Local democracy

Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - City Hall, Bradford. View directions

Items
No. Item

84.

DISCLOSURES OF INTEREST

(Members Code of Conduct - Part 4A of the Constitution)

 

To receive disclosures of interests from members and co-opted members on matters to be considered at the meeting. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

 

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

 

Notes:

 

(1)       Members may remain in the meeting and take part fully in discussion and voting unless the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an interest which the Member feels would call into question their compliance with the wider principles set out in the Code of Conduct.  Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member concerned or their spouse/partner.

 

(2)       Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction applies to them.  A failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. 

 

(3)       Members are also welcome to disclose interests which are not disclosable pecuniary interests but which they consider should be made in the interest of clarity.

 

(4)       Officers must disclose interests in accordance with Council Standing Order 44.

 

Minutes:

The following disclosures of interest were received in the interest of clarity:

 

(i)         Councillor Bacon disclosed an interest in the item relating to the Qtr 3        Financial Position Statement (Minute 88)as she was member of a             Trade Union.

 

(ii)        Councillor Sunderland disclosed an interest in the item relating to the        Poverty Strategy (Minute 89) and she was actively involved in a             number of poverty related activities in the community.

 

ACTION:       City Solicitor

 

85.

MINUTES

Recommended –

 

That the minutes of the meetings held on 5 and 11 January 2017 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

 

(Yusuf Patel – 01274 43XXXX)

Minutes:

Resolved –

 

That the minutes of the meetings held on 5 and 11 January 2017 be signed as a correct record.

 

86.

INSPECTION OF REPORTS AND BACKGROUND PAPERS

(Access to Information Procedure Rules – Part 3B of the Constitution)

 

Reports and background papers for agenda items may be inspected by contacting the person shown after each agenda item.  Certain reports and background papers may be restricted. 

 

Any request to remove the restriction on a report or background paper should be made to the relevant Strategic Director or Assistant Director whose name is shown on the front page of the report. 

 

If that request is refused, there is a right of appeal to this meeting. 

 

Please contact the officer shown below in advance of the meeting if you wish to appeal. 

 

(XXXXX - 01274 XXXXXX)

 

Minutes:

There were no appeals submitted by the public to review decisions to restrict documents. 

 

87.

REFERRALS TO THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

No referrals were made at the time of the publication of this agenda.

 

Minutes:

There were no referrals made to the Committee.

88.

QTR 3 FINANCIAL POSITION STATEMENT FOR 2016-17 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

The report of the Director of Corporate Services (Document “AK” – Report to Follow) provides Members with an overview of the forecast financial position of the Council for 2016-17.

 

It examines the latest spend against revenue and capital budgets and forecasts the financial position at the year end. It states the Council’s current balances and reserves and forecasts school balances for the year. 

 

The report will also be considered by the Executive at its meeting on 7 February 2017.

 

Recommended –

 

That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee  review and comment on the QTR 3 Financial Position Statement.

 

                                                            (Andrew Cross – 01274 436823)

 

 

 

 

Minutes:

The report of the Director of Corporate Services (Document “AK”) provided Members with an overview of the forecast financial position of the Council for 2016-17.

 

It examined the latest spend against revenue and capital budgets and forecasted the financial position at the year end. It stated the Council’s current balances and reserves and forecasted school balances for the year.  The report was also being considered by the Executive at its meeting on 7 February 2017.

 

The Strategic Director Corporate Services gave a synopsis of the main financial messages arising from the report:

 

·         That the Council was forecasting that spend would be £0.2m above the approved budget of £378.1m.  This represented a £5.8m improvement from the forecast position reported at the Quarter 2 stage, this was mainly due to a £2m improvement on central budgets; a 2.0m reduction in the Health and Wellbeing services forecast overspend to £3.2m, due to a £0.8m improvement in Purchase Care, a £0.7 utilisation of non recurrent funding and £0.5m of further underspends across the department.

 

·         A £0.6m increase in the Department of Finance underspend to £1.2m, due to mostly to further reductions in IT costs following the end of the IBM contract.

 

·         A further £1.2m of smaller scale improvements shared across Human Resources, Children’s Services, Regeneration and non service.

 

·         At the 31st  December 2016 allocated and unallocated reserves stood at £150.4m of which £116.6m related to the Council and £33.8m related to Schools.

 

·         During the financial year there had been a net reduction in total reserves of £17.3m, including £11.4m of reserves to support the budget.

 

·         Unallocated reserves currently stood at £13.8m as a contingency reserve.

 

·         Regarding Capital Expenditure, the position for the Capital Investment Plan stood at £80.2m.

 

·         Regarding Council Tax collection rates, these were higher than the forecasted amount, however in relation to Business the position was less favourable with a projected shortfall of £5.8m, mainly caused by the impact of successful appeals.

 

During the discussion Members asked a number of questions, the questions together with the responses are detailed below.  Strategic Directors and Assistant Directors were also present at the meeting to respond to service specific budget issues that were raised.

 

A Member ascertained how the Council dealt with the rolling over of loans and  interest rates; and spending below its budgeted forecast and not borrowing. In addition he asked how the balance in capital spending was regulated. He also requested that a briefing note be provided to Members which set out how the capital account worked and its impact on the revenue account.

