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Agenda and minutes

Cabinet - Thursday, 28th November, 2019 6.00 pm

Venue: Committee Room 1, Marmion House, Lichfield Street, Tamworth, B79 7BZ. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services  01827 709264

Items
No. Item

28.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 110 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 7th November 2019 were approved and signed as a correct record.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

29.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of Members’ interests (pecuniary and non-pecuniary) in any matters which are to be considered at this meeting.

 

When Members are declaring a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in respect of which they have dispensation, they should specify the nature of such interest.  Members should leave the room if they have a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in respect of which they do not have a dispensation. 

Minutes:

There were no Declarations of Interest.

30.

Question Time:

To answer questions from members of the public pursuant to Executive Procedure Rule No. 13

Minutes:

There were no questions from members of the public.

31.

Matters Referred to the Cabinet in Accordance with the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules

Minutes:

No items were raised from Scrutiny at this meeting.

 

 

32.

Quarter Two 2019/20 Performance Report pdf icon PDF 120 KB

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Report of the Leader of the Council provided Cabinet with a performance update and financial healthcheck.  The report had been considered by Corporate Scrutiny Committee at their meeting on 14th November 2019.

 

RESOLVED

that:

 

 

Cabinet endorsed the contents of this report; and

 

 

the General Fund budgets be revised to reflect the projected outturn underspend as at period 6 releasing funding of £1.756m to be returned to balances.

 

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

 

 

33.

Draft Base Budget Forecasts 2020/21 to 2024/25 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

Minutes:

The Report of the Leader of the Council was presented which informed Members of the re-priced base budget for 2020/21, base budget forecasts for the period 2020/21 to 2024/25 (the 5 Year Medium Term Planning Period) and the underlying assumptions and which asked Members to consider the future strategy to address the financial trends.

 

The Executive Director, Finance provided an overview to Cabinet of the key provisions in the report.

 

RESOLVED

that:

 

 

the technical adjustments and re-priced base budget figures for 2020/21 & indicative budgets to 2024/25 be approved (as attached at Appendix B, C, D, E, F, G & H);

 

 

consideration be given to the proposed Policy Changes and Capital Programmes, as detailed within the report;

 

 

consideration be given to the planned changes to Council Tax and Housing Rent for 2020/21, as detailed within the report; and

 

 

in compliance with the Constitution of the Council, the Leader’s Budget Workshop be asked to consider the budget proposals contained within this report.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor S Doyle)

 

34.

Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2020/21 onwards pdf icon PDF 126 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance to advise members that the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for working age customers for 2020/21 should include continued alignment to Applicable Amounts with those of Housing Benefit.

 

RESOLVED

That Council considered and endorsed the proposed recommended changes detailed below:

 

 

The base scheme goes forward with the following:

 

 

That the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme for working age customers for 2020/21 would continue to be aligned to Applicable Amounts with those of Housing Benefit.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

35.

Review of Temporary Reserves, Retained Funds and Provisions pdf icon PDF 102 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance to advised Members on the levels of reserves and to sought approval to re-purpose unspent reserves, following the recent review by the Executive Director Finance.

 

RESOLVED

That Cabinet:

 

 

Approved the transfer of  the reserves, as detailed in Appendix A, of £47,873.22 to General Fund Balances and £Nil to Housing Revenue Account Balances (HRA);

 

 

Noted the reserves to be spent in 2019/20 and 2020/21 which will otherwise be returned to balances; and

 

 

Noted the current levels of reserves remaining.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

36.

Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy Mid-year Review Report 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 685 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

Minutes:

The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance on the Mid-year Review of the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy was presented to Members.

 

RESOLVED

That Council be requested to approve the Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy Mid-year Review Report 2019/20.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

 

 

37.

Council Taxbase 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 114 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance on the Council Tax Base for the Borough Council for 2020/21 was presented to Cabinet.

 

 

RESOLVED

That the calculation of the Council Tax Base for the year 2020/21 to be 22,367 (2019/20 – 21,761).

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

38.

Write Offs pdf icon PDF 213 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Assets and Finance was presented to provide Members with details of the amount of debt written off for the period 01 April 2019 to 30 September 2019 and to seek approval to write off irrecoverable debt in line with policy regarding Sundry Income in excess of £10k.

 

RESOLVED

That Cabinet:

 

 

Endorsed the amount of debt written off for the period of 1st April 2019 to 30 September 2019 – Appendix A-D; and

 

 

Approved the write off of irrecoverable debt for Sundry Income of £11,956.65 – Appendix E.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard  and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

 

 

39.

Adoption of the Proposed Licensing Policy 2020-2023 pdf icon PDF 123 KB

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Regulatory and Community Safety)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Regulatory and Community Safety was presented to inform Cabinet of the outcome of consultations regarding the review of Tamworth's statement of licensing policy and proposed cumulative impact assessment and to request Cabinet to consider and approve the revised policy and cumulative impact assessment.

 

RESOLVED

That Cabinet:

 

 

Considered and endorsed the final amended version of Tamworth's Statement of Licensing Policy and the proposed Cumulative Impact Assessment

 

 

Referred the revised Statement of Licensing Policy and Cumulative Impact Assessment to Council for approval and adoption

 

Recommended that an initial review by Tamworth Borough Council Officers, as soon as possible, of the cumulative impact assessment within the guidelines of policy be undertaken.

 

(Moved by Councillor S Doyle and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

 

 

40.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

To consider excluding the Press and Public from the meeting by passing the following resolution:-

 

“That in accordance with the provisions of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meeting and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, and Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public  interest in disclosing the information to the public”

 

At the time this agenda is published no representations have been received that this part of the meeting should be open to the public.

 

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That members of the press and public be now excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item on the grounds that the business involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

 

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and seconded by Councillor J Chesworth)

 

41.

Growth Hub Advisor Project - 2019 to 2022

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Heritage and Growth)

Minutes:

The Report of the Portfolio Holder for Heritage and Growth sought approval from Cabinet to deliver the Southern Staffordshire Growth Hub Advisor Role on behalf of Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership from October 1st 2019 to 30th September 2022

 

RESOLVED

That:

 

 

Cabinet acknowledged that the total cost of the project was £111,821.90, of which £73,305.53 would be met from European Regional Development fund monies, £19,258.18 from the GBSLEP Development Fund and £19,258.18 from three local authority partners.  

 

 

Cabinet approved the creation of all relevant internal annual budgets under account code GS0410 (Growth Hub).

 

 

Cabinet acknowledged that this is a multi-partner funded project and any balances at each year end should be kept in a retained fund with any underspend at the end of the project being split between the three funding Local Authorities.

 

 

£6000 from the Economic Development shared service budget (GS0408) for financial year 19/20, be retained and be used towards the project to cover Tamworth BC and Lichfield DC costs for this financial year and parts of financial year 20/21.

 

 

Tamworth Borough Council provided required evidence of officer time, salaries, and operational costs on the project in order to ensure maximum income is received.

 

(Moved by Councillor R Pritchard and Councillor S Doyle)