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Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

30.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

None

31.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillors O’Sullivan and Spall

32.

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

33.

To approve minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 101 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That, subject to the following amendment – Minute 21 New Scrutiny Topic Approval – the addition of the words in the resolution - Improvement of before the word Service - the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 25 June 2018 be confirmed as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them

34.

Matters Arising from the minutes

Minutes:

None

35.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

 

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedure for dealing with questions from Members of the Public and filming and recording of meetings

36.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Chair stated that a financial training session would be held for Members and substitute Members of PPS on 18 September 2018 at 6.15p.m. at the Town Hall, and it was hoped that as many Members as possible could attend

 

The Chair also reported the sad death of ex Councillor Gary Doolan, who served on PPS Committee for a number of years and had been a member of the Council for 12 years. Councillor Doolan had been responsible for initiating a number of the scrutiny topics previously considered by the Committee, such as Tax Avoidance and Blacklisting and in reducing the use of agency staff.

 

Members of the Committee wished to place on record their appreciation of the work carried out by Councillor Doolan and to send their condolences to his family

37.

New Scrutiny topic - Presentation and SID - Universal Credit/Welfare Reforms update pdf icon PDF 84 KB

Minutes:

Robbie Rainbird, Head of Processing, Financial Operation and Customer Services, was present for discussion of this item and made a presentation to the Committee thereon, copy interleaved.

 

During the presentation the following main points were made –

 

 

·         Since 2010 the Government has introduced significant reforms to the welfare state aimed at encouraging people into work, simplifying and restricting benefits and saving money. Key changes include –

Restriction/removal of universal (non means tested) support e.g.child benefit

Caps and freezes on welfare spend

Changes to Local Housing Allowance

Introduction of the Bedroom Tax

Benefit Cap – initially £26000 for London then reduced to £23000

Tougher requirements for those on Job Seekers allowance, and requirements on lone parents to seek work

Restricting access to benefits for EEA migrants

Changes to sickness benefits – replacing Incapacity Benefit with Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), requiring a work capability assessment

Changes Disability Benefits – replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with Personal Independence Payment (PIP)

Changes to Tax Credits and other family support

Introduction of Universal Credit – simplifying the Benefits system

·         The latest changes to take place since 2017 have been –

Support with childcare – Tax free childcare has been introduced and the Government contributes up to 20% of the first £10000 of costs per child, per year, up to a maximum of £2000 per child per year, for people with income around £15000 and not receiving child support via tax credits

Free child care entitlement doubled from 15 hours to 30 hours per week for working parents of 3 and 4 year olds

Benefit support for children – 2 child limit support through tax credits and Universal Credit and Family Element removed – people starting a family no longer eligible for Family Element in tax credits or First Child element in Universal Credit

Changes to ESA – the work related activity component abolished – new claimants placed in WRAG now receive the same rate of payment as those claiming JSA or UC equivalent

ESA permitted work limit removed – claimants undertaking permitted work and earning between £20-£120 per week no longer have to stop work or stop claiming after 52 weeks

ESA sanctions reduced – claimants who are sanctioned now receive 80% of their benefits (previously 60%), does not apply to those in WRAG who will receive 60%

·         Latest changes are as follows –

Young People – Universal Credit Youth obligation – 18/21 year olds who have been claiming UC for 6 months now have to apply for training/apprenticeships through a work placement

Bereavement Support Payment – Introduced for all new claims from April 17 – replaces Bereavement Allowance, Bereavement Payment, Widowed Parents Allowance

Earning threshold for Benefit Cap exemption – Changed from fixed rate of £430 per month, to the amount a claimant would earn if they were working 16 hours a week at national minimum wage (so most people now have to earn more before they are exempted from the cap)

Support for mortgage interest (SMI) – no longer available for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

38.

Financial update pdf icon PDF 90 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety was present for discussion of this item. Steve Key, Service Director Finance was also present.

 

During discussion of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         It was noted that there is an anticipated overspend in Environment and Regeneration of £1.9million, and that management action is taking place, in order to try to reduce the overspend. However, there is an underspend in Resources of £0.585million, resulting in a projected £1.3million overall overspend at year end, and it was stated that any overspends at year end would be covered by drawing down from the ongoing corporate contingency budget of £2million

·         Members were informed that, in addition to the ongoing corporate contingency budget, the Council has a one off contingency funding of £6.086million. The Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety informed Members that it is proposed that, in order to improve the Council’s overall financial resilience over the medium term, that the Council’s General Fund balances (excluding school’s balances), be replenished back to the previous level of 5%, over the course of the medium term financial strategy. In addition, it is proposed to transfer the earmarked capital reserve, as capital contingency funding, for known budget pressures and risks, in the agreed capital programme (£4.086million)

·         It was noted that the forecast net variance for the Housing Revenue Account is a break-even position

·         Members expressed concern that as in previous years, there continued to be a significant overspend in Environment and Regeneration. Members stated that whilst there had been a re-organisation of services, under the Village Principle, this had been intended to achieve savings but was actually costing more. Councillor Hull responded that there was significant sickness in Street Environment Services that had necessitated the use of agency staff as cover, and that an HR expert on sickness is being employed to investigate this and recommend appropriate measures. Separately, measures had also had to be taken in response to ‘random testing’ that had been introduced

·         The view was expressed that there should also be a focus on whether management were enforcing the existing sickness procedures effectively

·         It was noted that whilst the budget for E&R was challenging it was felt to be achievable by Finance and E&R management

·         Members were of the view that PPS Committee should investigate the specific reasons for the overspends in E&R, and other areas of potential underachievement of savings, including if the savings envisaged from the Village Principle were achievable

·         Members also expressed the view that staff survey results should be analysed, in order to try to ascertain if there were any specific factors affecting sickness and absence in Street Environment Services

·         In response to a question as to the lower savings on the wi-fi concession than had been anticipated, it was stated that this was because the company concerned had had technical problems, however the Council had received an up-front payment

 

 

 

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the Executive Members Finance, Performance and Community Safety  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

39.

Monitoring Report

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted