Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Chadderton. Councillor Fielding was present from Item 6 and Councillor Moores was present from Item 7.

The Chair agreed to accept one Item of Urgent Business Local Investment Fund as a matter of urgency in accordance with S.100 B (4) of the Local Government Act 1972; Urgent Cabinet approval was required as Covid-19 has impacted on delivery timescales and project finances. The formation of the LIF Cabinet Sub-Committee was urgently required to review the ongoing viability of these projects, as well as agreeing additional funding if required.

Approval had been given under Rule 14 of the Council’s constitution by the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee to action this report as an urgent item. The report was considered at Item 7 of the agenda.

There were no public questions.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 28^th September 2020 be apporved.

The Cabinet gave consideration to a report of the Director of Finance which provided an update on the Council’s 2020/21 forecast revenue budget position at Annex 1 and the financial position of the capital programme as at 31 August 2020 (Month 5) together with the revised capital programme 2020/25, as outlined in section two of the report at Annex 2 of the report.

Revenue Position

The current forecast outturn position for 2020/21 was a projected deficit variance of £16.703m after allowing for approved and pending transfers to and from reserves.

The position also included additional costs and pressures that had been identified by the Authority in this financial year as a direct result of the Governments lockdown arrangements to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 commencing on 23 March 2020. The additional pressures included forecasts of both income shortfalls and additional expenditure that have impacted on the on the Authority’s budgets as a result of the pandemic

The pandemic had affected nearly all aspects of Council service delivery; however, the most significant areas of concern were the People and Place, Services, Children Services and Community Health & Adult Social Care Portfolios. Action was being taken and would continue for the remainder of the financial year to address variances and take mitigating action as detailed in the report.

The overall corporate position was partly being offset by the application of the £16.638m unringfenced Government COVID related grant funding received to date. In Appendix 1 to the report, the full Government grant was presented as a single sum so that it highlighted the level of variation across all Council budgets, given that there was insufficient resource to offset the adverse variance. However, this summary report presented the position after applying the Government grant across Portfolio areas. As further General Fund grant was expected in respect of lost income for sales, fees and charges, both the overall financial position and the application of Government grant would therefore change during the course of the financial year.

An update on the major issues driving the projections were detailed within Annex 1, Section 3 of the report.

Section 4 of the report advised Cabinet of the grants that the Council had received including two new allocations; £2.276m of Round 2 Infection Control Grant from the Department of Health and Social Care and £1.580m of Opportunity Area grant from the Department for Education. The latter grant was an unfingfenced grant but there was an expectation that this was passported to Children’s Services in full and the recommendation in the report reflects this position. In both instances, delegation was sought to allocate the grant to specific eligible initiatives in accordance with Government guidance.

As this financial monitoring report reflected the financial position at Month 5, it could be regarded as an indicator of the potential year end position, however, management action had been initiated across all service areas to review and challenge planned expenditure and to maximise income. Although, the effect of this action had still to take full effect,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Chair agreed to accept one Item of Urgent Business Local Investment Fund as a matter of urgency in accordance with S.100 B (4) of the Local Government Act 1972; Urgent Cabinet approval was required as Covid-19 has impacted on delivery timescales and project finances. The formation of the LIF Cabinet Sub-Committee was urgently required to review the ongoing viability of these projects, as well as agreeing additional funding if required.

Approval had been given under Rule 14 of the Council’s constitution by the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee to action this report as an urgent item. The report was considered at Item 7 of the agenda

The Cabinet gave consideration to report of the Head of Democratic Services which sought approval of appointments to the Local Improvement Fund Cabinet sub-committee.

The Local Improvement Fund had successfully funded 20 projects in the last financial year (2019/20). However, Covid-19 has impacted on delivery timescales and project finances. The formation of the LIF Cabinet Sub-Committee was urgently required to review the ongoing viability of these projects, as well as agreeing additional funding if required.

In addition, there was an additional £500k available for LIF projects in 2020/21, so to support ongoing business planning, as well as Covid-19 recovery planning. The Cabinet Sub-Committee was urgently required to oversee the allocation of this funding through the next Local Improvement Fund funding round, which would be agreed once the committee was established.

Options/alternatives considered

Option 1 – Not to agree the membership of the sub-committee.

Option 2 – To agree the membership of the sub-committee.

RESOLVED – That the Leader, Deputy Leader (Statutory) and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Green be appointed to the Local Improvement Fund Cabinet sub-committee.