In the absence of the Chair of the Committee, the Clerk called for nominations of Chair to oversee the meeting.

RESOLVED, that Councillor Keable in his position as Vice Chair be appointed as the Chair to oversee the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Denton.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the meeting held on 25^th July 2024 (circulated previously) be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Councillor Clist abstained from the vote as he was not present at the meeting.

Please telephone the Corporate and Community Services team to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting. Interests must be re-declared when the item is called. A declaration of interest under the Code of Conduct will be a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, an Other Registrable Interest or a Non-Registrable Interest.  If the item directly relates to your interest you must declare the interest and leave the room for the item, save in the case of Other Registrable Interests or Non-Registrable Interests where you may first speak on the item as a member of the public if provision has been made for the public to speak.  If the matter does not directly relate to your interest but still affects it then you must consider whether you are affected to a greater extent than most people and whether a reasonable person would consider your judgement to be clouded, if you are then you must leave the room for the item (although you may speak as a member of the public if provision has been made for the public to speak) or, if you are not, then you can declare the interest but still take part).

There were no declarations if interest announced.

The Joint Committee considered a report by the Finance Manager (NDC) (circulated previously) regarding the 2024/25 Building Control Partnership Trading Account for Quarters 1 and 2.

The Finance Manager gave the Committee the following summary:

·       Pages 17 and 19 of the agenda showed the tables detailing the figures for the Partnership Trading Account.

·       Column one of the trading account table, showed the annual budget for each Authority.

·       Column two of the table showed the forecasted outturn for the year 2024/25.

·       Column three of the table set out the percentage split of expenditure and income between the two authorities in greater detail and showed a split projected income of 63.24% for North Devon Council and 36.76% for Mid Devon District Council. This was against the original split of 60:40.

·       Overall, the figures were showing an adverse variance of £130,000.  The variance was predominately due to reduction in income across both authorities of £100,000 together with an increase in expenditure of £30,000, which was predominately related to employee costs.

·       The net effect of this on each authority’s budget was shown at the bottom left of the table on page 19 of the agenda, projecting North Devon Council to be £79,000 adverse and Mid Devon District Council of £51,000 adverse. This was a slightly worsening position from quarter one where the partnership was only reporting a deficit of £80,000 across both authorities.

·       Column four of the table showed the chargeable and non-chargeable costs for North Devon Council and indicated a slight loss on the 75% chargeable fees.

In response to questions, the Finance Manager together with the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive and the Building Control Manager advised the following:

·       The figures for North Devon Council employees, which included agency staff was paid from the North Devon Council budget and then split between the two authorities.

·       The income for the trading market was still very unsettled and combined with the current position in the economy any significant changes were not expected at the present time.

·       The outturn positions for both authorities this year compared to the previous year were both showing increases.

·       Figures based on application numbers were a very basic way of measuring progress and the partnership was 200-300 applications down on the figures prior to the Covid 19 pandemic.

RESOLVED, that the reports be noted.

The Committee considered a report by the Building Control Manager (circulated previously) regarding the Building Control Business update.

The Building Control Manager drew the Committee’s attention to the following key points within the report:

·       The additional administrative work as a result of Building Safety Regulator requirements had significantly impacted on the workload of the partnership.

·       The table on page 22 of the report showed performance in relation to decisions within two months at 100% (target 95%), plan examination response times with applications being examined within 3 weeks at 88% (target 95%) and average time to first response 17 days (target 10 days).

·       Improvement in the three week and time to first response KPIs continued to be the partnership’s long term aim. The significant additional workload being created, implementing and undertaking the administration of the Building Safety Regulator regime changes, meant that any improvement in processing times remained unlikely, although performance overall had improved in Q2, when compared to Q1 for this financial year.

·       The partnership’s share of completions in the Housing Market was extremely low at 12% and continued to represent the slowing up of housing building in the local area by developers using the Partnership to oversee house building schemes.

·       However, the trend was not reflected in the general market share. At the last Joint Committee meeting, general Market Share was reported for Q1 2024/25, at 81%.

·       For Q2, 2024-25 Market Share had been measured at 80% and remained above target, compared to the same period in 2023/24 where it was measured at 70%.

·       The Partnership was nominated and won two South West regional LABC awards this year, which were:

Ø  Best Community Project - Water Sports Centre, Ilfracombe.

Ø  Best Site Manager.

·       As regional winners, these two entries would now be entered into the National Awards and would be put up against the winners of the other regions across the whole Country.

·       In addition to this success, the Partnership had also been nominated by its customers for a further National Award, which was:

Ø  LABC Building Control Team of the Year.

·       Unfortunately since the last Joint Committee, the Mid Devon Building Control Inspector had resigned and left their position at the end of September 2024 for a new opportunity with a Private Sector Building Control provider.

·       Both this vacant role and the long standing vacant Senior Mid Devon position were currently being advertised.

·       Also since the last Committee, while it was anticipated, the partnership’s long serving Technical Support Officer had retired and left the Partnership at the end of August 2024. Recruitment for this replacement post had been successful and the new officer would be starting soon.

·       The advert to replace the vacant Surveyor roles closed this week and unfortunately not a single application was received.

·       Given the two vacant inspecting positions, Senior Management had authorised a request for a temporary agency Inspector and the partnership had re-appointed an Interim Inspector who had been employed by them previously and they had started back with the partnership on Monday  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.