Agenda item - Public Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by members of the public:

(a)      Petitions: to receive any petitions presented by members of the public to the full Council or as notified for presentation at the meeting by the due of 15 January 2018;

(b)      Written Questions: to receive any questions submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 19 January 2018;

(c)      Deputations: to receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 19 January 2018.

(D)     DEPUTATIONS

(i)            Housing Estate Development Budget

80.1      The Committee considered a deputation that requested clarification on various financial aspects of the Housing Estate Development for 2018/19 and subsequent years.

80.2      The Deputy Chair provided the following response:

“On 17th January 2018, Housing and New Homes Committee agreed to recommend the HRA capital programme and financing budget of £36.344m to Policy Resources & Growth (PR&G) Committee of 8th February 2018. The HRA Budget and Capital Investment Programme 2018/19 and Medium Term Financial Strategy report proposes a 2018/19 budget for the Estates Development Budget (EDB) of £348,000 and provisional budgets for 2019/20 and 2010/21 as £354,000 and £183,000 respectively as shown in Appendix 4 of that report.

For clarity, the budgets for 2018/19 and 2019/20 are being supplemented by EDB earmarked reserves, estimated at £170,000 in 2018/19 and £169,000 in 2019/20. This is shown in the funding summary of the same Appendix 4.

The earmarked reserves table for EDB is shown in Appendix 2 of the report (as included in the deputation.) The balance at the beginning of this financial year was £599,000 and the projected balance at 31/3/2018 is £339,000, so this assumes that £260,000 of the reserves will be used for expenditure in 2017/18. The reason for this assumption is that the forecast spend on EDB for the year is £408,000 plus a further £33,000 in overheads – a total of £441,000 (forecast as at month 7). So, this uses the budget of £181,000 plus £260,000 from reserves which is equal to £441,000 for the year.

You mention a sum of £402,000 available for bidding, but this will often be different to the total spend for the financial year. There may be some spend during this financial year that relates to bids made in 2016/17. This is the difference and hopefully explains the confusion.

So, to conclude, the budgets included in the budget report are as described in the report - £348,000 for 2018/19 and provisional budgets for 2019/20 and 2010/21 of £354,000 and £183,000 respectively. These budget figures include overheads of £28,000, 35,000 and 33,000 in 2018/19 to 2020.21 accordingly. Also, you are correct that levels have been kept above the £300,000 threshold because reserves have not depleted as quickly as originally forecast.

The balance of reserves will change depending on actual spend for the year. If less is spent on EDB in 2017/18 than forecast, reserves will be higher than expected and this can be used to supplement further EDB spend. The level of this earmarked reserve will continue to be reported in the budget report annually and through area panels and other tenant groups as necessary.”

80.3      RESOLVED- That the committee note the Deputation.