Agenda and minutes

(Director of Governance) To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Cabinet Committee noted that there were no substitute members for this meeting.

(Director of Governance) To declare interests in any item on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on  22 June 2017.

            RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2017 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(Director of Resources) To consider the attached report (FPM-006-2017/18).

The Director of Resources advised that the report provided a framework for the Budget 2018/19 and updated Members on a number of financial issues that would affect the Authority in the short to medium term. He advised that following the General Election result on 8 June 2018, the outcome of the Government being weakened greatly limited their legislative ambition and with the Brexit negotiations there had been little point in updating the MTFS for anything other than the 2016/17 outturn. There had also been concerns over the policies that had been previously mentioned by the Government such as devolution, housing, planning and the fair funding review before the General Election but had not featured in the recent Queen’s Speech.

The Director of Resources advised that the following issues represented the greatest areas of current financial uncertainty and risk to the Authority;

Central Government Funding – the Settlement Funding Assessment (SFA) would reduced over the next four years by £2.43m (45%) and exceed the SFA in 2019/20, creating a negative Revenue Support Grant. The Fair Funding Review, which concerned the funding formulae for devolved administrations had not been mentioned in the Queen’s Speech and the existing approach of an annual reduction being applied to the old formula amounts to achieve the desired overall reduction in funding would be likely to continue.

Business Rates Retention - There had been very little growth anticipated after 2016/17, despite the building of the retail park and other known likely developments within the district. It was the first year which would be billed using the new rating list which would be a particularly challenging year for estimating business rates. There were also still hundreds of appeals outstanding on the old lists and based on previous experience and discussions with the Valuation Office, the total provision against appeals was currently £3.5m. Furthermore the 100% local retention of business rates had been not mentioned in the Queen’s Speech and appeared to be on hold and the Council remained in the business rates pool for 2017/18, which would be monitored for future pooling.

Welfare Reform - The Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) scheme overall had been a success with the collection of some Council Tax from most of the people receiving support. There had been no significant changes proposed for 2018/19, to allow sufficient time to understand the consequences of changes with the National Living Wage and tax credits. The introduction of the Benefits Cap limit to the total amount of benefits a household could receive in a year to £26,000 and the further reduction by £6,000 to £20,000 was likely to cause greater changes in people’s behavior and working patterns. The lower cap had been phased in across the country during 2016/17 and early indications were that 157 claimants in the district would be affected. Universal Credit (UC) still continued to progress slowly with some post codes in the district being affected from September 2017 and new claims being fully covered by September 2018. The clarity over the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, requires that the permission of the Chairman be obtained, after prior notice to the Chief Executive, before urgent business not specified in the agenda (including a supplementary agenda of which the statutory period of notice has been given) may be transacted.

Resolved:

That, as agreed by the Chairman of the Cabinet Committee and in accordance with Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the following items of urgent business be considered following the publication of the agenda:

·                     Corporate Plan 2018-2023.

(Head of Transformation) To consider the attached report (FPM-007-2017/18).

The Head of Transformation reported that the Corporate Plan was the Council’s highest level strategic document that covered the period 2018-2023. In consultation with Management Board, Leadership Team and Cabinet Members the Plan was being reviewed and updated with consultation being sort from the individual Select Committees, Overview and Scrutiny, Customers, Partners, Businesses and Staff.

The draft Corporate Plan had been produced in a way that could easily be understood by customers with the vision, purpose, corporate aims and objectives grouped under three themes; People, Place and Council. The intention was to base the performance reporting through benefits maps that marked out the flow of work left to right and replace the KPI’s, Key Action Plan and Transformation Projects reports. The Head of Transformation advised that a traffic light system would be implemented on the benefits maps, which should in turn would help Managers and Members to manage by exception and show how performance related to achievements within the Corporate Plan.

The Cabinet Committee advised that they were happy with the design and layout of the document but the benefits and performance measurements need further work. The weakness in particular with Staff moral really needed to be referred to in the risk register rather than the corporate plan.

Recommended:

(1)        That, subject to the amendments above, the Corporate Plan be recommended to Cabinet for approval.

Reasons for Decisions:

To inform the development of the proposed Corporate Plan 2018-2023, specifically the proposed Benefits and Performance Measures for 2018-2023.

Other Options Considered and Rejected:

No other options were available.