Agenda and draft minutes

Policy and Finance Committee - Wednesday 11th December 2024 6.00 pm

Venue: Council Chamber & Blue Room, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions

Contact: Jane Fulton 

Media

Items
No. Item

324.

Apology for Absence

Minutes:

An Apology for Absence had been received from Councillor Brooks.

325.

Declarations of Interest

Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

 

Members and Officers should make their declaration by stating:

 

a)             the item they have the interest in

b)             whether it is a pecuniary/personal interest and/or prejudicial interest

c)             the nature of the interest

 

Minutes:

There were no Declarations of Interest made.

326.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 175 KB

The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the last meeting of the Policy and Finance Committee held on 24 October, as attached. . 

 

Minutes:

The minutes from the last Meeting of the committee held on 24 October 2024 were approved as a correct record and were signed by the Chair at the conclusion of the meeting.

327.

ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA THAT THE CHAIR OF THE MEETING IS OF THE OPINION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A MATTER OF URGENCY BY REASON OF SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Minutes:

          The Chair confirmed that there were no urgent items for the Committee to consider.

328.

Public question time

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)

 

Minutes:

The Chair confirmed that no questions had been submitted for this meeting.

 

 

329.

Carbon Emission Update - 2023-2024 Financial Year pdf icon PDF 437 KB

This report provides an update on the emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) of the Council for the 2023-2024 financial year.

 

Minutes:

The Climate Change and Sustainability Officer presented his report updating Members on the emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) of the Council for the 2023-2024 financial year. He provided some background to the report reminding Members that in October 2021 the Council adopted its Carbon Neutral Strategy 2022-2030 and the Climate Action and Biodiversity Work Plan 2022-2023 in February 2022.  Written within the Action Plan had been a commitment to continue to monitor the emissions generated by the Council on a yearly basis to ensure that the Council could effectively monitor how its activities were impacting those emissions and to ensure that reductions were taking place in line with the 2030 carbon neutral target.  This included Scopes 1, 2 and 3 as detailed below:

 

·       Scope 1 – emissions directly attributed to burning of fuels for heating council buildings and running its fleet

·       Scope 2 – indirect emissions from the purchase of electricity and directly controlled by the Council

·       Scope 3 – from the activities of the Council but from sources not owned or directly controlled by the Council, such as purchased goods and services [procurement], staff commuting, business travel and waste generated by the Council.

 

It was explained that this update report provided the Committee with an overview in terms of where the Council’s emissions were sitting for the 2023-2024 financial year as well as providing a comparison to the current baseline year set for the 2020-2021 financial year.

 

Members’ attention was drawn to the Appendix figures providing detail for all previous years of monitoring, including the 2023-24 financial year. A brief overview of the results for each of the scopes was provided  and it was explained that all emissions were displayed as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or tco2e which was the standard unit for measuring emissions regardless of whether they were from carbon dioxide or another greenhouse gas such as methane allowing all greenhouse gases to be compared using the same unit.

 

In terms of the results and comparisons to the current baseline year, Scope 1 and 2 had seen a drop from 392 tonnes of co2 equivalent in the baseline year to 137 in the 2023/24 financial year meaning that Scope 1 and 2 were now sitting at roughly 0.83% of the Council’s total emissions in 2023-2024. Scope 3 continued to make up most of the Council’s emissions and sat at roughly 99%, with the largest single emitters remaining the same as previous years being the purchase of goods and services at 91% and the leisure centres at 6%. Scope 3 had seen a reduction in emissions dropping from 27,382 tonnes of co2 equivalent to 16,255. Looking at all three scopes together an overall reduction from 27,774 to 16,118 tonnes could be seen which was positive news. The Council had, and would continue to, undertake work around reducing emissions further and would look at improving data collection for the annual carbon audit. It was highlighted that it was extremely challenging to measure emissions, and this should very  ...  view the full minutes text for item 329.

330.

Consolidated Council and Policy & Finance Committee Budget Monitoring Report to 30 September 2024 pdf icon PDF 338 KB

The purpose of this report is to appraise the Policy & Finance Committee of the Committee’s forecast General Fund Revenue, Capital and Housing Revenue outturn against the 2024/25 budget as approved by Council on 21 February 2024.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer introduced his Budget Monitoring Report covering Quarter 2 for the financial year 2024/25 and the period up to 30 September 2024, appraising the Committee of the Council’s consolidated General Fund Revenue, Capital and Housing Revenue Account forecast against the 2024/25 budgets approved by Council on 21 February 2024.  The Committee was being asked to consider the report and provide Officers with any comments.

