1. Berkswell Parish Council
2019/20 Budget and Precept

2. Berkswell PC – Reserves Policy
The following is the Council’s reserves policy.
General Reserves – it is the Council’s policy to maintain its general reserve at a level commensurate with the value of the annual budget. In order to maintain general reserves at this level Council will, during the Annual Budget Setting process, consider using reserves to reduce the Precept Charge for a given year and make a contribution out of reserves to fully fund the annual budget.
Designated Reserves – it is the Council’s policy to designate reserves to meet possible future demands on its resources from on-going issues where timing and scope is not sufficiently defined to enable provision to be made in the Council’s budget and three year financial forecast.
Estimated Closing Reserves 2017/18
As reported to Council in December the estimated closing reserves will be c. £63k.
There are currently no plans to designate reserves in 2018/19

3. 2018/19 Projected Outturn

4. Analysis of 2018/19 Projected Budget Variances
Budget Heading
Variance
+ = over spend
- = underspend
Comments
Pay
+200
More Employers NI paid than anticipated
Cllr Allowances
-2,100
Budget was based on all Cllrs receiving allowances
Admin
-750
Less than expected need for admin
Specialist Advice
-1,500
Less advice required
Plans
+1,200
There was an overspend on NDP expenditure of £1,200 but Gross NDP Expenditure can be netted off by £3,350 NDP Grant. After taking the NDP grant into account this budget is £2,100 underspent.
Grants
-1,250
Insufficient grant applications received
S. 137
-2,800
This was underspent but heritage and maintenance was overspent, There is an overlap on these two items depending on the precise nature of the work undertaken (e.g. if the Council have specific powers or not)
Heritage
+2,600
See above
Contingency
-2,200
This has not been utilised
VAT
+450
Forecasted VAT is higher than budgeted. It is hard to anticipate which goods and services will be subject to VAT when preparing the budget.
Total Expenditure Variance
-6,150
This is the overall underspend on the expenditure budget (subject to adjustment re NDP Grant)
Variance adjusted for impact of NDP Grant
-8,300
This demonstrates the difference between the original forecast of reserves at 31/03/19 of £48,200 and the revised forecast of c. £57,000 (see next slide)

5. Projected Reserves Position
Comments
Closing Balance 2017/18
62,173
Actuals per Bank Reconciliation
Less: Contribution to 2018/19 budget from Reserves
21,830
Budget Setting Meeting January 2018 agreed this
Original estimate of closing reserves 2018/19
48,200
Budget Setting Meeting January 2018
Current Projection of closing reserves 2018/19
57,000
Per latest forecast by Clerk which highlights underspends on 2018/19 budget and NDP Grant not anticipated in original budget

6. 2019/20 Precept
The 2018/19 figures for our precept, tax base and Band D precept are set out below, along with the indicative tax base and support grant for 2019/20. A
2018/19 Precept
£25,955 B
2018/19 Band D Precept Charge
£16.91 C
2018/19 Number of Band D equivalent dwellings (tax base)
1,535 D
2019/20 Indicative support grant
£92 E
2019/20 Indicative number of Band D equivalent dwellings (tax base)
1,538