• Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • LATIF
  • Conferences
  • Dashboard
  • Edit My Profile
  • Log In
  • Logout
  • Register
  • Edit this post

Room 151

  • 151 BRIEF

    What's New?

  • Welsh pension fund confirms £50m investment in clean energy

    August 10, 2022

  • Inflation ‘disastrous’ for local services, warns LGA

    August 10, 2022

  • Consultation opens into care charging reforms

    August 9, 2022

  • ADASS survey: ‘worst fears confirmed for adult social care’

    August 5, 2022

  • GMCA to unlock funds for home energy-efficiency upgrades

    August 4, 2022

  • Levelling up committee calls for urgent boost to social care funding

    August 4, 2022

  • Treasury
  • Technical
  • Funding
  • Resources
  • LGPS
  • Development
  • 151 News
  • Blogs
    • David Green
    • Agent 151
    • Dan Bates
    • Richard Harbord
    • Stephen Sheen
    • James Bevan
    • Steve Bishop
    • Cllr John Clancy
    • David Crum
    • Graham Liddell
    • Ian O’Donnell
    • Jackie Shute
  • Interviews
  • Briefs

Nottingham introduces spending freeze to head off £9m overspend

0
  • by Jim Dunton
  • in 151 News · Resources
  • — 3 Oct, 2019

Nottingham City Council is implementing a range of in-year spending controls including a hiring freeze and a halt to non-essential spending to deal with a projected £9m overspend.

The authority said it was committed to balancing its 2019/20 budget but said its actions are not being underpinned by the rare step of issuing a section 114 notice halting spending on non-statutory services.

Fellow East Midlands authority Northamptonshire Councy Council last year issued an unprecedented two s114 notices in the face of a projected £64m overspend in its 2017/18 budget, with the second an acknowledgement of continued difficulties for the 2018/19 financial year.

A city council spokesperson said the authority had not issued a s114 notice because it was confident that planned remedial measures would mean a its in-year spending commitments could be met despite a decade-long backdrop of cuts imposed by Westminster.

“We have not served a section 114 notice, because while we have had to make £271m of savings over the past nine years and like all councils face significant ongoing funding problems due to a huge drop in government funding, we have an action plan in place to address the projected overspend this year,” they said.

“The plan includes a vacancy freeze, stopping non-essential spending, ongoing restrictions on travel and conference attendance, a further review of reserves and scrutiny of spending by senior officers and councillors on a monthly basis.”

A report to Nottingham’s most recent executive board meeting accepted that balancing its books would be “increasingly challenging given the sustained financial context within which the council is operating”.

Last year Nottingham had a £1.7m overspend, down from the previous year’s £4.2m and 2016/17’s £2.5m.

Spending related to the children & young people (CYP) portfolio accounts for the bulk of the 2019/20 projected £9.0m overspend – some £5.0m.

A further £1.3m of the total comes from the early years, education & employment portfolio budget.

The executive board report, written by head of strategic finance and deputy section 151 officer Theresa Channell, said higher-than-anticipated children-in-care costs, higher agency staff costs and reductions in other income streams were the principal drivers for the CYP overspend.

Channell said the early years, education & employment portfolio overspend was caused by “unmet historical targets” and income projections from schools services that were now described as “unachievable”.

The remainder of the projected overspend related to other portfolios and were in the hundreds of thousands of pounds, typically the low hundreds of thousands.

With a new projected outturn of £56.3m, Nottingham’s CYP portfolio is the council’s second-largest area of service spending after the adult services & transport portfolio – which has a projected outturn for the year of £98.2m – £283,000 under budget.

In addition to what the executive board report describes as “vacancy freeze controls” Nottingham’s plan includes ending non-essential maintenance spending.

Channell’s report said the council had set a minimum level of general fund opening reserves at £10.6m for 2019/20 at the start of the financial year, a figure which required a medium-term financial plan increase of £1m during the year.

