240126DraftResourcesCtteePaper1_BudgetMonitoring

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 1 of 9

For dis­cus­sion Title: Budget mon­it­or­ing Pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Pur­pose This paper sets out an over­view of the Park Authority’s budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion at the end of the month 8 of the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ fin­an­cial year — 30 Novem­ber 2023.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Resources Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Con­sider the budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄.

Over­view

1. Appendix 1 provides a sum­mary of expendit­ure against the pro­filed budget. Over­all, cash expendit­ure is well with­in budget at 47% of the annu­al budget, and 83% of the phased budget for this 8‑month period.

2. Expendit­ure on oper­a­tion­al plan activ­it­ies, either com­mit­ted or spent, was 60% of the annu­al budget. While this is a reas­on­able pos­i­tion 2/​3rds of the way through the fin­an­cial year, there remains £2.5m to be com­mit­ted in the final quarter of the year, and £4.7m of expendit­ure to be con­ver­ted to cash. In terms of ref­er­ence to com­mit­ment, this refers to deliv­ery plans where form­al paper­work is in place with­in the fin­ance sys­tem. Teams will have com­mit­ments in place with part­ners which they have yet to con­vert to a ​“full” com­mit­ment with­in our fin­an­cial system:

	To be com­mit­ted	To be con­ver­ted to cash
Peat­land restoration	£1.337m	£2.332m
Oth­er oper­a­tion­al aims	£1.132m	£2.337m
Total oper­a­tion­al plan	£2.469m	£4.669m

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 2 of 9

Budget changes

1. A log of budget changes is shown in Appendix 3.

Staff and Board

1. Staff costs for the 8 months were £3.45m. The phased budget of £3.44m has been weighted to account for staff whose payroll costs will become recov­er­able from Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund through the Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject (C2030). Col­leagues whose payroll costs are cur­rently accoun­ted for as core expendit­ure, will be work­ing on the pro­ject in quarter 4, and their payroll costs are included in the pro­ject cost plan. Recov­ery of these costs through the pro­ject will reduce the cost of core payroll in the final quarter of the year.

2. There remains pres­sure on the budget for staff costs. The organ­isa­tion is cur­rently under­tak­ing recruit­ment for C2030, and the final out­turn for staff costs will be affected by the tim­ing of appoint­ments, and wheth­er posts are filled intern­ally or extern­ally. There is some poten­tial for recruit­ment delays to ease this year’s pressures.

Pro­gramme management

1. All pro­gramme man­age­ment costs have been recovered from extern­al funds as expec­ted. We have received con­firm­a­tion from Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund that the Her­it­age Hori­zons Devel­op­ment Phase has been fully com­pleted and author­ised with­in their system.

Over­heads

1. The budget for over­heads has been phased evenly across the year. Cur­rently, costs are run­ning ahead of the budget.

2. Con­trib­ut­ors to this vari­ance include repairs and main­ten­ance (par­tic­u­larly to the fire detec­tion and alarm sys­tem), leg­al costs, power, and mileage. These costs will be kept under review dur­ing the final quarter and expendit­ure plans man­aged accordingly.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 3 of 9

Oper­a­tion­al plan

1. Over­all, expendit­ure on oper­a­tion­al plan activ­it­ies to the end of Novem­ber is a little over 26% the total budget for the year.

2. The com­mit­tee is aware of the delays exper­i­enced by the Peat­land Team in let­ting con­tracts and com­men­cing pro­jects. Work has moved on since the last report in Septem­ber, and just under £2m was either com­mit­ted or spent at the end of Novem­ber. Form­al notice has been giv­en to Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment that we will be unable to use £500k of our £3.79m alloc­a­tion. In addi­tion, there are pro­jects that will be star­ted before the nest­ing sea­son but will need to be hal­ted and con­sequently, will not be com­pleted until after the fin­an­cial year end. These com­mit­ted amounts will be accrued into the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ fig­ures, allow­ing work on these pro­jects to con­tin­ue into early ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅.

3. Expendit­ure on ​‘Nature and Cli­mate’ activ­it­ies con­tin­ues to increase, with the anti­cip­a­tion that the full budget will be used by the end of the year. Actu­al and com­mit­ted expendit­ure was 69% of the annu­al budget at the end of November.

