Agenda and minutes

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Tony Owen.

Councillor William Huntington-Thresher declared an interest as a member of the Affinity Sutton Regional Scrutiny Board.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Thursday 28^th May 2015.

No questions had been received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th May 2015 be confirmed.

Report CSD15067

The Committee noted matters arising from previous meetings.

The Committee noted the Forward Plan of key and private decisions published on 12^th May 2015.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to the Resources Portfolio Holder must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Thursday 28^th May 2015.

One question had been received from Councillor Ian Dunn about the spend and number of person days by month on the Adecco Agency Worker contract. – this is attached as appendix 1 to these minutes.

It was confirmed that most of the expenditure was on social workers particularly in the Children and families teams. There were no on-costs to be added to these figures. Members noted that the March figure was higher than previous months, and asked whether figures could be provided of the relative cost of directly employing staff to cover these posts.

Councillor Graham Arthur, Portfolio Holder for Resources, addressed the Committee, giving a summary of his work and focussing in particular on the Council’s financial position. He explained how the Council had the lowest spend per head in London and the lowest Council tax in outer London, and had already saved £50m per annum on its revenue budgets. Savings had been taken early, baseline reviews had been used to establish essential service levels, taking into account statutory requirements, and services were being assessed to be delivered in the most cost effective ways.  £30m of assets had been disposed of in the previous year, and staffing had been reduced to around 1,900. Staff had risen to the challenge of the difficult circumstances and the local pay arrangements meant that they had received higher pay increases than under national agreements, bottom-loaded to help the lower paid. Property investments had yielded £1.8m above budget expectations and council tax collection rates remained firm despite the changes to benefits. There was a rigid firewall between capital and revenue expenditure, which was tightly controlled. The IT portal was now up and running, to enable more services to be accessed online, which was cheaper for the Council. A new Head of IT had been appointed, an area where the Council could improve, and there were real possibilities for partnership with the health service.

The Portfolio Holder responded to questions on the following issues –

·  There was a deeper role for Members in scrutiny, particularly on contracts, where Members needed to ensure that services were properly specified and designed, that contracts were negotiated successfully and monitored effectively. He accepted that Members would need training to adapt to new roles.

·  Efficiencies needed to be squeezed out of services before they were outsourced; services needed to be bundled together effectively to attract the right bids, but in some case retaining in-house or a staff-run enterprise could be the best solution. Some Councils had created large outsourced contracts prematurely and were now faced with having to take services back in-house.

·  Historically, the Council did not have a comprehensive register of its property assets, but this had been done in the last six months and it was important to review which properties were really needed. A Member commented that there were still too many paper records which had not been digitised.

·  There was an incentive to develop and build through the New Homes Bonus and Business Rate Retention, but there would be difficult decisions to be made about green belt and better use needed to be made of brown land. The impact of the new Homes Bonus was potentially disappointing and the Council should not rely on this – it had to be prudent.

·  While the Council had been successful in bring staff numbers down, the Local Government Pension Scheme was generous and expensive, and contractors were reluctant to take on pension liabilities. There were complex issues involved which the Pensions Investment Sub-Committee would be investigating. 

·  The Council was working with other boroughs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 163.

Members of the Committee are requested to bring their copy of the agenda for the Executive meeting on 10^th June 2015.

The Committee considered the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the Executive’s meeting on 10^th June 2015.

(5)  Provisional Final Accounts 2014/15

Report FSD15034

The Committee considered the provisional outturn for 2014/15 at portfolio level and Council-wide, as well as the implications for the Council’s financial position in 2015/16. There was a net nil variation made up of an underspend on service department budgets of £2.3m, £4m underspend on the central contingency, additional interest on balances of £1.8m,  prior years  adjustments totalling £3.7m cr, a £10m contribution to the Investment Fund and other variations totalling £1.8m.

The Committee considered the Care Services Portfolio, where there was a degree of volatility from unforeseen placements and demographic changes. The Department’s task was to cope with these variations and manage within the overall budget, but Members remarked that underspends in some areas should not be viewed as opportunities to allow overspends elsewhere – there had to be culture change across the organisation that money that was not needed should be given back. This was the first time for ten years that there was an overspend on care budgets, following significant savings in 2013/14. The Department had worked hard to reduce the overspend from the much higher projections in September 2014, but cost pressures had to be identified sooner and proposals to address them put in place earlier.

Members discussed the use of a central contingency fund for unforeseen items, to be drawn down only when necessary. There were suggestions both that it should be reduced as the Council’s budgets shrank, but also that as budgets tightened and risks increased it was more necessary than ever. 

The Committee was assured that all budgets were scrutinised rigorously and the Leader stated that savings had been taken early wherever possible.

RESOLVED that the recommendations be supported.

(Councillors Ian Dunn and Angela Wilkins requested that their contrary votes be recorded.) 

 (7)  Investment Property Review

Report DRR15/056

The report provided an overview of the Council’s investment portfolio and proposed a process for reviewing this portfolio. The following categories of property would be reviewed in priority order over the coming year – estate shops (freehold and leasehold), shopping centres, green belt, miscellaneous commercial properties, residential properties and sports and community uses. All properties would be challenged rigorously. 

The Executive was also asked to reaffirm a set of management policies set out in the report as (a) to (k). Members noted that policy (f) was not to grant preferential terms to charities, providing them with a hidden subsidy, as there were proper channels for supporting charities, including the 80% discount on business rates. A Member queried whether the Council could pursue policy (g) about avoiding granting leases to competing businesses – this would be considered as part of the review, but there was some scope for considering the social and economic needs of the area. Policy (k) was not to dispose of small pieces of land for garden extensions unless it was in the Council’s interest,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 164.

Report DRR/15/053

The report provided an update on section 106 agreements - the Committee considered this report in conjunction with the report on the Executive’s agenda on the Supplementary Planning Document on Planning Obligations.

The Committee discussed expiry dates for section 106 expenditure. It was noted that not all agreements had an expiry date, but officers had worked hard in recent months to ensure that money was used effectively. Sometimes, particularly with highways money, the money was not spent as the improvements were not needed; there was only one recent example of a developer successfully asking for money to be returned. In response to a question, it was explained that the level of affordable housing was defined within each agreement for each development.

RESOLVED that the contents of the report and the appendices by noted.

Report CSD15069

The Committee considered its work programme for 2015/16. The following issues were raised -

·  The Chairman requested information on use of consultants across the Council. 

·  A member requested more detail on cost pressures in future years – there would be a four year financial forecast report to the Executive in the autumn.

·  Members discussed the need for Councillor training – this was an issue being picked up primarily by General Purposes and Licensing Committee, although this Committee would also have some oversight of this matter.

·  A member raised the issue of how recharges could be reduced – he hoped that the Chief Executive could address this issue at the next meeting.

·  Members enquired about the Contracts Register – this would be reported at a forthcoming meeting.

RESOLVED that the Press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business referred to below as it is likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings that if members of the Press and public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The following summaries

refer to matters

involving exempt information

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 14^th May 2015 were confirmed.

The Committee scrutinised a report on the Executive’s Part 2 agenda on Residential Property Acquisitions.