Agenda item

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety was present together with Alan Layton, Director Financial Management

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         The Committee noted the General Fund anticipated forecast outturn position for 2016/17m, as at August 31, and that there will be a net overspend of £0.9m after a £3m drawdown from the contingency reserve

·         It was noted that the HRA is forecast to break even over the year

·         It was noted that the £116.5m of capital expenditure will be delivered in 2016/17

·         Concern was expressed at the overspends in certain departments, especially Environment and Regeneration, and that the savings envisaged were not being realised, especially in relation to the Village principle, which has still not been implemented

·         Councillor Hull stated that there had been problems in implementing the Village principle but these were being looked at and it was felt that these savings will eventually be realised. He stated that he would request the Director of Environment and Regeneration to inform Members of the detailed reasons for the delay

·         Reference was made to paragraph 4.6 of the report, the long standing structural issues in Environment and Regeneration, and the non-achievement of savings and delays in implementing service changes. Councillor Court, the Chair of Environment and Regeneration stated that the Director of Environment and Regeneration would be attending the next meeting of the Environment and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee and that the Committee would be questioning him on the reasons for the non- achievement of savings and the long standing structural issues that need to be resolved

·         Reference was made to the Data Circuit savings in paragraph 4.77 of the report and it was stated that this is in relation to selling wi-fi and that it will now benefit the HRA rather than the General Fund as most of the sites were on housing land

·         Councillor Hull referred to the fact that Islington was in a healthier financial position than a number of other Local Authorities and that L.B.Haringey were facing a £26m projected defecit in their budget, whereas the Council were projecting a £0.9m defecit, after the additional contingency funding

·         Reference was made to paragraphs 4.7.1 to 4.77 of the report and that the Director of Environment and Regeneration and Executive Member for Environment and Transport should provide an explanation of the reasons for the overspends/non-achievement of savings

·         Councillor Hull informed the Committee that there is additional funding being generated through the Parking account and the modelling used for future income generation is a realistic one

·         Councillor Hull stated ;that he felt that the lack of achievement of income generation savings only tended to be addressed at Budget time and that this needed to be dealt with in more detail in future years

·         Reference was made to the projected increased pupil numbers and that of children’s placements and that the Council needed to have improved demographic information  in order to plan and budget for these increases more effectively and that ways of doing this were being investigated

·         In response to a question it was stated that Adult Social Care were anticipating a break even position over the financial year in addition to Public Health

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the report be noted

(b)  That the Director of Environment and Regeneration be requested to inform the Committee of the reasons for the non- achievement of savings, overspends etc. as detailed above

The Chair thanked Councitllor Hull for his presentation