Agenda item

Report by the Leader and Executive Team to Executive on 4th February 2019 (attached) together with minute extract of the Executive on 4th February 2019 (to follow).

The Committee considered a report to the Executive on 4th February 2019 by the Leader and Executive Team together with a minute extract (circulated previously) regarding the Performance and Financial Management Quarter 3 of 2018/19.

The Head of Resources highlighted the following:

·         As at 31st December 2018, the latest forecast net expenditure was £12.239m, which was £0.019m over budget.  Details were shown in Appendix 1 and it was anticipated that the small variance could be reduced further throughout the remainder of the financial year.

·         The original budget for 2018/19 included a forecast to achieve £0.200m worth of salary vacancy savings. The current position forecasts this would be exceeded and vacancy savings of £0.225m would be achieved.

·         The “Recycle more” service changes were introduced on the 5^th June 2017; the take up of the new garden waste service had exceeded expectations, 2017/18 saw a total sign up of 17,320. This year’s income was expected to exceed last year’s total by 570 properties.

·         Within the overall £0.019m net budget deficit there were various cost pressures and one-off savings.  The budget pressures seen within waste and recycling service had not increased any further at the quarter 3 forecast. There had been a significant reduction in the forecast planning fee income of £0.159m due to a reduction in the larger applications received, which was in line with other authorities experiencing the same pressure. However it was forecast there would be additional Business Rates Retention income of £0.200m over and above the budgeted £1.252m Business Rates growth which had resulted in maintaining the net budget deficit at a similar level reported at quarter 2.

·         The Business Rate retention scheme was introduced in April 2013 which sees Billing authorities receive a ‘baseline’ funding but in addition they are exposed to the risks and rewards of retaining a proportion of the income collected.  This exposure was mitigated by participation in the Devon-wide pool that collates all of the Business Rate growth and decline and returns a share of the impact to each local authority. There had been an estimated one-off additional income from the 100% Business Rates Retention pilot for 2018/19 of £0.750m; this additional income had been earmarked into reserves as detailed in paragraph 4.1.6 of the report to help fund future projects.

·         At the 31^st December 2018 the total external borrowing was £1.250m.

·         The recommended level of general fund balance is 5%-10% of the council’s net revenue budget (£0.611m to £1.222m). The forecast general fund reserve at 31 March 2019 is £1.161m, which is a level of 9.5%.

·         “Appendix-2 Movement in Reserves & Balances” detailed the movements to and from earmarked reserves in 2018/19.

·         “Appendix-3 Executive Contingency Reserve” detailed the Executive Contingency Reserve movements and commitments. 

·         “Appendix-4 Capital Programme” detailed the 2018/19 to 2020/21 Capital Programme.  The Programme of £12.842m was funded by Capital Receipts (£2.349m), External Grants and Contributions (£8.964m) and Reserves (£1.529m).

·         Variations of (£2.254m) proposed to the 2018/19 Capital Programme as detailed in paragraph 4.4.3 of the report.

·         The revised Capital Programme for 2018/19 taking into account the budget variations above was £5.529m.

·         Actual spend on the 2018/19 Capital Programme, as at 31^stDecember 2018 was £3.128m.

·         Variations of £0.045m proposed to the 2019/20 Capital Programme as detailed in paragraph 4.4.6.

·         The overall Capital Programme for 2018/19 to 2020/21 was £12.842m and was broken down as follows:

·         The proposed release of funds from the 2018/19 Capital Programme as detailed in paragraph 4.4.12 of the report.

·         £67,789 investment interest was earned during the three quarter period.  The 2018/19 interest receivable budget was £60,000.

·         £20,605 interest was paid at an average rate of 2.03% on the PWLB loans during the three quarter period.  The 2018/19 interest payable budget was £40,000.

·         Non-financial information was contained within paragraphs 5 to 9 in the report. Appendix 5 detailed key performance indicators and Service Plan Action updates.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Head of Resources confirmed that:

·         Discussions in relation to the future CCTV service provisions were still ongoing and no final plans had yet been agreed as to the route that would be taken.

·         The Disabled Facilities Grant was fully funded by the Better Care Fund.

·         The Museum project, which totalled £2m was largely funded by external grants. The gross costs of which and how they were funded was shown in the Capital Programme.

·         Funding for the new Leisure Centre project wasn’t included in the figures and would be considered by the special meeting of the Executive on 26^th February 2019.

·         The number of Council Tax write offs were in line with figures from the previous years and with 46,000 council taxed properties, the figure was relatively small in comparison.

·         Council tax bills were only written off as a last resort and various recovery processes were explored and costed by the Council prior to any final decision.

·         There had been an increase in homelessness in the last quarter and it was acknowledged that the roll out of Universal Credit might impact this further.

·         There had been an increase in the demand upon food banks and the Council had been working to address the housing situation through the purchase of temporary accommodation properties. Four properties had been purchased so far, two three bedroomed and two two bedroomed. Two of the properties were ready for occupancy and had been transferred to the Housing team with the three bedroomed properties nearing completion.

·         The software that managed the performance indicators was the same company but had been re-branded and the name changed to Pentana.

·         The key performance indicators on page 60 in relation to NI 155 Number of affordable homes delivered (cumulative) for quarter three should read as 100 and the system would be updated in quarter 4 to reflect this.

·         The figures in relation to recycling represented the amount of waste that was removed from the yard, which would account for some distortion of the recycling figures. The recycling figures for quarter two of the previous year were higher following the introduction of the new recycling system.

·         Following the completion of the new waste transfer station adjacent to the Brynsworthy Environment Centre, there would be fuel and time savings. In light of this, rounds had been remodelled, which would come into effect for week beginning 18^th February 2019. The remodelled rounds would see a reduction in the reliance on agency staff, which had been accounted for within the savings.

RESOLVED:

(a)  that the decisions and recommendations of the Executive be 

endorsed; and

(b)  that the Head of Operational Services be requested to 

     provide figures for the volume of residual and recycling waste

     over the quarters.