Agenda item

Report of Chief Finance Officer and Senior Head of Corporate Development and Governance. 

Cabinet lead members:  Councillors Gill Mattock and Troy Tester.

(1) Performance against national and local performance indicators and actions from the 2010/15 corporate plan (2014 refresh) be agreed.

(2) General fund,  housing revenue account and collection fund financial performance for quarter ended June 2015, as set out in sections 3 and 4 of the report, agreed.

(3) Amended capital programme, as set out in appendix 3 to the report, agreed.

(4) Exemption to the Council’s contract procurement rules in relation to the appointment of agents and architect for the Seahouses Square project funded from Coastal Communities Grant and managed by Eastbourne Homes Limited approved.

(5) Treasury management performance, as set out in section 7 of the report, agreed.

26.1 Councillors Freebody and Di Cara addressed the Cabinet.  Councillor Freebody commended the Council’s sickness levels but raised concern at the rates for answering telephone calls.  The Chairman commented that this was not unexpected given the on-going implementation of Future Model phase 2 and that rates were now improving.  Councillor Di Cara asked for a breakdown of the recycling rates between the different types of recycled material.  The Chairman said he would ask that these be provided.

26.2 Cabinet considered the report of the Chief Finance Officer and Head of Corporate Development and Governance reviewing the council’s performance against corporate plan priority indicators and action targets; financial performance of general fund revenue expenditure, housing revenue account and capital programme; and treasury management activities for the first quarter of 2015/16. 

26.3 Appendix 1 gave detailed information on non-financial performance.  Councillor Tester highlighted the performance of disabled facilities grants where the average median time to deliver from the receipt of the occupational therapist report to completion of the work was now 76 days.  He understood that this compared very favourably with rates of other councils.  He asked that the Cabinet’s congratulations be passed to the team concerned.

26.4 General fund performance at the end of June showed a small variance of £24,000 which related to several areas of minor under and over spends which were being carefully monitored.  Housing revenue account performance was currently above target by £50,000; mainly as a result of the slow take up of the under occupation scheme (£16,000) and the lower provision for bad debts required (£20,000). 

26.5 The detailed capital programme was shown in appendix 3.  Actual expenditure was low compared to the budget.  There were no significant variances identified and expenditure was in line with traditional patterns of spend as at quarter one.  Expenditure was expected to increase as schemes progressed throughout the year.

26.6 Cabinet was asked to approve an exemption to the Council’s contract procedure rules in relation to the appointment of Pierce Hill as employer’s agent and architect for the Sea Houses Square project funded from Coastal Communities Grant and managed by Eastbourne Homes Ltd.  The value of this contract was below the £50,000 limit required for a full tender exercise and could have followed the ‘request to quote’ process.  However a “tender like” process was followed but not strictly adhered to in respect of administrative processes that would normally be applied to a full tender. Therefore whilst a higher level of competitive process was followed than necessary it was not technically compliant with the Councils own rules.

26.7 Council tax collection was currently showing a £90,000 surplus; a variance of 0.16% of the total debit due for the year.  The business rates deficit of £753,000 was as a result of a bigger than anticipated provision made in 2014/15 for outstanding appeals, giving rise to a higher than budgeted for balance carried forward as at 1 April 2015.  112 appeals had been received since then with a total rateable value of £10,695,000.  The total number of properties with appeals outstanding as at 30 June 2015 was 236 with a total rateable value of £20,152,010.  The uncertainty of the potential value of successful appeals was a major risk to the collection fund at this time.  The deficit represented 2.19% of the total debit for the year.  

26.8 Treasury management performance was on target and all activities were within the approved treasury and prudential limits. 

26.9 Resolved (key decision):  (1) That the performance against national and local performance indicators and actions from the 2010/15 corporate plan (2014 refresh) be agreed.

(2) That the general fund,  housing revenue account and collection fund financial performance for the quarter ended June 2015, as set out in sections 3 and 4 of the report, be agreed.

(3) That the amended capital programme, as set out in appendix 3 to the report, be agreed.

(4) That an exemption to the Council’s contract procurement rules in relation to the appointment of agents and architect for the Seahouses Square project funded from Coastal Communities Grant and managed by Eastbourne Homes Limited be approved.

(5) That the treasury management performance, as set out in section 7 of the report, be agreed.