1. A-Z of Services
  2. A
  3. B
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E
  7. F
  8. G
  9. H
  10. I
  11. J
  12. K
  13. L
  14. M
  15. N
  16. O
  17. P
  18. Q
  19. R
  20. S
  21. T
  22. U
  23. V
  24. W
  25. X
  26. Y
  27. Z

Agenda and minutes

Contact: Pamela Tasker  Governance Officer

Items
No. Item

1.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None

2.

Minutes of the Last Meeting pdf icon PDF 126 KB

Minutes:

Regarding actions, The Head of Finance commented that he has raised the issues with the housing benefits subsidy claim with the Chief Executive and the Cabinet Member, and a working group between finance and housing are getting together to address these issues and they will report back. This issue is now in hand.

The minutes were accepted as a true and accurate record. Cllr Gail Giles commented that she was not present previously so could not comment.

 

3.

Statement of Accounts 2020/2021 pdf icon PDF 3 MB

Minutes:

The Head of Finance introduced Rob Green as part of his team. Rob came from Cardiff Council where he held a senior finance role.

The Head of Finance introduced Laura Mahoney, the Senior Finance Business Partner, who will present the main aspects of the accounts. This has clearly been a difficult year, there have been some delays in presenting the accounts. It has been a difficult 12 months in terms of dealing with the Covid-19 issues which has had a major impact on the accounts. This presentation will focus on reserves, provisions, conditions, and liabilities. These are the key financial backbone risks.

The Senior Finance Business Partner presented this item. The draft accounts include both single entity and group accounts. The accounts were not authorised for publication until 2nd July 2021 (should have been 31st May). This was delayed, due to receiving money from the hardship fund from Welsh Government which required a large amount of work to deal with. There were also some staff absences within the team which impacted authorisation of the accounts. The team are now working towards presenting the final accounts.

One of the key messages is that the revenue budget had an underspend of £14 million, due to the Council being in receipt of one-off Welsh Government funding. Not just restricted to expenditure but also claiming loss of income due to Covid-19. Also underspends in all service areas due to a reduction in administration, and a change to normal working plans that couldn’t be carried out due to Covid-19. Underspend was also due to the council tax reduction scheme and council tax income.

Capital Programme out turned £26.2 million, carrying forward £7.1 million due to slippage into 2021/22. Main reasons for slippage are due to £763,000 worth of loans due to external companies and delays at the start of the financial year reduced the ability to have these progressed. There was £4 million of active travel grants- there has been approval to carry over a number of grants from 2021/22. The team do experience delay in getting reward letters through which can delay the start of projects. There was also £1 million of slippage in Education, again due to delayed projects.  

Reserves increased by net £21.2 million, which is mainly made up of a school’s underspend of £8.5 million which has been transferred to schools’ reserves, and £14 million general underspend which has been transferred to general reserves.

The impact of Covid-19 on the statement is that it delayed the preparation of accounts. It has also had a significant impact on the assumptions made about the future. As was the same last year, the valuation of operational property has been reported on the basis of material valuation uncertainty. The Council also received a number of grants as a result of Covid-19. The 2020/21 financial support received across all areas totalled £27.3 million. In addition to direct financial support, the Council also acted as an agent for Welsh Government, for example with administering business  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

4.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 83 KB

Minutes:

·       The Chair commented that there is the issue of duplication of some items in the work programme

o   Democratic Services team agree to amend this

 

5.

Webcast