Powys County Council quids in - to the tune of £8m!

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter 

Despite Covid-19, Powys County Council finished the 2020/21 financial year £8.349 million underspent.

But, at this week’s cabinet meeting, councillors were told that they would need to be sensible with the extra cash in case future funding settlements are poor.

Finance portfolio holder, Cllr Aled Davies said: “It looked dire 12 months ago, we were looking at a potential overspend of £12m.

“The council’s budget was closely monitored and controlled during the year and with the support provided by the UK and Welsh governments the financial impact has been effectively managed.”

Of the underspend, £4.1m will be squirrelled away into reserves accounts and earmarked for recovery funds.

He also explained that the budget for schools was £5.27m underspent, while the housing revenue account was £1.92m underspent and that these sums would be put into their specific reserve funds.

Cllr Davies said: “It is important to stress that although the council is reporting an improved position for 2020/21, the additional funding provided is a one-off.

“Using it wisely will go some of the way to ease the ongoing pressures on the council’s budget.”

Head of Finance, Jane Thomas, said: “It’s really important that we support our financial resilience over the next few years, we don’t know the course of the pandemic and how that will continue to impact on us or how it will impact on our funding at a national level.

“We need to consider that and plan for a number of scenarios. The way we plan to use some of this funding will help some of our communities and help support our services to meet the increasing demand we’re seeing coming through.”

The report for the end of the 2020/21 financial year shows that Powys has received more than £23m from the Welsh Government.

Of this, £14.5m came from the Hardship Fund to pay for costs incurred by dealing with the pandemic such as PPE.

Meanwhile, £3.5m is to cover lost income such as car park and licensing fees, as well as £1.25m given to cover the council tax reduction scheme and losses.

The report also shows the council claimed £866,683 for staff that were put on the UK Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme more commonly known as furlough, which covers 80% of wages up to £2,500.

The cabinet noted the budget position and approved setting up the virements to move funding to various reserve accounts and other money which is to be used this year.