Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Lucy Knight, Cllr Portia Thaxter and Cllr Sidney Yankson.

Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Toby Benton and Cllr Will Pascall.

Any member of the Council who has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting is reminded to disclose the interest to the meeting and to leave the Chamber while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

Members are also reminded that if they have any other significant interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting, which they feel should be declared in the public interest, such interests should be declared to the meeting. In such circumstances Members should consider whether their continued participation, in the matter relating to the interest, would be reasonable in the circumstances, particularly if the interest may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interests, or whether they should leave the Chamber while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

No declarations of interest were made.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 May 2024 are submitted for confirmation.

The minutes of the meeting held on 8 May 2024 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member for Finance, Customer Services and Net Zero Council, Cllr Johnny Thalassites, and the Executive Director for Resources, Mike Curtis, to comment on the report.

The Lead Member noted disappointment that the total General Fund revenue budget final net outturn position was an overspend of £4.090m, which was largely driven by pressures in the provision of temporary accommodation. The Lead Member highlighted that the overspend did not reflect the good work across the Council to deliver services within the budget, particularly in Children’s Services and Adult Social Care, where Council’s across the country were struggling.

The Executive Director for Resources echoed the Lead Member’s disappointment but qualified that the overspend was within the Council’s predictions and was indicative of system-wide pressures. They highlighted underspends in many areas and emphasised the final negative outturn position was driven by pressures in a very small number of areas.

The Chair invited the Committee to comment or ask questions on the report. Members of the Committee:

1. Asked how the Council could reduce the budgetary pressures caused by Temporary Accommodation provision. The Lead Member advised the Council was exploring all options to ease pressure, including increasing the Council’s supply of properties, though noted costs could be prohibitive. In the meantime, the Council had earmarked an additional £1.5m for the Housing Needs budget to accommodate the greater required spend.

2. Noted Parking Services pressures arising from reduced demand and suggested extending eligibility to increase revenue.

3. Expressed concern that the positive variance in the final outturn position reflected a lack of transformation of services across the Council and cautioned against reverting to salami-slicing to ease budgetary pressures.

4. Accepted difficult spending decisions would need to be made to achieve savings and suggested focusing on non-customer facing staff and efficiency of the corporate estate when scrutinising the 2025-26 budget proposals.

5. Asked for more information on the pressures driving the overspend in Digital, Data and Technology. Officers advised the overspend was largely driven by of staffing and development costs that were no longer eligible for capitalisation following a change in accounting regulations. There were also pressures from the establishment of the sovereign service, recharges owed to shared service partners; and pension strain costs. Members were concerned that DDT programmes historically led to overspends and called on the Council to ensure lessons were learned to transform services.

6. Raised concern that 16% of proposed savings were not achieved and resolved to closely scrutinise planned savings in the 2025-26 budget proposals to ensure they were achievable.

7. Called for greater transparency on the Council’s contingency budget.

8. Cautioned against the consolidation of underspends and overspends in future service budgets. Members emphasised that the Council needed to ensure it was not reliant on one-off underspends softening the outturn position, at the same time as ensuring overspends were not consistently requiring adjustments to the overall budget.

9. Highlighted the need to consider in greater detail the long-term drivers of costs of service provision in specific areas, and suggested reports be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member for Finance, Customer Services and Net Zero Council, Cllr Johnny Thalassites, and the Executive Director for Resources, Mike Curtis, to comment on the report.

The Lead Member stated that due to significant unknowns, the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) provided the financial framework for the delivery of the Council’s aims, ambitions, and strategic priorities within a best-case scenario and a worst-case scenario. There were four key areas of transformation savings being worked through: Staffing; Operational Estate; Capital/Funding Streams; and Commercialisation, with officers challenged to bring regular progress updates to the Leadership Team.

The Chair invited the Committee to comment or ask questions on the report. Members of the Committee:

1.    Suggested focusing on customer-facing staff and the efficiency of the operational estate to achieve transformation savings.

2.    Called on the Council to review all discretionary spending to understand where additional savings could be achieved.

3.    Sought assurance that the budget, outturn and MTFS remained aligned.

4.    Raised concerns about the long-term budgeting effect of the new single-lessee accounting model. Officers clarified that the change would have minimal in-year budget implications, with an asset and liability created on the balance sheet achieving a net-nil effect over the lifetime of a lease.

5.    Called on the Council to ensure 2% staff savings were achieved based on evidence and data to ensure statutory services were not negatively affected by reductions in staffing or capacity.

6.    Discussed the possibility of artificial intelligence being deployed as part of the transformation programme.

7.    Cautioned against reliance on Council reserves to balance the General Fund and welcomed new Terms of Reference agreed to further improve the governance around requests for draw downs. Members requested the new Terms of Reference be circulated for to the Committee for information.

8.    Noted savings across the Council that were offsetting departmental overspends, emphasised the need for transformation of services.

In concluding the discussion, the Chair noted the Committee would be scrutinising the transformation programme at its next meeting and committed to scrutinising the programme within the budgetary context.

ACTIONS

Reserves Strategy Terms of Reference to be circulated to the Committee.

Action: Governance Officer

The Committee considered the forward plan and key decision tracker and noted the following:

1.    Multiple Key Decisions within Housing Management, Housing Safety and Building New Homes related to procurement and suggested the Housing and Communities Select Committee receive a report on that topic area.

2.    Email updates to Councillors regarding Key Decisions were sporadic or not received at all. Members requested the circulation list be reviewed to ensure scrutiny councillors were included.

3.    The level of public engagement with the Key Decisions process was unclear. Members discussed whether data on engagement should be shared during scrutiny of key performance indicators.

ACTIONS

Decision tracking email updates circulation list to be reviewed.

Action: Scrutiny Manager

The Committee reviewed the scheduled items for 2024-25.