Resources Paper 1 & Annexes - Finance monitoring

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 1 of 8

For dis­cus­sion

Title: Fin­ance mon­it­or­ing Pre­pared by: Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Operations

Pur­pose

This paper presents a view of the Park Authority’s fin­an­cial pos­i­tion at the start of the ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ fin­an­cial year. It includes an estim­ate of the out­turn pos­i­tion for the fin­an­cial year ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆, togeth­er with the budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion at the end of July — month four of the ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ fin­an­cial year.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Resources Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Note the estim­ated out­turn pos­i­tion for the ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ fin­an­cial year. b) Con­sider the budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion for ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇.

Out­turn 2025 – 26

1. The final out­turn is likely to be a small defi­cit of £27,000 which amounts to 0.18% of grant-in-aid (well with­in the tar­get para­met­ers of less than 1% over­spent and less than 2% underspent).
2. Audit mat­ters remain under dis­cus­sion. A verbal update on any sig­ni­fic­ant changes will be provided to the meeting.

Budget mon­it­or­ing ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇

1. Fin­an­cial per­form­ance for core deliv­ery to the end of July against the phased budget is shown in Annex 1.

Staff costs

1. Staff costs have been run­ning slightly high­er than the phased budget dur­ing the first four months of the year. This vari­ance is attrib­uted to the pro­file by which the budget has been alloc­ated across the year. Pro­fil­ing has been based on the pri­or year’s actu­al expenditure.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 2 of 8

1. There are a num­ber of factors that affect the dis­tri­bu­tion of cost across the year. These include the employ­ment of sea­son­al staff, the tim­ing of vacancy sav­ings, and the pen­sion options chosen by new staff. In ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ the peri­od over which our sea­son­al rangers star­ted their roles with­in the Author­ity exten­ded across the first quarter of the year. This year, recruit­ment was more con­cen­trated into April and May. At this point in the year, the vari­ance does not cause con­cern but will be mon­itored as we con­tin­ue through the com­ing months.
2. There will be addi­tion­al staff cost asso­ci­ated with staff time spent on sup­port­ing the response to the wild­fires. The HR team are cur­rently col­lat­ing over­time hours from those col­leagues involved. Some of this addi­tion­al time will be accom­mod­ated through the flexi-time sys­tem, and staff are being encour­aged to take time to rest after a peri­od of very intense work. Nev­er­the­less, there will, inev­it­ably, be a need to pay for some of the addi­tion­al time, so that the Park Authority’s oper­a­tions are not hindered through lack of resource. There is a bal­ance to be struck here, and col­leagues are being con­sul­ted on their own per­son­al cir­cum­stances and pref­er­ences. Con­sequently, no cost fig­ures are avail­able at present.

Pro­gramme management

1. Spend to date to the end of July 2026 is provided in Annex 3, togeth­er with a pro­jec­tion of spend­ing to the end of the programme.
2. To date, halfway through the deliv­ery peri­od for the full five-year pro­gramme, we have spent around one third of the total cost plan. There is, how­ever, some high-cost work planned for deliv­ery dur­ing the cur­rent year, includ­ing: a) Peat­land res­tor­a­tion b) Cli­mate resi­li­ent catch­ments c) Travel and transport

Oper­a­tion­al plan and overheads

1. With the excep­tion of monthly payroll costs (dis­cussed above) expendit­ure is run­ning very close to expect­a­tions. Advance spend can be seen against both the peat­land res­tor­a­tion and place budgets.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 3 of 8

1. Expendit­ure on peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­jects fun­ded from the ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ budget alloc­a­tion has com­menced earli­er this year than in ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆. Com­ple­tion of deliv­ery on grants awar­ded in ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ con­tin­ues along­side this new work.
2. The advance of expendit­ure on our Place pro­jects res­ults from spe­cif­ic grant awards made at the start of the year to sup­port work on the Ault­more Bridge, Nethy Bridge.
3. A break­down of com­mit­ted cost against the vari­ous aims of the Oper­a­tion­al Plan is provided in Annex 2.
4. The seni­or team reviewed the poten­tial effects of the wild­fires on planned deliv­ery for the year. The biggest single impact is likely to be delays to peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­jects, estim­ated to be val­ued at circa £150,000.
5. The fig­ures to the end of July make no pro­vi­sion for addi­tion­al cost arising from the fires. We anti­cip­ate the fol­low­ing cost impacts: a) Low-cost con­sum­ables and Per­son­al Pro­tec­tion Equip­ment (PPE) b) Poten­tial con­tri­bu­tion into a fund to sup­port the costs of volun­teer ​‘con­tract­ors’ for the use of machinery (bow­sers, tract­ors etc.). The Author­ity is col­lab­or­at­ing with oth­er part­ners involved in the response and also Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment on this mat­ter. c) Repairs to dam­aged equip­ment – belong­ing to the Author­ity and to part­ners d) Com­mu­nic­a­tions sup­port to loc­al busi­nesses e) Post fire mon­it­or­ing costs f) Sup­port for volun­teer food pro­vi­sion at Nethy Bridge The quantum of these costs is not yet known.

Sum­mary

1. The key points arising from the review of the fin­an­cial pos­i­tion at the end of July 2026 are: a) There is an unfa­vour­able vari­ance on payroll costs, but this is an effect of the budget pro­file relat­ing to the tim­ing of the appoint­ment of sea­son­al rangers and some depend­ency on the real­isa­tion of vacancy sav­ings. b) There will be addi­tion­al payroll costs to cov­er over­time costs relat­ing to the wild­fire response.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 4 of 8

c) To the end of July, deliv­ery against the oper­a­tion­al plan object­ives for the year has pro­gressed well. d) Addi­tion­al costs will be incurred as a con­sequence of the wild­fires. The quantum of these is not yet available.

Louise Allen 14 August 2026 louiseallen@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1 Annex 1

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 5 of 8

Annex 1

Fin­an­cial per­form­ance for core delivery

31 July 2026

	Budget	Phased budget	Actu­al	Under/​(over) phased budget	%age of annu­al budget
Staff remu­ner­a­tion	6,413,174	2,166,205	2,209,927	(43,722)
Board fees and expenses	314,905	101,359	87,405	13,954
	6,728,079	2,267,564	2,297,332	(29,768)	34.1%
Organ­isa­tion­al development	156,628	56,225	49,959	6,266
Facil­it­ies	476,815	79,622	75,724	3,898
IT and professional	601,060	143,685	136,370	7,315
Com­mu­nic­a­tions	260,000	75,879	62,642	13,237
Cor­por­ate	166,839	20,761	12,811	7,950
	1,661,342	376,172	337,506	38,666	20%
Con­tri­bu­tion to C2030 programme	450,000	0	0	0
Peat­land Restoration	3,510,000	2,500	149,041	(146,541)	4%
Nature & Climate	2,106,500	234,375	228,529	5,846	11%
People	428,496	136,786	74,100	62,686	17%
Place	1,046,736	161,052	197,100	(36,048)	19%
	7,091,732	534,713	648,770	(114,057)	9%
Total expendit­ure	15,931,153	3,178,449	3,283,608	(105,159)	21%
Oth­er income	(271,000)	(84,500)	(148,080)	63,580
Net cash expenditure	15,660,153	3,093,949	3,135,528	(41,579)
Grant-in-aid draw down	(15,660,000)	(3,985,000)	(5,005,011)	1,020,011

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1 Annex 2

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 6 of 8

Annex 2

Com­mit­ted expendit­ure at July 2026

Aim	Spent (£)	Com­mit­ted (£)	Total spend to 31.07.26 (£)	Budget (£)	Budget Remain­ing (£)
A01 Net zero	38,049	210,155	248,204	344,500	96,296
A02 Wood­land expansion	0	1,213	1,213	12,500	11,288
A03 Peat­land restoration	149,041	635,529	784,570	3,510,000	2,725,430
A04 Deer and herb­i­vore impacts	8,100	58,340	66,440	25,000	(41,440)
A05 Moor­land management	12,554	13,600	26,154	27,000	846
A06 Gamebird management	0	0	0	3,000	3,000
A07 Fire management	350	7,590	7,940	40,000	32,060
A08 Farm­ing	24,299	75,797	100,096	105,000	4,904
A09 Fresh­wa­ter systems	0	84,968	84,968	129,000	44,032
A10 Eco­lo­gic­al network	0	403	403	80,000	79,597
A11 Eco­lo­gic­al restoration	87	3,000	3,087	35,000	31,913
A12 Cairngorms Nature Index	1,000	34,442	35,442	50,000	14,558
A13 Spe­cies recovery	77,191	77,761	154,952	215,500	60,548
NRF	66,899	129,037	195,936	1,045,000	849,064
Total Nature & climate	377,569	1,331,835	1,709,404	5,621,500	3,912,096
Per­cent­age of full year budget	6.7%	23.7%	30.4%		69.6%
B04 Skills and training	26,812	38,699	65,511	125,000	59,489
B07 Com­munity-led plan­ning and development	0	22,000	22,000	120,000	98,000
B08 Gael­ic lan­guage and culture	0	0	0	3,500	3,500
B09 Men­tal and phys­ic­al health	999	153	1,152	5,000	3,848
B10 A Park for All	24,914	21,851	46,766	75,001	28,236
B11 Volun­teer­ing and out­door learning	21,375	471	21,846	70,000	48,154
Total People	74,100	83,174	157,275	398,501	241,226
Per­cent­age of full year budget	18.6%	20.9%	39.5%		60.5%

