Issue - meetings

Finance and Economic Development - This report (C-033-2020-21) presents the first four month’s (till the end July 2020) of the General Fund Budget Monitoring report for Epping Forest District Council.

The Cabinet discussed and noted the contents of the report.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Economic Development introduced the report on the first four months of the general fund budget.

The focus on Covid19 related activities and the impact this had on the normal delivery of Council services had made the production process more complex.  Hence, 4 months of performance was reported, as opposed to the normal 3 (one quarter) in order to provide a more up to date understanding of the position. 

Covid19 has had a massive impact on the Council, in terms of its focus and in terms of generating cost pressures.  Necessarily, the Council had to respond to the impact, but the consequence of this, in financial and service delivery terms, was large variances against the spend and income profiles which were anticipated when the budget was set.

As the majority of the impacts, response and variances had been associated with General Fund services, effort and focus had been focused on understanding the impact in this area for this report. An update on the Housing Revenue Account and Capital would be contained in the next monitoring report.

Although confidence was low, as had previously been reported, the Council had comfortable levels of Balances and Reserves and this meant that there was confidence that the Council could cover the in-year impacts on the budget from the Pandemic.

Councillor Philip noted that the report was for 4 months of the pandemic and there was still 8 months left.

DECISION:

The Cabinet discussed and noted the contents of the report.

Reasons for Proposed Decision:

This report presents the first four month’s (till the end July 2020) General Fund Budget Monitoring report for Epping Forest District Council.

Other Options for Action:

None, as this was a report on the first four month period.