Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2 Town Hall

Contact: J Bayley  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

69.

Apologies and named substitutes

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Pattie Hill and Gareth Prosser.  Members were advised that Councillor Michael Chalk was attending as a substitute for Councillor Prosser.

 

70.

Declarations of interest and of Party Whip

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests, and any Party Whip.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest nor of any party whip.

71.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 303 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that

 

the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 11th January 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

 

72.

Medium Term Financial Plan 2018/19 to 2020/21 - Pre-Scrutiny pdf icon PDF 238 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2018/19 to 2021/22.  During the presentation of this report the following points were raised for Members’ consideration:

 

·         There was limited certainty in respect of funding over the following four years.  The Government’s four-year funding settlement, agreed a few years ago, related to the Revenue Support Grant only.

·         The Council would receive only £35,000 in Revenue Support Grant in 2018/19.

·         Like many local authorities the Council was scheduled to pay the Government a negative grant subsidy from 2019/20 onwards.

·         A number of Councils had approached the Government expressing concerns about the negative grant payments and this was under review, the outcomes of which would be the subject of consultation later in the year.

·         The Government was also scheduled to undertake a fair funding review focusing on how local government was funded.  This would have financial implications for the Council moving forward.

·         Two years previously the government had reduced the number of years for which New Homes Bonus (NHB) payments could be made from six to four years.

·         Some years previously the Government had suggested that local authorities would not receive NHB funding for any applications that were turned down by the Planning Committee but were subsequently approved at appeal.  This could have significant financial implications for the Council.

·         The Council had not been able to meet the deadweight threshold set by the Government in order to receive the NHB funding that had been anticipated for 2018/19.

·         The deadweight was calculated based on the proportion of Band D equivalent properties that had been built in Redditch.

·         The authority had been advised that it would be receiving £22,000 in NHB funding for 2018/19.

·         The Government had announced that all Councils could increase Council Tax by up to 3 per cent before a referendum would need to be triggered in 2018/19 and 2019/20.

·         Officers had built an assumption into the MFTP that Council Tax would increase by 2.99 per cent in 2018/19 and 2019/20. In subsequent years it was proposed that Council Tax increase by £5 as it was uncertain at what level Councils would be permitted to increase Council Tax after 2019/20.

·         The Council collected Council Tax on behalf of a range of partner organisations and only kept 13 per cent of the funds that were collected.  The greatest proportion of Council Tax was allocated to Worcestershire County Council.

·         Improvements had been made in 2017/18 in respect of the Collection Fund, which related to the different between the amount of Council Tax that the local authority expected to collect and the amount that was actually collected.

·         The Worcestershire Business Rates Pilot bid had been unsuccessful.  Worcestershire County Council had requested clarification about the reasons why the bid had not been approved and had been advised that the proposal was robust but had been unsuccessful due to the volume of bids that had been submitted to the Government.

·         Councils were able to keep any growth over the baseline for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

73.

Housing Revenue Account Budget 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 88 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) 2018/19 and highlighted the following for Members’ consideration:

 

·                The government had required the Council to reduce rents for Council properties by 1 per cent per year over a four year period.

·                The Council was in the third of the four years affected by these requirements in respect of rents for Council properties. Members were advised that it was unclear what requirements, if any, would be placed on Council in respect of rent increases once this four year period had ended.

·                If the Council had been able to increase rents by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) plus 1 per cent, as originally intended, the Council would have had access to an extra £900,000 in the HRA over the period.

·                Repairs and maintenance costs had increased due to a rise in costs associated with void properties.

·                Some additional staffing costs had arisen during the year, which had been recorded as supervision and management costs.

·                The Council’s HRA balances had reduced to £600,000, which was the minimum level of balances permitted.

·                Officers were proposing that there should be a stock condition survey undertaken.  No such survey had been undertaken for a number of years and it was important to ensure there was a general understanding of the condition of the Council’s properties.

·                There were lots of improvements that could be made to the Council’s Housing Services and Officers were working hard to address this.

 

After the report had been presented Members discussed a number of points in detail:

 

·                The action that could be taken to ensure that the Council did not go over the limit in respect of balances.

·                The savings that could be achieved in respect of supervision and management costs.

·                The IT software that was utilised by the Housing Department and the benefits of upgrading this software in order to make efficiency savings.

·                The extent to which the Council was on track to ensure that funding received under Right to Buy was reinvested in new properties.  Officers explained that there was a plan in place to ensure that both new properties as well as properties already on the market were purchased as part of the Housing Growth Programme.

·                The size of the Council’s Housing Capital budget which helped to support the Housing Growth Programme.

 

RESOLVED that

 

the report be noted.

74.

