The Strategic Director Corporate Services will submit a report (Document “A”) which gives Members an insight into the Council’s overall position at the end of the 2016-17 financial year by integrating finance and performance information. It provides a detailed statement of the final financial position of the Council at the 31 March 2017 as well as the annual outturn for the Corporate Indicator Set. The report specifically details how Services are performing within the context of the Council’s stewardship of its revenue resources.

Recommended –

Members are asked to review and comment on the 2016-17 Annual

Finance and Performance Report.

(Andrew Cross – 01274 436823)

The Strategic Director Corporate Services submitted a report (Document “A”) which gave Members an insight into the Council’s overall position at the end of the 2016-17 financial year by integrating finance and performance information. It provided a detailed statement of the final financial position of the Council at the 31 March 2017 as well as the annual outturn for the Corporate Indicator Set. The report specifically detailed how Services were performing within the context of the Council’s stewardship of its revenue resources.

The Policy Programmes and Change Manager explained that in relation to performance this was a retrospective look at last year’s performance and in summary, of the 43 indicators that have targets, 25 were on target, 8 were within acceptable variance and 10 were below target.

Details of those areas of good and improving performance as well as those areas of underperformance were alluded to and detailed in appendix 1 to Document “A”. 

In relation to Finance, the Strategic Director Corporate Services stated that in 2016/2017, the Council underspent the approved net budget of £378m, by £0.3m in line with previous forecasts.  The Strategic Director alluded to the significant variance within  the overall total, with Children’s Services overspending by £3.5m and a £3.7m overspend within Adult Services respectively, the details and the reasons for this overspend were set out in the report.  In addition the Capital expenditure together with the reserves position were also set out.

In conclusion the overall financial results were good as was performance, in the context of the difficult financial climate and the on-going reductions in Government funding.

During the discussion, the Chair ascertained that in relation to performance, 15 indicators were below target and therefore what measures were being put in place to address them.  In response the Policy Programmes and Change Manager explained that a number of concerns in relation to the below target indicators were set out in the report, together with what remedial action would be taken to bring them on target.

In relation to a question on how future budget reductions would impact on performance, the Policy Programmes and Change Manager acknowledged that the financially challenging environment would affect some areas of performance, and the outcome boards had highlighted this issue and discussed what measures could be put in place to mitigate them, and therefore constant monitoring was taking place.

A Member suggested that the red, amber and green rating should have been used within the performance report to gauge a better understanding.

In response to a question regarding the overall financial position, the Strategic Director Corporate Services explained that the value of the savings to be achieved last year had not materialised and there was now an imperative to get this plan back on target, in addition the contingency situation was getting critical and Council Management Team had acknowledged this.  He added that a key question in looking at the budget was how we contain the cost of adult social care?

In relation to a question on Business Rates collection and the appeals process, the Strategic Director explained that more appeals to the Valuation Office were looming and this was having a corresponding impact on collection rates, for which we had little control.

In response to a question on what the Council was doing to address the issue of empty business premises, the Service Manager, Revenues,  Benefits and Payroll  stressed that the Service would always endeavour to collect business rates from empty premises, unless bankruptcy proceedings had been initiated, and in addition work was on going with the business section to try and find tenants or alternative uses for empty premises.

In addition it was stressed that the Service would always endeavour to recover outstanding tax and any write off of debt would be done as a last resort.

In relation to the revenue raised by Theatres, a Member suggested that people were willing to pay an additional  fee for international  events and the Council should further look at hosting more of these type of events.

In relation to a question on why direct net costs in relation to libraries had gone up when the number of libraries had decreased, the Strategic Director Place explained that costs had increased slightly in this area, however the number of loaned out items were decreasing.

A Member raised a number of concerns regarding how services were configured and how tendering of services added additional cost to service provision in a number of areas.

Resolved –

That officers be thanked for submitting a comprehensive report and for providing detailed responses to Members’ questions.

ACTION:       No Action