Agenda and minutes
PDF 210 KBVenue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions
Contact: Andrew Randell Email: a.randell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk
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Apologies
To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors Cavill, Darch, Milne, Prior-Sankey, D Wedderkopp and Wheatley.
Councillor Coles substituted for Prior-Sankey Councillor Lithgow substituted for Councillor Darch Councillor A Wedderkopp substituted for Councillor Wheatley. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting of the Scrutiny Committee
To approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the Committee. Minutes: (Minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 6 November 2019 circulated with the agenda)
Resolved that the minutes of the Scrutiny Committee held on 6 November 2019 be confirmed as a correct record. |
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Declarations of Interest
To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.
(The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.) Minutes: Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-
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Public Participation
The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.
For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue. Minutes: No members of the public had requested to speak on any item on the agenda. |
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Scrutiny Committee Action Plan
To update the Scrutiny Committee on the progress of resolutions and recommendations from previous meetings of the Committee. Minutes: (There were no outstanding Scrutiny Committee Actions from previous meetings).
Resolved that the Scrutiny Committee Action Plan be noted. |
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Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy. Report of the Strategy Specialist and Customer Specialist – Housing Options (Item deferred to February)
Minutes: The item of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy had been deferred until the meeting scheduled on 5 February 2020. |
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Minutes: Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) provides financial support to a wide range of Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations that help deliver corporate priorities consistent to community needs. VCS grants were awarded by the Council via the Economic Development Function, Housing Function, Tenants Forum, Localities Function, Charter Trustees (Unparished Area) and through Section 106 planning gain. All grantees entered into a funding agreement with the Council and grants were monitored to ensure that conditions were adhered to and that the grant funding maximised to benefit communities across the district. Historically the Council carried out an annual review of the grants provided through the Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) Small Grants Fund, SWT Partnership Fund and presents the findings to Members. This year the review had been extended to grants provided by the Housing Function and services commissioned to the Voluntary and Community Sector. The following Grant Funds were included in this review: · SWT VCS Partnership Fund · SWT Small grants · SWT administration fees · Somerset West Lottery Community Fund · Housing Grants awarded from the Housing Revenue
The following grant funds were not in the scope of the review: · Tenants Forum · Housing/Homeless reduction grants · Charter Trustees Unparished Fund · Planning Obligations (Section 106) funds · Economic Development and Arts Grants · Other services commissioned to the Voluntary Sector.
The review took into account the amount of funding provided, the service/s provided, performance against the grant proposal and recommendations made by Somerset Community Foundation. The review looked forward to 2020/21 and considered applications for funding and the allocation of available budgets. The review took a close look at Citizen Advice Taunton and West Somerset Advice. Last year Somerset County Council made a decision to cut a significant element of core grant funding to all CA services across the county. CA services provided councils with valuable assistance in relation to providing customers with housing, debt and benefits advice. SWT provided a ‘one –off’ additional payment of £45k to help stabilise CA services. The review took a close look at how this money was invested, and considered the need for additional support. In July 2016 TDBC and SWT entered into an agreement with Somerset Community Foundation (SCF) to provide a professional grant management service enabling the VCS Small Grants Fund. The agreement included the administration of the fund, due diligence checks, making recommendations for grant awards to the Council and monitoring of grants. As of April 2017 SCF received £20,000 per year for the VCS Small Grants Fund. The agreement stated that SCF may use no more than 10% of the Small Grants Fund for the purpose of managing the fund. In 2017 a decision was made to utilise underspent funds to increase the award to £22,000 allowing SCF to take up to 10% administration fee and award £20,000 In December 2018 the Council varied the agreement with Somerset Community Foundation, to include in addition to the Small Grants Fund the administration of the Somerset West Lottery Local Community Fund and VCS Partnership Fund. SCF pledged to provide ... view the full minutes text for item 51. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The report provided an update on the projected outturn financial position of the Council for the financial year 2019/20 (as at 30 November 2019).
