Agenda and minutes
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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 Darch, Prior-Sankey and Thwaites.
Councillor Coles substituted for Prior-Sankey Councillor Ellis substituted for Parry Councillor Milne substituted for Thwaites |
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To approve the minutes of the previous meetings of the Committee held on 8 and 20 January. Additional documents: Minutes: (Minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 8th and 20th January circulated with the agenda)
Resolved that the minutes of the Scrutiny Committee held on 8th and 20th January 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:-
Councillor Coles declared a further interest in respect of his wife being employed as a Special Educational Needs Coordinator at a nursery. |
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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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Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group Fit For My Future Presentation.
Minutes: This item was deferred from the agenda, and would be held as an All Councillor briefing at a later date. |
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Minutes: The report presented the proposed Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Annual Budget and Capital Programme for 2020/21, as well as the Rent Setting and the Fees and Charges proposals for 2020/21.
The HRA is a ring fenced account was used to manage the Council’s housing stock of some 5,700 properties, with the Council acting as the Landlord.
In April 2012, under the Localism Act 2011, the HRA (under the administration of Taunton Deane Borough Council (TDBC)) moved away from a national subsidy system (which required an annual payment from the HRA to Central Government) to become ‘self-financing’. This enabled the Council to retain all rental income to meet the costs of managing and maintaining the housing stock, as well as meeting the interest payments and repayment of debt. As part of the self-financing agreement, a one-off payment of £85.198m was made to Government.
In order to manage the freedoms gained by the HRA through self-financing, a new 30-Year Business Plan (2012-2042) was introduced. This set out the Council’s overall aims and objectives for Housing Services, as well as laying out plans to manage the increased risks and opportunities.
The HRA Business Plan had been reviewed and updated annually since 2012, with a full review undertaken in 2016. In response to recent changes in national policies and local aspiration, another full and comprehensive 30-year Business Plan from 2020/21 onwards had recently been undertaken, with the support of consultants Savills, and can be found as a separate report called “HRA Business Plan Review”. The key changes in revenue budget from 2019/20 to 2020/21 were summarised as part of the report.
The HRA continued to face a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which could be significant but the actual financial impact was not known.
As part of the self-financing agreement, an individual housing revenue borrowing cap of £116m was implemented for TDBC. This meant the HRA was unable to exceed a capital borrowing requirement of £116m within the HRA Business Plan. In October 2018 this borrowing cap was officially removed. The 2020 Business Plan review was undertaken as a direct result of a number changes in both national policies and local aspiration; since the debt cap removal in October 2018, the introduction of the Regulator of Social Housing’s new Rent Standard from April 2020 and a new Somerset Housing Strategy published in March 2019. There had been a declaration of a climate emergency and a new leadership aspiration to build 1000 new homes in 30 years. The HRA 2020 Business Plan review was undertaken to assess the affordability and viability of these aspirational schemes and the financial impact of regulatory changes, to determine what schemes could actually be delivered and when. The assumptions within the Business Plan indicated that the new build aspirations were affordable and viable but required the maximisation of future rental income through the application of options available within the boundaries of national policy, this would require significant capital investment and borrowing over the next 10 years. The HRA ... view the full minutes text for item 68. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The report outlined the District Councils statutory duty to adopt a Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy. This strategy set out the strategic goals for the four Somerset Housing Authorities including a detailed action plan to show how the strategy would be delivered. The existing Somerset Homeless Strategy was adopted in May 2018; this was an interim strategy which ran until December 2019 so the Council was updating the strategy taking into consideration the priorities identified in the Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Needs Assessment 2019, together with the new requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2019.
The purpose of the report was to enable Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise the content of the proposed Somerset Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy (and Action Plan) 2019-2023 (SH&RSS)
The 2002 Homelessness Act places a duty on Local Authorities to develop a homelessness and rough sleeper strategy and an obligation to renew it every five years. The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, introduced new measures for dealing with homelessness including:
· Increasing the length of time a housing authority treated someone as threatened with Homelessness from 28 to 56 days · The introduction of Personalised Housing Plans for clients to outline the circumstances of homelessness, the housing needs of the client, any support required to secure and sustain accommodation, steps that the client was required to take along with the steps the Local Authority was required to take to assist the client · A new duty to prevent homelessness for all eligible households threatened with homelessness · a new duty to relieve homelessness for all eligible homeless applicants · a new duty on public services to notify a local authority if they came into contact with someone they think could be homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
The current interim strategy was developed by the four District Councils in Somerset and was adopted in 2018. Since the adoption of the Interim Strategy the Councils had collectively conducted a Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Needs Assessment which had been used as the evidence base for the ‘Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2019 – 2023’ as well as considering the new requirements of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017.
A Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Needs Assessment 2019 set out in Appendix 1 was carried out to assess the need within the county. This had been used to inform the new Somerset Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy 2019-23 detailed in Appendix 2. The strategy included 6 priorities for 2019-23:
· Provision of adequate, affordable accommodation · The provision and effective use of temporary accommodation · Support the Government’s commitment to combat rough sleeping · Support prevention and early intervention · Enable specific client groups to access suitable accommodation · Maintain strong working relationships across partnerships
The SH&RSS would be implemented by each district through the Homelessness Managers Group (HMG) who would be responsible for the day to day delivery of this strategy and actions contained within the action plan; including monitoring progress against actions and targets at the monthly HMG meetings. There would also be a link with the Somerset ... view the full minutes text for item 69. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The report set out the draft budget estimates for 2020/21, Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) forecasts, and 2020/21 Capital Programme and the proposed sources of funding.
