Highland Council Final Accounts For 2018/19 Show Improved Position

17th May 2019

A greatly improved financial position is to be reported to the council's Corporate Resources Committee meeting next week for the financial year 2018/19. The position reflects the overspend reducing by £3M due to management actions in recent months.

Budget Leader Cllr Alister Mackinnon, Chair of the Resources Committee said: "The final outturn for the year is an overspend of £2.280M. This reflects a substantial improvement from the forecasted overspend at end of quarter 3 of £5.550M. This is around £3M better than anticipated a few months ago.

"This more positive position demonstrates the steps taken at an early stage to address and correct what was a worsening position at the time. Strong governance, vacancy management and expenditure controls have not been easy, but have been essential to bring us back into a more stable position. I want to thank all staff for their help with delivering this result."

He added: "We will need to keep on top of this as there will be further risks and challenges in the year ahead. We will be continuing to monitor the budget on a weekly basis and I am confident that we have the right processes in place to deliver the 19-20 budget."

Net spend on services for the year 2018-19 totalled £559.254M. The impact of the deficit has been mostly offset by a review of earmarked reserves and net income. This has reduced the council's non-earmarked general reserve fund by £0.637M to £7.925M.

As at 31st March 2019 the Council's total general fund reserves stand at £20.300m. Of these £12.375m are earmarked (i.e. held for specific purposes), with the balance of £7.925m not earmarked.

Full details of the Highland council budget monitoring report can be seen at Item 5 at https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4126/corporate_resources_committee