Referral from Council - Proposed Scrutiny Review pdf icon PDF 79 KB

Members are asked to consider a referral from the meeting of Council held on 29th January 2018.  This relates to a Notice of Motion that was received in respect of transitional support for young people leaving care in Redditch.  The Committee is asked to consider and determine how to approach scrutinising this matter in further detail.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered a report outlining a referral that had been received from Council to consider launching a review of transition arrangements for young people leaving care in Redditch.  This referral had been made following agreement of a notice of motion in respect of young people leaving care at the meeting of full Council that took place on 29th January 2018.  As part of that notice Members had agreed that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee should carry out a full investigation of the subject.

 

As the referral had been made by Council to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee no scoping document, which was usually used to present proposed terms of reference to the Committee, had been drafted.  However, the notice of motion did propose a number of key objectives for a review and these would need to be addressed during a scrutiny exercise.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee could choose to review the subject in a number of different ways but would need to ensure that the investigation was completed within six months of the Motion having been adopted; this would mean that a review would need to end by July 2018.

 

Members discussed the review and noted that ideally this exercise would be completed before July 2018.  There was general consensus that the investigation should be undertaken as a Short Sharp Review and Members agreed that Councillor Dormer should Chair this review.

 

RESOLVED that

 

1)        a short sharp review be launched to investigate the transition of young people leaving care in Redditch; and

 

2)        Councillor Dormer be appointed to Chair this review.

75.

Executive Committee Minutes and Scrutiny of the Executive Committee's Work Programme - Selecting Items for Scrutiny pdf icon PDF 317 KB

Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on 6th February 2018.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered the minutes from meetings of the Executive Committee held on 16th January and 6th February 2018 respectively.  The Committee also considered the content of the latest version of the Executive Committee Work Programme for the period 1st March to 30th June 2018.

 

RESOLVED that

 

1)        the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee held on 16th January and 6th February 2018 be noted; and

 

2)        the content of the Executive Work Programme for the period 1st March to 30th June 2018 be noted.

76.

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme pdf icon PDF 175 KB

Minutes:

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme and noted that there would be a relatively lengthy agenda at the following meeting of the Committee, due to take place on 1st March 2018.

77.

Task Groups, Short Sharp Reviews and Working Groups - Update Reports

a)        Budget Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Jane Potter

 

b)        Civil Contingencies Short Sharp Review – Chair, Councillor Gareth Prosser

 

c)         Performance Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer

Minutes:

a)        Budget Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Jane Potter

 

The Chair of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group, Councillor Jane Potter, advised that the group had held two meetings since the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  During these meetings the group had pre-scrutinised the content of the HRA and the Medium Term Financial Plan 2018/19 to 2021/22.  There were no further meetings scheduled to take place in the 2017/18 municipal year.

 

b)        Civil Contingencies Short, Sharp Review – Chair, Councillor Gareth Prosser

 

In the absence of the Chair of the Group Councillor Matthew Dormer provided an update in respect of the Civil Contingencies Short Sharp Review.  Members were advised that the group had interviewed the North Worcestershire Civil Contingencies and Resilience Manager in January.  The group had subsequently agreed a small number of recommendations and would be finalising their report at their last meeting on 19th February 2018.

 

c)         Performance Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer

 

The Chair of the Performance Scrutiny Working Group, Councillor Matthew Dormer, advised that the group had held their latest meeting earlier in February.  During the meeting Officers had been interviewed about rent arrears and the action that was taken by the Council to address this.  Members had welcomed news that the Council tried to identify the reasons why people fell into debt as well as the work undertaken by officers to help tenants manage their finances and cover their debts.  The group had made some suggestions about the measures for this and had urged officers to add commentary that would help to explain debt levels.

 

The group had been scheduled to hold a further meeting on 6th March 2018.  However, due to other work pressures the Chair was proposing that this meeting should be cancelled and no further meetings of the group would take place until the new municipal year.

78.

External Scrutiny Bodies - Update Reports (Councillor Nina Wood-Ford)

a)        West Midlands Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee; and

 

b)        Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC).

Minutes:

a)        West Midlands Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee

 

Councillor Nina Wood-Ford, the Council’s representative on the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Overview and Scrutiny Committee, confirmed that there had been no meetings since the last meeting of the Redditch Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

 

b)        Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

 

Councillor Wood-Ford, the Council’s representative on the Worcestershire HOSC, advised that at the latest meeting of HOSC a presentation had been delivered in respect of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.

 

HOSC had also considered information about the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) review of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (WAHT).  This review had identified a number of improvements, though the trust was still rated as inadequate and in need of improvement.  Questions had been raised about the demand for hospital beds over the winter period and senior representatives from WAHT had suggested that they would be encouraging residents to take up the flu vaccination in order to help reduce demand during the period in future.

 

During the latest HOSC meeting attendees had been advised that there were 158 nursing vacancies within WAHT.  Questions remained about the number of agency nurses used by WAHT and the costs involved.