Agenda item

Report of The Chamberlain, The Town Clerk, The City Surveyor, The Remembrancer, The Executive Director of Mansion House and Old Bailey and The Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Committee received a Joint Report of the Chamberlain, the Town Clerk, the City Surveyor, the Remembrancer, the Executive Director of Mansion House and Old Bailey, and the Director of Community and Children’s Services concerning the revenue outturn for the services overseen by the Finance Committee in 2020/21 and the final budget for the year. It also details the carry forward requests which have now been approved.

In response to queries around the underspend, the Chamberlain assured Members that, whilst the pandemic had a significant impact on the budget over the course of the year,   she was confident that, overall, we were in good shape; pointing, for example, to our fortuitous position with regards insurance premiums due to a lack of activity during lockdown. She also highlighted that the number of Carry Forwards has reduced this year.

In response to a separate query, the Chamberlain and the Chairman confirmed that the 3 year duration cycle for the Cyclical Works Programme was being reduced from three years to a single year, this was in order to help ensure that essential work was carried out in a more swift, timely manner in future.

The £1.5m identified against the CWP on table 1 of the Report was carried forward; there was slippage this year due to the pandemic and a consequent re-profiling of work timelines. The Chairman asked that future iterations of the Report provide a clearer explanation for CWP cash movements and underspends. It was also asked that Corporate Asset Sub-Committee should have sight of this on a more frequent basis as part of their usual remit.

RESOLVED – that the Committee noted the Report.