Issue - meetings

Finance Monitoring to 30 May 2019

Meeting: 24/07/2019 - Cabinet (Item 7)

7 Finance Monitoring to 30 May 2019 pdf icon PDF 108 KB

B (Copy herewith)

Decision:

2.1            Cabinet noted the contents of the report and noted that future reports will set out the actions being taken by Corporate Management Board (CMB) to address issues arising and mitigate the risks of overspends.

 

Minutes:

Councillor Eldred as the relevant Cabinet Member submitted the bi-monthly financial monitoring report to the end of May 2019 and noted that there had been an overspend of £768,000.  This was down from what had been predicted last year, and it was hoped to balance the budget by the end of the year.

 

Councillor Stone expressed concern at the overspend on temporary accommodation and considered that there should be better measures in place to forecast need.

 

Councillor Stone queried why the overspend of £0.119m on the waste contract had not been predicted.  Councillor Hallam pointed out NBC were currently receiving less for recycling.  Recycling was a commodity product and the gains or losses resulting from market movements were shared between NBC and the supplier. If the contract had remained in-house, then all losses would have been borne by NBC.  Although recycling had increased by 6% year on year, the money received for it was reducing.  This was a problem faced by all councils.

 

Councillor Stone asked why £25m had been put aside for affordable homes.  The Chief Finance Officer stated that this had been agreed by full Council so that funds were available immediately if the opportunity arose to purchase homes.  Councillor Stone stated her opposition to purchasing private homes with public money.  The Leader pointed out that 150 homes had already been completed and 500 more were in the planning and contracting process.  Builders were required to build affordable homes within developments, and it was right that with the number of homeless people in the borough, NBC should seek to do whatever possible to provide more social housing.

 

RESOLVED:

 

2.1            Cabinet noted the contents of the report and noted that future reports will set out the actions being taken by Corporate Management Board (CMB) to address issues arising and mitigate the risks of overspends.