Agenda item

The Committee gave consideration to a report of the Director of Finance which presented a high-level summary of the provisional outturn position and an update on the Council’s draft Statement of Accounts for the financial year 2019/20.

The report highlighted the following:

·         The revised reporting timeline for the Statement of Accounts for 2019/20;

·         The progress that had been made towards the completion of the accounts;

·         The provisional overall revenue outturn position is a surplus of £0.270m.  This was an increase on the favourable variance of £0.205m projected at month 9 that was reported to Cabinet on 23 March 2020; and

·         The provisional capital outturn was £54.383m which was an increase on the month 9 forecast expenditure of £52.497m.

Members were informed of the revised reporting timeline and since the agenda had been published, the accounts had been handed over to the external auditors.  Members were informed that the government had amended the deadlines for submission of accounts due to the pandemic and under the amendments local authorities had until 31 August 2020 to submit draft accounts and up to 30 November 2020 for the audit completion.  The achievement of the submission of the accounts was highlighted to members in that the submission had met the original timeline of 31 May 2020.  A notice of public inspection had been issued and the inspection period closes on 10 July 2020.  The Draft Accounts would be submitted to Committee on 23 June 2020 for review.  Members were informed of the work completed by the Finance staff, the accounts being completed to a high standard and good communication with the external auditors.  It was dependent upon audit completion as to when the Final Accounts would be submitted to the Audit Committee for approval.

The provisional outturn was now the final outturn which included a £270k underspend on the revenue budget which would be added to the Council balances and helped financial resilience and showed £54.4m compared to £52.5m capital expenditure at Month 9. 

Members congratulated the staff for producing excellent results in the challenging circumstances.

Members asked about the impact of Covid-19 on the outturn and were informed that the impact for 2019/20 was limited given the lockdown was not enacted until the end of the financial year. For 2020/2021, because of lack of clarity on full lifting of the lockdown, it was difficult to assess what the impact locally would be.  Members were informed about budget monitoring which would be rigorous, the additional resources allocated from central government, increased costs of service provision in some parts of the Council and the loss of income from fees and charges.  The detail would become more evident over the next few months.  There would be further challenges for future financial years.  The Government has asked for returns from local authorities on the financial challenges, projections based on best assumptions and how much funding has been spent.

RESOLVED that the updated position on the completion of the draft Statement of Accounts for 2019/20 and the Council’s provisional revenue and capital outturn position for 2019/20 be noted.