Report of Councillor Phil Cowen, Executive Member for Finance & Growth.

Members are asked to note that this report has already been discussed at the Cabinet meeting on 7 September 2020 and has been recommended to Full Council for a decision.

Councillor Cowen, the Executive Member for Finance & Growth presented the report.

In these unprecedented times he doubted whether anyone could recall an instance when the Council had to consider a change to the budget part way through a fiscal year.

COVID 19 has had a significant impact on the workings and financial status of Councils throughout the United Kingdom and Breckland was no exception.

Earlier in the year, in June 2020, an interim report was presented on the likely and potential impact of COVID 19 on the budget that had been set prior to the outbreak.

The report now being considered contained two recommendations that were related directly to the impact of the pandemic and the likely cost effects having been drawn out of the Quarter One financial report that had been presented to the Cabinet meeting held earlier in the month on 7 September 2020.

Losses had been suffered through reductions in the Council’s income streams as shown in paragraph 1.3 of the report.  The Council had also experienced additional costs as identified in paragraph 1.4 of the report.  Government support had been targeted at some of the gaps the pandemic had created and whilst substantial, it had not fully funded the budget gap resulting from the impact of the pandemic.

However, Breckland Council through its prudent fiscal management had been able to absorb the majority of the financial gap by drawing down Reserves as shown in Appendix A of the report and the Council was confident that it should be able to put in place measures to address the £217k shortfall.

Furthermore, despite all the disruption, redeployment and change of working practices that staff had faced in the last 6 months, the Council Taxpayers of Breckland had been provided with an uninterrupted service. Bins had been emptied regularly, planning applications had been processed, communities had been supported and housing needs had been met.

Councillor Cowen thanked all the Teams within Breckland Council who had worked in challenging and often difficult circumstances to put this revised budget together. This had been a workstream that they had never encountered before and hopefully one which would not occur again.

Full details that supported the revised budget had been set out in the report and appendices. 

The recommendations were then commended to Members for approval.

Councillor Bushell asked if the Executive Member could confirm whether the Council could still deliver its growth agenda, having regard to the drain on finances as result of the Covid 19 outbreak had placed on the budget.  She also thanked the Officers who had worked diligently throughout. 

In response, Councillor Cowen advised that the report highlighted the significant sums that had to be drawn down from the Council’s Reserves in order to bridge the gap.  He drew attention to section 1.6 of the report that stated very clearly the great deal of work the Council was currently engaged in such as the HIF project in Thetford, the Snetterton power project as well as many others some of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67

Report by Councillor Philip Cowen, Executive Member for Finance and Growth.

The Executive Member for Finance and Growth presented the report

During these unprecedented times, he doubted whether any Member could recall a time when the Council had to consider a change to the budget part way through a fiscal year.

COVID 19 had had a significant impact on the workings and financial status of Councils throughout the United Kingdom and Breckland was no exception.

In June 2020 an interim report had been presented on the likely and potential impact of COVID 19 on the budget that had been set prior to the world changing in March 2020.

The Council had suffered losses through reductions in its income streams as shown in paragraph 1.3 and it had experienced additional costs as identified in paragraph 1.4 of the report.

Government support had been received to target some of the gaps that the pandemic had created and whilst the Government support had been substantial, it had not funded the budget gap fully as a result of the impact of the pandemic on Breckland.

However, the Executive Member was pleased to report that Breckland Council, through its prudent fiscal management, had been able to absorb the majority of the financial gap by drawing down reserves as shown in Appendix A of the report.  This authority was confident that as it moved forward it would be able to put in place measures to address the £217k shortfall.

The Executive Member thanked the Teams within the Council who had worked in challenging and, at times, often difficult circumstances to put this revised budget together. This had been a workstream that had never been encountered before and hopefully one which would not occur again.

Full details that supported the revised budget had been set out in the report and appendix A highlighted the summary of the Revenue Budget amendments.

Alison Chubbock, the Chief Accountant and Deputy S151 Officer was in attendance to answer any questions.

Members were asked to support the recommendations.

Councillor Clarke also paid tribute to the work of the Teams in these difficult circumstances not only for remote working, but for the challenges faced in respect of the reduction to the Council’s position.  He had noticed that the Council had lost revenue in a number of areas in particular, commercial services, following a number of abatements for tenants and he wondered if it would be possible to have a breakdown of where those particular gaps were taking into account that this would be commercially sensitive information.

The Executive Member stated that there had been a great deal of information that had gone into producing this report and due to the commercially sensitive nature attached to it, it had been summarised accordingly. He was sure that the Chief Accountant and her Team would be able to pull together a supportive document for Members whilst recognising that some of this information might not be able to be released.

Councillor Hewett, the Executive Member for Contracts & Assets, commented that it was odd to publicise and reflect on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56