That Cabinet:

a)       Notes the forecast underspend of £9.271m for the 2020/21 financial year on the Council’s revenue budget, and the expected impact of an additional £11,526m will have on the Council’s un-ringfenced reserves.

b)       Notes there is a forecast shortfall in delivery of the 2020/21 savings requirement with a value of £2.581m.

c)       Notes the decreases to the approved 2020/21 capital programme of £29.378m since the programme was last reported in Quarter 2.

d)       Approves the carry forward of the reprofiled spend on the capital programme of £31.996m in 2020/21 into future years.

e)       Approves the request to create a new earmarked reserve to recognise the impact on WCC of funding school deficits resulting from forced academisation; as noted in paragraph 2.5.9.

f)        Acknowledges that at the date of writing this report, the national and local response to Covid-19 is an ever-charging landscape.  As such, it is important to note the inevitability of significant changes to the forecast position. This will be driven by changes to Covid-related income and expenditure pressures and also Covid funding changes.