Issue - meetings

9.1       The Committee considered a report on the Quarter 4 Financial outturn of the East Sussex Pension Fund (ESPF) for the 2023/24 financial year, introduced by Russell Wood who drew the Committee’s attention to the following points:

1)  All outstanding audits are now closed and the 2023/24 accounts have been published on the website.

2) The final outturn position of 2023/24 is £4.082m,this is a decrease from the last projected position of £0.297m and also reflects an underspend against the approved budget of £0.381m.

3) The underspend mostly relates to a reduction in overhead costs which are recharged from ESCC as some items had been accounted for twice, lower than expected IT systems costs due to negotiations in fee’s by paying costs for licenses upfront and lower inflation assumptions and some projects did not commence before 31 March 2024. The Fund received confirmation that it would receive a Local Audit Grant for the 2023/24 audit in February, which has resulted in the reduction in Audit costs for the year by £8,000.

4) The budget requirements for 2023/24 were set at £4.463m(£4.269m 2022/23 excluding manager fees) to support the Business Plan activities and administration of the Fund.

9.2       The Committee RESOLVED to note the FINAL 2023/24 outturn position.