Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councilllor S. Webb.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

Councillors K. May, K. Taylor and P. Whittaker noted that they were the Ward Councillors for Belbroughton and Romsley, Perryfields and Tardebigge respectively,where the Sewerage Treatment Plants considered in Minute item 44/23 were located. Councillor K. Taylor also asked for it to be noted that he was the Worcestershire County Councillor for the area that covered Tardebigge.

The minutes from the Cabinet meeting held on 13^th September 2023 were submitted for Members’ consideration.

RESOLVED that the minutes from the Cabinet meeting held on 13^th September 2023 be approved as a true and accurate record.

To receive and note the minutes.

Please note the Recommendations contained within the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11^th September 2023 were considered and agreed at an Extraordinary Council meeting held on 20^th September 2023. Therefore, there are no outstanding recommendations contained within the minutes attached to this agenda.

The minutes from the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11^th September 2023 were submitted for Members’ consideration. It was noted that the recommendations in respect of the Governance Systems Task Group had been considered at the Extraordinary meeting of the Council held on 20^th September 2023. Therefore, there were no further recommendations within the minutes for Cabinet to consider.

RESOLVED that the minutes from the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 11^th September 2023 be noted.

The Chairman welcomed Councillor D. Nicholl to the meeting in his role as Chairman of the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee. It was reported that at its last meeting the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee had made the following recommendation to Cabinet:

‘RECOMMENDED that Cabinet ascertain from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) the mechanism for audit of local authorities’ accounts to be caught up as per their press release.’

During the presentation of the item, Councillor Nicholl explained that at its last meeting, the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee had considered the Financial Compliance Report which noted, as at the end of June, progress with the 2020/21 Statement of Accounts, the ‘budget book’ for 2023/24 and key deliverables as required by legislation and government.

It was highlighted that the key issue remained the closure process for the 2020-21 Statement of Accounts, with work still to be undertaken by the Council and the External Auditors to validate the take on balances. It was now expected that the sign-off of the 2020-21 Accounts for external audit would take place in November 2023 with the audit expected for completion in Spring 2024.

It was further noted that a number of key legislative deliverables had recently been submitted to Central Government, however, there were still a number that remained outstanding.

At the same meeting, Members had also been informed that there were provisional plans for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to introduce backstop dates for when the auditing of accounts had to be completed. The provisional deadlines for local authorities were as follows:

·       2020-21 Statements of Accounts signed-off by auditors by 31st March 2024.

·       2021-22 Statements of Accounts signed off by auditors by September 2024.

It was noted that this measure was not yet in place and would require a change in legislation in order to come into effect.

Following the presentation of the recommendation, Officers explained that over the Summer several Government Ministers had referred to the potential introduction of backstop dates and the difficulties currently being experienced within the audit sector.

It was highlighted that there were still over 500 outstanding local authority audits and given the backlog and capacity issues across the audit sector, it was difficult to see how the backstop deadlines as proposed could be met by Local Authorities.

Members queried why the audits across local government were taking so long and it was thought, although not yet confirmed, that ultimately there were not enough staff to carry out the audits across all local authorities. Although measures would be taken in the future to simplify the auditing of accounts in areas such as Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) and pension funds, primary legislation would need to be passed to enable this.

The Leader queried whether the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee would be satisfied if a letter was sent to DHLUC regarding the mechanism for the processing of local authority accounts as per their press  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39/23

The Head of Finance and Customer Service presented the Draft Council Tax Support Scheme 2024/25 for Members’ consideration.

It was reported that the Council was required by section 13A(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (LGFA ’92) to provide a Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme,which specified the reductions in Council Tax provided to people who were in financial need, or to classes of people who were in general in financial need.

It was confirmed that for each tax year the Council must consider whether to revise or replace its scheme. If the Council intended to revise or replace the scheme, it was noted there was a requirement to undertake a formal consultation before establishing a new scheme.

Members were informed that the Council had introduced a new income banded scheme for working age applicants with effect from 1st April 2021. The rationale for the new scheme was to ensure that it was future proofed, and that it reduced the administrative burden placed on the Council by the introduction of Universal Credit.

The Head of Finance and Customer Servicesexplained that the Council had amended the scheme in the years since April 2021 to adjust the level of support in-line with funding available; to amend income bands and tapers to adjust for the impact of inflation; and to aid administration.

It was also reported that the existing scheme included a provision for the uprating of income bands by an inflation factor decided by the Council.

Officers explained that advice had been taken as to whether changes to welfare benefits meant that there were areas within the existing scheme which required amendment. It was noted that the advice received had confirmed that all relevant changes to the Council’s scheme had been made.

Cabinet was informed that there would be no additional operational implications as a result of changes to the income bands,however it would impact the amount of CTR provided to claimants and that the change may result in an increase in the total cost of Council Tax reduction.

