Agenda item

To review and note the progress on the Annual Governance Statement action plan.

Members considered the Annual Governance Statement update presented by Kathy Woodward.

Members made comments, asked questions, and received responses as follows:

• Councillor Yeulett recognised the situation in Ukraine and the impact this would have on the UK regarding the number of refugees seeking shelter. He asked whether this was an area that needed to be flagged or whether this would be tackled later. Kathy Woodward explained that the issues raised would be picked up as part of the risk register and informed the Committee that the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Resilience Forum were also discussing the matter. She explained that they were keeping a watching brief as it was unclear as to the effect it would have on the Council. Regarding the Annual Governance Statement, she informed him that they would include a watching brief on the area in this.
• Councillor Booth identified the shortfall predictions and variances and raised that there was a wide variance in the figures of around £600,000. He explained that this was not good practice and asked whether they could do anything to avoid this in future. Peter Catchpole explained that there were many unknowns in the budget and changes they could never have envisaged. He reasoned that they had performed very well in the situation and hoped that they would continue to outperform the budget going forward. He stated that the only certainty in the budget was Council Tax and that everything else had a level of uncertainty around it noting that the budget was compiled relatively early and lots changed between November and when it was published. He stated that he was happy to see the drop of £600,000 and hoped that it would drop by more.
• Councillor Booth recognised that it was not the best year for predictions due to the situation and stated his hope that it would be more stable going forward. He reiterated that having such wide variances in the budget should be avoided wherever possible and asked how the Council could manage finances responsibly when they are half a million out. Peter Catchpole informed him that he had analysed the neighbouring Council’s budgets and found that no one came as close to Fenland’s predictions and outcomes. He recognised that putting an accurate budget forward did have key decision making implications on areas such as Council tax rates and stated they try to be as accurate as possible but reiterated that there were many variables that change from one year to the next including government funding and grants which made the task difficult.    
• Councillor Benney recognised that they were looking at one of the worst years possible due to Covid-19 and identified that they did not have to pull heavily from the reserves despite this. He stated that Councillor Boden had set up the Equalisation Fund which had wiped out nearly £243,000 of the deficit. He expressed that he felt the Council had done very well considering the impact of the crisis and that this had shown good management by the Council, Peter Catchpole and the portfolio holder for finance, Councillor Boden.

Members AGREED to note the progress made against the actions identified in the Annual Governance Statement for 2020/21.