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.
Minutes:
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 easy to understand diagram method to demonstrate how investment was benefitting the Council and communities. This diagram was requested before the Financial Strategy was considered by Cabinet in December and then Council in January 2017. Cllr Hardwick stated that she would look into whether this document could be updated but potentially the timescale may prohibit it at this time.
· Suggested a further chart showing the Council’s statutory duties and needs based services. Both charts would allow members and residents to understand and make useful suggestions regarding financial policy and gives a method of demonstrating how we are balancing investment and expenditure. The Corporate Governance & Audit Committee considers the Financial Strategy before this goes on to Cabinet and Council. Members of both committees are on the Budget Task and Finish Group which gives members the opportunity to question the budget. Returns from the Property Fund are being taken into account in the Financial Strategy to be considered by Cabinet in December to help address the funding gap of £4m in the next 5 years. Mrs Belenger undertook to investigate both requested diagrams.
· Queried progress of the roll out of Universal Credit (UC). UC is being rolled out to specific groups as the Department for Work and Pensions takes on these cases. This is a gradual process which has impacted on some of our residents.
· Queried the increase in fees and charges and how this has affected those services which by law cannot make a profit. On-street parking charges must be cost neutral however off street car parks are a non-statutory service and can produce a profit, some of which is then used to improve the council car parks. Consultation takes place through the Car Parking Forum both in terms of fee setting but also improvements Land charges legislation has changed recently with the requirement that searches have to be done on a cost recovery only basis. If S106 agreements are not spent by the due date then monies may need to be returned to the developer. Planning fees are set nationally and it is up to the local authority to resource the service according to local requirement. A pricing policy is set by the Council stating that services should as a minimum aim to break even, however if they feel that the service can bear a higher fee then it should be considered. Mrs Belenger undertook to clarify the position regarding this and planning fees set nationally in a written response.
· Queried whether the Government was backtracking on the second bedroom tax. Mrs Belenger undertook to provide a written response.
· Queried the change to the Housing Benefit scheme which took effect on 7 November. Some Chichester residents had been affected by the further tightening of benefits but the Council was doing its best to help those families. Cllr Hardwick agreed to circulate the briefing paper regarding changes to the benefit cap.
· Queried whether this would be put out to a company like Atos. Mrs Belenger undertook to provide a written response.
The Chairman gave her thanks to Mrs Hardwick and to Mr Bennett and Mrs Belenger for the support provided.
RESOLVED
That the oral report from the Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance Services be noted.