Issue - meetings

To submit a report by the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer.

It was resolved to note the following –

·                The position set out in Appendices A and B of the report in respect of the Authority’s financial outturn for 2022/23.

·                The summary of Contingency budgets for 2022/23, detailed in Appendix C.

·                The monitoring of agency and consultancy costs for 2022/23 in Appendices CH, D and D.

The report of the Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer setting out the financial performance of the Council’s services at the end of Quarter 4, 31 March 2023 was presented for the Executive’s consideration.

Councillor Robin Williams, Portfolio Member for Finance presented the report and provided some context saying that the Council set a net budget for 2022/23 with net service expenditure of £158.365m to be funded from Council Tax income, NDR and general grants. This included a total for general and other contingencies amounting to £3.110m. The budget for the Council Tax Premium was increased by £0.436m to £1.950m. A balanced budget was set with an agreed Council Tax rise of 2%. As for the previous year services were not required to make savings. The increase of 9.2% in funding from Welsh Government was a welcome increase but did require the Council to commit to budget increases in a number of areas including social care and homelessness. Welsh Government support for Covid related expenditure also ended. The overall financial position for 2022/23 including Corporate Finance and the Council Tax Fund is a projected underspend of £1.212m which is 0.76% of the Council’s net budget for 2022/23.

Councillor Robin Williams said that although the outcome at year end is positive and improves the Council’s financial position it has been helped by a number of one-off items that have contributed to the underspend. These include non-recurring Welsh Government grants, better than budgeted for income levels, the use of earmarked reserves and a high level of staff vacancies without which the position would have been very different with an overspend of £2.867m being reported which would have created a significant gap in the budget going into 2023/24. Most of the financial advantages which have bolstered the Council’s financial position at the end of 2022/23 will not re-occur to the same extent in 2023/24 meaning the Council will still be facing financial pressure in 2023/24 and beyond. Councillor Williams reiterated that as Portfolio Member for Finance he had always taken a prudent approach to the budget taking a long-term view, maintaining reserves, and not rushing decisions in the face of calls to not raise Council Tax. He highlighted that Anglesey remains one of the lowest charging authorities in Wales for Council Tax and is the lowest in North Wales. Increasing the Council Tax is done to balance the budget from one year to the next and not for the sake of it.

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer referred to continuing uncertainties in relation to the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years. Although the underspend means that the position of the Council’s balances at £10.2m moving forward, is £1.4m above the minimum recommended value of 5% of the net revenue budget for 2023/24 having taken account also of the £3.8m committed as funding of the 2023/24 budget, there remain unresolved issues around staff pay increases with non-teaching unions having rejected the pay offer for 2023/24 and teachers pay having been settled to August  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7