Issue - meetings

To present the financial outturn position as at June 2020.

The financial outturn position as at June 2020 was presented to members. It was reported that this had changed quite significantly since the pessimistic view of June primarily because more detail had been provided of the Government compensation scheme. In June it had been thought that HBBC would have a loss of over £1m on the budget and the biggest issues were the loss of revenue from the car parks and the leisure centre.

However, the compensation scheme had been more generous and would help to reduce these losses and HBBC would also receive some new burdens funding of about £130,000. This meant that instead of a loss of £1m it could be around £300,000 which would be more manageable.

The impact of the national pay award would also affect the budget as it had increased by 2.75% and not the expected increase of 2%.

The medium to longer term view had improved but there were still many unknowns as the winter and potential lockdown could affect losses if, for example rents were reduced as commercial tenants suffered and also depending on what happened with Cineworld. However the overall view was more optimistic with a note of caution.

In response to a member’s question it was noted that the crematorium would be delayed by about a year.

Members noted the report.