Agenda item

That Cabinet noted:

•        The General Fund forecast slight underspend of £1.0m against council approved budget at Q2 2023/24.

•        The Quarter 2 technical virements (Appendix A1a, Tables 2 and 3).

•        The performance on delivery of savings (Appendix A1a, section 4, Table 4).

•        The additional weighted net risk of £3.4m per the risks and opportunities register (Appendix A1a, section 5, Table 5)

•        A forecast overspend of £3.6m within the HRA and that over- or under-spends that materialise within the HRA will be funded by a transfer to or from the HRA general reserve at the end of the financial year.

•        A forecast in-year deficit of £16.4m after in-year mitigations of £2.1maccumulating to a total £56.1m carried forward deficit in the DSG at the close of 2023/24.

•        A breakeven position on Public Health services.

•        The level of outstanding debt as at 31 August 2023 (see section 7, Tables 8 and 9 in Appendix A1a).

•        The latest position on balance sheet risks (Appendix A1a, section 8, Table 10).

•        The 1 April 2023 opening balances on the General Fund and Earmarked Reserves and movements to Q2 (Appendix A1a, section 9, Table 11).

•        A forecast £74.4m underspend (including £49.3m underspend for the allocated General fund and a £19.5m underspend on HRA) against the revised Capital Programme’s Budget (Appendix A1b)

•        The planned use of capital receipts of £9.8m

•        The submission of a grant funding application to the WECA Mayoral Priority Skills Fund (section 11.1) for £0.376m with requirement for BCC to match fund £0.028m (Appendix A9)

That Cabinet approved:

•        Revisions at Q2 to the Capital Budget following the reprofiling of programmes (Appendix A1b).

•        For the Executive Director, Growth and Regeneration, in consultation with the council’s S151 Officer and the Deputy Mayor with responsibility for Finance, Governance and Performance to accept the WECA Mayoral Priority Skills grant if successful and to procure and award contracts for expenditure of that funding. (Appendix A9)