 

In response the Strategic Director Corporate Services stressed that a number of factors would impact on the revenue budget, so reported savings compared to the forecast spend was partly due to the lower than planned capital expenditure and lower interest rate loans.  Whether this would be repeated next year was difficult to predict, however the capital plan was generally quite ambitious and capital schemes were normally delivered slower than planned, which assisted the revenue budget.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 88.

89.

BRADFORD POVERTY SCRUTINY REVIEW AND CORPORATE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS PROGRESS REPORT pdf icon PDF 142 KB

The Strategic Director Place will submit a report (Document “AL”) which provides a progress update on implementation of the recommendations made by Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 29 June 2016 and Executive on the 19 July 2016, that followed the Bradford Poverty Scrutiny Review.

 

Recommended –

 

That Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

 

(1)       Accept the progress made to date against the recommendations           of the             Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 29 June      2016 and Executive on the 19 July 2016.

 

(2)       Suggest other actions the Committee believes the Council and or         its partners should or could be taking to make a positive impact      against poverty in the District.

 

                                                                        (Helen Johnston - 01274 434401)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Strategic Director Place submitted a report (Document “AL”) which provided a progress update on implementation of the recommendations made by this Committee on the 29 June 2016 and Executive on the 19 July 2016, that followed the Bradford Poverty Scrutiny Review.

 

During the discussion a Member ascertained what additional work was being undertaken to alleviate food poverty in the district.  In response the Assistant Director stated that better coordination was taking place between food banks and in particular he commended the work of Inn Churches.

 

The Chair welcomed the work that had taken place since this Committee had undertaken the Scrutiny Review and he ascertained what the time frame was in devising the Poverty Strategy.  In response the Assistant Director stated that the Strategy should be ready by July 2017.  In addition the framework was set out in Appendix 3 of the report and stressed that there was a lot of poverty related activity that had taken place, which needed brining together in one coherent plan.

 

A Member stated that although there were a lot of activities taking place, there was little in the way of quantifiable data in the report which would help to analyse and quantify the work being undertaken.

 

A Member stressed that a particular group of concern were the 18-24 young single men,  and some information around this cohort would be useful.

 

Resolved –

 

That this Committee requests that the Poverty Strategy be presented to this Committee, which also includes quantifiable data that analyses the impact of the activities that are being undertaken as part of the Strategy.

 

ACTION:  Strategic Director Place

90.

DISCRETIONARY PAYMENTS pdf icon PDF 197 KB

The Assistant Director Revenues, Benefits and Payroll will submit a report (Document “AM”) which provides an update on the support provided by the Council, to financially vulnerable residents, through the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) scheme and the Assisted Purchase Scheme (APS) during the period 1 April 2016 to 31 December 2016

 

Recommended –

 

That the Committee;

 

(1)             Note the contents of this report and the work that has taken place on both Discretionary Housing Payments and Local    Welfare Support.

 

(2)             Offer a view on how any future DHP scheme might look in the          context of linking it to helping the young and most vulnerable          in the District and the Chief Executives forthcoming report to Executive.

 

(3)             Provide a view on what any future Local Welfare Support       Scheme         should look like in view of the limited take up of the       current scheme.

 

Paul Bland

                                                                                    (Paul Bland - 01274 437874)

Minutes:

The Assistant Director Revenues, Benefits and Payroll submitted a report (Document “AM”) which provided an update on the support provided by the Council, to financially vulnerable residents, through the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) scheme and the Assisted Purchase Scheme (APS) during the period 1 April 2016 to 31 December 2016.

 

In explaining the schemes, the Assistant Director stated that a report on DHP will be considered by the Executive in March and he requested the Committee’s views on how the scheme could be shaped in the future.

 

During the discussion the Chair ascertained what engagement work had been undertaken with landlords regarding DHP.  In response the Assistant Director stated that some work had been done with the Housing Options team as well as using our own systems to get landlords on board, however there were some real difficulties engaging with private landlords, which were historical in nature.

 

In relation to a question on the process of dealing with claimants, the Assistant Director stated that this was partly a reflection on how applications were now processed, and if applicants failed to submit information within a specific timescale then the award would be automatically  rejected. However if they resubmitted the requested information, the application would be looked at afresh.

 

A number of Members expressed their concern at the lack of accommodation for single people and the lack of training and job opportunities for this cohort.  The Assistant Director acknowledged the comments made and suggested that the DHP scheme could be modified to extend help to the under 35s on the proviso they engage with agencies in finding suitable training / employment.

 

Resolved –

 

That a report on Discretionary Payments be submitted to this Committee in 12 months time.

 

ACTION:       Assistant Director Revenues, Benefits and Payroll

91.

CORPORATE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE - WORK PROGRAMME 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 184 KB

The Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee will submit a report (Document “AN”) which sets out the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2016/17. 

 

Recommended –

 

(1)       That members consider and comment on the areas of work included in the work programme.

 

(2)       That members consider any detailed scrutiny reviews that they may wish to conduct.

 

                                                                        (Mustansir Butt – 01274 432574)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee submitted a report (Document “AN”) which set out the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2016/17. 

 

Resolved

 

That the work programme 2016-17 continues to be reviewed regularly

during the remainder of this Municipal Year.

 

ACTION:       Overview and Scrutiny Lead      

 

                                                                        (Mustansir Butt - 01274 432574)