Agenda item

To present the Council’s forecast 2023/24 financial position as at end of December 2023. The report covers the following areas:

·       General Fund Revenue Budget

·       Housing Revenue Account Budget

·       Capital Programmes – General Fund and Housing Revenue Account

·       Reserves overview – General Fund and Housing Revenue Account

Purpose of report

To present the Council’s forecasted 2023/2024 financial position as at end of December 2023. The report covered the General Fund Revenue Budget, Housing Revenue Account Budget, Capital Programmes and Reserves Overview.

Decision

That Cabinet:

1.    Noted the forecast 2023/2024 outturn position for the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account Revenue and Capital Budgets as at the end of December 2023.

Alternative options considered and rejected

This was a monitoring report, therefore no other options were considered.

Reasons for decision

Members should be kept updated on the financial position of the Authority, as effective budget management was critical to ensuring financial resources were spent in line with the budget and were targeted towards the Council’s priorities. Monitoring enabled the early identification of variations against the plan and facilitated timely corrective action.

This report provided an overview of the forecasted 2023/24 financial position for the Council and focused on the position as at the end of December 2023. The financial position as at the end of December 2023 was more positive than originally predicted, due to a number of factors; one example was less pressure on utility bills than had been expected.

The report would also be considered by the Finance and Economic Overview and Scrutiny Committee.