Decision Details

Report of the Interim Director for Finance and Section 151 Officer

On 21 January 2025 Cabinet:-

1. Noted the City Council’s provisional revenue outturn position for 2023/24 of an overspend of £76.5m before the corporate use of reserves (Section 5, to the report, refers);

    

2. Noted the outturn position on the Collection Fund (for Council Tax, Business Rates, and allied Section 31 Grant income) and its impact on the Council’s General Fund (Section 6, to the report, refers);

    

3. Noted the Council’s reserves forecast closing balance of £811.0m as at 31 March 2024 (Section 7, to the report, refers);

    

4. Noted the resource allocations within Specific Policy Contingency, the Apprenticeship Levy, Energy costs, Eurocities. These allocations have already been agreed by the Section 151 Officer under delegated authority (Section 8, to the report, refers);

    

5. Noted the HRA outturn position of a £26.5m underspend for the 2023/24 financial year and the transfer of the balance to the ring fenced HRA reserve (Section 9, to the report, refers);

    

6. Noted the DSG position of a £20.8m underspend and the transfer of the balance to the Ring Fenced DSG reserve (Section 10, to the report, refers);

    

7. Noted the capital programme outturn position for the 2023/24 financial year of £149.5m underspend against the revised annual budget of £539.4m (Section 11, to the report, refers); and

    

8. Noted the Treasury Management Annual 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 (Section 12, to the report, refers).

    

9. Approved the use of the Strategic Reserve to fund the £76.5m General Fund revenue budget overspend (Section 7, to the report, refers);

    

10. Approved the other uses and releases of and contributions to Grant and Earmarked Reserves and Balances, noting that since the 2023/24 financial year the reserves policy has changed, as part of the 2024/25 budget that was approved by City Council in March 2024 (Section 7 and Appendix 2, to the report, refers);

     

11. Approved the slippage of £141.3m in the 2023/24 capital programme into future years to complete the programmed projects (Section 11, to the report,  refers);

     

12. Approved the financing of capital expenditure for 2023/24 (Section 11, to the report, refers); and

     

13. Approved 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 2023/24 financial year and if deemed appropriate, reported back to Cabinet and the Finance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee; and
14.  Approved the funding of the £9.8m Birmingham Children’s Trust (BCT) deficit, which is part of the overall budget overspend of £76.5m (Appendix 1C, to the report, refers): and
15. Approved the funding of £3.0m of BCT pension liabilities, which is also part of the overall budget overspend (Appendix 1C, to the report, refers).

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