1. Cabinet noted:-
(a) the City Council’s provisional revenue outturn position for 2022/23 of an overspend of £66.2m before the corporate use of reserves, as detailed in Section 4 and Appendices 1A to 1H to the report;
(b) the outturn position on the Collection Fund (for Council Tax and Business Rates income), as set out in Appendix 4 to the report, and its impact on the Council’s General Fund;
(c) the Council’s reserves forecast of £802.4m as at 31 March 2023, as set out in Section 6;
(d) the HRA outturn position of a £5.6m underspend for the 2022/23 financial year, as set out in Section 7 and the transfer of the balance to the ring fenced HRA reserve;
(e) the capital programme outturn position for the 2022/23 financial year of £330.8m below the annual budget of £737.8m (as set out in Section 8 to the report);
(f) the resource allocations within Specific Policy Contingency, the Apprenticeship Levy, SEND Improvement, Delivery Plan, as set out in Section 6 to the report, these have already been agreed by the Section 151 Officer under delegated authority. These are the allocations that have happened since the last report;
(g) the Treasury Management Annual Report as set out in Section 9 to the report, which demonstrates that the Council remained within its prudential limits set under the Local Government Act 2003 and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Prudential Code for Capital Finance.
2. Cabinet Approved:-
(a) the use of corporate reserves to fund the forecast £66.2m General Fund revenue budget overspend, as set out in Section 6 to the report;
(b) the slippage of £330.8m in the 2022/23 capital programme into future years to complete the programmed projects;
(c) the other uses and releases of and contributions to Grant and Earmarked Reserves and Balances set out in Section 6 and detailed in Appendix 3 to the report, noting that since the 2022/23 financial year the reserves policy has changed, as part of the 2024/25 budget that was approved by City Council in March 2024;
(d) the financing of capital expenditure for 2022/23 as set out in Section 8 to the report; and
(e) the Section 151 Officer has the authority to make necessary changes and any further movements will be highlighted to Audit Committee and shown in the final accounts for the 2022/23 financial year and if deemed appropriate, reported back to Cabinet and the Finance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
NB: THIS DECISION IS NOT SUBJECT TO CALL IN