Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

97.

Apologies

Minutes:

An apology for absence was received on behalf of Councillor David Bush.

98.

Declarations of Interest

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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

99.

Leader's Announcements

Minutes:

A written update on the Leader’s Announcements was circulated at the meeting.

100.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 136 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that

 

the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on Tuesday 5th February 2019 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

101.

Medium Term Financial Plan 2019/20 to 2022/23, Including Pay Policy Statement and Council Tax Setting pdf icon PDF 149 KB

Council Tax Resolutions, at Appendix 7 to the report, are attached.

 

Also attached are the minutes from the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 20th February 2019.  During this meeting Members agreed three recommendations that should be considered alongside the Medium Term Financial Plan.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources presented the Medium Term Financial Plan 2019/20 to 2022/23.  During the presentation of this report the following matters were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

 

·                The Medium Term Financial Plan was designed to help the Council achieve its strategic purposes.

·                The Budget Scrutiny Working Group had been reviewing the process for preparing the budget throughout the year and had been assisted by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its latest meeting.

·                In the last Medium Term Financial Plan it had been assumed that in 2019/20 there would be a shortfall of £475,000 in the budget.  The report set out the action that had been taken and the proposals that had been made to ensure that the budget balanced in 2019/20.

·                The Council had achieved £1.1 million of savings and there were now no unidentified savings included within the Medium Term Financial Plan.

·                The Government had confirmed that the Council would not need to pay back the negative revenue support grant in 2019/20 which had originally been built into the budget.  Officers were assuming that the local authority would not need to pay this negative support grant in the subsequent three financial years.

·                The Council had received more New Homes Bonus (NHB) funding than had been anticipated at the end of the previous financial year.

·                The business rates bid for Worcestershire had been approved and the district Councils were putting forward bids for up front funding for projects that would help to reduce expenditure on social care overall.

·                There was significant uncertainty moving forward about local authority budgets and this was impacting on the projected figures for the Council’s budget in future years.  By 2022/23 a deficit of £1.5 million was anticipated.

·                In 2019/20 the Council would have balances of £1.4 million.  Officers were anticipating that these would decline significantly during the period of the plan and by 2021/22 Officers were anticipating that balances would fall below the level set as a requirement by the Section 151 Officer.

·                Unavoidable pressures had been included in the Medium Term Financial Plan.  These were financial pressures that the Council had to deliver in order to continue to provide services.

·                A contribution of £150,000 to the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) had been included in the plan.  As the Council would be in the Worcestershire business rates pilot pool for a year, officers had built income from that pool into the budget to offset the costs in terms of the contribution to the GBSLEP.

·                The bids and savings included the contract that had been secured by the Lifeline team with Cannock Chase District Council and the £50,000 in printing savings.

·                The capital bids mainly comprised S106 funds, though there were also bids in respect of the fleet replacement process and for the North Worcestershire Water Management (NWWM) team.

 

Following the presentation of the report Councillor Baker, as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, was invited to present the recommendations arising from the Committee’s scrutiny of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101.

102.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 110 KB

Minutes:

The Chair confirmed that there were no outstanding recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 4th February 2019 for consideration at the meeting.

 

RESOLVED that

 

the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Monday 4th February 2019 be noted.

103.

Minutes / Referrals - Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Executive Panels etc.

To receive and consider any outstanding minutes or referrals from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Executive Panels etc. since the last meeting of the Executive Committee, other than as detailed in the items above.

Minutes:

The Chair confirmed that there were no outstanding matters referred by other Committees for consideration at the meeting.

104.

Advisory Panels - update report

Members are invited to provide verbal updates, if any, in respect of the following bodies:

 

a)    Constitutional Review Working Panel – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer;

 

b)    Corporate Parenting Steering Group – Council Representative, Councillor Gareth Prosser;

 

c)    Grants Panel – Chair, Councillor Greg Chance;

 

d)    Member Support Steering Group – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer; and

 

e)    Planning Advisory Panel – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer.

 

Minutes:

a)        Constitutional Review Working Party – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer

 

Councillor Dormer advised the Committee that a meeting of the Constitutional Review Working Party had taken place on 12th February 2019.  The recommendations arising from this meeting would be considered at the Council meeting on 25th February 2019.

 

b)        Corporate Parenting Steering Board – Council Representative, Councillor Gareth Prosser

 

Members were advised that, as discussed at the previous meeting of the Executive Committee, Councillor Baker-Price had attended the latest meeting of the Corporate Parenting Steering Board as a substitute.   

 

Councillor Baker-Price explained that during the latest meeting of the Board Members had discussed the delays that could occur in terms of the provision of universal credit.  Often when a young person left care s/he did not then receive universal credit for up to four weeks which could create difficulties and a Section 37 needed to be obtained to provide assistance.

 

c)         Grants Panel – Chair, Councillor Greg Chance

 

Councillor Chance confirmed that there was no update to provide.

 

d)        Member Support Steering Group – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer

 

Members were informed that the following meeting of the Member Support Steering Group was due to take place on the evening of Tuesday 26th February 2019.  This was the rescheduled meeting of the group that had been due to take place in January and Members were asked to bring their agenda packs from that date in order to reduce the amount of paperwork generated for the meeting.

 

e)        Planning Advisory Panel – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer

 

Councillor Dormer explained that the following meeting of the Planning Advisory Panel was due to take place on 13th March 2019.