 

The first part of the report presented the Quarter 2 forecast for the financial year 2024/25 and included a consolidated Revenue Budget summary; Housing Revenue Account (HRA) summary; and Consolidated Capital Programme summary. The Committee’s financial report as of 30 September 2024 for the Quarter 2 period had been attached to the report at Appendix 1.

 

The following highlights were reported:

 

·       The anticipated contribution from reserves was forecast lower than budget by £165k in the current financial year, however, Councillors were reminded that it would still be necessary to draw down £3.4m from reserves.

·       The net forecast below did show some slight improvement and included some budget pressures around homelessness and savings that had been built into the forecast.

·       The forecast end of year HRA reserve balance showed an increase to £981k from an operating position of £482k. Appendix A to the report provided a detailed summary. It was stated that the HRA was starting to experience more stability with regards to the inhouse repairs and maintenance service and that volatility around that forecast was starting to steady.

·       The General Fund Capital programme showed a reprofiled capital programme and no changes in the budget totals. The additional funding of £3m approved by Full Council on 6 November 2024 for the Alexandra Theatre had not been included due to timings as this quarter 2 report included everything up to the end of September 2024. This would be added to the Quarter 3 report.

·       Pages 8 to 9 provided more detail about the reprofiled capital budgets against the forecast figures. This did not include the original budgets, but did include a commentary on capital slippage

·       On the HRA capital programme - £6.7m had been moved from the stock development budget. Members would be advised later as to how that money would be spent.

·       The Sheltered Housing and Decarbonisation schemes had all been moved into future years to align with new commencement dates.

 

 

 

 

·       On the consolidated revenue budget summary - £165k less drawdown from usable reserves was a positive sign and had been due to having additional unexpected income from business rates. A further £100k had been received from non ring-fenced grants for new burdens funding received in year. On the cost of service, the forecast outturn suggested a £163k overspend against budget including pressures around temporary accommodation and approved savings, which were forecast to be £564k less than anticipated.  

·       The savings progress by Committee had been provided at Page 6 of the appendix. It was reported that there were some areas of concern, but it was anticipated that most of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 330.

331.

Medium Term Financial Forecast 2025-26 to 2029-30 pdf icon PDF 382 KB

The purpose of this report is to provide members with a high-level update on the current financial and economic prospects arising from the main issues affecting the Council and their impact on the financial forecast for the five years from 2025/26 to 2029/30.

 

The report also asks members to note the financial parameters for the preparation of the 2025/26 revenue budget and gives updates on the public budget consultation, Members Budget Working Group (BWG) and future participation in the West Sussex Business Rates Pool, (WSBRP).

 

Minutes:

The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer presented to Members his report providing an update on the Council’s Financial Forecast for 2025/26 to 2029/30 and economic prospects arising from the main issues affecting the Council and their impact. As identified as part of the discussion on the last item, there was much uncertainty around the budget figures at this time due to the pending Local Government Finance Settlement.

 

The report was also asking Members to note the financial parameters for the preparation of the 2025/26 revenue budget, and it provided updates on the public budget consultation, Members Budget Working Group and future participation in the West Sussex Business Rates Pool.

 

The main highlights brough to the attention of Councillors by the Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer were:

 

·       The detail surrounding the 2025/26 budget which was still work in progress

·       The Council was looking at a £2.5m deficit which was anticipated to peak to around £6.5m by 2028/29 if the Council took no further action in cutting costs. It was emphasised that this was unlikely to happen, but that it was necessary to continue to outline the dangers and that this strong warning needed to be highlighted.

·       After 2025/26 it was expected that some external funding would reduce substantially

·       The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement announcement was due on 19 December 2024. This included a range of unknowns which had been detailed in Paragraphs 4.3 to 4.10 of the report for Members to review.

·       The major items to be aware of were; Employers’ National Insurance contributions to increase by 1.2% and the threshold at which NICs would be payable would reduce from £9.1k to £5k which would add a cost of around £350k to the Council’s revenue budget.

·       Having attended the Webinar referred to earlier by the Chair, the MHCLG had confirmed that it would cover those costs, but no details had been provided whether the funding would be sufficient. Confirmation as part of the Settlement was awaited.

·       An additional £1.3 billion had been allocated to local government of which £600 million would be allocated to authorities responsible for adult and social care provision. The other £700m would be allocated to councils on a deprivation-based approach. No further information about what this meant had been provided and so the Section 151 Officer, stated that caution needed to be applied as it could be the case that Arun might not receive any of that funding

 

 

 

 

 

 

·       The Government had confirmed that it would commence the Fair Funding Review which would impact 2025/26 budgets to begin with and then implementing further resource redistribution in future years to address an imbalance in Local Government funding. It was not clear if there would be any transitional funding to soften any reduced impact for the Council. 

