Resources Agenda 12-01-2021

Item 10 – 2021/22 Budget

I have attached the latest versions of the income(V4) and expenditure (V5) budgets for the next financial year. These have been updated following receipt of the tax base and the addition/reduction of a small number of cost items.

Income Budget

FHDC have advised used that Tax Base for the coming year for a Band D Equiv property will be  £1,890.59 which is a 2.49% reduction on the current year figure of £1,938.83. The impact of this reduction will be to reduce our income by £2,018.46. The current years Precept was £81,063.00.

We had discussed previously seeking a 2% increase on the Precept. Taking into account the reduced tax base this has reduced our forecast precept income to £80,625.43. The budget we had discussed previously had assumed Precept income to be £82,684 so a reduction in income of £2,058.57.

Overall we are forecasting income of £127,843.00 prior to a transfer of £1,667.00 from General Reserves (see Summary below) which gives total income of £129,510.00.

Expenditure Budget

1/ Following a recent meter reading at the Boat House the monthly water costs have been reduced from £300 per month to £146. The £300 per month payment  has been in place since December last year following a long period of estimated meter readings during which arrears had accrued. I had budgeted £2400 for this but have reduced to £1800.

2/ We have received notification from Scribe that our management information cost will increase from £347 pa to £468 from 1^st July which is paid annually. I have increased the budget figure to cover.

3/ I have added an additional CCTV item which is the annual £40.00 GDPR/Data Protection/ICO Registration.

Overall these changes reduce expenses by £439.00 and our expenditure budget to £129,510.00

Summary

Our budget is now predicting an excess of expenditure over income of £1,667.00

Whilst it may be possible to reduce still further some forecast expenditure items  we did look very closely at all items when drawing the initial budget and the current figures look realistic. Hopefully we may see some savings during the year but mindful this may not be possible. T

The recommendation is that the precept increase is, as previously agreed, 2% for 2021/22 for a Band D household, and that we draw from reserves to balance the budget. To that end I have included a line on the income budget to show a draw from general reserves of £1,667.