Report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer

The Panel received a report of the Assistant Director Resources/Treasurer (ADR/T) which presented the findings of the Month 8 monitoring undertaken on the Revenue and Capital Budget 2021/22 and Capital Programme 2021/22 to 2025/26.

It was noted that a net revenue underspend to the sum of £388,000 had been identified, an increase in underspend of £387,000 from the position identified in the last report to the Panel of £1,000 underspend.  This was mainly due to vacancies across the service, the identification of savings within ITG, underspends within Operational Support & Resilience offset by overspends in relation to overtime, Deputy Chief Fire Officer recruitment, additional allowances for Logistics & Control Support staff, ill health retirements and over budgeting on S31 business rates. Most in-year pressures would be dealt with through the use of contingency, use of reserves or service underspends.

With regards to the Capital Budget and Capital Strategy of £23,294,000 which was approved by the Fire Authority on 11 February 2021, this had been updated to £23,885,000 including slippage brought forward from 2020/21 (£364,000), IRMP vehicles and equipment (£142,000) and work at Seaford required for it to house the High Volume Pump (£85,000). The updated Capital Programme was forecasted to be underspent by £18,000.  The current risks to the Revenue budget and Capital programme were detailed in section 3 of the report.

RESOLVED: That Panel noted:

(i)             the risks to Revenue Budget and the projected overspend;

(ii)            the risks to the Capital Programme;

(iii)          the increased net forecast drawdown from reserves;

(iv)          the grants available and spending plans;

(v)           the monitoring of savings taken in 2021/22; and

(vi)          the current year investments and borrowing