Agenda item

Area

Overspend/

(Under spend)

Reason

31 Jan 2022

Forecast

£’000

Service Delivery

(130)

(153)

The underspend to the end of January and the year-end forecast both largely related to the reduced activity levels in the following areas:

• Smoke detectors, in addition recent difficulties in the supply chain for smoke alarms were partially resolved, however a potential increase in costs had been identified which may impact final spend in year;
• Travel budgets, which were significantly underspent, it was expected that changing working practices for non-operational staff would mean reduced usage in the future therefore we had reflected this reduction in next years’ budget

Covid-19

-

-

We had received total funding of £1.6m since March 2020.  In addition, as previously reported, we had transferred £0.2m of travel/mileage budgets into this reserve to reflect savings in respect of differing working practices during the pandemic, resulting in total funding of £1.8m.

As at the end of January we had fully utilised the £1.8m, as follows:

• Additional staff costs £0.6m
• Additional cleaning £0.1m
• Consumable items £0.2m
• Remote working and video conferencing equipment £0.2m
• PPE £0.7m
• Total £1.8m

TOR

(186)

(164)

As previously reported, the current and forecast underspend largely related to the position with apprentice levy income for wholetime recruits. At the time of setting the budget it was anticipated that the recruit numbers would fully utilise the balance in the levy account, therefore the income budget was set at £0.2m. During the year, levy drawdown forecasts had been updated as follows:

• Following a nationwide review of the wholetime fire-fighter apprenticeship programme, which LFRS participated in, the government apprentice levy setting body agreed an uplift to the funding for each apprentice starting after January 2021 from £12k to £14k over the 24 month apprenticeship, resulting in additional income circa £46k in 2021/22;

• levy account shortfalls would be met by 95% funding (known as co-investment) from the Government, which meant we would benefit from £163k additional levy income in the financial year.  We had reflected the revised assumptions in next years’ budget.

TOR had been catching up on training during the year and spend on external training was currently in line with budget.

Property

(227)

(203)

Whilst non-essential maintenance was re-instated prior to the end of the last financial year, departmental capacity due to a vacant surveyor post, and the ongoing situation meant there was an underspend to date. The post was filled from the start of November, and the outturn forecast assumed that there would be some further catch up spend for the final few months, slightly reducing the current level of underspend.

Non DFM

595

654

Both the year to date and outturn overspend position reflected:

• the £0.3m funding gap identified at the time of setting the budget in February 2021
• additional RCCO approved during the year as previously reported
• the transfer of £0.5m into the PFI earmarked reserve, as set out in the reserves and balances report at the CFA meeting in February, net of the PFI re-financing gain of £0.2m.
• note we were still assuming that the existing £2.4m pension accrual, set aside in previous years, would be sufficient to meet any costs associated with the changes to the pensionability of allowances.

Wholetime Pay (including associate trainer costs)

191

140

As previously reported there had been significantly more early leavers than allowed for in the budget. At the end of January we had 27 fewer wholetime members of staff than budgeted. In addition, as previously reported, there was a shortfall in recruit numbers this year, with 35 recruits compared with a budgeted 48,

These resulted in an anticipated underspend of approx. £0.6m at the end of March.

Broadly speaking these were offset by:-

• the unbudgeted grey book pay award of 1.5%, at a cost of £0.4m, as previously reported.
• Continued increased overtime costs, associated with covering vacancies and staff absences.

The net of all the above factors was the forecast overspend of £0.1m.

On Call Pay

(128)

(118)

The position within On-call staffing was underspent, with the unbudgeted pay award being more than offset by higher staff vacancies and lower ad hoc payments than budgeted.

Support staff (less agency staff)

(308)

(259)

The underspend related to vacant posts across various departments, circa 12% of the establishment in early February, far in excess of the 3.75% vacancy factor built into the budget.  This was partly offset by spend on agency staff.

As previously reported, the labour market remained extremely challenging, and we were experiencing difficulties in filling posts. As such we anticipated the high level of vacancies continuing until year end.

This would be partly offset by the pay award for green book staff, which was agreed at the end of February at 1.75% and would be paid in March salary, which had been reflected in the forecast outturn position.

Apprentice Levy

(16)

(23)

The apprentice levy was payable at 0.5% of each months payroll costs, the budget for this was set at anticipated establishment levels, hence the underspend against this budget reflected the various pay budget underspends reported above.

Spend to 31 January

Forecast to 31 March

£m

£m

Other vehicles

0.3

0.3

This budget allowed for the replacement of various operational support vehicles.  Whilst some of the operational support vehicles had been ordered and delivered, we were still progressing the purchase of 9 operational support vehicles and 2 PODs, hence the slippage of £0.3m as shown in appendix 2.

Operational Equipment / Future Firefighting

0.1

0.1

This budget allowed for

• replacement of capital items from the equipment replacement plan, namely defibrillators and a replacement drone which had been delivered
• replacement of light portable pumps which had been ordered and would be delivered in April 2022, resulting in slippage of £0.1m
• progression of CCTV on pumping appliances, where we were proposing trialling this in the first instance with an initial budget of £0.1 the trial had not yet begun and would result in the budget being slipped into 2022/23

Building Modifications

2.8

3.0

This budget allowed for:

• Provision of a new workshop, BA Recovery and Trainer facility at STC. Committed spend to date was £2.7m.  Work had been completed and the building was handed over to the Authority at the end of October 2021.
• Enhanced station facilities comprising the final payment in respect of South Shore refurbishment and extension, and changes at Hyndburn fire station, where final designs were being reviewed prior to moving to the procurement phase, but where £0.1m budget would slip into 2022/23;
• Replacement drill towers where spend to date of £0.1m related to various site investigation works and planning applications;
• Fees associated with progressing the business case for a SHQ relocation, £0.2m, which would slip into 2022/23.

As with the revenue budget, current departmental capacity to progress these was previously limited, hence the slippage indicated above and detailed in Appendix 2.

IT systems

0.1

0.1

The budget related to the replacement of various systems and ICT hardware, in line with the ICT asset management plan.

Spend in year related to replacement hardware (Vehicle Mounted Data Systems).

The balance of slippage related to various items of hardware, where we were experiencing a shortage of raw materials and expected deliveries to take place in the new financial year, resulting in slippage of £0.2m.

Total

3.3

3.5