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

1 Introduction

1.1 This report sets out the latest budget outturn predictions for the current financial year. Overall costs have increased since the last meeting which can be met from an additional contribution from the modernisation reserve of £86,000. Significant variations in expenditure are set out in the following paragraphs.

2 Revenue

2.1 The latest position is given in Appendix A. Virements over £100,000 are required to be approved by the Authority and these are referred to in the notes to the Appendix.

3 Pensions (-£19,000)

3.1 The element of pensions expenditure for which the Authority is directly responsible is predicted to be £19,000 lower than previously forecast. The main reason being a reduction in the provision for ill health retirement costs.

4 Interest and provision for statutory debt repayment (+£104,000)

4.1 Overall interest costs have risen as a result of a greater level of capital payments than planned and an increase in interest rates. The increase in interest payable to the County Council (+£288,000) results from money being borrowed short-term from the County Council rather than long-term from the Public Works Loans Board. There is, therefore, a reduction in external loan interest (-£153,000) and the associated statutory debt repayment (-£31,000).

5 Requests to Carry forward Underspends

5.1 Requests to carry forward budget underspends received by the end of November can be agreed provided that the Authority's overall budget can accommodate this.

5.2 Four requests were received for amounts between £1,000 and £5,000, all of which can be met from within existing budgets.

6 Modernisation Reserve

6.1 The balance of the modernisation reserve currently stands at £614,000. On the assumption that there remains insufficient underspendings elsewhere in the budget, there are no proposed changes to the projects (estimated at £385,000) previously agreed to be funded as set out in the table below:

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6.2 At present, the projected outturn would require a contribution of £355,000 as £30,000 has been met from the original budget.

7 Capital

7.1 The only two matters to report: (a) there is likely to be some slippage on payments associated with Home Fire Safety Visits; and, (b) the vehicle workshops scheme has been completed on time and on budget.

7.2 The initial prediction of 25,000 Home Fire Safety Visits this year was reduced to 20,000 by Senior Management Team due to other community safety commitments. The target of 20,000 will be achieved by the end of the financial year.

Housing capital receipts

7.3 A property at Andover was sold for £280,000.

8 Financial Regulations

It has been recommended by our internal auditors that the upper limit for writing-off debt, which must be reported to this Committee for approval, be increased from £3,000 to £5,000. The limits would then be consistent with Hampshire County Council who are an integral element of the write-off procedure.

9 Equality impact assessment

9.1 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 and virements over £100,000 as set out in Appendix A be approved.

2 That it be recommended to the Authority that a change to Financial Regulations to increase the upper limit for writing- off debt, which must be reported to this Committee, from £3,000 to £5,000 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