By uprating income bands, it protected claimants from the impact of inflation and ensured that inflationary increases to universal credit or wages didnot remove their eligibility for CTR.

Following the presentation of the report, Members commented that Bromsgrove District Council provided a generous CTR scheme for residents. It was also questioned what a ‘less generous’ scheme would look like. Although it was confirmed that this was not what would be planned for the future, it would be interesting to know what neighbouring Councils offered residents as part of their CTR schemes. It was noted that the Bromsgrove District Council scheme offered reductions for those residents that were not in receipt of full benefits. This was a reduction not usually covered by most local Council schemes.

The Chairman invited Councillor R. Hunter, who was observing the meeting, to comment on the report. In doing so, it was stated that Council Tax reductions was a fiendishly complicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40/23

The Interim Director of Finance presented the Finance Recovery Plan Update. In doing so the following was highlighted:

·       This report was presented at every Audit, Standards and Governance Committee meeting and set out a high level update on the current situation in respect of the Finance Recovery Plan and the deliverables contained within the Plan. The main deliverables were outlined as follows:

o   To rectify the TechOne system

o   To rectify the cash receipting backlog

o   Delivery of the 2020-21, 21/22 and 22/23 Statemnet of Accounts.

·       Since the last Finance Recovery report was considered on 12^th July 2023 the following work had been carried out:

1.     A draft Outturn Report for 2022/23 had been presented to Cabinet.

2.     The draft 2022/23 Revenue Outturn Estimates had been presented to DLUHC.

3.     The draft 2022/23 Capital Outturn Estimates had been presented to DLUHC.

4.     A Quarter 1 Finance and Performance Report 2023/24 had been presented to Cabinet.

5.     Joint work had continued with External Audit on providing evidence of control balances at the time of the transfer from eFin to TechOne on 8^th February 2021. External Audit had validation routines for theyear 2020/21 financial year and were in the process of reviewing this data.  However, it was noted that the Council were still to provide the Period 0 data.  As part of this process, the Council had extended the eFin contract for three years to comply with legislation and allow the Period 0 data to be extracted.

6.     The 2021/22 Housing Benefits Audit had been signed off.

7.     Financial Awareness Training with Managers had been carried out and Quarter 2 monitoring would be available through TechOne.

8.     Budget Management Training for Managers (including use of TechOne).

9.     Monthly Accounts Payable Training.

10. A Head of Management Accountancy had been engaged on 20^th September 2023 and two temporary Technical Accountants started work at the Council in September 2023.

11. The Council upgrade to the TechOne system had taken place in July 2023. It was reported that the Council was now using the most recent version of the TechOne system.

12. The Financial Compliance Report, setting out movement in the Financial Recovery Plan, had been reviewed by the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee in July and September 2023.

Officers stated that currently there were significant resource issues within the audit sector, and this would inevitably impact on the time taken in completing the Statement of Accounts for the majority of local authorities, as had been highlighted earlier in the meeting.

In terms of the issues experienced with the Cash Receipting module within the TechOne system, it was reported that it was hoped that any backlog within the system would be cleared by December 2023.

Officers reported that key legislative deliverables including the VAT Returns and the revenue Outturns for 2020-21 and 2021-22 had recently been submitted to Central Government. The final Capital Outturn and draft Revenue Outturn returns could not be submitted until the accounts had been audited.

Further  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41/23

The Head of Finance and Customer Services presented the Financial Outturn Report 2022/23 and stated that the report outlined the Council’s provisional revenue and capital outturn positions for 2022-2023.

Cabinet was informed that from a revenue perspective, the Council had a £12.068m full year revenue budget which was approved by Council in March 2022.

Members were reminded that the 2022/23 budget included a £478k cross-cutting efficiency target, of which £424k was allocated to services based upon forecast underspends at Quarter 1 predominantly linked to vacancies.

Whilst the Council had been on a Finance Recovery Programme since April 2022, it was important to note that the 2020/21 and 2021/22 accounts had still not been closed and that this could have an impact upon the 2022/23 position.

It was reported that the Finance Team had undertaken a detailed review of the 2022/23 accounts since the end of March 2023, and there were a number of assumptions and manual adjustments made to arrive at the provisional outturn position detailed in the report. These assumptions included:

·       Anticipated accruals and prepayments,

·       Grants are applied to known expenditure and remaining balances are carried forward,

·       Reserves are applied to expenditure,

·       Shared service recharges between Bromsgrove District and Redditch Borough Councils were manually reflected, and

·       Transfers between the Collection Fund and the General Fund.

The Head of Finance and Customer Services noted that there was still work to be done in order to clear the backlog of entries in suspense and any miscoding. Therefore, the provisional position detailed in the report was subject to change and a further update would be provided in due course.

