Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Ben Price

Resolved that Councillor A Wells was appointed as Vice-Chair of the Committee.

(Moved by Councillor M Couchman and seconded by Councillor M Summers)

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 22nd April 2024 were approved as a correct record.

(As the only member of the committee 2023/24 Councillor G Coates moved the minutes as a correct record)

There were no declarations of interest

To receive an update from the Chair

The Chair gave the following update

Firstly I wanted to thank the previous Chair, Councillor  Daniel Cook for his work and diligence over the year and robustly scrutinising me as part of the cabinet at the time, which by the way was always terrifying and fun at the same time. As well as cabinet Council officers were vigorously questioned with many of the issues raised through the committee going on to direct help the lives of ordinary residence so thank you. 

Secondly many of you will be aware that I was previously on cabinet and thus invited to what seemed like most of the Scrutiny committees.  It did mean I saw a lot of passionate conversations, and some that probably weren't so passionate but approaching what I'd say is aggressiveness in nature and I think we do have to be careful, and I wanted to bring it up at the start of this one.  So it brings me to the Nolan principles which of course has councillors we subscribe to.  It states the following, holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with the respect they deserve.  They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.  So my request to members is that while some of the issues raised here can be extremely emotive particularly on this committee and I'm sure Health & Wellbeing as well  could we try to be courteous   and understanding with both each other and officers of the council.

My  third update is to remind members of upcoming training arranged in

partnership with the LGA (Local Government Association) unless it's changed we've got training on the September the 16th again with the LGA, and there will be a councillors from another authority attending share their experiences.  I was saying the other day to be honest the last one that I was on was absolutely

fantastic so I would fully recommend it.

Update on responses received to Reports of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair updated on the recommendations going to Cabinet on 27^th June around housing voids

The recommendations are:

(Discussion Item)

None

(Presentation from the Corporate Project Officer to update the Committee on the progress of the Corporate Plan and the upcoming peer review)

Christie Tims, Corporate Project Officer presented an update on the Corporate Plan and Upcoming Peer Review. 

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     How are we engaging with residents? -  From July to the end of August we will be doing a wide spread resident campaign it is still being developed but we would welcome any contributions that members may have as to things we can consider.  Working with the voluntary sector to make sure we are reaching hard to reach areas and working with the comms team to reach residents and contribute.   

2.     On the co-creation slide it states facilitated discussion, engagement and collaboration events held with key stakeholders are we as councillors not key stakeholders yes part of this process is the scrutiny and will be emailing this presentation to all councillors to make sure we can get all the input we can.

3.     If plan is signed off in July how do we as councillors have any input. -  Plan not signed off until February next year, up until that point it is a consultation document.  Consultation Plan will go public after Cabinet

4.     Emerging Strategic Priorities how are we going to drill down so we know what we can offer and what is realistic.  When we consult with Stakeholders can we make sure that the language we use is everyday English and is understood by everyone. – Yes we will be plain English testing all consultation documents.  With Stakeholders we are talking about specific projects that sit under the key objectives to feed into budget review group process. 

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

Report of the Leader of the Council to provide the Committee with an overview of Council performance for the fourth quarter of the 2023-24 financial year (January to March 2024).  Reporting the council’s position in relation to progress with strategic corporate plan projects and updates on the financial position, corporate risks, audits, information governance and complaints. Cabinet will consider the report on 18th July 2024.

The Committee sought clarity on the following:

1.     Outrun Variants - Variance is 3.3 million which is an increase from £2.274 million that was reported previously the difference relates to a bad debt adjustment. In process of finalizing the accounts and will be working through under spends with budget managers to look at consistent underspends.

2.     Red marker on Financial stability into the future with no data assigned to it.   Is red the correct rating given the three years balanced budget and then we know that certain things drop out the budget that actually do get added back in by Government. - The red status on this risk relates to the long-term financial sustainability of the council the deficit in future years in increasing significantly.  The risk relates to the 2023/2024 budget setting, but we will look at for the next meeting with a view of changing the name.

3.      Future High Street Fund (FHSF) – Program - Risks – more understanding on risks moving forward, is the risk profile reducing. 

           FHSF is a complex program with a number of risks which have mitigated

           as far as they can, but what is reflected from the report it is not possible

           to entirely mitigate all the associated risks.  The project board meets on

           a monthly basis, so the project is kept under regular review.  The risks

           are managed and will continue to be managed.

4.     FHSF – PDF page 89 Individual notes and due date on the right.  These dates are all in the past can we have a complete column included in the report.

Officers will take back to look at the presentation whilst looking at  making the report more transparent.

5.     Public open spaces.  Underspend could this be given to Councillor’s to spend on Wards. – Underspend due to Some staff shortages which are now back in post.  Certain 106 monies do come with conditions Officer to bring back explanation of how the monies are spent. 

6.     Page 16 Strategic Projects – risk showing green is that correct?  Officer to check if this is realistic and update on progress.

7.     ‘Where managed by’ is included in the report are these all up to date - Yes, checked by Corporate Management Team

8.     Review of Leaseholder Services and are leaseholders being kept up to date - Full implementation of all the recommendations within the timescales and yes leaseholders will know the outcomes but the delivery will take longer.

9.     Where a budget hasn’t been spent is the budget lost.  (pg 62) - 106 set aside it’s not lost its set aside for the next  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

Report of the Leader of the Council provided Corporate Scrutiny with information and a timetable for the Financial Stability Plan and Productivity Plan prior to consideration by Cabinet on 27 June 2024.

Members sought clarity on the following:

1.      Where is the Stability Plan in the report. – The report outlines the measures in the financial Stability Plan these will be the measures that we are going to take to identify required savings in the future. 

2.     Finalisation of the Productivity plan to be signed off by the Leader of the Council

3.     Revenue Support Grant is the abbreviation RSG

4.     5 year budget forecast, what is the main driver of the deficit more than quadrupling by 2025/27 – Main driver for the deficit is the business rates re-set.  The business rates were valued back in 2013,  any growth since then the council takes a proportion of once it is re-set nationally the council will lose some of the business rate re-set and ½ million pounds grant may be lost 2026/27 may change in new homes bonus grant

5.     Under spend to save, Transformation Reserve.  Mainly Information Communication Technology based, what does this mean in terms of the transformation reserve. -   Assumption that ICT will be the way we improve ways we work and an area where we can make most savings. 

6.     Peer Review, how was it initiated and how long is it expected to take.  – Initiated by Chief Executive last one in 2013 and they should be every 5 years. 

7.     Growth going forward, don’t’ strip savings out for the sake of it.  – We are in a deficit 2025/26 position of 1.1 million pounds and savings do need to be made.  We are mindful of the need to make some savings. 

8.     What impact is the interest on the savings. – budgeted for higher rate of interest, it is difficult to predict growth

To provide an update on any working groups

The Chair stated that, if possible, rather than use working groups the committee could use the meetings to discuss items in more detail.  There was a discussion on cross committee working if an item overlapped to other Scrutiny Committees. 

(Discussion item – link to the Forward Plan attached)

Browse plans - Cabinet, 2024 :: Tamworth Borough Council

No further items added form the forward plan

Browse plans - Cabinet, 2024 :: Tamworth Borough Council

(Discussion Item – to review the Committees work plan)

The committee discussed the work plan and decided to add the following

The Chair will provide a de-brief report following the Leaseholders Collaborative Working Group meeting on 10th July.  (August)

Outline ICT Strategy (To be confirmed)

Housing Repairs Performance (To be confirmed)

Corporate Plan and Vision (August)

The Chair will email a list of items to Committee Members for discussion at the next meeting.