4. The budget towards our ​‘People’ aims is com­mit­ted to the extent of 84% of the annu­al budget. Annu­al grants for skills and train­ing (Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship, Grow­biz, Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land) have been com­mit­ted; resources for the youth action team and juni­or ranger activ­it­ies have been spent.

5. Oper­a­tion­al plan activ­it­ies towards our ​‘Place’ aims include the devel­op­ment and improve­ment of path­ways. Grants have been com­mit­ted for all but £20k of this £350k budget for paths, but expendit­ure remains low, while we await claims against these awards. Nev­er­the­less, actu­al and com­mit­ted expendit­ure was close to 64% at the end of November.

6. Com­mit­ment of the Cor­por­ate budget has been slow. We await plan­ning per­mis­sion for a new e‑bike shed. Plans for a dry­ing room for staff are in place. Expect­a­tions are that these pro­jects will be com­pleted before the year end.

7. Most of the under­spend on Com­mu­nic­a­tions (£98k) relates to the devel­op­ment of the new web­site. The length of the pro­cure­ment pro­cess has pushed expendit­ure to the end of the year.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 4 of 9

1. At this point in the year, the expect­a­tion remains that, except for peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­jects, the budget for oper­a­tion­al plan activ­it­ies will be spent in full.

Sum­mary of the pos­i­tion after 8 months

1. The key points arising from the review of the fin­an­cial pos­i­tion at the end of Novem­ber 2023 are: a) Pres­sure on the budget for staff costs remains but may be ameli­or­ated by nat­ur­al recruit­ment delays. b) Over­head costs are run­ning ahead of the phased budget but will be man­aged with­in the con­text of the over­all annu­al budget. c) There are no con­cerns over the recov­ery of pro­ject costs. d) £500k of the budget alloc­a­tion towards peat­land res­tor­a­tion will not be drawn down. e) Expendit­ure on oper­a­tion­al plan activ­it­ies is expec­ted to be in line with budget. f) A peak of expendit­ure will occur in the final quarter of the year, in line with the trend in pre­vi­ous years.

Louise Allen louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 17 Janu­ary 2024

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 5 of 9

Appendix 1 Sum­mary of expendit­ure against the pro­filed budget YEAR END­ING 31 MARCH 2024 ACTU­AL v BUDGET 30 NOVEM­BER 2023 CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Resources Com­mit­tee: Paper 1, Annex 1. 26^th Janu­ary 2024

	Annu­al Budget	Budget adjust­ments	Out­turn fore­cast	Phased budget to 30 Novem­ber 23	Actu­al at 30 Novem­ber 23	(Under)/over phased budget	% of Out­turn forecast
Staff costs	4,841,000	198,650	5,039,650	3,440,767	3,448,980	8,213	68%
Board fees	192,000	-	192,000	128,000	111,871	(16,129)	58%
	5,033,000	198,650	5,231,650	3,568,767	3,560,851	(7,916)	68%
Pro­ject costs
Pro­ject costs	1,141,000	-	1,141,000	-	-	-	0%
Pro­ject costs recovered	(1,141,000)	-	(1,141,000)	-	-	-	0%
	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Over­heads
Oth­er staff and board costs	164,000	-	164,000	133,833	188,594	54,761	115%
Facil­it­ies costs	520,000	(143,230)	376,770	251,180	247,187	(3,993)	66%
IT and pro­fes­sion­al costs	261,000	-	261,000	174,000	173,082	(918)	66%
	945,000	(143,230)	801,770	559,013	608,863	49,850	76%
Oper­a­tion­al plan (net)
Peat­land restoration	4,328,000	(1,036,000)	3,292,000	1,478,000	959,970	(518,030)	29%
Nature & climate	818,000	50,000	868,000	419,420	177,038	(242,382)	20%
People	277,000	-	277,000	178,750	115,308	(63,442)	42%
Place	865,000	51,000	916,000	529,333	273,373	(255,960)	30%
Cor­por­ate	441,500	62,000	503,500	96,120	51,216	(44,904)	10%
Com­mu­nic­a­tions	354,500	(9,650)	344,850	192,200	93,885	(98,315)	27%
Con­tri­bu­tion to Cairngorms 2030	285,000	(146,500)	138,500	-	-	-	0%
	7,369,000	(1,029,150)	6,339,850	2,893,823	1,670,790	(1,223,033)	26%
Total expendit­ure	13,347,000	(973,730)	12,373,270	7,021,603	5,840,504	(1,181,099)	47%
Oth­er income	(182,000)	-	(182,000)	(115,333)	(130,048)	(14,715)	71%
Cash expendit­ure	13,165,000	(973,730)	12,191,270	6,906,270	5,710,456	(1,195,814)	47%
Grant-in-aid drawn down	(13,151,000)	957,000	(12,194,000)	(7,275,000)	(7,275,000)	-	60%
Net cash expenditure/​(income)	14,000	(16,730)	(2,730)	(368,730)	(1,564,544)	(1,195,814)

