Contact: Ejner Knudsen, Assistant Treasurer 01962 847403;
[email protected]
David Howells, Director of Corporate Services, 023 8062 6835,
[email protected]

1 Introduction

1.1 This report sets out for members the latest budget predictions for the year. Overall costs have increased since the last meeting increasing the requirement on the modernisation reserve by £331,000. As part of the draft budget for 2007/08 savings of £200,000 are required to be identified to be carried forward - none of this has yet been identified. The reasons for these variations are set out in the following paragraphs.

2 Revenue

2.1 The latest position is given in Appendix A.

Wholetime firefighters pay and allowances (+£48,000)

The post of temporary communications facilitator (£40,000) is to be funded from the Marketing and Communications modernisation reserve allocation instead of holding vacancies in the wholetime firefighters establishment as previously reported.

Retained firefighters pay and allowances (+£50,000)

2.2 The retained firefighters pay budget is estimated to increase by £50,000 due to the success of implementing the co-responder scheme. This cost is being funded from the Local Partnership Service Agreement (LPSA) reward grant.

Premises costs (+£25,000)

2.3 There has been a significant increase in the cost of gas - which could cost the Authority as much as £20,000 in 2006/07. It is anticipated that these costs will be offset by further successful rating appeals.

2.4 The cost of setting up the Assessment Development Centre for strategic managers is estimated at £25,000. This cost is to be funded from the Fire Prevention grant.

Operational equipment (-£23,000)

2.5 The assumed expenditure on smoke detectors funded from the Fire Prevention grant and the LPSA reward grant has reduced by £23,000 to £115,000.

Other supplies(+£70,000)

2.6 As part of the communications strategy a corporate identity review will be conducted during the year at a cost of £30,000 of which £23,000 will be met from the Marketing and Communications modernisation reserve allocation.

2.7 £37,000 of the LPSA reward grant is being used to fund the installation of a domestic sprinkler system at Bishops Green.

IT and Communications (+£335,000)

2.8 The final phase of the rollout of the new IT network is nearing completion. £150,000 of the cost this year has been found from within existing budgets leaving a balance of £335,000 not yet funded. The cost of the contract has not been exceeded. £170,000 of the balance was planned to be funded from savings during the year. The additional shortfall in funding can be explained by the slippage of payments from 2005/06 and the need for the continued operation of the old network system. Work is continuing to identify further savings and deferred expenditure to assist with funding this project. Two possible savings which cannot be assumed at this stage are £90,000 investment in IP Telephony (required for the planned closedown of the IT network) due for delivery in March may slip into April and £25,000 refund from Hampshire County Council due to a reduction in charges for Hantsfirenet not yet passed on to HFRS.

2.9 Income (-£150,000)

2.10 The balance of £90,000 of the Fire Prevention grant has been allocated to fund the strategic managers assessment development centre and, for the purposes of this monitoring report, the balance has been assumed will be spent on smoke detectors.

2.11 Grant income of £61,000 has been received for urban search and rescue (USAR) personal and protective equipment. Most of this equipment has been funded from the central budget allowing £51,000 of the grant to be made available for other budget pressures.

Asset management and interest costs (-£31,000)

2.12 Interest receivable from the County Council is projected to be approximately £42,000 higher due to a more favourable cashflow than originally assumed. This is offset by slightly higher debt costs of £6,000.

3 Pensions (-£9,000)

3.1 The projected outturn on pension liabilities relating to employees who joined or left the Authority before 1^st April 2006 is now projected to be marginally less than was estimated in the last quarter. This will reduce the call on the general balance by the corresponding amount.

4 Modernisation Reserve

4.1 The balance on the modernisation reserve currently stands at £760,000. It is proposed to fund the following projects included in the projected outturn from this fund if there are insufficient underspendings elsewhere in the budget at outturn:

4.2 At present the projected outturn would require a contribution of £422,000 as £212,000 has been met from the original budget.

5 Capital

5.1 There is nothing further to report against that included in the draft budget report presented to the Authority last month.

6 Equality impact assessment

6.1 An impact assessment has been made on the proposals in the paper and shown that they are not discriminatory. They are considered compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Race Relations (Amendment Act 2000).

Recommendation

That it be recommended to the Authority that the latest budget position be noted.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

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

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

Fire Budget Monitoring PP 3.33 (d)