Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor J Chesworth.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 7^th October 2021 were approved as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor Dr S Peaple and seconded by Councillor J Harper)

Councillor Dr S Peaple declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of the Welfare Reform project highlight report within the Quarter 2 Quarterly Performance Report due to his position as a trustee of one of the charities referred to.

The Committee noted the recent passing of former Mayor, Councillor and County Councillor Terry Dix and passed on their condolences to his family.

There were no responses to reports of this Committee.

The Chair reported that no matters had been referred to the Corporate Scrutiny Committee from Cabinet or Council.

(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.

Please see the link to the Forward Plan:

http://democracy.tamworth.gov.uk/mgListPlans.aspx?RPId=120&RD=0&bcr=1

No further items were identified for this Committee’s consideration.

(Discussion item)

The Committee considered its work plan and updated it as follows:

Corporate Scrutiny Work Plan