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 6 of 9

Appendix 2 Oper­a­tion­al plan – com­mit­ted expendit­ure YEAR END­ING 31 MARCH 2024 OPER­A­TION­AL PLAN — COM­MIT­TED EXPENDIT­URE CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Resources Com­mit­tee: Paper 1, Annex 2. 26^th Janu­ary 2024 67%

	Annu­al budget	Budget adjust­ments	Amended budget	Actu­al at 30 Novem­ber 23	Com­mit­ted expendit­ure	Total — actu­al and com­mit­ted expendit­ure	Actu­al and com­mit­ted as per­cent­age of amended budget
Oper­a­tion­al plan
Peat­land restoration	4,328,000	(1,036,000)	3,292,000	959,970	994,532	1.954.502	59%
Nature & climate	818,000	50,000	868,000	177,038	414,435	591,473	68%
People	277,000	-	277,000	115,308	117,574	232,882	84%
Place	865,000	51,000	916,000	273,373	311,267	584,640	64%
Cor­por­ate	441,500	62,000	503,500	51,216	118,770	169,986	34%
Com­mu­nic­a­tions	354,500	(9,650)	344,850	93,885	105,169	199,054	58%
Con­tri­bu­tion to Cairngorms 2030	285,000	(146,500)	138,500	-	138,500	138,500	100%
	7,369,000	(1,029,150)	6,339,850	1,670,790	2,200,247	3,871,037	61%

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 7 of 9

Appendix 3 Log of Budget changes

1. Since the budget was form­ally approved, there have been changes to the avail­ab­il­ity of fund­ing: a) we were able to pay for­ward on our ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ com­mit­ment to Cairngorms 2030 (C2030), b) we have been made aware that our expect­a­tions for both cap­it­al and resource fund­ing to sup­port peat­land res­tor­a­tion may not be met, and c) the anti­cip­ated pay award for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄, may exceed our budget pro­vi­sion. These changes are set out in appendix 2.
2. In March 2023, we paid £150k from the ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ budget to sup­port our com­mit­ment to C2030 for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ by provid­ing cash flow cov­er for the Devel­op­ment Phase activ­it­ies. This provided extra head­room in the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ budget. We have applied this to cov­er some areas of the budget that we felt, from fur­ther exam­in­a­tion of the detail of the likely costs, were under-resourced, such as the cost of our shared-ser­vices agree­ment with Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Nation­al Park Authority.
3. £3.5k has been alloc­ated to cov­er a short exten­sion to the con­tract of the Green Health Link Work­er cur­rently engaged on the nature pre­scrip­tions pro­ject with­in the C2030 pro­gramme. This will allow con­tinu­ity of staff­ing, on what is a well- regarded pro­ject, for a short time after the end of the C2030 devel­op­ment phase (17 August 2023).
4. Resource fund­ing for peat­land res­tor­a­tion is £614k, and this includes an alloc­a­tion to cov­er ele­ments of sup­port costs such as trans­port, office costs, and fin­ance and IT sup­port. In the first quarter of the year, this fund­ing was reduced to £510k, leav­ing the peat­land team with £104k less budget for non-staff costs than had been anti­cip­ated. Sub­sequently, this resource fund­ing was rein­stated by Scot­tish Government.
5. At the same time, the cap­it­al budget for peat­land res­tor­a­tion was reduced by £507k to £3,636k. The pro­file of deliv­ery across the year has been such that a fur­ther £500k of the cap­it­al fund­ing for peat­land res­tor­a­tion will not be drawn down.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 8 of 9

