Council under spend by £1.5m in last financial year

Rochdale Borough Council has reported an under spend of £1.5m in the financial year of 2009/10.

Eight of the borough’s services reported an under spend of more than £50,000. These areas included Finance Control, Learners and Young People, Regeneration and Schools.

Two service areas overspent their revenue budgets in 2009/10 with a variation of more than £50,000. Business Partnerships exceeded their budget by £1,012,000 and People Management overspent by £63,000.

A report to the cabinet states that the council’s policy regarding deficits is that services should recover these in the following year. The recommended action in respect of these deficits in 2009/ 10 is:

Business Partnerships – The overspend in Business Partnerships relates to the non achievement of the Procurement efficiency saving during 2009/10. The function is to be transferred to Finance Services from 1 April 2010 therefore it is recommended that the overspend is not carried forward into 2010/11

People Management – as part of the budget realignment exercise in September 2009 People Management contributed £186k of budget to those areas of high priority. It is therefore proposed in recognition of this services contribution to this process not to carry forward the overspend for this service and others in the less than £50k category who meet the same principle.

The net position of services under spending/overspending on their revenue budget is a net underspend of £1.5m.

Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Greg Couzens was unable for comment at the time of publication.