Archived decisions
Appendix 4
Earmarked reserves at 31 March 2004
Annex 1 - Appendix 4
Notes to summary of earmarked reserves at 31 March 2004
1 Schools reserve
In aggregate schools incurred expenditure of £12,000 less than their delegated budgets increasing the reserve to £28,343,000 at the end of the year. The table below summarises the position over categories of school.
Schools general reserve
Variation in the year |
Balance at 31 March | ||
£'000 |
£'000 |
% of budget | |
Nursery |
75 |
157 |
18.2 |
Primary |
137 |
16,631 |
6.4 |
Secondary |
-324 |
9,698 |
4.1 |
Special |
124 |
1,857 |
7.0 |
12 |
28,343 |
5.4 | |
The average level of school reserves has fallen as a proportion of budget from 5.8% to 5.4% during 2003/04.
2 Capital reserve - credit approval transfer
Commitments to transfer credit approvals to other local authorities in 2003/04 are as follows:
Portsmouth City Council |
HFRA |
Total | |
£'000 |
£'000 |
£'000 | |
Commitments outstanding at 1 April 2003 |
4,000 |
1,934 |
5,934 |
Transfers during 2003/04 |
-4,000 |
-1,934 |
-5,934 |
Commitments outstanding at 31 March 2004 |
- |
- |
- |
This reserve will cease to operate at 31 March 2004 as a result of the introduction of the prudential borrowing system in place of credit approvals.
3 Designated underspendings
The table below summarises the movements in the reserve balance during 2003/04:
Balance 1.4.03 |
Variations arising from |
Balance 31.3.04 | ||||
2003/04 Budget |
2002/03 Final Accounts |
2003/04 Revised Budget |
2003/04 Final Accounts |
|||
£'000 |
£'000 |
£'000 |
£'000 |
£'000 |
£'000 | |
Education |
1,292 |
-867 |
-8 |
- |
- |
417 |
Environment |
- |
- |
-18 |
-411 |
18 |
429 |
Policy and Resources |
167 |
- |
-167 |
- |
141 |
141 |
Recreation and Heritage |
9 |
- |
-9 |
- |
16 |
16 |
Social Services |
36 |
- |
-36 |
- |
392 |
392 |
Magistrates'Courts |
27 |
-29 |
2 |
29 |
-8 |
21 |
Matched Standards Fund Contribution |
1335 |
- |
-1335 |
- |
1,225 |
1,225 |
Sickness/Maternity Leave buy-back |
54 |
- |
-54 |
- |
-95 |
-95 |
School meals buy-back |
169 |
- |
- |
- |
23 |
192 |
Hillier Gardens Development Fund |
- |
- |
- |
- |
60 |
60 |
Total |
3,089 |
-896 |
-1,607 |
440 |
1,772 |
2,798 |
A new reserve has been established for the funding of future capital projects at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens following the Leader's decision in July 2002 that any savings in the County Council's budgeted contribution to the Gardens should be earmarked for this purpose.
4 Invest to save
The table below summarises the movements in the reserve balance during 2003/04:
£'000 | |
Balance at 1 April 2003 |
164 |
Financing of additional staffing to support generation of capital receipts and business rate appeals |
-265 |
Repayments in respect of |
|
Funding of IT2000 infrastructure |
350 |
Capital receipt generation |
190 |
Financing of Enterprise project costs |
-350 |
Balance at 31 March 2004 |
89 |
Annex 2 - Appendix 4
Protocol for earmarked reserves
Reserve |
Purpose |
Use of reserve |
Management and control |
Review Process |
Schools |
Earmarking of the balance of unspent delegated budgets |
To supplement school's budget share, to finance capital contributions and to provide a contingency |
Responsibility of Head teacher and School governing body |
In addition to review by individual governing body, trends reviewed annually by Education Executive Member |
General capital |
To assist in matching the timing of the availability of capital financing resources with the timing of capital payments |
To finance locally - resourced capital expenditure |
By County Treasurer in conjunction with decisions on the financing of the capital programme |
Reviewed at least twice yearly on closure of the accounts and in approving a new capital programme |
Trading accounts |
To enable business units to carry forward planned surpluses |
To meet future deficits and/or restructuring costs, to fund capital investment or to return surpluses to customers by reducing prices |
By responsible Chief Officer subject to Executive Member approval, where appropriate |
Through production of an annual business plan linked to the budget process |
Designated underspendings |
To enable individual services to carry forward 100% of planned underspendings and at least 50% of unplanned underspendings |
To fund non-recurring expenditure in future years or to phase-in the requirement for additional funding or to achieve savings |
By service Chief Officer reporting to the Executive Member. Cabinet responsible for approval of cases where more than 50% of a saving is earmarked |
Reviewed annually during budget cycle |
On-street parking |
County Council's taxbase share on Local Government reorganisation of on-street parking reserve from charging for on-street parking in Southampton and Portsmouth |
Statutorily restricted mainly to the funding of off-street parking facilities |
Director of Environment. £4.0m of the reserve used in 2003/04 to fund a contribution of £2.3m to a Southampton multi-storey car park and park and ride schemes. |
Reviewed in conjunction with preparation of Environment capital programme |
Insurance |
To cover fire, flood and storm damage reinstatement costs which are already committed and to reserve against adverse trends in liability claims |
To supplement annual `premiums' charged to services |
Chief Executive and County Treasurer subject to Cabinet approval |
At least annually on closure of the accounts |
Invest to save |
To provide funding for investment which will generate future cash savings which can be recycled back into the reserve |
For approved investment purposes subject to Cabinet or Policy and Resources Executive Member approval |
County Treasurer subject to Cabinet approval |
Reviewed annually in conjunction with proposals in the budget meeting invest to save criteria |
Job evaluation transitional costs |
To assist in meeting transitional costs likely to arise from implementation of the Pay and Benefit Review |
To supplement employee budgets in transitional period following implementation |
County Treasurer subject to Cabinet approval |
To be reviewed when impact of Pay and Benefit Review is known |
Grant equalisation |
To assist in managing the impact of further grant loss in 2005/06 and 2006/07 following the review of the Revenue Support Grant formulae |
To compensate for service and/or council tax impact of grant loss |
County Treasurer subject to Cabinet approval |
Reviewed as part of budget planning for 2005/06 and 2006/07 and as criteria for floors and ceilings are announced |
Segensworth unit factories |
To enable annual tenant contributions towards repairs to be earmarked for periodic major repair liabilities to infrastructure |
To fund maintenance of specific infrastructure which is the responsibility of the County Council as freeholder |
Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services subject to terms of relevant agreement |
Reserve is ring-fenced |
Other minor reserves |
Sums set aside for specific future purposes |
To fund spending on specified purpose |
Various |
Reviewed at least annually on closure of the accounts |