Meeting documents

To sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2015.

The Minutes of the Resources Overview Committee meeting held 18 November 2015, copies of which had been previously circulated, were approved and signed by Councillor N Rose, Chairman of the Committee, as a correct record.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee received a report attaching the draft 28-Day Notice which provided a forward look at the Agenda for the next meeting of the Cabinet.  The Notice was published on 12 January 2016.

The Director of Resources advised that Performance Indicators Annual Review 2016/17 report would be submitted to the Overview Committees prior to Cabinet for comment as previously agreed (Minute No 32).  He added that the issue of improving the timeliness of the quarterly Performance Reports was something that would be done for 2016/17. to ensure that members were receiving the information in a timely manner.

During consideration of this item, members made the following suggestions to improve the information presented to the Overview Committee:-

• It was suggested  that the key decision threshold  for Chiltern District Council and South Bucks District Council should be reviewed and harmonised.
• In future the Treasury Management Quarterly Reports would be presented to the Resources Overview Committee for comment
• The Homelessness Strategy was appropriate to be presented to Services Overview Committee but any financial implications arising from the Strategy would be picked up as part of the budgeting and budget monitoring processes.
• It was noted that financial implications arising from reports presented to Joint Committees would be reported to the Council through the budget and reporting mechanism

During consideration of this item, Councillor J MacBean joined the meeting at 6.45pm

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report be noted.

Consideration was given to the report which provided information affecting the Council’s revenue budget for 2016/17 in order for the Cabinet to make recommendations to Council on 24 February regarding the Council’s budget and council tax for 2016/17.

The Director of Resources advised that the continuing material reduction in funding to the Council had been anticipated, but was now confirmed to be at a more accelerated pace.  Funding reductions were to continue until at least 2019/20 and Chiltern District Council will no longer receive Revenue Support Grant (RSG) after 2016/17; which was due to Chiltern District Council being seen as a low needs and high resource authority.  Chiltern was forecast to be in the top ten authorities by reduction in Government Funding assessments by the end of the Spending Review period (2019/20).

For authorities who were no longer in receipt of RSG before 2020/21, they would be subject to additional tariff payments so that the overall reduction in Government funding did not fall only on authorities in receipt of RSG, this could be seen as a ‘negative RSG’.  Chiltern had responded to the Government on this matter to express concern and seek some means to dampen the impact or phasing in its effects on a more gradual basis.  The impact of the additional tariff was outlined in the report as £150K in 2017/18; £480K in 2018/19 and £850K in 2019/20.

The Director of Resources reported that an important source of grant funding for the authority was the New Homes Grant that currently rewarded authorities for each new home by providing a grant equivalent to the national average Band D Council Tax on the property for each of the six years following completion of the property.

The Government was consulting on changing the New Homes Grant system.  The consultation was looking at reducing the duration of funding to four years or less, from the current six years; and also suggesting the following:

• Linking payments to authorities having in place an approved Local Plan
• Having different payments for houses created after appeal from those approved by the authority without going to appeal
• Having a minimum baseline for housing growth numbers, above which additional funding would be received.  The baseline was proposed to be that the normal growth in properties was 0.25% per annum.  For Chiltern this was approximately 110 units.

These changes would impact on the funding the Council would receive from 2017/18 onwards.

Members were advised that growth in business rates above the baseline were subject to a 50% levy, with the levy being additional payments to the Government.  The amount of the levy can be reduced if groups of authorities pool their business rates and payments to the Government.  As Chiltern and two other Buckinghamshire Districts, South Bucks and Aylesbury Vale, expect to have business rate growth, they had formed a pool for 2016/17 in order to retain more of the growth.

It was reported that since Cabinet had reviewed the draft budget in December there had been five adjustments  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

Consideration was given to the report that outlined the proposed Capital Programme for 2016/17 - 2019/20; and the proposed Repairs and Renewals Programme for 2016/17 - 2019/20.

The key table in the report highlighted the current funding position of the programme to 2019/20

The Director of Resources advised that the impact of funding the programme on available capital resources  outlined in the table meant  that the currently available capital resources were likely to be exhausted by the end of 2018/19.

Members raised questions in relation to the following which were responded to by the Director of Resources:-

·       Community Capital Sums programme

·       Paper Sort Reinstatement

·       The Council’s contribution to the Lords Mill Weir works

·       Leisure Centres funding

·       ICT Strategy

During consideration of this item, Councillor J Wertheim left the meeting at 7.30pm.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

That Cabinet recommend to Council:

i)    That the Capital Programme for 2016/17 - 2019/20 as set out in Appendix A be approved;

ii)   That the Repairs and Renewals Programme for 2016/17 - 2019/20 as set out in Appendix B be approved; and

iii)  That the implication for the Financial Strategy of the proposed programme be noted.

Consideration was given to the Treasury Management Strategy and related policies that should be adopted by the Council for 2016/17. 

The Director of Resources advised that the Council was required to formally review its treasury management policies each year as part of determining what level of returns will be achieved from investments.  The format of the treasury management policies was defined by the Code of Practice adopted by the Council, and was required to be approved by the Council on recommendation from the Cabinet.  The Treasury Management policies underpin the strategy for the year in question, which seek to achieve a level of investment return.

The Treasury Management Strategy 2016/17 was attached to the report as Appendix 1. The proposed strategy was as follows, and made appropriate recognition of the Government’s advice to prioritise security and liquidity over returns.

·         Basic cashflow requirement of up to £6m which will not be invested for more than one year, expected return averaging 0.5%

·         Core investment cash of £15m, of which £9m can be invested for durations longer than two years.

·         The long term investments can include property and bond funds and could be expected to deliver returns of at least 3%.

The expected return for 2016/17 from the proposed strategy was £140,000.

The Director of Resources advised that the Council’s treasury consultants, Capita Asset Services were appointed under a joint contract with South Bucks District Council and provided  advice in terms of credit rating and provided access to member training events and technical expertise which provided good value for money.  The contract with Capital was due for renewal during  2016.  Even though the contract was low value and delivering good value for money members felt it was important to undertake the joint re-tendering.

During consideration of this item, Councillors M Shaw and R Jones left the meeting at 7.43pm.

The Director of Resources confirmed that a report would be presented to a future meeting of Support Services PAG to outline long term investment options.  In response to a Member’s question, it was noted that the criteria for the short term borrowing limit was based on judgement rather than a fixed calculation to allow for flexibility depending on the circumstances that might give rise to the need for short term borrowing..

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

That the Annual Treasury Management Strategy for 2016/17 be recommended to Council, including approving the following appendices to the Annual Investment Strategy (Appendix 1):

·       Appendix 1A - Annual Investment Strategy Policies

·       Appendix 1B - Prudential Indicators including the borrowing limits

·       Appendix 1C - the Minimum Revenue Provision method to be used in 2016/17

The Committee considered the report which provided a summary of each of the service plans produced by service areas within the Council.

The Service Plans provided a summary of achievements from the current year and an overview of what each service aims to deliver for 2016-17; and looked at the aims and achievements, covering the following range of areas:

·       Shared Services Programme

·       Know your customer and equalities

·       Performance Indicators and risks

·       Costs and cost comparison information

The following points were raised for possible inclusion in the Services Plans:

• Further reference to the provision and monitoring of litter bins
• Progress of ICT Shared Service Review

·         KPIs outcomes on enforcement

It was agreed that Performance Indicators targets for 16/17 were to be presented to the Overview Committees for comment prior to submission to Cabinet and that the streamlining of quarterly reporting with the decision making process would be improved so members received information in a more timely manner.

RECOMMENDED TO CABINET:

That the content of the Service Plans be noted.