Lancashire Combined Fire Authority

Resources Committee

Meeting to be held on 12 July 2023

Year End Revenue Outturn 2022/23

(Appendix 1 refers)

Contact for further information: Steven Brown - Director of Corporate Services

Tel: 01772 866804

Executive Summary

This report presents the revenue outturn position, and the impact of this on usable reserves. The overall outturn position shows an overspend of £1.865m which is broadly in line with previous forecasts.

Recommendation

The Committee is asked to note and endorse the outturn position on the 2022/23 revenue budget.

The Revenue Outturn Position

The annual budget for the year was set at £63.017m. The final outturn position shows net expenditure of £64.882m, giving a total overspend for the financial year of £1.865m, which is broadly in line with previous forecasts.

The detailed final revenue position is set out in Appendix 1, with major variances being summarised below (note as reported throughout the year the variances shown relate to non-pay spend, with the variance on the pay budget being shown separately):-

Area	Overspend/ (Underspend)	Reason
	£’000
Fleet	71	As previously reported to members there is an overspend on fuel that is due to the increase in prices, this budget has been updated for 2023/24 to reflect the high fuel costs.
Property	970	As previously reported to members the overspend is due to the increase in the cost of energy and inflationary pressures on maintenance costs.
Non DFM	(590)	The main reason for the underspend as previously reported to members is additional bank interest of (£408k) but in addition the service recovered (£102k) of VAT from the HMRC following a successful challenge.
Pensions	(186)	The underspend on the pensions budget is due to fewer individuals retiring on ill health grounds than budgeted.

TOR	150	There has been a shortfall in the apprenticeship income due to a higher number of leavers than assumed in the budget, the budget for 2023/24 will be reviewed to ensure it is remains reasonable.
Wholetime Pay (including associate trainer costs)	905	As previously reported to members the overspend is mainly due to the agreed 7% pay award for grey book against a budget of 2%. Retirements and leavers were higher than anticipated and there was a slight shortfall in recruitment numbers offset against overtime costs, associated with covering vacancies and staff absences.
Support staff (less agency staff)	459	As also previously reported to members the outturn position reflects the green book pay award of £1,925 per full time equivalent being higher than budgeted. Vacancies have offset some of these additional costs however, agency staff have been utilised throughout the year to cover some key posts due to the challenging employment market.

Grant Funding

The Authority receives specific grants from the Government in respect of various new initiatives. These are included in the revenue budget position shown above, with any unspent funding being carried forward as an earmarked reserve:

	Protection uplift £000	Accreditation £000	Grenfell Infrastructure £000	Pensions Admin £000	Efficiency £000
B/fwd	(85)	(35)	(20)	(145)	(131)
Grant received in year	(286)	-	-	-	(1)
Tfr in from budgets	-	-	-	-	-
Utilised	371	3	20	-	-
Bal Remaining	-	(32)	-	(145)	(132)

Delivery Against Savings Targets

The following table sets out the savings targets identified during the 2022/23 budget setting process, hence removed from the 2022/23 budget, and performance against this: -

£m	Annual Target	Savings at Year End
We have top sliced the majority of non-pay budgets by 2.5%	(0.2)	(0.2)
Adjust pooled PPE budget to reflect lifecycle replacement requirement	(0.2)	(0.2)
Reduction in car users/mileage budgets across all budgets, reflecting alternative ways of future working	(0.2)	(0.3)
Other	(0.3)	(0.5)
	(0.9)	(1.2)

The performance was ahead of the annual target largely due to additional procurement savings in the ‘other’ category.

Business Risk

None

Environmental Impact

None.

Equality and Diversity Implications

None.

HR Implications

None.

Financial Implications

As set out in the report.

Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985

List of background papers

Paper:

Date:

Contact:

Reason for inclusion in Part 2 if appropriate: N/a

Appendix 1