Issue details

This report provides details for Cabinet on the county council's 2020/21 revenue and capital outturn position.

The 2020/21 revenue position at the end of the year is net expenditure of £825.619m, against an approved budget of £844.851m, which represents an in-year underspend of £19.232m or 2.28% of the revenue budget.

This has been an exceptional year due to the pandemic, with a significant number of different grants received from the government at various points through the year to support additional activity and costs to support local communities. The grants relate to one off non-recurrent funding with the majority expected to have been spent by 31 March 2021 or specified earlier points, but some being carried forward into 2021/22 reflecting activities which necessarily need to continue into the following financial year. Additionally, some further grants have been awarded for the first quarter of 2021/22 but it must be recognised that there have been changes in the type of costs that may be incurred and uncertainty as to exact scale and speed of increased demand for a number of services as we recover from the pandemic, particularly social care, that will impact on the medium term financial strategy.  Another significant factor is in relation to savings delivery, as in the region of c£30m of agreed 2020/21 savings have necessarily been delayed and now must be delivered in 2021/22, in addition to savings that have already been agreed to be delivered in 2021/22 as part of their agreed profile, bringing the total to c£43m.

The capital programme for 2020/21 totalled £160.420m with the programme delivering an outturn position of £127.810m, resulting in an underspend against budget of £32.610m.