To present the Reserves Provisions and Balances 2017-2018

1.   That the transfers (to)/from earmarked reserves, provisions and general balances as detailed in tables 2, 3 and 4 be approved.

2. That the expenditure from provisions for their purposes as set out in Appendix 3 and 4, up to the value held in each provision as at 31 March 2018 be approved.

3.  That authority continue to be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Resources, in consultation with the Director of Finance, to allocate funds from the Budget Contingency Reserve, the Regeneration Reserve, the Efficiency Reserve, the Transformation Reserve, the Development Reserve, the Regional Work Reserve, the Enterprise Zone Business Rates Reserve, the Business Rates Equalisation Reserve, the Treasury Management Equalisation Reserve, the Pension Deficit Recovery Reserve and the Budget Strategy Reserve.

4. That authority be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Resources, in consultation with the Director of Finance, to allocate funds from the Highways Management Reserve.

5. That it be noted, the level of the Council’s earmarked reserves, provisions and general balances as at 31 March 2018 and the purposes for which they are being held, as detailed in Appendix 1, 2, 3 and 4.

6. That it be noted, the relevance and adequacy of earmarked reserves and general balances will be reviewed as required by the Constitution during the 2019-2020 budget setting process.

7. That it be noted, the allocation of funding from all earmarked reserves will be reported to Cabinet (Resources) Panel in the scheduled quarterly budget monitoring reports.

8. That it be noted, the Confident Capable Council Scrutiny Panel will scrutinise the use of reserves as part of the budget setting process as in previous years.

9. That it be noted, the Director of Finance considers that the overall level of all reserves, provisions and balances is sufficient to meet the likely level of obligations to be met from reserves, provisions and general balances in the short term.

10. That it be noted, the positive General Fund outturn position during 2017-2018, and the resulting adjustments to reserves, will help to support the Council’s short term financial position, enabling one-off investment to support transformation of the Council. However, it does not address the challenging financial position that the Council finds itself in over the medium term; namely identifying an additional £19.5 million of budget reduction and income generation proposals over the period of 2019-2020. Cabinet will be presented with a report at this meeting detailing the progress towards identifying £19.5 million of budget reduction and income generation proposals for 2019-2020.

11. That it be noted, the figures quoted in the report are still subject to statutory audit by Grant Thornton UK LLP as part of the 2017-2018 accounts closedown process.