Meeting documents

To sign the Minutes of the meeting held on the 26 January 2016.

The Minutes of the Resources Overview Committee meeting held on 26 January 2016, copies of which had been previously circulated, were approved and signed by Councillor N Rose, Chairman of the Committee, as a correct record.

In response to a question regarding the future impact of the proposed permanent extention of small business rates relief, the Director of Resources advised that the relief was to be increase to 100%, up until 2019/20 the current arrangement would continue where the loss of business rate income was offset by a grant  from Central Government.  When  full devolution of business rates commences in 2019/20 this would be one of the responsibilities for funding passing totally to local authorities..  It was an issue that was being discussed in the Parliamentary Select Committee and was likely to feature in the consultation on business rate devolution that will take place during 2016..  This and other matters affecting the business rate base will need to be modelled to understand the overall impact on the authority in 2019/20..

The Director of Resources added that there was a change in thresholds for qualification of small business rates which were to come into effect during 2017/18 plus taper arrangements and this would need to be explained to businesses in advance of the changes coming into effect from April 2017.

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 will be published on 30 May 2016.  Members considered the contents of the 28 Day Notice and asked questions of clarification which were confirmed by officers at the meeting.

Councillor S Berry arrived during consideration of this item at 6.41pm

Councillor C Ford entered during consideration of this item at 6.46pm.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report be noted.

Consideration was given to the report which outlined the performance of Council services against performance indicators and service objectives during September to December 2015.

The Performance Indicators (PIs) identified in the report which had failed to meet targets were four PIs that relate to housing and it was reported that three of the targets were linked to the national increase in demand for temporary accommodation and these targets were seeking to be addressed through the Council’s Housing Strategy. A further PI that had failed to meet the target was related to voluntary leavers as a percentage of the workforce; and it was noted that these issues had been addressed and explained in a full report to the Council’s Personnel Committee at a meeting held on Tuesday 22 March 2016, and the Committee was encouraged to look at this report.

RESOLVED:

That the content of report was noted.

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update on the outcomes of the Performance Indicator (PI) review for 2016/17 and to seek approval for the proposed changes to reporting.

The policy and performance team had met with each of the Heads of Service (HoS) and reviewed their Performance Indicators in detail to ascertain whether any changes were required to monitor performance.

Concern was expressed at the continual problems in relation to the provision for temporary accommodation and it was clarified that the Council was continuing the work with the Housing Association to seek ways to address the issues through the Council’s Housing Strategy.

The Director of Resources confirmed that the issues raised by members in relation to the percentage of voluntary leavers had been referred to in a detailed report to the Council’s Personnel Committee at its meeting held on Tuesday 22 March 2016; and in addition it was noted that a high level of satisfaction had increased based on the recent feedback from the staff survey. 

It was queried that the latest average recycling rates had decreased in England and suggested that the Chiltern element in the figures would be useful information to ascertain whether the average drop may be the start of a trend and likely to have a significant impact on the Council’s target.  Members were advised that the focus was on ensuring the service was working well and then to encourage recycling rates.

A member raised the issue of whether there should be a PI to give some indication about the outcome of Planning Enforcement work.

In response to a member’s query on a deleted PI ‘Number of private sector dwellings vacant for more than 6 months and returned to occupation following local authority intervention’, and whether it should be retained given the issues with housing provision in the area. Tthe Principal Officer for Policy, Partnership and Communications advised that the request would be reported back to the relevant Head of Service for consideration..

RESOLVED:

i)     That the recommendations of the Heads of Service be approved as detailed in the following appendices:

a)    Appendix A PI Review - Priority PIs 2016-17 - CDC - proposals for reporting priority indicators during 2016/17 with future targets; and

b)   Appendix B PI Review  - Corporate Indicators 2016-17 - CDC - proposals for reporting Corporate PIs during 2016/17 with future targets

Consideration was given to the report which advised that the meeting of the Audit and Standards Committee held on 19 March 2015 had agreed changes to the financial procedure rules in respect of write offs.  The Committee also requested that a quarterly report on volumes and amounts of write offs be reported to Resources Overview Committee.  The report related to quarter three 2015/16.

In response to a Member’s query, the Director of Resources agreed that in future a trend of quarterly write offs could be include in the report.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report on the quarter three write offs be noted.