Agenda item

Report of Chief Executive. 

Cabinet lead members:  Councillors Gill Mattock and Troy Tester. 

(1) performance against national and local performance indicators and actions from the 2016/20 corporate plan agreed.

(2) General fund, housing revenue account and collection fund financial performance for quarter ended December 2016 agreed.

(3) Transfer from/to reserves agreed.

(4) Sale of downland farms removed from the council’s programme of schemes.

(5) Capital programme agreed subject to the necessary adjustment in light of resolution (4) above.

(5) Treasury management performance agreed.

(6) Write offs (exempt appendix) approved.

82.1 Councillor Di Cara addressed the cabinet and asked how confident were they that performance relating to call answering (indicators CS_010 and 011) would meet the predicted forecasts for quarter 4.  The director of service delivery responded saying that monitoring over the last 6 weeks showed performance within target (‘green’) and he expected this improved position to be maintained to quarter end.

82.2 Cabinet considered the report of the chief executive 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 third quarter of 2016/17. 

82.3 Appendix 1 gave detailed information on non-financial performance indicators and highlighted those giving cause for concern as well as the best performing indicators in section 2 of the report.  Members were advised that the devolved budget scheme should be fully spent by year-end.  The chairman noted that it was a feature of this annual scheme that spending tended to be concentrated towards year-end given the time needed to develop and approve projects.  Members asked that their appreciation be recorded for the for the efforts of Customer First staff for their improved call answering performance and also for the continued fast response to fly-tipping incidents.

82.4 The position of the general fund at the end of December was a variance of £257,000 on net expenditure, representing 1.7% of the net budget.  Total service expenditure showed a variance of £83,000, including:-

82.5 The contingency fund currently stood at £116,000 and this would be required to fund the re-profiling of the joint transformation programme savings target for the year.  The overall projected outturn for the year showed a variance of £92,000.  This was within an acceptable tolerance level, however, management continued to monitor this position, to ensure that this final outturn position was maintained or improved.  Members’ approval was also sought for transfers from reserves and virements as set out in appendix 3.  These transfers were in line with the approved financial strategy.

82.6 Housing revenue account performance was currently above target by £180,000; mainly due to the new properties let at affordable rents not included in the budget(£48,000), a reduction required for the provision for bad debts (£76,000) and the slow take up of the under occupation scheme (£48.000).

82.7 The detailed capital programme was shown in appendix 4.  Actual expenditure was low compared to the programme.  This was mainly due to expected spend in quarter 4 for major purchases and the commencement of construction phase of the Devonshire Park project.  The chairman announced that following the outcome of recent public consultation he had asked that no further work be undertaken in respect of the proposed sale of the downland farms.  He asked cabinet to agree to this item being removed from the capital programme.

82.8 The collection fund forecast for council tax was indicating a surplus of £973,000 and a deficit for business rates of £854,000.   This would be allocated to/collected from preceptors during 2017/18.  The council tax surplus (1.65% of the gross debit) was due to a combination of factors including better performance against the collection allowance within the council tax base and a reduction in the council tax reduction scheme caseload.  The business rates deficit was as a result of the ongoing risk from the number of backdated appeals outstanding.  The total number of appeals outstanding as at 31 December 2016 was 313 with a total rateable value of £23.8m.  The deficit represented 2.48% of the total debit for the year. 

82.9 The annual treasury management and prudential indicators for 2017/18 had been approved by cabinet and council in February.  During the quarter to 31 December 2016 the council had operated within all the treasury limits and prudential indicators set out in the council’s treasury management strategy statement and in compliance with the council's treasury management practices.

82.10 The report sought cabinet approval for the write off of irrecoverable debts totalling £63,885.78 where all other methods of recovery had been unsuccessful and it was not deemed appropriate to pursue the debts further.  Details of the write offs were listed in a confidential appendix, together with brief explanations of the circumstances (exempt information reason: 3 - information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)).

82.11 Resolved (key decision): (1) That performance against national and local performance indicators and actions from the 2016/20 corporate plan be agreed.

(2) That the general fund, housing revenue account and collection fund financial performance for the quarter ended December 2016, as set out in sections 3,4 and 6 of the report, be agreed.

(3) That the transfers from reserves and virements as set out in appendix 3 of the report be agreed.

(4) That the capital programme as set out in appendix 4 of the report be agreed.

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

(6) That the write offs as set out in the exempt appendix be approved.

(7) That cabinet agree to formally remove the sale of freehold of the downland farms from the capital programme following the recent public consultation and poll.