Issue - meetings

This report presents the forecast revenue outturn position for the current financial year 2023/24, as at Quarter 1 (30 June).

The Committee received a report presenting the forecast revenue outturn position for the current financial year 2023/24, as at Quarter 1 (30 June).

The following matters were considered:

a)            Observation on update report. A Member of the Committee let Finance Officers know that they were happy with the report and pleased with the job they are doing. The Head of Finance responded to inform the Committee that things could still change before the end of the year, but at this stage, quarter one, it is expected that officers, if they have got an adverse variance, will take mitigating action to rectify that by the end of the year. Where it is so significant that that’s not likely to be possible in full is where further action is recommended at this stage.

b)            Clarification on page 41. A Member of the Committee asked for clarity on the number used on page 41 and then referenced further throughout the report and whether it should be 99,000 instead of 98,000. The Head of Finance informed the Committee that the numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand in Excel and some of them are rounded down and some are rounded up, it will be corrected for use in future presentations.

c)            Cost of Homelessness in the Borough. A Member of the Committee made a statement regarding an initiative to provide 3 modular houses for homeless people in the borough and would like to see more progress in accelerating the program of modular housing, as a signal that the Council cares about the homeless but also in effort to reduce the massive cost that's going into hotels rather than into the community of Epsom. The Member of the Committee followed up their statement by asking why there are not more similar programmes to help with the borough’s homelessness problem. The Monitoring Officer proposed that the Member’s comments and question were directed to the Community & Wellbeing Committee so a response can be provided.  This was agreed by the Member in question.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Receive the revenue budget monitoring report, which sets-out a projected deficit of £98,000 for 2023/24;

(2)      Agree that a report should be prepared for Community & Wellbeing Committee to consider long-term mitigation options for the increased costs of nightly paid accommodation within the Homelessness service;

(3)      Agree that a report should be prepared for Licensing & Planning Policy Committee to consider long-term mitigation options for the projected shortfall on planning income and the impact of government’s review of planning fees;

(4)      Agree that the updated Quarter 2 position will be reported back to Audit and Scrutiny Committee in November.