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Contact: Committee Services
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APOLOGIES AND SUBSTITUTES Minutes: An apology of absence was received from Councillors Melanie Barrett and Jenny Jenkins and from Peter Patrick – Cabinet Member for Finance. |
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DECLARATION OF INTERESTS Minutes: None received. |
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BOS/17/29 CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 20 NOVEMBER 2017 PDF 178 KB Minutes: It was RESOLVED: -
The minutes of the meeting held on 20 November 2017 be confirmed as a true record with the following amendments:
Page 5, paragraph 57.3 to be amended to:
The Committee requested that the item: “reviewing the impact, the office move has had on staff and the financial impact of the move to Endeavour House, with the aim of learning points for other future major change activities” be added to the Forward Plan in April.
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TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF PETITIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COUNCIL'S PETITION SCHEME Minutes: None received. |
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BOS/17/30 DRAFT JOINT MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY AND 2017/18 BUDGET PDF 384 KB Assistant Director – Corporate Resources
Babergh Cabinet at its meeting on 7 December 2017 considered Paper BCa/17/36, and at its meeting on 18 January 2018 will consider Paper BCa/17/42 (incorporating the Revised Appendix A).
Additional documents:
Minutes: 65.1 The Chair read out to Members questions received from Councillor Alan Ferguson and which was tabled at the meeting. He asked the officers to forward the answers to all Committee Members after the meeting. The Questions and Answers are attached.
65.2 The Assistant Director, Corporate Resources responded to Members’ requests to forward a detailed breakdown of the Transformation Fund to the Committee Members. In the future a copy of the Quarterly Budgetary Monitoring report was to be forwarded to Members. The report was also available found on the website.
65.3 It was clarified that report BCa/17/36 went to Cabinet in December. Report BCa/17/42 went to Cabinet in January and was the most up to date report of the two. Further updates were being added at the final stages before the report went back to Cabinet in February.
65.4 CIFCO investments, BMS Invest and it’s new staffing structure and the work for Investment and Development were yet to be finalised and were not included in the Budget. The income for the Pre-application Charges had not yet been included either.
65.5 Members questioned the Council’s deficit and if reserves were still needed to repay this. Members were reassured that the debt was being reduced.
65.6 Officers clarified that there was £500,000 in reserve to pay for debt but that this was not a large amount for the size of the Council. The exact distribution of reserves was to be found on page 28, paragraph 13.5. The Transformation Fund balance of £126K was marked as the absolute final reserve.
65.7 Members then asked if additional information was going to be added to the report for the installation of Solar Panels and CIFCO. The response was that the Solar panels were included in the General Fund, but as CIFCO was an independent company, it would provide its own report to Cabinet.
65.8 Members asked for clarification on the Debt Cap (page 33, paragraph 18.9) and the prediction for the next years and officers explained how the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) had previously been maintained, and that the HRA and 30-year Business Plan were a calculated projection of how the funding would be achieved. The Government’s announcement that councils could increase rents CPI by + 1% and had an impact on the HRA’s Income and Expenditure for 2020/21 and the Business Plan. It was confirmed that the Debt Cap was fixed by the Government.
65.9 In response to Members questions, officers explained that the Universal Credit, which was in operation as a full service now, and rent recovery had not yet had an impact on debt recovery. The Council had a good rent collection system in place and the Bad Debt Provision had been estimated to increase only increase slightly (Page 33, paragraph 19.1).
65.10 The In-year Operation Surplus Variance of £766,000 were explained to be mostly due to the revenue contribution from the Capital Program. Currently a review of the housing stock was being undertaken and an estimated Capital Spend ... view the full minutes text for item 65. |
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BOS/17/31 INFORMATION BULLETIN PDF 279 KB The Information Bulletin is a document that is made available to the public with the published agenda papers. It can include update information requested by the Committee as well as information that a service considers should be made known to the Committee.
The Information Bulletin contains updates on the following subject:
1. Void Improvement Project
Minutes: It was RESOLVED: -
That the Information Bulleting be noted. |
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BOS/17/32 FORTHCOMING DECISIONS LIST PDF 107 KB To review the Council’s Forthcoming Decisions List and identify any items to be brought before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Minutes: It was RESOLVED: -
That the Forthcoming Decisions List be noted |
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BOS/17/33 FORWARD PLAN PDF 176 KB To agree the Forward Plan Minutes: Members discussed the Forward Plan and the upcoming review of Planning Application Fees. Councillor Gasper to forward information received from John Foster to the Corporate Manager – Law and Governance.
It was RESOLVED: -
That the Babergh Forward Plan be noted |
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BOS/17/34 MSDC OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY FORWARD PLAN PDF 152 KB For information Minutes: It was RESOLVED: -
That the Mid Suffolk Forward Plan be noted
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Answered to Councillors Ferguson's Questions to Babergh Overview and Scrutiny Committee 22 January 2018 Minutes: Babergh Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting 22 January 2018
Questions received on 13 January 2018 from Councillor Alan Ferguson to be answered at the Committee meeting.
Answer: Integration of staffing between Babergh and Mid Suffolk took place over the period 2011/12 to 2013/14. In the Statement of Accounts each year the councils disclose the level of termination payments to officers. The accounts for both councils show total redundancy and pension fund costs of £3.534m over the three-year period. It may be the case that not all of these costs related to integration, so this is the worst-case position. Recurring annual savings from integration total £2.247m, so the payback period of the one-off costs was 1.6 years.
Answer: This information will be available in the near future. Officers are finalising a document, to share with all members, which will capture all the costs of the move to Endeavour House and the ongoing revenue projections.
Answer: The one-off costs associated with both of these initiatives have been funded from reserves rather than increasing the base budget. So, whilst they have not contributed directly to the deficits that Babergh is facing in the future, it has reduced the level of reserves that give the Council some resilience to respond to the challenges that it faces.
Answer: No. The net income for Babergh in the proposed budget for 2018/19 is £258k. This is lower than the figure quoted at the Babergh Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting on 22nd January 2018. The figure quoted there of £438k did not include the Minimum Revenue Provision charge, as a result of the borrowing costs, so the correct net income figure is £258k.
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