The Committee considered the report of the Director of Financial Services which had been referred for pre-Cabinet scrutiny, presenting the Delivery of Southend 2050 Outcomes and Priorities: Annual Report and Provision Outturn 2022/23.

In response to a number of questions, the Leader of the Council explained that a written response could be provided and suggested that the meeting move into exempt session at the end to enable Councillors to ask questions on subjects that were commercially sensitive.

The Leader of the Council made a formal offer to Councillor P Collins and Councillor R Woodley to work with Cabinet on the Capital Programme, to which it was confirmed further discussions would take place outside of the meeting.  

Resolved:

That the following recommendations to be referred to Cabinet be noted:

1.     Note the achievements, successes and challenges brought to life within the Annual Report 2022/23 (Section 4 and Appendix 1).

2.     Note the provisional 2022/23 revenue outturn position for both the General Fund (Section 5) and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) (Section 6) and delegate the agreement of any final adjustments following the completion and audit of the Statement of Accounts to the Executive Director (Finance and Resources).

3.     Consider and approve the appropriation of revenue funds to and (from) earmarked reserves, as set out in Section 5.19 to 5.27 (General Fund) and Section 6.6 (HRA).

4.     Note the potential revenue impact of the 2022/23 outturn on the 2023/24 General Fund budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy (Section 5.28 – 5.44).

5.      Note that the expenditure on the capital investment programme for 2022/23 totalled £51.822M against a revised budget of £61.820M (Section 7.4).

6.     Approve the relevant budget carry forwards and accelerated delivery requests totalling a net £13.032M moving into 2023/24 and future years, as set out in Appendix 2.

7.     Approve the virements, reprofiles, additions, deletions and new external funding for schemes, as detailed in Appendix 2 and note that this will result in an amended Capital Investment Programme deliverable by the Council of £137.705M for the period 2023/24 to 2027/28, as detailed in Appendix 3.

8.      Note the requested changes as detailed in Appendix 2 will result in an amended total Capital Investment Programme deliverable by South Essex Homes Limited, Porters Place Southend-on-Sea LLP and Kent County Council of £59.046M, as detailed in Appendix 3. Page 3 of 36

9.     Note that a further review of the affordability and prioritisation of the current approved Capital Investment Programme and all the schemes currently listed as subject to viable business cases will be brought back to a future Cabinet meeting.

10.  Note the content of the Infrastructure Funding Statement 2022/23 (included in Appendix 4) and agree to carry forward CIL Main Fund receipts from reported year 2022/23 and previous reported years until the CIL Governance Framework and spending plans are reviewed for the reported year 2023/24, or Cabinet authorise any detailed spending proposals.

11.  Delegate authority to the Executive Director for Growth and Housing (in consultation with Ward Members and the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning) to agree how the CIL Ward Neighbourhood Allocations received up until 31 March 2023 (excluding allocation to Leigh Town Council) are to be spent.

Note: This is an Executive function.

Cabinet Member: Councillor T Cox