The Provisional Finance Settlement was issued by Government on 20 December, and included details regarding general revenue grant funding, New Homes Bonus, and business rates retention baseline and tariff. The information arising is broadly in line with our previous expectations. The final Finance Settlement is expected to be published before Full Council meets on 19 February. Executive is minded to implement a council tax increase of 3.17% (£5 on a Band D) in 2020/21, making the annual Band D charge £164.63. The increase in the tax rate provides an additional £282,249 income, however a reduction in the tax base equating to £27,299, results in a net additional council tax income of £254,950 compared to 2019/20.
Executive is also minded to precept £29,240 in special expenses for the Unparished Area of Taunton. This results in an annual council tax rate at £1.91 for a Band D for the Unparished Area of Taunton.
The 2020/21 draft budget also included a prior year net Collection Fund surplus of £250,191 (£63,877 council tax deficit and £314,068 business rates surplus).
On the advice of the S151 Officer, the Executive is minded to reallocate £3.5m from the Business Rates Retention Smoothing Reserve to a new Investment Risk Reserve to reflect a change in risk profiles across the two different funding streams.
The Provisional Settlement, provided the level of funding set by Government through business rates retention and general grants, was announced on 20 December 2019. The information arising is broadly in line with our previous expectations, with the main headlines being: (a) Council Tax – Government has confirmed district councils may increase council tax by up to the greater of £5 or 1.99% a year. (b) Revenue Support Grant – Confirmed as £6,444, slightly higher than our previous estimate of £6,340 due to an inflation factor being applied. Government has again mitigated the potential “negative RSG” which would have reduced our funding by £128,000. (c) Rural Services Delivery Grant – Confirmed as £241,506, no change to our previous estimates. (d) New Homes Bonus – provisional grant for 2020/21 confirmed as £3,253,289, which is £38,529 higher than previous estimates. Information included with the Settlement confirms the 2020/21 ‘increment’ within the NHB calculation will be for one year only – not four years as per previous years. It also indicates (but subject to future Finance Settlements) that the legacy payment from the 2018/19 and 2019/20 allocations will apply for four years, therefore the S151 Officer is minded to add the projected income back into the MTFP forecasts for 2021/22 and 2022/23, totalling £2.5m over the two years. (e) Business Rates Retention – Baseline and Tariff allocations in line with our previous estimates. Local estimates for total business rates income are due to be completed by the end of January 2020 which will determine the net income retained by SWT including growth above ... view the full minutes text for item 70. |
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Off Street Car Parking Charges Report. Report of the Specialists Manager
Additional documents: Minutes: The Council desires to change driver behaviour as part of its Corporate aim for a low-carbon, clean, green and prosperous district that attracts high quality employment opportunities and encourages healthy lifestyle. The council’s aim to promote and enhance the use of Taunton Park and Ride facilities provided by Somerset County Council to support its own aims in reducing town centre congestion for Taunton and pollution and supporting overall Air Quality Management across the Council area as set out in the Air Quality Action Plan. The latest Air Quality Action Reports (2018) are available on the SWTC web site at: Charges were last increased across the former Taunton Deane Borough Council area in 2016. Notwithstanding that there was a realignment of fees in Taunton to move to a more readily understood Short and Long Stay parking as part of the Pay on Foot parking project. However, these changes were cost neutral, as outlined and approved by Taunton Deane Full Council in February 2018. Charges were last increased in the former West Somerset Council area in 2017. The report outlines the intention to raise car parking fees by 10% in all areas, the legal basis for doing so and the intentions of monies raised through this. The powers for local authorities to provide and charge for car parking are set out in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (RTRA). Different provisions are set out in relation to on-street and off-street parking. This report relates to off street parking arrangements. Section 122 places a duty on every local authority to secure the expeditious, convenient and safe movement of vehicular and other traffic (including pedestrians) and the provision of suitable and adequate parking facilities on and off the highway. In particular that means securing and maintaining reasonable access to premises; the effect on the amenities of any locality affected and (without prejudice to the generality of this paragraph) the importance of regulating and restricting the use of roads by heavy commercial vehicles, so as to preserve or improve the amenities of the areas through which the roads run; the strategy prepared under section 80 of the Environment Act 1995 (national air quality strategy); the importance of facilitating the passage of public service vehicles and of securing the safety and convenience of persons using or desiring to use such vehicles; and any other matters appearing to the local authority to be relevant. Decisions on setting fees must be reasonable and proportionate and have a view to the reasons for the parking powers in the first place (i.e. the minimising of congestion in town centres). The Council is awarded powers to create off-street parking places – and then to charge for them – where it appears necessary to them for the purposes of relieving or preventing traffic congestion. A schedule of proposed fees was included at Appendix A.
Debate · Concerns were expressed over the alignment of car parking charges across the district since the creation of the new authority. · Impacts of an increase on the businesses ... view the full minutes text for item 71. |
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Executive and Council Forward Plans
Additional documents: Minutes: The Scrutiny Committee noted the Executive and Full Council Forward Plans. |
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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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