Agenda and draft minutes

[The Chair to welcome everyone to the meeting.]

Cllr Zee Russell, Chair, welcomed everyone to the remote meeting of the working group and advised it was being live streamed to the press and public. A recording of the meeting would be available for viewing on the Council’s website.

Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, confirmed the following members were in attendance:

Cllr Zee Russell

Cllr Udey Singh (Vice-chair)

Cllr Louise Miles

Cllr Ellis Turrell

Cllr Tersaim Singh

Cllr Jonathan Crofts

The following employees were also in attendance:

Alison Shannon (Chief Accountant)

Claire Nye (Director of Finance)

Martin Stevens (Scrutiny Team Leader)

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[The Chair will explain how the meeting will proceed, how questions are to be asked and any matters of meeting etiquette.]

The Chair explained the protocol to be followed during the meeting for asking questions and reminded everyone that microphones should be muted and cameras off, unless have been invited to speak by the Chair.

There were no apologies submitted for the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

[Alison Shannon, Chief Accountant, to present the report]

The Chair invited Claire Nye, Director of Finance, to introduce the report before Alison Shannon, Chief Accountant, presented the detailed report to the working group.

The Director of Finance advised the working group that the aim of the report is get the views and comments of members as to the appropriateness and use of earmarked reserves held by the Council.

The Director of Finance advised the working group that the reserves are revenue resources set aside by the Council in previous financial years to fund specific items of expenditure in the future. The timing and certainty of this future expenditure will vary depending on the nature of the related spend. The level of reserves is reviewed for relevance and adequacy at least twice per financial year, as part of the outturn and budget preparation processes.

The Director of Finance advised the working group that reserves play an important role in financial stability of the Council and in helping to mitigate the risk of uncertainty and any potential future expenditure, and to support the delivery of the Council’s priorities. The Council is required to always retain a minimum General Fund Balance of £10 million in order that there are sufficient sums available to address the significant budget risks in the future.

The Council’s General Fund balance is £13.7 million, approximately 5% of the net budget for 2022-2023, and is in line with recommended best practice.  The Director of Finance explained reasons for recommending holding level of a general reserves balance above the amount set as the minimum in the Council Constitution.

The Director of Finance advised the working group about benchmarking work and the information provided by CIPFA but advised that the information was outdated and difficult to compare to previous years, due the impact of Covid 19 related Government grant funding during this period.  However, benchmarking work done to compare the level of Council reserves to those of neighbouring authorities who have a similar level of risk indicated that the level of reserves was at the lower end.

The Director of Finance commented on the importance of maintaining the current level of reserves and that each authority will take a different view about what to set aside for their general balance reserves. 

The Director of Finance advised the working group that school balance figures are held on behalf of schools and general reserve balances are presented for information only and are not within the scope of this report. 

The reserves detailed in Appendix 2 are also provided for information as there specific criteria which restricts their use.

The Director Finance invited members questions about the general reserve balances before inviting the Chief Accountant to the give a detailed presentation on the earmarked reserves by directorate as outlined in Appendix 1 for the working group to comment and to make recommendations.

The working group queried the calculation of the total General Balances figure of £20.7 million. The Chief Accountant reassured the group and advised that this amount includes £13.7 million for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.