Agenda item
Minutes:
Councillor Sean Serridge joined the meeting.
The Director of Corporate Services (DoCS) advised that this report set out the current budget position in respect of the 2024/25 revenue and capital budgets.
Revenue Budget
Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service’s 2024/5 revenue budget was set at £74.149m. The budget profiled to the end of May 2024 was £25.307m and expenditure for the same period was £25.172m, resulting in a year-to-date underspend of £0.129m.
The overall underspend position was further broken down between pay and non-pay budgets; there was an underspend of £0.209 on pay and a £0.080m overspend on non-pay activities.
Adjustments had been made to the forecasts to reflect known changes, but in headline terms the forecast for the year was a small overspend of £0.173m, which was 0.2% of the net budget.
The year-to-date and forecast positions within all departmental budgets were set out in Appendix 1, with the major variances of note shown separately in the table below.
|
Area |
Year to Date |
Forecast |
Reason |
|
Service Delivery - Pay |
£0.019m |
£0.279m |
The pay award of 4% was agreed effective July 2024, this was 1% above the services budgeted assumptions which largely accounted for the forecast variance. |
|
Prevention and Protection - Pay |
(£0.168m) |
(£0.361m) |
Several vacant posts existed in the current staffing establishment for which recruitment was planned long term. It was anticipated that 3 posts would be recruited to in year, with a few vacancies to persist for the duration of the financial year. Challenges persisted in recruitment and retention due to competition from the private sector. |
|
Fleet – Non Pay |
£0.103m |
£0.223m |
Vehicle repair and maintenance costs remained high due to inflationary pressures and demand for parts across the industry. |
|
Bank Interest |
(£0.068m) |
(£0.196m) |
Favourable interest rates and new fixed term investment opportunities indicated an early forecast of additional income on budget. |
Future Pressures
Green book pay award negotiations were ongoing and were budgeted at 3%. Unison had put the current offer of a flat £1290 pay increase to ballot for industrial action among its members. Current pay projections used the 3% budgeted rate.
Additionally, the employer’s contribution rate to the 2015 Firefighters’ pension scheme as determined by the scheme actuary was increased from 28.8% to 37.6%. Additional grant funding was assumed to offset this pressure.
Capital Budget
The revised Capital Programme for 2024/25 approved by the Resources Committee was £12m. To date £0.984m had been spent predominantly on operational equipment for cutting and extraction. A summary of the programme was set out in Appendix 2.
A summary of the programme is set out below: -
|
Area |
Budgeted Items |
Budget |
Year to Date |
|
Operational Vehicles Budget
|
The budget included initial costs of two water towers, two climate change vehicles and an aerial appliance from previous programmes. It also included three pumping appliances for the 2024/25 programme. A number of other vehicles were on course for delivery at budget in year, including two water towers, a prime mover, plus a foam pod and an All-Terraine Vehicle. |
£2.943m |
£0.139m |
|
Other vehicles Budget |
This budget allowed for the replacement of various operational support vehicles including several cars, vans and a beavertail lorry. |
£0.948m |
£0.066m |
|
Operational Equipment Budget
|
This budget allowed for operational equipment purchases including CCTV cameras for appliances and cutting and extrication equipment. |
£1.846m |
£0.639 |
|
Building Modifications Budget
|
This budget included the continued programme of Drill Tower Replacements and budget for the initial works to support the upgrade to Preston station. |
£3.639m |
£0.094 |
|
IT systems Budget |
This budget included various projects including upgraded Firewalls, network upgrades and replacement of pooled PPE and stock management systems. |
£2.593m |
£0.046 |
A detailed review of the Capital Programme had identified a number of areas where expenditure would slip into 2025/26, the table below sets out the main items of slippage:
|
Area |
Slippage to 2025/26 |
Reason |
|
Operational Vehicles |
(£1.501) |
Delivery times on operational vehicles post COVID and Brexit were still much longer than anticipated across the sector resulting in delays; a number of pumping appliances, an Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) and climate change vehicle were delayed to early 2025/26. |
|
Other vehicles
|
(£0.388) |
The useful remaining life of a number of operational support vehicles had been extended resulting in slippage to the following year. |
|
Building Modifications
|
(£0.962) |
The project to enhance facilities at W30 (Blackpool) had incurred some initial costs and would continue to deliver in year, but would see final completion in 2025/26. Similarly, Drill Tower replacement works would see part delivery in year. |
|
IT systems
|
(£0.544) |
A review of the IT systems capital programme had identified a number of projects that would likely slip into 2025/26; in particular the replacement systems for the management of stock, assets and pooled PPE. Existing contracts had been extended. |
|
|
(£3.404) |
|
The report had included slippage of £250k for Operational Equipment which the DoCS had requested be removed.
Resolved: That the Committee noted and endorsed the financial position and approved slippage in the capital programme of £3.404m to 2025/26.
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