Issue - meetings

The Finance & Governance Services Cabinet portfolio holder is invited to present her priorities and areas of focus over the next year and to answer questions from the committee on progress towards achieving the aims and targets of the Council’s Corporate Plan priorities.

Mrs P Hardwick, Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance Services, gave an oral presentation to the committee, setting out the current arrangements in the areas of management under Mr Ward, Head of Finance and Governance Services and in her portfolio. She was supported by Mrs H Belenger, the Accountancy Services Manager and Mr N Bennett, Legal and Democratic Services Manager.

The committee made reference to the Cabinet Strategy, which had been presented to the committee previously by the Leader in May 2016. Members made the following comments, which were answered by Mrs Hardwick, Mrs Belenger and Mr Bennett.

·       Queried the investment of £10m in the local authority property fund and requested clarification of the amount held in reserves. The Council approves a minimum level of reserves to be held, which is set at £5m to take account of the Council’s spending plans and to ensure prudence. The Cabinet has approved a Treasury Management Strategy which sets out the Council’s investment criteria for surplus funds and the risk appetite. It also has a new Investment Protocol which sets out the criteria for direct purchasing property investments within the district using the specific investment opportunity reserve.

·       Queried when the management restructure of the Legal and Democratic Services would be completed, whether members would be involved and when this would be completed in order to be able to evaluate success. The Head of Paid Service was responsible for managing and reviewing staff; if it was a wider policy then members would be involved. The restructure was in progress and would be completed shortly ensuring increased resilience between the three teams of Legal Services, Member Services and Electoral Services. As both member services and electoral services dealt directly with parishes as well as with councillors, Members and parishes were encouraged to feed back any concerns they had to the Legal and Democratic Services Manager.

·       Queried whether there was confidence that the Council could fill the gap between income and the cost of services. The Financial Strategy sets out the plans of the council to ensure a balanced budget is set including forecasts of Government funding. A response was expected from the Government with regard to the four year framework within three weeks. There was ongoing discussion about the amount held in the Investment Opportunities Reserve. To aid understanding of trends/impact of volatile income and expenditure areas, quarterly monitoring reports were undertaken and these are available on the Council’s website; this states how services are doing according to projections. The Financial Strategy is a dynamic document and the financial model we use is updated regularly to take anything new into account.

·       Suggested the development of a simple diagram in order to make it easier for members to understand investment and returns. This chart should identify a) revenue funding for Council’s corporate body b) economic growth in the district (invested in Enterprise Hub, Cultural Grant, new housing etc.) and c) returns in social and community benefits. This would provide a short succinct  ...  view the full minutes text for item 117