Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive Apologies for Absence from Cabinet members. 

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Francis Burkitt.

Councillor Ray Manning, Leader of the Council, reported that this would be Fiona McMillan’s last meeting of Cabinet before she took up a new position elsewhere.  Fiona was the Council’s Legal Manager and Monitoring Officer and Councillor Manning, on behalf of Cabinet, thanked her for her help and advice in the 19 years that she had worked for the authority. 

To authorise the Leader to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2016 as a correct record.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 January 2016 were confirmed and signed by the Leader as a correct record.

No declarations of Members’ interests were made.

No announcements were made.

No public questions had been received.

Cabinet:

(a)        RECOMMENDED to Council that the Corporate Plan setting out the Council’s vision, objectives and actions for 2016–2021, be approved as set out in Appendix 1to the report.

(b)        ENDORSED the indicative performance measurements set out in the draft plan and AUTHORISED the Executive Director, in consultation with Portfolio Holders, to prepare a detailed suite of Key Performance Indicators for subsequent agreement in April 2016.

(c)        AUTHORISED the Chief Executive to make any minor wording changes required to final drafts, in consultation with the Corporate and Customer Services Portfolio Holder.

Cabinet considered a report which proposed a refreshed Corporate Plan, prepared following consultation, for approval.

Councillor Peter Topping, Portfolio Holder for Corporate and Customer Services, presented the report and highlighted the following four priority themes for the Plan:

·         living well;

·         homes for our future;

·         connectivity;

·         an entrepreneurial Council.

Councillor Topping reported that the priority themes had been developed into a final draft Plan which had been retained as objectives, refocussing entrepreneurialship as ‘an innovative and dynamic organisation’ to reflect business efficiency as well as commercialisation and income generation aims.  This also aligned with the Council’s Corporate Values.  He explained that the Plan was ambitious but was purposely not prescriptive about how that ambition would be reached, adding that it did not seek to restrict officers by setting stringent targets but was more of a document that they could be guided by in working with partners to deliver successful outcomes.

Cabinet noted that members of the community had been given an opportunity to have their say on the content of the Plan, as well as the South Cambridgeshire Youth Council, which had resulted in some changes to the draft.

Councillor Topping also highlighted that specific Portfolio Holders had not been aligned to specific elements of the Plan, making the point that delivery of the Plan was the collective responsibility of Cabinet which had shared ownership and responsibility. 

Councillor Bridget Smith, Leader of the Opposition, asked whether any measurable benchmarks should be included in the Plan regarding improved employee health and outcomes in respect of the living well theme.  She also questioned, in terms of homes for the future, whether the Plan should include reference to the Council’s self-build vanguard programme that it had committed to deliver.

Councillor Topping reiterated the point that he did not feel it necessary to introduce targets as part of the Plan, or commit to delivering specifics.  During discussion on employee health and wellbeing it was noted that this related to employees from all sectors in the district, not solely those employees of the District Council.  Engagement did occur with businesses but some Members felt it would be quite intrusive of the Council to request information regarding employee health and wellbeing.  Councillor Mick Martin, Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, highlighted that there were mechanisms in place to collate this information in a soft approach through various casual conversations the Council often held with the business community.

In terms of the self-build vanguard, Councillor Topping stated that this was not an omission and that he was not convinced the Plan needed to reflect that level of detail regarding an individual programme.

Cabinet:

(a)        RECOMMENDED to Council that the Corporate Plan setting out the Council’s vision, objectives and actions for 2016–2021, be approved as set out in Appendix 1to the report.

(b)        ENDORSED the indicative performance measurements set out in the draft plan and AUTHORISED the Executive Director, in consultation with Portfolio Holders, to prepare a detailed suite of Key Performance Indicators for subsequent agreement in April 2016.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Cabinet RECOMMENDED to Council that:

(a)        The General Fund Capital Programme and the associated funding up to the year ending 31 March 2021, as set out in Appendix A1 of the report is approved as submitted.

(b)        The revenue estimates for 2016-17 are approved as submitted in the General Fund summary, as set out in Appendix B1 of the supplementary report.

(c)        The precautionary items for the General Fund, as set out in Appendix B2 of           the report, are approved.

(d)        The Medium Term Financial Strategy for the General Fund, as set out in Appendix B3 of the report in the supplementary agenda, is approved based on the assumptions set out in the report.

(e)        The fees and charges proposed for 2016-17, as set out in Appendix B4 of the report, are approved.

(f)        The Executive Management Team be instructed to identify additional income/ savings of £300,000 in 2016-17, rising to £930,000 from 2017-18.

(g)        The Council Tax requirement for 2016-17 is £7,852,090.

(h)        The Council sets the amount of Council Tax for each of the relevant categories of dwelling in accordance with Section 30(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 on the basis of a District Council Tax for general expenses on a Band D property of £130.31 plus the relevant amounts required by the precepts of Parish Councils, Cambridgeshire County Council, the Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner and the Cambridgeshire Fire Authority, details of those precepts and their effect to be circulated with the formal resolution required at the Council meeting.

(i)         The Housing Revenue Account revenue budget, summarised in the Housing Revenue Account Summary Forecast 2015-16 to 2020-21, as set out in Appendix G of the Housing Revenue Account budget setting report, in the context of the updated 30 Year Housing Revenue Account Business Plan, is approved.

(j)         Subject to paragraph (x) below, council dwellings rents for existing tenants be reduced by 1%, in line with legislative requirements, anticipated to be introduced as part of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill 2015, with effect from 4th April 2016.