1. Mod­el­ling of the impact of the poten­tial pay award indic­ates that our ori­gin­al budget estim­ate, made before the dir­ec­tion on the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ award had been determ­ined, is likely to require a fur­ther £85k of resources.
2. Fur­ther space has been found with­in the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ budget. This arises from a change in the account­ing treat­ment we are required to apply to leases for prop­erty and vehicles. In the past these costs have been accoun­ted for as resource expendit­ure. We are now required to treat leased assets as cap­it­al items known as ​‘Right of Use’ (RoU) assets. The ini­tial recog­ni­tion of these RoU assets happened in the ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ accounts, using cap­it­al budget (CDEL) spe­cific­ally provided to accom­mod­ate the new account­ing treat­ment. The change releases a little over £140k from the resource grant budget. New lease arrange­ments under­taken dur­ing the year will res­ult in cap­it­al expendit­ure. At present there is uncer­tainty around wheth­er these costs will be met by addi­tion­al budget from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. To ful­fil our cur­rent plans without addi­tion­al budget we will need to alloc­ate £160k from our dir­ect cap­it­al budget (£1,100k) to cov­er new vehicle leases and the renew­al of the Bal­later office lease. We will mon­it­or pro­gress on this budget pos­i­tion over the com­ing months.
3. Payroll costs arising from exten­sion of the con­tracts of interns work­ing on com­mu­nic­a­tions pro­jects was paid for from the Com­mu­nic­a­tions resource budget, with a cor­res­pond­ing trans­fer to the staff costs budget.
4. Addi­tion­al fund­ing (£50k) was received through the Nature Chal­lenge Fund.
5. The adjus­ted pos­i­tion is a small sur­plus of £3k.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ügh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Resource Com­mit­tee Paper 1 26 Janu­ary 2024 Page 9 of 9

YEAR END­ING 31 MARCH 2024 Budget adjustments

	Annu­al budget	Advance to Cairngorms 2030	Fund­ing reduc­tion Payroll — cov­er	Fund­ing reduc­tion peat­land cap­it­al	Fund­ing reduc­tion peat­land resource	Lease account­ing poten­tial short­fall	Budget adjust­ments Peat­land par­tial rein­state­ment of resource budget	Green Health Link Work­er con­tract exten­sion	Extend interns	Addi­tion­al fund­ing Nature recov­ery	Peat­land cap­it­al under­spend	Peat­land resource fund­ing rein­stated	Revised budget
Staff costs	4,841,000	-	-	-	-	-	85,000	-	9,650	-	-	104,000	5,039,650
Board fees	192,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	192,000
	5,033,000	-	-	-	-	-	85,000	-	9,650	-	-	104,000	5,231,650
Run­ning costs
Oth­er staff and board costs	164,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	164,000
Facil­it­ies costs	520,000	-	-	(143,230)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	376,770
IT and pro­fes­sion­al costs	261,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	261,000
	945,000	-	-	(143,230)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	801,770
Oper­a­tion­al plan (net)
Peat­land restoration	4,328,000	(150,000)	-	(507,000)	(104,000)	-	-	-	-	-	(500,000)	104,000	3,292,000
Nature & climate	818,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	3,500	-	50,000	-	-	868,000
People	277,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	277,000
Place	865,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	916,000
Cor­por­ate	441,500	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	(9,650)	-	-	-	503,500
Com­mu­nic­a­tions	354,500	-	(37,000)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	344,850
Con­tri­bu­tion to Cairngorms 2030	285,000	-	-	-	-	(143,230)	-	-	-	-	-	-	138,500
	7,369,000	(37,000)	-	(507,000)	(104,000)	-	-	3,500	-	50,000	(500,000)	104,000	6,339,850
Total expendit­ure	13,347,000	(37,000)	-	-	-	(143,230)	85,000	3,500	-	50,000	(500,000)	104,000	12,373,270
Oth­er income	(182,000)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	(182,000)
Cash expendit­ure	13,165,000	(37,000)	-	-	-	(143,230)	85,000	3,500	-	50,000	(500,000)	104,000	12,191,270
Grant-in-aid drawn down	(13,151,000)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	(12,194,000)
Net cash expenditure/​(income)	14,000	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	(2,730)