To agree the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 18 April 2024 and special Cabinet held on 14 May 2024, as a correct record

Resolved: That the Minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 April 2024 and Special Cabinet held on 14 May 2024, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Any interests not already registered

There were no additional declarations of interest.

There were none.

There were none.

The Chairman of Finance & Investment Advisory Committee presented the report which covered the draft outturn for the financial year to March 2024 and reported an unfavourable variance of £209,000.  This Outturn would remain draft until the Financial Statements had been audited after which time the final position would be confirmed.  As part of the 2024/25 Budget process, the Council agreed that £165,000 additional grant funding from Government would be used to offset the 2023/24 deficit which would result in a revised unfavourable draft outturn of £44,000. Members were advised that the Finance & Investment Advisory Committee had considered the same report thoroughly.

The Head of Finance advised that the financial year covered by the report had been a particularly challenging one. It had started with a £1.4m budget gap, and through significant work throughout the year, a number of savings had been achieved which had brought this initial budget gap down.

The unfavourable variances included the 2023/24 pay award, higher costs of running Direct Services with continuing high levels of waste, and additional costs from planning appeals. A number of measures had been implemented for Direct Services which should have a positive effect going forward.

The favourable variances included interest receipts with the returns in investments performing well due to higher interest rates and returns from the multi-assets funds. There were a number of vacancies not being filled across the organisation, where some of the vacancies were being offset by agency or consultant costs and others to deliver saving contributions to the overall financial position.

Members attention was also brought to the Leisure Contract and the draft outturn for 2023/24 was £1.050m due to a good performance and the receipt of the swimming pool grant.  In regards to the capital programme, expenditure stood at £11.8m against an annual budget of £33m. This was mainly due to delays to the Bevan Place and White Oak residential schemes.

Members considered the report, and expressed their thanks to Officers and the Portfolio Holder and Deputy Portfolio Holder for their efforts in significantly reducing the budget gap during the year.

Resolved: That the report be noted.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing & Health presented the report which was a partnership document that brought together a number actions that would be undertaken to deliver the health targets. The Action Plan had a focus on improving the overall health of residents (both physical and mental). A number of specific, measureable, achievable, and realistic targets (SMART) had been formulated under three priorities, which were places and communities, health behaviours and wider determinants of health.

It was a multi-agency document and was monitored on a quarterly basis to ensure that actions were on target and were helping to meet the identified success measures. The Housing & Health Advisory Committee had also considered the action plan, and supported it’s approval subject to the additional clarification of acronyms used and a glossary.

Members discussed the report and expressed their thanks to officers for the work undertaken, especially the partnership work with Kent County Council for working to reduce health inequality in the District.

Public Sector Equality Duty

Members noted that consideration had been given to impacts under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Resolved: That the Sevenoaks District Health & Wellbeing Action Plan 2024 – 25, be approved.  

This notice was published on  13 June 2024. The decision contained in Minute 9 take effect immediately. The decision contained in Minute 10 take effect on 24 June 2024.