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

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 £209,000. 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 (+£74,000)

2.2 The middle managers review included the deletion of a group manager post. These savings with a contribution from the modernisation reserve of £95,000 have been used to fund the structure review changes this year.

2.3 The group manager post for the retained duty system review project for 12 months is to be funded from the modernisation reserve at a cost of £64,000.

2.4 A firefighter post has been seconded to the environment project for 12 months. The cost this year at £16,000 is to be met from the modernisation reserve.

2.5 At the meeting of the Human Resources Committee on 8 September 2006 it was agreed to delete 4 watch manager posts and create 1 station manager post and 1 watch manager safety compliance post. These changes resulted in a saving of £85,000 this year.

Support Staff (+£26,000)

2.6 A temporary support staff post at a cost of £26,000 has been created to support the new Incident Report System project for a 12 month period. The cost is to be met from the modernisation reserve.

Firefighters pay award

2.7 The July 2007 pay award for uniformed staff has been agreed at 2.4%, which is 0.1% more than planned in the budget. The increased costs this year are estimated at £30,000 (£40,000 in 2008/09) and can be met from within existing budgets for wholetime, retained and support staff (control) firefighters pay.

Support staff pay award

2.8 The April 2007 pay award has now been agreed at 2.475%, which is 0.175% more than planned. The additional cost estimated at £11,000 can been met from within the existing budgets for support staff pay.

IT and Communications (+£18,000)

2.9 Software development costs and subscription charges to enhance the community fire risk management information system (CFRMIS) estimated at £18,000 are to be met from the modernisation reserve.

Other supplies (+£100,000)

2.10 To prepare a business case for the Workforce Strategy Management Information System requires additional consultancy costs of £25,000 which will be met from the modernisation reserve.

2.11 A service level agreement with Hampshire County Council for the provision of a UNISON trade union representative has been agreed. The cost of £9,000 this year is to be met from the modernisation reserve.

2.12 Consultancy and training fees required to set up assessment and development centres at a cost of £66,000 are to be met from the modernisation reserve.

3 Pensions (-£33,000)

3.1 Overall pensions expenditure which the Authority is responsible for is predicted to be £33,000 lower than originally budgeted for. The main reason for this is that there have been no ill health pension premiums to pay into the pension account so far this year.

4 Modernisation Reserve

4.1 The balance on the modernisation reserve currently stands at £614,000. 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 £269,000 as £116,000 has been met from the original budget.

5 Capital

5.1 Appendix B sets out the latest position on a scheme by scheme basis.

Vehicles

5.2 As can be seen from appendix B the 2005/06 vehicles budget overspent by £12,000, however, this is more than offset by a predicted underspend of £155,000 on the 2006/07 vehicles which was achieved partly as a result of negotiating some excellent discounts from suppliers of the support vehicles. It is recommended that part of this underspend be used to finance two additional vehicles in 2007/08 - a van for the IS department at an estimated cost of £11,000 to be used by the on call engineers who currently use their own vehicles and a First Response Vehicle costing £58,000 which enables small fires to be dealt with by the crew of two (need identified in IRMP). In addition the Princes Trust team require a minibus which will be funded through a capital contribution from their budget costing £18,000.

HQ Project

5.3 It is pleasing to be able to report that Phase 1 is on target to be within budget.

5.4 Phase 2 is due to be completed during December. Some enhancements to the project have been identified and the details are set out below:

Cosham Fire Station

5.5 The scheme has been in the approved capital programme since 2005/06 with a starts value of £3.7m. The only expenditure to date has been some initial feasibility reports and drawings.

Major building repairs

5.6 This is to be spent on unforeseen and urgent repairs to the roof at New Milton and other priority schemes.

Housing capital receipts

5.7 The first house sale has been completed and a capital receipt of £177,500 was obtained.

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).

Recommendations

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

2 That the increases in starts values in relation to vehicles 07/08 and HQ Phase 2 be approved.

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.

none