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Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions

Contact: Peter Moore 

Items
No. Item

415.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillors Doolan, Klute and Debono, Councillor Russell for lateness

416.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

None

417.

Declarations of Interest

Declarations of interest

 If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)  Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

None

418.

To approve minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 160 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That subject in the resolution to Minute 413 after the word ‘continue’ of the words’still receiving reports, in a shortened version if possible’

 

the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 30 November 2017 be confirmed as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them

419.

Matters Arising from the minutes

Minutes:

None

420.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

Minutes:

A Member of the Public stated that she wished to ask a question in relation to the Windsor Street Development in relation to the savings proposals in the Council 2018/19 Budget report as follows –

 

Windsor Street, a supported living scheme for 11 people with learning disabilities, forms part of the Housing and Adult Social Services capital project scheme. Council officers and senior Councillors, have made statements that this scheme ‘will form part of the changes to the social care system that will save millions’. Please will the Committee scrutinise how Windsor Street will achieve cost savings that it is supposed to do, especially in the light of its spiralling capital costs, which have risen form below £2.2million to over £4.2million and are still growing. The CCQ regulations will not permit 11 learning disabled people to be accommodated in single person and shared units in a single building on a single site, and with regard to the rules on supported living as this would make block bookings for care provision less achievable.

 

Members were informed in response that,whilst exact savings are difficult to predict, due to the differing nature of support services and the changing levels of support people may require over time, Supported Living provides better value than equivalent residential services. Currently, supported living in Islington is operating at or close to capacity, and the Council continues to place people in residential care outside the borough as a result of this. Financial modelling, through the nationally recognised fair price tool, the Care Funding Calculator, indicates that Windsor Street, as a supported living service, will offer significantly better value than its alternatives. For example, the Care Fund Calculator, shows that the expected cost of a placement in residential care, for 11 people with learning disabilities, with a moderate to high level of support, is likely to cost approximately £1900-£2000 per week, whilst the equivalent level of support in an 11 person Supported Living service is just over £40,000 per year for one person. Whilst it would not be wise to extrapolate this across the whole service, as each person will have different needs and circumstances, benchmarking such as this can give confidence that Windsor Street will offer better value than the available alternatives, and reduce the overall costs to social care budgets.

 

It was added that there have been increases of £1,398,000 in total scheme costs and £1,018,000 on build costs. These figures are taken from the financial viability reports, provided to finance, in 2015, for feasibility stage and in 2017, for pre-planning purposes. The view of Finance is that this scheme has increased in costs since the first appraisal, but this increase was acceptable and that the programme could bear the additional cost, and a strong political will, for the scheme to progress. In discussion with the Council’s agent, on the subject of tender price increases in  this period, it is estimated that between have d increased roughly to £2,807,000. The additional costs are as a result of design  ...  view the full minutes text for item 420.

421.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Chair stated that the meeting scheduled for 8 February had now been cancelled and the next meeting of the Committee would now be held on 8 March 2018

422.

Council Budget - 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 320 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety was present. Steve Key, Service Director Finance and Resources was also present.

 

During the presentation of the Executive Member the following main points were made –

 

·         The Committee noted that the Government had made significant funding reductions to Local Government funding since 2010, exacerbated by unavoidable and inflationary cost pressures. Islington has had to find savings of up to £194 million, and including, 2017/18

·         It was noted that there is also an expected further 10% cash reduction in Islington’s core settlement funding over the next 2 years, the last 2 years of the 4 year Government’s funding settlement, and this is in combination with further inflationary, demographic and structural funding pressures, particularly in relation to Children’s Services

·         As a result of these pressures, it is estimated that £49 million of ongoing savings need to be found over the next 2 years, comprising £32 million in 2018/19 and £17 million in 2018/19. The 2019/20 savings requirement will increase accordingly, for any of the 2018/19 savings that are ‘one off’, rather than ongoing in nature

·         The Committee also noted that over the period 2010-2020, Islington will have faced a like-for-like reduction in core un ring-fenced Government funding of revenue support grant, business rates and top up grant of approximately 70%

·         Reference was made to the ‘pooling’ of business rates between London Boroughs and the GLA and Corporation of London, and that it would produce additional income in future years, and no borough would be a ‘net’ loser as a result of the proposal

·         The Committee welcomed the investment in the building of new Council houses and that an additional £1m will be invested in Tufnell Park Primary School

·         The Committee noted that for a third year an additional £0.5m had been budgeted for early intervention/targeted youth work, although a small number, that would be necessary as a result of the funding reduction, and hoped that these could be kept to a minimum

·         The Committee welcomed that the Budget proposals had yet again sought to protect front line services, however there were difficult choices to be made in the next 2/4 years, given the continuation of Government funding reductions and an outcome based budgeting process is being considered for future years

·         A number of detailed questions were asked in relation to individual issues on the budget proposals, which were responded to by Councillor Hull

·         In relation to a question as to fees and charges in relation to marriage ceremonies it was stated that additional costs had been added at less busy periods to remain competitive and had been carried out bearing in mind ‘market forces’

·         In response to a question it was stated that ICO is progressing satisfactorily, and the ICO Board were confident of future income for the Council

·         Members expressed concern at the level of stress and reduced staff morale as a result of constant increases in workload and reductions to staff

·         In response to a question, Councillor Hull stated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 422.

423.

MONITORING REPORT, FORWARD PLAN pdf icon PDF 91 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the report be noted