·       The broad principles for setting the budget for 2025/26 had been illustrated in paragraphs 4.10 to 4.28 of the report. It was confirmed that all assumptions in the report would remain under review until the budget  ...  view the full minutes text for item 331.

332.

Items put Forward from Service Committees

Minutes:

The Chair confirmed that there was a recommendation for the Committee to consider from the Housing & Wellbeing Committee as detailed below.

 

333.

Housing & Wellbeing Committee - 21 November 2024 pdf icon PDF 134 KB

The Committee is asked to consider a recommendation from the meeting of the Housing & Wellbeing Committee held on 21 November 2024 as set out below:

 

·       Minute 292 [Local Authority Housing Fund] – the Minutes containing the recommendation and the Officer’s report are attached. 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received the minutes from the meeting of the Housing & Wellbeing Committee held on 21 November 2024. The Chair drew Members’ attention to a recommendation at Minute 292 [Local Authority Housing Fund] and he alerted Members to the Officer Report that had been provided accompanying the minutes.

 

The Chair confirmed that this Committee was being asked to recommend to Full Council to include this scheme within the Council’s capital programme at a total cost of £3,870,600 with £1,771,000 capital funding from central government grant, £630,000 from Section 106 receipts and £1,469,600 to be funded by the Council through additional borrowing.

 

          Prior to commencing debate on this item, Councillor Birch proposed the recommendation which was seconded by Councillor Nash.

 

          The Committee in debating the recommendation questioned the legality of what had been resolved by the Housing & Wellbeing Committee at resolution c). This read “Approve use of £630k affordable housing S106 receipts, subject to the Group Head of Housing, Communities and Wellbeing confirming that the use of S106 receipts for temporary accommodation was lawful”.  There were some Councillors that wished to receive this confirmation, and the Director of Environment & Communities was asked if she could update the Committee. She stated that she could not provide this confirmation but that she would be happy to provide this outside of the meeting.

 

          Further debate took place in terms of whether this was necessary; or whether this Committee should amend the recommendation to Council, pending receipt of this information. Disappointment was expressed by some Members of the Committee as this matter had been queried and the information requested some time ago and as it was felt to be crucial in determining whether recommendation g) should be forwarded to Council. Could this be done if taking the £630k from Section 106 was not legally allowable as previously identified by Councillors and prior to this meeting. Further advice was sought in terms of how to progress the recommendation. 

 

          Following further debate, the Director of Environment and Communities then confirmed that she had since received confirmation from the Group Head of Housing, Communities and Wellbeing, that the use of S106 receipts was lawful and he had communicated this, and that several councils were using commuted sums to prop up their LAHF delivery, which was what this scheme was.

 

          Councillor Birch, as proposer of the recommendation, outlined that this would be an excellent use of money that would reduce the Council’s temporary housing accommodation costs for the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

          The Committee

         

                               RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL

 

To include this scheme within the Council’s capital programme at a total cost of £3,870,600 with £1,771,000 capital funding from central government grant, £630,000 from Section 106 receipts and £1,469,600 to be funded by the Council through additional borrowing.

 

334.

Outside Bodies - Feedback from Meetings

Minutes:

 

          The Chair provided a verbal update to the Committee reporting on the success of a visit made by the Department of Trade and Industry, organised through the Greater Brighton Economic Board, to a business in Littlehampton called GB Electronics. 

 

 

335.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 82 KB

The Committee is asked to note its work programme for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

Minutes:

In receiving and noting the Committee’s Work Programme for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2024/25, a request was made by Councillor Gunner to have added to it a report that would allow the Committee to debate the advantages and disadvantages for the Council in being a member of the Greater Brighton Economic Board and following this request being made at the last meeting of the Committee.

 

          The Chair confirmed that the Committee’s work programme had been updated following its last meeting to show that a report would be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee on 13 February 2025.

 

          Following on from this, it was noted that there was real possibility that the Greater Brighton Economic Board could be disbanded in the future because of devolution and pending receipt of the Government’s White Paper. As discussions were regularly taking place on the matter of Devolution, and in anticipation of the formation of Unitary Authorities for the region, a request was made for a Member Workshop to be organised early in 2025 to discus the content of the White Paper and to allow all Councillors the opportunity to confirm their views.

 

           In response, the Chair confirmed that he would look to get this organised and he stated that having received advice from the Committee Manager in terms of available dates in the Committee Calendar, due to other meetings and briefings, that this might be difficult to arrange for early in the New Year and possibly not until early March 2024.

         

(During the course of the discussion on this item, Councillor Pendleton, declared a Personal Interest as a Member of West Sussex County Council).

 

          In concluding the meeting, the Chair extended Season’s Greetings to all those in attendance.