The current revenue forecast outturn for the financial year 2019/20 was set out. These were the best estimates at month 8 of the financial year based on information currently available:
a) General Fund (GF) Revenue Budget reported a forecast net overspend of £36k. b) Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Revenue Budget forecasted a net underspend of £378k.
The current Capital Programme forecast position for 2019/20 was as followed: (a) The General Fund Capital Programme budget was £56.734m. No significant variations to budget were currently reported. (b) The HRA Capital Programme budget for 2019/20 was £23.093m. As previously reported, it was expected costs would be phased over more than one year so a proportion of the budget would be carried forward at the end of the financial year.
The HRA Capital Programme was provided in detail in Appendix A and The General Fund Capital Programme detailed in Appendix B. The General Fund general reserves balance as at 31 March 2020 was projected to be £2.756m (subject to risks identified). The opening balance had been adjusted due to an accounting error correction in last year’s accounts, The balance was below the operational target of £3m, but above the financial resilience target of £2.4m as approved in the Council’s Financial Strategy in September 2019.
The General Fund earmarked reserves balance at the beginning of the year was £18.242m. The net movement in year was reported at an increase of £3,954m, mainly contributions to the New Homes Bonus (less the agreed contribution of £747k to fund staff costs) and Business Rates Smoothing earmarked reserves. A number of allocations from reserves were applied at the end of the financial year and would be included in the Outturn report at that stage.
The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) general reserve balance as at 31 March 2020 was projected to be £3.07m (subject to risks identified). This was above both the current recommended operational target level (£2.4m) and financial resilience target level (£1.8m) set within the Council’s Finance Strategy and HRA Business Plan.
The HRA earmarked reserves balance at the beginning of the year was £2.719m, with £1.369m committed to be spent within the next three years and the remaining £1.340m for the Social Housing Development Fund to be used as required to fund social housing development.
Debate
· Additional and temporary staffing costs were considered. There had been constant variance to this budget throughout the year. · Final costs would be provided for the repair of the Watchet Harbour Wall. · Further details were requested for the variances detailed in the financial monitoring report. Amongst these were parking income projections and increased costs of the service, and the Housing Partnership overspend. · Greater clarification was requested on the £20k GDPR spend. · Further details were requested on the processes of welfare funerals and costs of provision.
The Scrutiny Committee Recommended that:-
The Committee support the report subject to the ... view the full minutes text for item 52. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The purpose of the report was to provide Members with an update on progress with regard to Budget Setting for 2020/21, the latest Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) forecasts and the areas to be finalised.
The Council’s current MTFP projects a budget gap for 2020/21 of £686k. Following the proposed MTFP bids and savings identified the Budget Gap is a surplus of £39k for 2020/21, but rises to £1.514m by 2024/25.
There remain a number of areas where budget forecasts are to be finalised therefore there is potential for the estimated Gap to change, and this will be reported to Members as the budget process progresses. The Executive is due to recommend its final budget proposals to Full Council in February 2020. The Financial Strategy for Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) was approved by the Executive on 18 September 2019. This report also provided Members with an update on the Medium Term Financial Position (MTFP). A further update on any significant changes to the MTFP was provided to the Scrutiny Committee on 6 November 2019. This was showing a budget gap in 2020/21 of £358k rising to £2.699m by 2024/25. There are still some items which are unknown at this stage of the budget process. These are covered in section 10. There have been some changes to the budget gap to incorporate known unavoidable pressures and some savings identified. The table set out:-
The table set out a summary of the Medium Term Financial Plan for Somerset West and Taunton. This is based on the current estimate of costs and predicted funding before MTFP bids and savings proposals below
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Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan
To receive items and review the Forward Plan. Minutes: (Copy of the Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan, circulated with the agenda).
Councillors were reminded that if they had an item they wanted to add to the agenda, that they should send their requests to the Governance Team.
Resolved that the Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan be noted. |
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