Agenda item

Financial Monitoring - Provisional Outturn 2023/24

Minutes:

The Director of Corporate Services advised that this report presented the financial outturn position for 2023/24, and the impact of this on usable reserves. The revenue outturn position showed an overspend of £0.382m which is broadly in line with previous forecasts. The Capital outturn expenditure for the year was £6.034m.

 

Revenue Provisional Outturn

The annual budget for the year was set at £68.183m. The provisional outturn position shows net expenditure of £68.565m, giving a total overspend for the financial year of £0.382m, which is broadly in line with previous forecasts presented to the Resources Committee. The detailed provisional revenue outturn was considered by members as set out in appendix A with more significant variances of note shown separately in the table below: -

Area

Overspend/ (Underspend) £m

Reason

Fleet

0.133

The overspend was mainly due to the increased cost of repairs and inflationary pressures on the supply of parts for vehicle and equipment repairs. It was hoped that repair costs would reduce in 2024/25 as older stock had been replaced.

 

Property

(0.150)

The underspend was due to lower utility costs than budgeted during the winter period.

 

Apprenticeship Levy Funding

0.248

As previously reported the Apprenticeship Levy income for the year was lower than budgeted due to a reduction in the number of recruits meeting the eligibility criteria for funding. This was included in the 2024/25 budget.

 

Training Centre – non pay

0.154

As previously reported, due to vacancies in the Training Centre, the department had to appoint more associate trainers than budgeted to meet the training needs of the service; this included driver training and specialist training such as swift water rescue as a result of the Emergency Cover Review (ECR). This pressure was offset by vacancies.

 

In March 2024 a grant of £0.245m was received from the Home Office to fund research activity managed by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). This would be grant funded to the NFCC in 2024/25.

General Reserve

The General Reserve exists to cover unforeseen risks and expenditure that may be incurred outside of planned budgets. In February the Authority approved the minimum level of General Reserve as advised by the Treasurer at £3.75m. Following the provisional outturn the level of the General Reserve at 1 April 2024 was £4.918m, this was above the minimum level of General Reserve set by the Authority.

Earmarked Reserves

Earmarked reserves are all funds that have been identified for a specific purpose. Members considered the proposed transfers to earmarked reserves of £0.532m as set out in appendix B of the report. The balance of all the earmarked reserves was £28.813m as at the 31 March 2024; this includes the Capital Reserve of £20.344m and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) reserves of £4.918m.

Capital Budget Provisional Outturn

The revised Capital Budget for 2023/24 was £7.769m. Total capital expenditure for the year was £6.034m, with slippage of £1.772 proposed to be transferred to the 2024/25 Capital Budget. Members considered the provisional outturn for the main programmes and projects set out in appendix C of the report.

The original approved capital programme for 2024/25 was £10.196m. This was updated for £1.772 of slippage outlined previously giving a revised Capital Budget for 2024/25 of £11.969m. The revised 2024/25 Capital Budget and funding was set out in appendix D.

Resolved: That the Committee: -

i)     Noted the Revenue Budget provisional revenue outturn.

ii)    Noted and endorsed the receipt and proposed use of grant funding set.

iii)   Noted the Capital Budget provisional outturn.

iv)   Noted and endorsed the revised Capital Budget for 2024/25.

v)    Noted and endorsed the transfer to earmarked reserves and year end reserve levels.

 

Supporting documents: