.72% of net revenue expenditure (above the 4% target level) be noted.

·        Continued to challenge budget overspends and implement appropriate service Action Plans, where required.