Archived decisions

Hampshire County Council

Recreation and Heritage Policy Review Committee Item 7

6 July 2006

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 2

6 July 2006

Financial and Performance Monitoring 2006/07

Report of the County Treasurer and Director of Recreation and Heritage

Contact: Bevis Ingram (01962) 84 7508 [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to:

      · Give an early indication of the Recreation and Heritage financial position for 2006/07

      · Recommend the allocation of the remaining capital resources for 2006/07

1.2 The revenue budget for 2006/07 requires savings to be achieved in order to deliver a balanced budget. Whilst plans are in place to deliver the majority of these, there are clearly going to be financial pressures in 2006/07.

1.3 Decisions on Recreation and Heritage revenue and capital expenditure impact on the resources available to the service, which contributes to the following corporate strategy aims:

    a) maximising life opportunities

    b) stewardship of the environment

    c) achieving economic prosperity

    d) building strong and safe communities

    e) improving services

    f) developing councillors and staff

1 Financial Position 2006/07 - Revenue

1.1 The revenue budget for 2006/07 is £31.7m. The allocation of this between services is shown in Appendix 1.

1.2 The budget as approved required the following redeployment savings to be made:

    · Reductions across service £198,000

    · IT efficiencies £100,000

    The individual service budgets also include the following savings to be achieved:

    · Milestones £45,000

    · Library and Information Service £287,000

1.3 The general service reductions have been reflected in Managers' cash limits to be achieved in line with local opportunities and priorities. This has been a feature of Recreation and Heritage budgets in recent years, during which time outturn has been very close to budget. Although the cumulative effect on cash limits over the years presents a challenge, it is, however, possible to be confident that these savings will again be achieved.

1.4 A number of initiatives are being taken to achieve the £100,000 IT savings, although it is not clear at this stage that the target of £100,000 will be fully achieved in 2006/07. Measures being taken include:

    · Identifying sites that would benefit from the lower cost SoHo (Small office Home office) arrangement

    · Wherever possible, replacing managed PCs with cheaper Winterm equipment

    · Procurement of new library management system

    · Jointly reviewing IT costs with IT services

1.5 Every effort is being made to achieve the required savings at Milestones by rigorously managing expenditure, and early indications are that increased visitor numbers could contribute more income than anticipated in the budget. However, if the decision is taken for Milestones to achieve Trust status, there would be one-off costs associated with this, and Hampshire County Council's share of this is estimated at £50,000. There is currently no provision for this in the budget.

1.6 The Libraries and Information Service budget required savings of £287,000 to be achieved. Using housekeeping measures, including vacancy management, savings of some £150,000 have been identified, leaving £140,000 to be achieved. In recent years, there has also been considerable pressure on Libraries income budgets, arising from a contribution of library closures, general usage trends and the change in loan periods. It would be prudent to assume that a continuation of this could bring the remaining pressure on Libraries closer to £250,000.

1.7 Also taking into account the potential one-off costs for Milestones, and the likely level of IT savings, the total pressures could be in the region of £350,000 - 1.1% of the budget.

1.8 In order to achieve this, a rigorous process of vacancy management will be applied across the Department. In addition, a project is under way to review the Department's expenditure on travel and transport, which is approaching £1.2m. As part of this project, staff have already been asked to review the need for travel, and to plan journeys effectively. The project team's main focus is on the cost of the Department's plant and vehicles.

1.9 Every effort will be made to achieve a balanced budget: given the pressures outlined above, it may be necessary as a last resort to make savings against the Book Fund (the 2006/07 Book Fund is £2.4m). It is also proposed at this stage to hold unallocated £29,000 of the capital resources available to the Department.

1.10 In 2005/06, for the first time, the regular budget monitoring reports to Members included performance as well as financial information, as does the Final Accounts report on this agenda. This approach to reporting will continue in 2006/07.

3. Financial Position 2006/07 - Capital

3.1 Subject to approval, the final accounts report on this agenda would give the following level of unallocated resource:

                £000

    Undercommitment against the cash limit 2005/06 183

    Removal of 2006/07 Calshot climbing wall provision 75

    Transfer to revenue ( 14 )

    Funding of additional costs of capital schemes

    completed in 2005/06 ( 15 )

                  229_

3.2 The March monitoring report anticipated that £200,000 would be available, and gave an indication of how those resources could be used. It is now proposed that £200,000 be allocated as below, with £29,000 being held back as a contingency:

                  £000

    Library Improvements * 105

    Minor improvement schemes 25

    Hot surfaces work - contribution 40

    Health and Safety __30_

                  _200_

    * for projects such as Bursledon, Whitchurch and New Milton

4. Impact Assessment

4.1 In completing this report, account has been taken of the Corporate Equalities and Race Scheme, and of the Department's service impact assessments.

Recommendation

    It is recommended that Members support the following recommendations for the approval of the Executive Member:

    1. That the financial position for 2006/07 be noted

    2. That the following capital allocations be approved:

    £000

    Library Improvements 105

    Minor improvement schemes 25

    Hot surfaces work - contribution 40

    Health and Safety __30_

                  _200_

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

Published works

Documents, which disclose exempt or confidential information as, defined in the act.

Title Location

None.

APPENDIX 1

Recreation and Heritage Revenue Budget 2006/07

    £000

Museums and Archives 3,506

Milestones 304

Tourism, Marketing and Design 593

Library and Information Service 16,962

Countryside Service 4,577

Sport and Community 1,986

Calshot Activities Centre 221

Arts 2,089

Policy Development Initiatives 831

Director & Business Development 646

              ______

              31,715