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1 Annex 2

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 7 of 8

Aim	Spent (£)	Com­mit­ted (£)	Total spend to 31.07.26 (£)	Budget (£)	Budget Remain­ing (£)
C01 Access to housing	0	18,000	18,000	68,000	50,000
C05 Vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park	0	10,250	10,250	40,000	29,750
C08 Access­ible path and cycle network	66,790	41,107	107,897	125,000	17,103
C09 High qual­ity vis­it­or experience	130,310	348,986	479,296	788,736	309,440
C10 Cul­tur­al heritage	0	1,400	1,400	25,000	23,600
Total Place	197,100	419,742	616,842	1,046,736	429,894
Per­cent­age of full year budget	18.8%	40.1%	58.9%		41.1%
Total Oper­a­tion­al aims	648,770	1,834,752	2,483,522	7,066,737	4,583,215
Per­cent­age of full year budget	9.2%	26.0%	35.1%		64.9%
Cor­por­ate HR initiatives	130	365	495	6,000	5,505
Cor­por­ate Plan­ning service	9,088	1,080	10,168	60,000	49,832
Cor­por­ate Data management	0	0	0	5,000	5,000
Cor­por­ate Shared services	0	0	0	67,400	67,400
Cor­por­ate Con­tri­bu­tions to programmes	0	0	0	450,000	450,000
Total Cor­por­ate	9,218	1,445	10,663	588,400	577,737
Per­cent­age of full year budget	1.6%	0.2%	1.8%		98.2%
Total oper­a­tion­al plan 31.07.26	657,987	1,836,197	2,494,184	7,655,137	5,160,953
Per­cent­age of full year budget	8.6%	24%	32.6%		67.4%

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 1 Annex 3

Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh 28 August 2026 Page 8 of 8

Annex 3 – Cairngorms 2030 expendit­ure at July 2026

Pro­ject	Total Cost (incl VAT)	Actu­al					Pro­jec­ted				Total budget remaining
	£	2023 – 24	2024 – 25	2025 – 26	2026 – 27 to 31.07.26	Total to date	2026 – 27	2027 – 28	2028 – 29	Leg­acy	£
Wood­land expansion	258,000	0	0	49,677	0	49,677	123,000	85,323	0	0	208,323
Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion — capital	12,000,000	0	3,053,309	3,276,217	149,041	6,478,567	2,850,959	2,670,474	0	0	5,521,433
Nature Recov­ery	1,458,120	0	167,000	80,000	0	247,000	540,000	433,000	238,120	0	1,211,120
Cairngorms Future Farming	640,060	0	54,755	104,578	6,973	166,306	178,077	200,000	95,677	0	473,754
Cli­mate Resi­li­ent Catchments	1,506,960	0	37,915	96,944	24,286	159,145	1,093,347	208,164	22,303	24,000	1,347,814
Green fin­ance and com­munity wealth building	34,176	0	71	1,745	0	1,816	29,176	3,184	0	0	32,360
Well­being Economy	27,000	0	3,000	2,404	0	5,404	2,400	9,598	9,598	0	21,596
Pub­lic Health and the Outdoors	12,000	93	2,160	1,481	666	4,400	1,934	3,238	2,428	0	7,600
Demen­tia Activ­ity Centre	515,461	41,857	84,207	65,098	20,663	211,824	77,714	129,099	96,824	0	303,637
Land­scape and Communities	165,048	0	3,680	2,351	252	6,283	68,148	80,817	9,800	0	158,765
Effect­ive Com­munity Engagement	660,000	1,070	20,730	56,543	35,956	114,300	91,844	259,347	194,510	0	545,701
Cli­mate Learn­ing and Education	48,000	384	4,413	3,186	4,207	12,190	8,093	15,838	11,878	0	35,809
Cli­mate Con­scious Communities	48,000	0	279	1,012	0	1,291	10,400	20,748	15,561	0	46,709
Com­munity Arts & Cul­ture Programme	99,000	0	4,046	10,834	2,537	17,417	30,563	29,154	21,866	0	81,584
Com­munity Man­aged Grant Scheme	1,012,000	0	0	0	1,593	1,593	301,907	404,857	303,643	0	1,010,407
Com­munity Man­aged Grant Scheme — CLLD	1,250,000	0	522,322	290,078	0	812,400	200,000	100,057	75,043	62,500	437,600
Research and Know­ledge Exchange	364,800	1,229	47,774	27,306	18,911	95,220	70,425	113,803	85,353	0	269,580
Cycle Friendly Cairngorms	850,200	0	77,366	96,378	69,020	242,764	419,772	107,800	19,864	60,000	607,436
Act­ive Travel Communities	2,535,401	0	10,889	0	46,125	57,014	203,875	1,250,000	964,512	60,000	2,478,387
Act­ive Travel Communities	4,526,948	0	0	377,750	0	377,750	750,000	1,000,000	2,000,000	399,198	4,149,198
Sus­tain­able Transport	439,800	0	5,000	8,579	0	13,579	175,000	143,555	107,666	0	426,221
Travel beha­viour change	96,000	0	3,716	32,046	16,312	52,074	37,719	3,207	3,000	0	43,926
Staff­ing	5,413,908	111,653	987,854	1,137,479	380,507	2,617,493	791,888	1,145,444	859,083	0