Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Senior Head of Corporate Development and Governance.

Members considered the report of the Chief Finance Officer and Head of Corporate Development updating Members on the Council’s performance against Corporate Plan Priority actions, indicators and milestones for Quarter 3 2014/15.

Following the changes to the crime reporting procedures, changes would be made to crime related PI’s only, as previous targets were no longer relevant to the data being reported.  These PI’s would be revised for the next iteration of the Corporate Plan.

Appendix 1 to the report provided a detailed report on the 2014/15 activities and outturns of the performance indicators listed within the Corporate Plan.  The first section of Appendix 1 listed all the Corporate Plan priority actions whose in-year milestones had already been fully completed this year.  The second section of Appendix 1 listed the ongoing actions showing all milestones that were scheduled for completion within the first quarter of the 2014/5.

Of the 25 Key Performance Indicators reported in the Corporate Plan this quarter, four were currently showing as Red, 12 were showing as Green, three were showing as Amber and six were data only or contextual PIs.  The off target PIs were as follows:

·         DE_011 -  Number of reported fly-tipping incidents

·         CD_008 - Decent Homes programme

·         CD_055 – Number of completed adaptations (Disabled Facilities Grants)

·         CD_181 – Time taken to process Housing Benefit/Council Tax Benefit new claims and change events

Members discussed the value for money Marketing Campaign and its reach nationally and internationally.

The Revenues and Benefits Manager was in attendance to answer members’ questions regarding the recent transition from Northgate to OpenRevs.  The committee was advised that risks had been identified prior to the transition period and that where possible manual calculations had been made to ensure residents had received at least partial payments.  There were some 400/500 pieces of work at the beginning of close down with around 3,500 at the end of close down.  This had now been reduced to 800 pieces of work, taking around 15 calendar days to process.  Members noted that ‘pieces of work’ related to households with changes of circumstances, and not individuals that had been affected during the transition period.  The Council received 50,000-60,000 change of circumstance requests and 5,000-6,000 new claims annually.  It was anticipated that ‘pieces of work’ outstanding would be comparable to the same period last year by the end of the first quarter 2015/16, given that the Council was now entering one of the busiest times of year.  The committee was assured that no one had been adversely affected by the transition, and that landlords had been advised of potential delays in payments.  Some 10 complaints had been received throughout the process.

Members noted that the position to the end of December was a positive variance of (£99,000) on net expenditure - a movement of (£176,000) compared to the position at the end of the second quarter in September. Service expenditure showed a variance of (£44,000) mainly as a result of:

   Additional corporate income (£77k)

   Refuse Collection contract savings (£71k)

   One off backdated rental income (£35k)

   Rental income from 1 Grove Road and Town Hall (£31k)

   Dotto Train £65k

   Summons Income reduction £50k

   Development Control Legal and Consultants fees £41k

   Downs Water Supply new contract £39K

The projected outturn showed a favourable variance of (£187,000). This was within 1.1% of the net budget and was within an acceptable tolerance level.

The contingency allowance currently stood at £112,95 and an amount of £40,000 had been earmarked for use; therefore a balance of £72,950 was available for funding any future unforeseen one off areas of expenditure during the remainder of the year.

HRA performance was currently above target due to a number of factors including underspending on council tax for void properties and the new insurance contract. 

Rental income was down as a result of a reduced number of properties from Right to Buys and a delay in opening Winchester Court sheltered accommodation following refurbishment; this had been offset by an increase in service charge income following the 13/14 year end reconciliation. The projected outturn was showing a surplus of £104,000 due to the full year effect of the issues stated previously.

The detailed capital programme was shown at Appendix 4 to the report. Actual expenditure at 47% of the budget was lower than expected as a number of schemes had been delayed in starting or had not yet started these included

• Housing Major Works schemes
• Support Housing in Eastbourne Programme
• Coastal Defence Works
• Resurfacing Tennis Courts
• Carbon Reduction Programme
• Customer Contract Centre
• Devonshire Park
• Congress Theatre.

Commentary on the progress of each of these schemes was included in the Appendix.

The projected Collection fund, both Council Tax and National non domestic rates showed an improvement over the forecast over Qtr2 of £7k and £19k respectively.

Council Tax showed a surplus of £180,000 due to higher than budgeted number of chargeable properties and a reduction in the number of Single Person Discounts awarded.   The surplus represented 0.34% of the total debit due.

Business Rates deficit of £1,295,000 was as a result of a bigger than anticipated provision made in 2013/14 for outstanding appeals, giving rise to a higher than budgeted for balance carried forward as at 1 April 2014.

Since January 2014 a total of 64 properties had successful appeals with a total reduction of £1,083,100 in rateable value which represented 1.3% of the total rateable value of the authority. Currently there were 87 properties with appeals outstanding with a total rateable value £6.8m.

The Valuation Office was expecting to settle all these claims within the next 12 months however the uncertainty of the potential value of successful appeals remained a major risk to the Collection Fund at this time.  The deficit represented 3.96% of the total debit for the year.

Treasury Management performance was on target and all activities were within the approved Treasury and Prudential Limits.

NOTED.