Her report said the 2019 overspend of £1.7m meant the revised opening balance for the year had been £9.0m and that “management action” was being undertaken to ensure that the general fund balance was “restored to the required level”.

Share

You may also like...

  • Abolition of section 106 agreements ‘threat to local prioritisation’ 5th May, 2022
  • “Localism, localism, localism”, or simply time for better funding 19th Apr, 2021
  • What’s the benefit of using the PSAA? 17th Aug, 2021
  • Hillier confirmed as keynote speaker for LATIF/FDs’ Summit 30th Jun, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • 151 BRIEFS – WHAT’s NEW?

    • Inflation ‘disastrous’ for local services, warns LGA
    • Consultation opens into care charging reforms
    • ADASS survey: ‘worst fears confirmed for adult social care’
    • GMCA to unlock funds for home energy-efficiency upgrades
    • Levelling up committee calls for urgent boost to social care funding
  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    Valuations & Risk
    LGPS Women

  • Room151’s LGPS Roundtables

    Biodiversity
    LGPS Women
    Valuations & Risk
  • Latest tweets

    Room151 3 hours ago

    Which LGPS pools and funds are attending the LGPS Investment Forum on Nov 2 & the LGPS Private Markets Forum on Nov 1st? Answer here: lnkd.in/eDHU8tuy pic.twitter.com/D3gd63Rh7F

    Room151 20 hours ago

    LGPS and levelling up: nothing to fear but fear itself: There have been a number of objections to government plans for LGPS funds to invest 5% of their assets in local projects. But George Graham says these objections can be[...] dlvr.it/SWL7vt pic.twitter.com/ebwBEkZTy4

    Room151 21 hours ago

    George Graham @SYpensions @bordertocoast channels his inner FDR in a call for local government pension funds to avoid the fear factor and embrace levelling up #LGPS #localgov room151.co.uk/local-governme…

    Room151 2 days ago

    Changes to rules on capital receipts raise wider questions: Stephen Kitching argues that DLUHC’s latest rule changes are part of a series following on from revisions to MRP guidance and the purchase of commercial property. He questions whether… dlvr.it/SWGqKC pic.twitter.com/Ycr5hWZDPk

    Room151 5 days ago

    ‘No ifs, no buts’: the Bank of England continues its battle with inflation: Partner Content: CCLA Investment Management’s Robert Evans discusses the MPC’s 0.5% increase in the Official Bank Rate and its ongoing commitment to the 2% inflation target… dlvr.it/SW7SNC pic.twitter.com/ryOzYRSNA9

    Room151 6 days ago

    DLUHC changes rules on flexible use of capital receipts: The levelling up secretary has written to all council leaders to amend the rules concerning the flexible use of capital receipts to fund transformation projects. In his letter, Greg Clark[...] dlvr.it/SW3jyX pic.twitter.com/KEhSSaMITl

    Room151 7 days ago

    Local audit and financial reporting: let’s take back control: Mazars’ Suresh Patel suggests three steps that auditors and council finance teams should take to help get financial reporting and local audit back on track. Following my recent appearance… dlvr.it/SW0PfV pic.twitter.com/miL7pjukce

    Room151 1 week ago

    The case for residential investment: income, impact and resilience: Partner Content: Emma Gullifer from Columbia Threadneedle discusses the options for pension funds looking to invest in residential property including the Build-to-Rent market.… dlvr.it/SVzKwN pic.twitter.com/hdgZ4zKt4H

    Room151 1 week ago

    Draft accounts: delays continue despite deadline dash: Dan Bates discusses the latest data on the publication of local authority accounts and examines why so many councils missed the 31 July deadline. Sunday 31 July 2022 was the[...] dlvr.it/SVx2ZT pic.twitter.com/gdELhD3Yis

  • Register to become a Room151 user

  • Previous story Warning over FCA rules aimed at preventing Woodford repeat
  • Next story Treasurers cautioned over maturing bonds

© Copyright 2022 Room 151. Typegrid Theme by WPBandit.

0 shares
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies from this website.OK