Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that Councillor Coles be elected Chair of the Committee until the Annual General Meeting of the Authority in June 2018.

RESOLVED that Councillor Hoskings be elected Vice Chair of the Committee until the Annual General Meeting of the Authority in June 2017.

of the previous meeting held on 8 February 2017 attached.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 8 February 2017 be signed as a correct record.

Report of the Treasurer to the Authority (RC/17/6) attached.

The Committee considered a report of the Treasurer (RC/17/6) that set out the Service’s financial performance for the first quarter of 2017-18 against the targets agreed for the current financial year.  The report provided a forecast of spending against the 2017-18 revenue budget with explanation of the major variations.

The Committee noted that, at this early stage in the financial year, it was forecast that spending would be £0.449m more than the approved revenue budget, equivalent to 0.62%.  The overspend was attributable largely to the potential increase to the pay award for Firefighters which was budgeted for at 1% but the National Joint Council had offered 2%.  The Treasurer advised that the offer included the potential for a further 3% pay award from April 2018 which, if not supported by additional government funding, would add significant financial pressure to medium term financial planning. 

It was suggested that it may be useful for the Revenue Monitoring Statement to show the comparison on figures from the same quarter in the previous year and the Head of Finance agreed to discuss with the Chair how this might be presented in future.  The Treasurer advised that the Service would continue to identify in year savings to mitigate the overspend position currently predicted.

RESOLVED

(a)         That the Authority be recommended to approve the budget transfers            shown in Table 5 of report RC/17/6 (and as appended to these         minutes for reference);

(b)         That the transfers between Earmarked Reserves shown in Table 3 of          report RC/17/6 be approved; and

(c)         That, subject to (a) and (b) above, the monitoring position of projected         spending against the 2017-18 revenue and capital budgets and         performance against 2017-18 financial targets as set out in report       RC/17/6 be noted.

Report of the Treasurer to the Authority (RC/17/7) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Treasurer (RC/17/7) that set out details of the treasury management performance for the first quarter of 2017 (to June 2017) as compared to the agreed financial targets for 2017/18.  A revised Appendix A to this report was also circulated at the meeting.

Adam Burleton, representing Capita – the Authority’s Treasury Management Adviser – was present at the meeting and he gave an overview of the performance to date as measured against the approved Treasury Management Strategy.  He made reference to the following points:

·              The current interest rate forecast indicated that the bank rate was likely to remain stable at 0.25% until at least June 2019 followed by gradual increases possibly to 0.75% in March 2020, subject to the position on economic growth;

·              The Authority was outperforming the 3 month LIBID benchmark return of 0.19% with investment interest at £23,973 (0.37%) in Quarter 1;

·              There had been no additional external borrowing undertaken with the debt reducing slightly to £25.724m.  The Authority was maintaining its prudential approach to investment decisions with priority being given to liquidity and security over yield and no prudential indicators had been breached.

Reference was made to potential alternative investment strategies that might result in a greater yield for the Authority such as property investment via a consortium.  The Committee was advised that this would require a change to the approved Treasury Management Strategy.  The Chief Fire Officer added that consideration had to be given to the key functions of the Service and the best use of its funding accordingly.  He added that the new Integrated Risk Management Plan may result in changes in service delivery in the future but alternative investment strategies options could be considered and reported back to the Committee in due course.

APPENDIX TO THE MINUTES OF RESOURCES COMMITTEE HELD ON 1 SEPTEMBER 2017