(k)        The inclusion of an ongoing savings target for Housing Revenue Account services for the period from 2017-18 to 2020-21, at the initial rate of £250,000 per annum, recognising the financial constraints placed upon the Housing Revenue Account by changes in national housing policy, is approved.

(l)         Inflationary increases of 1.4% in garage rents for 2016-17, in line with the base rate of inflation for the year assumed in the Housing Revenue Account Budget Setting Report, is approved.

(m)      Proposed service charges for Housing Revenue Account services and facilities provided to both tenants and leaseholders, as set out in Appendix B of the Housing Revenue Account budget setting report, is approved.

(n)        The charge for the cost of the provision of the alarm service in sheltered housing is set at £3 a week.

(o)        The latest budget, spend profile and funding mix for each of the schemes in the new build programme, as set out in  ...  view the full decision text for item 7.

Cabinet considered a report which provided Cabinet with an opportunity to recommend the Medium Term Financial Strategy to Council.  A supplementary report was also considered, which set out updated versions of Appendices B, B1, B3, B3(a) and B3(b) following revised information received by Cambridgeshire County Council as a result of setting its budget.

Councillor Simon Edwards, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Staffing, presented the report, together with the supplementary report, and said that the recommendations encompassed the significant outcomes of the Local Government Finance Settlement.  In taking Members through both documents, the following points were noted:

·         the Revenue Support Grant would reduce by 48.7% from 2015-16 to 2016-17, by a further 75.2% in 2017-18 and to nil in 2018-19.  The reduction to nil had been anticipated, but not as early as 2018-19;

·         the basic principles of retained business rates would remain, however, an adjustment to the tariff deduction imposed by the Government would be introduced in 2019-20;

·         the Government was proposing changes to the New Homes Bonus scheme and modelling in the report outlined the scheme changing from a six year scheme to a four year scheme from 2017-18.  The Government was consulting on other reforms to New Homes Bonus, including:

-       withholding new New Homes Bonus allocations in areas where no Local Plan had been produced;

-       reducing payments for homes built on appeal;

-       only making payments for delivery above a baseline representing ‘deadweight’;

·         beyond 2017-18 it was possible that some of these other reforms could have adverse implications for the amount of New Homes Bonus that the Council may receive;

·         £5 million of New Homes Bonus funding as a contribution towards the A14 infrastructure improvement scheme was still allocated in the Council’s budget for 2020-2021;

·         all Councils had the ability to raise Council Tax by £5 as apposed to increasing Council Tax by any amount up to 2% without triggering a referendum.  Three options for the District Council in terms of Council Tax increases had been set out in paragraphs 19, 20 and 23 of the original report, with each having a different impact on the savings or additional income that the Council would be required to make.  The table in paragraph 19 of the original report summarised the impact of the different options that had been modelled.  The option proposed was an increase in Council Tax of £5 this year and for every year of this parliament, with an increase of 2% year on year thereafter;

·         significant savings had already been achieved in some areas, such as those through the shared waste service;

·         the successful pilot of Ermine Street Housing Ltd had seen the company provide an income stream for the Council, with other projects such as the commercialisation programme anticipated to provide other sources of income;

·         the Rural Services Grant had been increased from £32,261 to £129,850 in 2016-17 and from £46,457 to £104,848 in 2017-18.  A new Transition Grant would also be available of £75,842 in 2016-17 and £75,575 in 2017-18;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Cabinet:

(a)        NOTED the Council’s provisional financial outturn position together with the performance and risk matters and contextual information, as set out in the report and Appendices A to D.

(b)        APPROVED the Strategic Risk Register and Matrix as set out in Appendices E to F of the report.

Cabinet considered a report which provided Members with a statement on the Council’s position with regard to its General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and capital budgets, together with the corporate objectives, performance indicators and strategic risks.

Councillor Peter Topping, Portfolio Holder for Corporate and Customer Services, presented the report and reflected on a number of significant milestones that had been achieved during the year.  These were set out in paragraph 8 of the report.

In terms of performance, Councillor Topping highlighted the correlation between the General Fund variance, which showed a favourable position mostly due to additional planning fees received, and the pressure that the large amount of planning applications submitted had placed on the Council’s planning department.  Performance had improved against the determining of planning applications following successful recruitment to a number of posts towards the end of 2015. 

Councillor Topping reported that managing homelessness had been added to the Risk Register, which had recently become a significant risk to the Council.  Although most of the risk was outside of the Council’s control following changes in Government policy, the Council would manage this risk to the best of its ability and within its available resources, taking into account the proposal to include homelessness in the budget’s list of precautionary items.

A query was raised in respect of land supply and whether this should feature in the Council’s Risk Register.  Councillor Topping said that additional information relating to land supply had been made available after the publication of this report and therefore agreed to give further consideration to this issue in due course.

Cabinet:

(a)        NOTED the Council’s provisional financial outturn position together with the performance and risk matters and contextual information, as set out in the report and Appendices A to D.

(b)        APPROVED the Strategic Risk Register and Matrix as set out in Appendices E to F of the report.

No issues arising from the Scrutiny and Overview Committee were reported.

It was noted that an extraordinary meeting of the Partnerships Review Committee was scheduled to be held on 18 February 2016, to consider Cambridgeshire County Council’s budget.

Councillors Robert Turner, Tim Wotherspoon and Sue Ellington reported that they had attended recent meetings of Internal Drainage Boards.

No reports from Cabinet Members attending Parish Council meetings were received.

No reports from Member Champions were received.