Agenda and minutes

Venue: via Video Conference

Contact: Leslie Ashton 

Media

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Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman

To elect the Chairman of the Finance and Resources Select Committee for the ensuing year.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Leslie Ashton, Democratic and Electoral Services Officer, welcomed everyone to the meeting and called for nominations for Chairman. Mrs Jilly Jordan proposed that Mr Ralph Bagge be elected Chairman; Mr David Anthony seconded the proposal and in the absence of any other nominations was declared Chairman of the Finance and Resources Select Committee.

 

RESOLVED:  That Mr Ralph Bagge be elected as Chairman for the ensuing year.

2.

Appointment of Vice-Chairman

To appoint the Vice-Chairman of the Finance and Resources Select Committee for the ensuing year.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mr Bagge proposed Mrs Jilly Jordan be appointed as Vice-Chairman; Mr David Anthony seconded the proposal.

 

RESOLVED:  That Mrs Jilly Jordan be appointed as Vice-Chairman for the ensuing year.

3.

Apologies for absence / Changes in membership

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies had been received from Mr Brian Roberts and Mr Mike Smith.

 

The committee members introduced themselves and stated the area they represented.

4.

Declarations of Interest

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The following declarations of interest were made:

  • Ms Katrina Wood (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources) - Board member of Aylesbury Vale Estates (AVE)

5.

Covid-19 update pdf icon PDF 2 MB

The Committee will hear from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources, and the Cabinet Member for Property and Assets about their response to the Covid-19 crisis and the steps currently being taken in the recovery phase.  They will be joined by the Corporate Director for Resources, the Corporate Director for Planning, Growth and Sustainability, the Service Director for Corporate Finance and the Service Director for Property and Assets.

 

Contributors:

Ms Katrina Wood, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources

Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Property and Assets

 

Sarah Murphy-Brookman, Corporate Director for Resources

Ian Thompson, Corporate Director for Planning, Growth and Sustainability

Richard Ambrose, Service Director for Corporate Finance (Section 151 Officer)

John Reed, Service Director for Property and Assets

John McMillan, Service Director for HR & OD

Dave Skinner, Service Director for Service Finance

Tony Ellis, Service Director for ICT

 

 

Papers:

Covid-19 Update report

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 The Chairman explained that a Covid-19 update would be provided at this meeting; however, there would be further opportunities to scrutinise the Council’s response to the pandemic.  On behalf of the whole committee, the Chairman extended his thanks to all staff for their efforts in supporting the Council’s response, particularly those in Customer Services, Revenues and Benefits and Finance who had worked additional hours, including weekends, undertaking tasks such as processing business grants throughout the pandemic.

 

Ms Katrina Wood, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources advised the committee that it had been an extremely challenging time for the resources service area and reinforced the message from the Chairman thanking those staff who had gone and above and beyond in dealing with the Council’s response to the pandemic. Ms Wood summarised the significant work undertaken as outlined in the report included in the agenda pack. Within her update, Ms Wood highlighted the following:

  • The co-ordinated response of the council was in partnership with the NHS and Thames Valley Resilience Forum. 12 ‘cells’ were established, each led by a member of the Corporate Management Team with an aligned partner. The relevant cells to this committee were business and suppliers; mutual aid and resources. Details of the work and responsibility of each cell can be seen on pages 6-10 of the agenda pack.
  • Through close working with Buckinghamshire Business First (BBF) the Council administered business rate relief grants of over £80m and had processed over 6100 applications from eligible businesses. From the start of June, the council also administered discretionary grants for businesses and had received £4.59m of Government funding to support small businesses. Further, following the award of £2.8m of hardship funding from Government, the council had agreed a policy to support working age claimants most in need with their council tax during the crisis.
  • It was anticipated that additional costs and lost income would exceed overall funding from Government but by how much was dependant on the timescales around the current lockdown and the period of time before ‘normal’ services resumed. The council continued to lobby government to ensure additional costs and lost income were fully recovered.
  • The IT service had supported over 3,500 staff to work from home, many of whom were working at home for the first time. IT had supported the rollout of Microsoft Teams and a vulnerable client tracking system for staff to use ensure requests from residents could be logged, tracked and completed during the crisis. With home working introduced 80% of staff were consistently available for work throughout the pandemic.
  • The council procurement of PPE had been centralised and work had been undertaken to create an online ordering system for staff to use and to enable the monitoring of stock levels.
  • Positive results had come out of the staff survey with staff identifying that priorities were clear and work life balance had improved.

