Agenda item

70

QUARTER 3 REPORT – PERFORMANCE, RISK AND FINANCE

DECISION

1.         That the quarterly monitoring information for Quarter 3 be noted.

2.         That the specific finance recommendations in the report be agreed, summarised as follows:

·         F1: The reserve movements detailed in Table 6

·         F2: The updated capital programme detailed in Table 8

·         F3: The supplementary estimate in respect of the Towns Fund Capacity Funding, as set out in Table 11

Portfolio Holders and Officer

Cllrs Skinner, Welton & Howard

SR/PJ

REASON FOR DECISION

Cabinet Members presented the headlines of the quarterly monitoring information on performance, risk and finance for Quarter 3 of 2019/20 (April to December 2019) in relation to their own portfolios.

With respect to performance, the areas of success and improvement were:

·         Planning applications (Cllr Welton)

·         Supporting business growth and promoting the Borough (Cllr Welton)

·         Switchboard (Cllr Welton)

·         Benefit and Council Tax Support processing times (Cllr Howard)

·         Information requests (Cllr Howard)

·         Gym memberships (Cllr Brown)

·         Event income (Cllr Brown)

·         Broadly compliant food businesses (Cllr Stevens)

·         Car parking income (Cllr Sharman)

·         Housing completions, empty properties and housing standards (Cllr Griggs)

Members praised staff for their hard work achieving these performance levels and for continuing to work through the current difficult situation. 

In response to a question, Councillor Skinner explained that the CCTV directed/assisted arrests were on those occasions that the Police called for the CCTV centre’s assistance; they could only be carried out when requested, as with the CCTV evidence packages.  The number of CCTV incidents reported was down from 478 the same quarter the previous year to 209, which seemed to indicate a decreasing trend in the number of incidents. 

Areas of concern/watching brief were:

·         Long term sickness absence (Cllr Skinner), though this was on target overall

·         Swim sessions (Cllr Brown)

·         Household waste and recycling (Cllr Stevens)

·         Fly tip response times (Cllr Stevens)

·         Market income (Cllr Sharman), which would be considered during the Transformation Programme

The report also listed other items of note:

·         Commercial waste growth in income and number of customers (Cllr Stevens)

·         Low contamination rates in domestic recycling (Cllr Stevens)

·         Scrutiny led Inquiry evening on 16^th March 2020 (Cllr Stevens)

Members stressed that the significant impact of the pandemic would be reflected in future quarters’ reports. 

Councillor Howard presented the quarterly risk information.  No new strategic risks had been identified up to the end of December.  Covid-19 updates would be necessary going forward and would be incorporated into future quarterly reports.  A summary of strategic risks was set out the report and full details were contained in Appendix B. 

Councillor Howard then outlined the financial management information.  The key headlines were set out in the report as follows:

-        Key financial events during Q3 2019/20 (section 1)

-        Revenue budget (section 3): table 1 details spend for the year against budget by service area, table 2 by portfolio holder and table 3 by corporate priority.  A small net underspend was projected.

-        Variations to budget (section 3)

-        Controlling Migration Fund (section 4, table 4), approximately two thirds had been spent

-        Trading income (section 5; table 5), which was in line with the budget

-        Earmarked reserves (section 6; table 6) – recommendation for Cabinet to approve the reserve movements as detailed in the table

-        Treasury management (section 7)

-        Capital (section 8; table 8) – recommendation for Cabinet to approve the updated capital programme as detailed in the table

-        Consultancy costs (section 9; table 9)

-        Debt collection (section 10; table 10)

-        Supplementary estimates (section 11; table 11) – recommendation for Cabinet to approve the supplementary estimate in respect of the Towns Fund Capacity Funding as set out in the table

-        Insurance (section 12; table 12)

-        Procurement exemptions (section 13)

-        Localisation of Business Rates and Council Tax Support Scheme (section 14; table 13)

-        Other financial matters (section 15)

Councillor Howard proposed that the recommendations contained in the report be approved, which were reserve movements; three changes to the capital programme – slippage for Marginal Viability Fund and Townscape Heritage, and new electric charging point scheme; and the supplementary estimate relating to Towns Fund Capacity Funding.

Councillor Howard added that the Covid-19 pandemic would revise the projections, and the 2019/20 impacts would be reported in the outturn report in due course.

OTHER OPTIONS OR ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED

None.

RECORD OF ANY CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None.

RECORD OF ANY DISPENSATION GRANTED

None.