Issue - meetings

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

Report of the Leader of the Council to provide the Committee with a performance update and financial health-check.  The report was considered by Corporate Scrutiny Committee at their meeting on 18th November 2021

The Chair of Corporate Scrutiny Councillor Thomas Jay attended to update on discussions from Scrutiny Committee on 18^th November on the Review of the Quarter 2 performance Report

The three areas that Scrutiny highlighted to Cabinet are:

·         Customer services – the Committee sought further details on the extent to which and how customer reception services could be accessed face-to-face, where it was reported that these services were available through the Assembly Rooms.  However, it was noted that there was currently no sign-posting at Marmion House to the front reception services being available at the Assembly Rooms. 

·         Future High Street Fund (FHSF) - whether the 10% reduction in the request for funding by the College to Government had resulted in any additional costs to Tamworth Borough Council, which the Leader confirmed had not been the case.  The Committee sought further clarification on the intended design and planned use for the Middle Entry area of the project. 

·         Staff vacancies – clarification was sought on the nature and extent of staff vacancies, as highlighted towards the end of the report, and why these appeared particularly to be in the public facing roles; for example, in areas such as the pleasure grounds, public spaces and community wardens. The Committee felt consideration could be given to whether there was any interaction between staff vacancies and savings. 

Councillor Jay confirmed that responses had now been received and the Scrutiny Committee had moved the following recommendation

RESOLVED that the report be endorsed.

(Moved by Councillor S Goodall and seconded by Councillor A Cooper)

The Leader thanked Councillor Jay for attending. 

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Chair welcomed the Leader of the Council, Councillor J Oates, to the meeting for this item which was for the Committee to receive a performance update and financial health-check, prior to the report being presented to Cabinet on 2^nd December 2021.

The Leader of the Council introduced the report, thanked the Assistant Director, People, for pulling together the report, and highlighted that:

·       The Recovery & Reset programme was progressing, with further details on the programme set out in the report, however this would be a long project and following full Council’s discussion in August 2021, suggestions for the scrutiny committees’ involvement were to be presented to the scrutiny Chairs shortly.

·       The tender for the appointment of a multi-disciplinary team to move the Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) project forward had been awarded.  The College had followed its own procurement process and appointed the same team, and had also submitted their application for funding from the Government, which met the Government’s criteria to reduce the funding requested from Government by 10%.

·       The Medium Term Financial Strategy forecast at October 2021, showed a shortfall in the General Fund balances of £1.7m over three years, with this new deficit including circa £2m of additional policy change proposals.  The Leader reminded members that there would be the members Budget workshop in December 2021.

·       There was an increase in universal credit claimants who were council tenants, but that overall there was a slight reduction in universal credit claimants across Tamworth.

·       Council tax recovery remained on target for this year, although this was slightly down on the same position this time in 2019/20.

The Committee sought clarifications in the following areas:

·       Future High Street Fund (FHSF) - whether the 10% reduction in the request for funding by the College to Government had resulted in any additional costs to Tamworth Borough Council, which the Leader confirmed had not been the case.  The Committee sought further clarification on the intended design and planned use for the Middle Entry area of the project.  Further assurances were sought and received regarding the consultants who had been appointed and the thorough procurement process, and scoring, undertaken.  In terms of ongoing project management, clarification was sought on whether the appointments to the Project Officer roles were made internally or from external candidates.  The Leader reported that following the Audit & Governance Committee’s consideration of the project’s risk register he had taken feedback to the project board meeting and some lessons would be learnt to ensure that the correct level of detail and the appropriate Officers would be made available at the Audit & Governance meeting.  Clarification on what the CRF3 referred to in the report was sought and the Leader confirmed that this referred to the Cultural Recovery Fund and whilst the Council had been successful in rounds 1 and 2, the criteria for round 3 was significantly different.  The Leader agreed to circulate further details regarding round 3 requirements.

·       The Customer Portal - given the proximity of the planned project due date  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38