 

Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Property and Assets added to Ms Wood’s update and highlighted:

6.

Cabinet Member Priorities for 2020-21 pdf icon PDF 736 KB

The Committee will hear from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources and the Cabinet Member for Property and Assets, who will outline their priorities for the next 12 months.

 

Contributors:

Ms Katrina Wood, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources

Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Property and Assets

 

Sarah Murphy-Brookman, Corporate Director for Resources

Ian Thompson, Corporate Director for Planning, Growth and Sustainability

Richard Ambrose, Service Director for Corporate Finance (Section 151 Officer)

John Reed, Service Director for Property and Assets

John McMillan, Service Director for HR & OD

Dave Skinner, Service Director for Service Finance

Tony Ellis, Service Director for ICT

 

 

Papers:

Cabinet Members Priorities

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

Ms Wood summarised the ongoing projects within the Resources portfolio and listed the key priorities as follows:

 

  • Bring our back office systems, applications and infrastructure together to deliver transformation and a great customer service
  • Develop our employee offering to attract, develop and retain our staff especially moving out of the Covid pandemic
  • Ensure our systems for tracking and monitoring our finances are robust and agile to provide confidence in our financial outturn

 

Mr Chilver summarised the ongoing projects within the Property and Assets portfolio and listed the key priorities as follows:

 

·         Financial update on property income

·         Accommodation Strategy

·         Residential Property Development

 

 

The following key points were raised by the Select Committee members during discussion:

 

  • The impact of home working was highlighted and it was queried whether certain employees would need to return to office space, at least not to the level they had been pre-pandemic and whether there were associated cost savings to this. Ms Wood confirmed that productivity had not decreased as a result of home working and sickness rates had reduced with an improved work life balance also reported in the staff survey. A significant piece of work looking at this was ongoing and would be incorporated in to phase two of the accommodation strategy. Mr Ian Thompson, Corporate Director for Planning, Growth and Sustainability advised that staff would be increasingly encouraged to work from home and the return to office space also needed to take in to account social distancing measures, the differing layouts across building and the effects these had on maximum occupancy in council accommodation. It was accepted many staff needed to be in the office to deliver certain services and further, it was identified that many staff benefit from the social side of work and the accommodation strategy would reflect individual’s needs. By the time of the next meeting there should be progress to report on this area.  The impact of downsized office spaces on town centres would also be taken in to account with discussion to be held with key stakeholders, such as town councils or committees.
  • In relation to Council meetings, virtual meetings were currently only legislated for until May 2021 so any changes to member meetings would be very much dependant on legislation.
  • A member asked a question in relation to Aylesbury Vale Estates (AVE) and asked whether the council would be reviewing its shareholding. Mr Thompson confirmed that the shareholding would be kept under review, two councillors had been added as board members and discussions on the business plan continued with the council abiding by its contractual agreements.
  • It was queried how many of the council’s tenants had found themselves in financial difficulty during the pandemic. Mr John Reed, Service Director for Property and Assets reported that at the last quarterly update figures had been positive although he noted that this would have been at the start of the lockdown period. There would be a clearer picture of the effect covid has had on tenants at the end of this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Work Programme discussion

The Committee will discuss possible items to include on the Committee’s work programme for the coming year.

 

Contributors:

All Committee Members

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The following suggestions were made for the work programme:

 

  • Renewable Energy and the council’s journey toward becoming a zero carbon council. The committee want the Council to be a lead on environmental matters and suggested receiving regular progress updates on the move to carbon neutrality. 
  • The return of staff to the office environment and the impact of this on the accommodation strategy following the relative successes of working from home for a large section of the workforce.
  • Large contracts coming up for re-procurement such as the TfB contract were significant and involved large sums, the select committee wish to review these to ensure they are dealt with in the most appropriate way.
  • Regular monitoring of the revenue budget (quarterly) and capital budget.
  • The Committee requested a property assets register so that they have an overview and understanding of what this looks like now that the 5 previous councils have come together. A management plan of these for the next 2 to 5 years would also be useful.
  • An oversight of the next business plan for AVE and any other commercial/property ventures the council has significant interest in.
  • Progress monitoring of the anticipated savings from establishing a Unitary council
  • The effects of the pandemic on certain groups within the county and ways to uplift socially deprived communities.

8.

Date of the next meeting

Thursday 1 October 2020 at 2 p.m.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Thursday 1 October 2020 at 2 p.m.