Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Brock and Councillor Owen.  Councillor Andrews and Councillor Tunnicliffe attended as their respective substitutes.  Apologies were also received from Councillor Mark Smith.

There were no additional declarations of interest.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, members of the public may submit one question each on matters relating to the work of the Committee. Questions must have been received in writing 10 working days before the date of the meeting - by 5pm on Monday 22 January 2024.

Questions seeking clarification of the details of a report on the agenda may be accepted within two working days of the normal publication date of the agenda – by 5pm on Tuesday 30 January 2024.

There were no questions.

The minutes of the Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee meeting held on 16 January 2024 (excluding exempt information), were agreed and signed as a correct record.

Report CSD24017

The report dealt with the Committee’s business management including matters outstanding from previous meetings and the proposed work plan for the remainder of the year.

The Chairman requested that the Expenditure on Consultants report be reinstated on the Committee’s Work Programme and presented to the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The Committee noted the Forward Plan of Key Decisions covering the period January 2024 to April 2024.

Portfolio Holder decisions for pre-decision scrutiny.

The Committee considered the following reports where the Resources, Contracts and Commissioning Portfolio Holder was recommended to take a decision.

Report FSD24013

The report proposed that a public consultation exercise was undertaken in which it was recommended that a Second Home Premium was introduced from April 2025.

In response to a question, the Revenues and Benefits Manager explained that it would be for the property owner to provide evidence regarding whether or not the property had a permanent resident.  Evidence that could be provided included details of where residents voted, registration at a doctor’s surgery etc.  If evidence was not provided the property would be deemed a second home.

Turning to the issue of the Equalities Impact Assessment, the Revenues and Benefits Manager confirmed that at this stage it was difficult to identify any equalities impact however it was hoped that further information could be gathered as part of any request for comments/consultation process.  As a more general point around Equalities Impact Assessments, the Chairman suggested in future there was no need to include assessments as part of reports presented to Members.  Instead, a link to the Equalities Impact Assessment could be provided for Member’s reference if required.  Another Member suggested that in considering and taking decisions Members should be provided with all relevant information in the agenda papers for the meeting, including any Equality Impact Assessment.

A Member highlighted that there was no statutory requirement to undertake a consultation and suggested that in this instance, the consultation did not represent value for money as any consultation was unlikely to change the outcome.  In response to the comments, the Legal Advisor to the Committee explained that it was good practice to undertake a consultation/request for comments, and making people aware of any changes in advance would support the Council’s defence of any judicial review in the future.  The Committee also noted the requirement that any request for comments/consultation had to be meaningful.

Councillor Jeal proposed that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to not agree that a public consultation exercise is undertaken in relation to the introduction of a 100% second homes premium in April 2025.  The motion was seconded by Councillor Julie Ireland, put to the vote and CARRIED.

4 in favour

1 against

9 abstentions.

RESOLVED: That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to not agree that a public consultation exercise is undertaken in relation to the introduction of a 100% second homes premium in April 2025.

Report FSD24012

At its meeting on 7^th February 2024, the Executive would receive a report summarising the current position on capital expenditure and receipts following the third quarter of 2023/24 and would be asked to agree a revised capital programme for the five-year period 2023/24 to 2027/28. This report highlighted changes to be considered by the Executive in respect of the capital programme for the Resources, Commissioning and Contract Management portfolio. The revised programme for this portfolio was set out in Appendix A and detailed comments on individual schemes were shown in Appendix B.

RESOLVED: That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to note and acknowledge the changes to be considered by the Executive on 7^th February 2024.

Report FSD24016

The report summarised treasury management activity during the third quarter of 2023/24.  Investments as at 31^st December 2023 totalled £370.1m (£388.7m at 31^st December 2022) and there was no outstanding external borrowing.

The report also included the Treasury Management Strategy and the Annual Investment Strategy for 2024/25, which were required by the CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management in the Public Services to be approved by the Council.

The report also included Prudential Indicators (Annex 3 of Appendix 4) and the MRP (Minimum Revenue Provision) Policy Statement (paragraph 2.4 of Appendix 4), both of which required the approval of Council. For clarification, the Council was required by statute to agree and publish prudential indicators, primarily to confirm that the Council’s capital expenditure plans were affordable and sustainable.

The report ensured that the Council was implementing best practice and complying with the requirements of the CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management.

During discussion, the Committee discussed the advantages and disadvantages of investing in other Local Authorities.  The Chairman noted that Councils were not permitted to default on loans and Bromley could therefore expect a return on its investment.  The Director of Finance explained that, through a capitalisation direction, Councils could be given permission to borrow to service loans through the public works loan board.  The Director highlighted that careful consideration was given to whether or not to invest in other local authorities and often investments were short term with a cautious approach being taken.

RESOLVED: That the Portfolio Holder be recommended to

1)  Note the Treasury Management performance for the third quarter of 2023/24;

2)  Recommend that Council agrees to adopt the Treasury Management Statement and the Annual Investment Strategy for 2024/25 including:

(i)  the Prudential Indicators for the period 2024/25 to 2026/27 (Annex 3 of Appendix 4); and

(ii)  the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy Statement (paragraph 2.4 of Appendix 4).

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Colin Smith, attended the meeting to respond to questions from the Committee.  Councillor Smith had previously circulated a written report to the Committee in November 2023 and noted the following updates since that time:

• The Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services had taken place and the outcome was fantastic news for the Council.
• Bromley had retained the accolade of London’s Best Recycling Borough for the second year in a row.
• A great deal of work had been undertaken in relation to the preparation of the Council’s budget and the budget setting meeting would take place in a few weeks’ time.
• Tentative plans for service transformation savings would be presented to Members in the next round of meetings.
• Councils across the country were facing significant financial challenges.  There needed to be a review of the local government settlement which was now out of date and there was a clear need for fairer funding for Council.

The Leader then responded to questions, making the following comments:

• Inflation had been budgeted at 3.5% for 2024/25 and if inflation were to continue to fall as predicted this would improve the bottom line. 
• Councillor Mike Botting was championing the Armed Forces Covenant and he would be asked to provide an update on the progress made in implementing the Covenant at a future meeting.
• Portfolio Holders and PDS Committees would play a critical role in shaping plans for transformation.  It was the responsibility of the Executive to shape and mould key decisions and help to facilitate service design.  There was a key role for PDS Committees in terms of accountability and there was a need for all Members to read their agendas and consider the ways in which key services could be protected going forward.
• Looking forward, in addition to protecting services, one key ambition would be to fundamentally keep Bromley solvent.  The Leader highlighted that unless there was a radical change in the approach to funding across Local Government, there would be little option but to cut services.  There appeared to be little appetite around addressing the fairer funding question and consequently it was likely, in his opinion, that the ‘cap’ on future council tax increases would be lifted by whoever formed the next Government.
• In relation to Biggin Hill Airport, when there was further news, an update would be sent to all Members.

The Committee thanked the Leader for his update.

Members of the Committee are requested to bring their copy of the agenda for the Executive meeting on 7 February 2024.

The Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee will be looking at the following items on the Executive Agenda:

·  Council Tax Report 2024/25

·  Capital Programme Monitoring Q3 And Capital Strategy

·  Operational Building Repair and Maintenance Budget 2024/25

The Committee considered the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the meeting of the Executive on 7^th February 2024:

Report FSD24014

A key part of the financial strategy was to highlight the budget issues that would need to be addressed by the Council over the coming financial years, by forecasting the level of available resources from all sources and budget pressures relating to revenue spending. This was reported to previous meeting of Executive. Details of the capital programme were reported elsewhere on this agenda.

The Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement 2024/25 only covered 2024/25, with no indication of future years funding. The settlement included continuation of the ASC precept, increase in new homes bonus, increase of repurposed social care funding (children’s and adults) and market sustainability improvement fund (adult social care). However, there were significant reductions in the Services Grant.

There remained uncertainty around the level of Government funding for 2025/26 and beyond, particularly as the Government would need to address the significant increase in public debt due to the pandemic. The longer-term Spending Review together with the awaited Fair Funding Review and Devolution of Business Rates (or any revised funding proposals) was not expected until 2026/27 but could be delayed even further.

This report identified the final issues affecting the 2024/25 revenue budget and sought recommendations to the Council on the level of the Bromley element of the 2024/25 Council Tax and Adult Social Care precept.

Confirmation of the final GLA precept would be reported to the Council meeting on 26^th February 2024. The report also sought final approval of the ‘schools budget’. The approach reflected in this report was for the Council to not only achieve a legal and financially balanced budget in 2024/25 but to have measures in place to deal with the medium-term financial position (2025/26 to 2027/28).

Following the Government reductions in funding since austerity measures began there have been some recent improvements in funding. However, the burden of financing increasing service demands falls primarily on the level of council tax and share of business rate income. The financial forecast assumes that the level of core grant funding will remain unchanged, in real terms, from 2025/26.

In introducing the report, the Director of Finance provided an update noting the following:

-  Earlier in the day the final settlement had been received which had included further one-off funding for 2023/24 of £411k;

-  In addition to the funding announced on 26^th January 2024, a further ongoing £24k had been received;

-  A supplementary paper had been circulated to the committee providing details of the consultation responses and the minutes from the PDS Committees’ consideration of the budget;

-  Councils were required to produce productivity plans by July 2024;

-  Details of some grants remained outstanding;

-  Questions remained around the future of the Household Support Grant and further details were expected in the Spring Budget on 6^th March 2024;

-  Further technical  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

Report FSC24011

The report provided Members of the Executive, Resources and Contracts Policy, Development and Scrutiny Committee with the net ‘High’ (Red) risks extracted from the Corporate Services, Finance and the Human Resources and Customer Services Risk Registers.

A Member highlighted the growing risk of electric powered personal vehicles and was pleased to note that the risks were being considered.

Another Member asked that the Director of Corporate Services and Governance review the risk matrices for Information Compliance and Cyber Crime.  It was suggested that it may be helpful to provide a more detailed commentary regarding why these were both deemed carry the same weight in terms of impact.

It was noted that the Audit and Risk Management Committee regularly reviewed the risk registers.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

The items comprise:

·  Contracts Register

Members have been provided with advance copies of the briefing via e-mail.  The briefing is also available on the Council's Website at the following link: http://cds.bromley.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CId=559&Year=0

Information Items will not be debated at Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee unless a member of the Committee requests a discussion be held.  24 hours’ notice must be given to the Clerk.

The items comprised:

·  Contracts Register

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 Part 2 (exempt) minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 2024, were agreed and signed as a correct record.