Council given £100k Brexit fund

Shropshire Council was handed more than £100,000 to help deal with the impact of Brexit in the last financial year.

The authority was given £105,000 by the government to ward off any financial impact from Britain leaving the European Union.

It comes as it is confirmed that Shropshire Council an underspend of £121,000 last year.

James Walton, the council’s director of finance, said: “The council has received one-off funding in 2018/19 of £105,000 to fund any cost implication arising from Brexit.

“This has been contributed to the general fund, as any residual costs arising from Brexit will have to be found from the general fund balance.

“The council’s controllable revenue position for 2018/19 has improved by £239,000 when compared to projections made at quarter three, resulting in a net controllable underspend of £167,000, a variance of 0.03 per cent on the gross budget.

“This improvement has been delivered as a result of variances across a number of council services.

“The outturn on non-controllable insurance is an overspend of £46,000.

“When deducted from the controllable underspend, the total outturn adjustment to the general fund is a contribution of £121,000.

“The outturn capital expenditure for 2018/19 is £50.975 million, representing 76 per cent of the re-profiled budget of £66.703m.

“All £15.728m of this underspend has been carried forward to the 2019/20 programme.”

But he added that certain identified savings had not been met – some of which came after backing down after public consultation.

He said: “The £3.037m 2018/19 red savings not delivered relate to: reduced provision of home to school transport, and reduced costs of safeguarding placements, within children’s services; efficiencies within administrative buildings and increased income from the Shrewsbury shopping centres within commercial services; reduced maintenance of closed churchyards and reduced posts within regulatory services, within public health; redesign of the council’s single front door, and the voluntary redundancy programme, within workforce and transformation.”

He added: “Other ongoing pressures include increased purchasing pressures within adult services; contributions to children’s special educational placements; loss of income and increased costs of home to school transport, within learning and skills increased numbers and complexity of residential and foster placements.”