Overall, it was anticipated that the provisional revenue overspend position would be a £956k overspend against the £12.068m budget. This was a £54k increase over the forecast at Quarter 3 which was a £902k overspend position.

Members attention was drawn to the financial position per service area along with supporting service narrative.

It was reported that the 2022/23 pay award - £1,925 pay award across all pay scales – had created a variance against budget for a number of service areas.

Cabinet was informed that overspends were anticipated within the following service areas:

·       Environmental Services - largely due to the implications of the pay award.

·       Financial & Customer Services - due to implications of the pay award, temporary staffing requirements and reduced court costs/housing benefit overpayments recovered, however this could change pending income reallocation.

·       Legal, Democratic and Property Services - predominantly due to a budget pressure linked to the contract with SLM to deliver Leisure Management Services. It was noted that the leisure sector continues to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and therefore a cost pressure had been seen in this area.

From a Treasury Management perspective, the Council had £3.7m short-term borrowing at 31^st March 2023 and no long-term borrowing. It was noted that the Council also held £1.2m in short-term investments.

Information regarding Capital monitoring was provided within the report, and Cabinet was informed that an updated Capital  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42/23

The Interim Director of Finance presented the Quarter 1 2023-24 - Financial and Performance Report for Members consideration. Prior to the presentation of the report, it was noted that recommendation 7 contained within the report was no longer being presented at this meeting and would be considered following further information being provided in due course.

Cabinet was informed that the report had been considered at a meeting of the Finance and Budget Scrutiny Working Group as had been requested following the previous Cabinet meeting held on 13^th September 2023.

During consideration of the report the following was noted:

·       Budget Variances – the current forecast revenue Overspend at Quarter 1 £197k. This was mainly due to the staff pay award which was still to be ratified. In addition to this, there would be some additional fleet hire costs experienced. It was explained that the Council would now be refurbishing the fleet rather than replacing. However, some of the vehicles needed to be refurbished sooner than anticipated and, in these instances, whilst the refurbishment was taking place, it was necessary to hire fleet vehicles. It was reported that these kinds of vehicles were in high demand and therefore costly to hire. As a result of these anticipated variances the projection was a full year overspend of £788k. This position would continue to be reviewed particularly in light of the impact of the increasing costs linked to inflation. Further updates would be provided to Members throughout 2023/24.

·       Utilities – It was estimated that Utilities increases were running at 70%.  In the 2023/24 budget a 100% increase was assumed. At this time a reserve was set up to allow for a further 100% increase. Therefore 200% increase had been allowed for in respect of an increase in Utilities. As the increase had not been experienced at this level the assumed yearly draw down of £351k of the reserve could be used to mitigate the £788k overspend. 

• Capital Project and Monitoring – there were three projects that were requested for approval as Capital projects. These were as follows:

1.     The update of Fleet Replacement costs.

2.     Increase in wheely bin budget.

3.     New Capital budget for wildflowers equipment.

·       The cost of Council Staff – it was reported that staff costs equalled almost 50% of payments in Bromsgrove and that appropriate recharges to Redditch were considered when allocating services.

·       The inclusion of procurements within the report in the future – It was reported that as the Council delivered a Shared Service, a number of procurements that impacted on Bromsgrove would be procured through Redditch. 

Members queried the Key Performance Indictors (KPIs) contained within the report and whether these needed to be refreshed as part of the piece of work on Strategic Priorities. It was agreed that this would be the case and that for future KPIs it was important to only measure what was necessary and useful to improve services. It was confirmed that the hope for the future was, through the use of PowerBI,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43/23

The Head of Environmental Services and Housing Property Services was welcomed to the meeting to present the Upgrading of Sewage Treatment Plants and introduction of Service Charging to contributing properties - 1) Frankley Green Lane, Frankley Green, 2) Fockbury Road, Dodford 3) Dusthouse Lane, Tutnall report.

In doing so, Cabinet was informed that three existing Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in the locations stated above, served three individual rural area communities. The STPs were installed many years ago and had significantly deteriorated over time. With the transfer of the Council’s housing stock to Bromsgrove District Housing Trust (BDHT), informal arrangements were implemented, and it was agreed that Bromsgrove District Council would maintain these assets, with BDHT contributing 60% towards these maintenance costs. When the agreement was made it had been thought that potentially the STPs could be transferred to Severn Trent Water Ltd. This, however, would have been dependent on the condition of each STP being deemed acceptable by Severn Trent Water Ltd. In discussing this with Severn Trent Water Ltd it had been noted that the condition of the STPs were not acceptable and therefore this was not a viable option for the future.

Therefore, following these discussions, as outlined above, some investigations were carried out which had identified issues with all three STPs. These investigations confirmed that works would need to be undertaken in order to get them all back up to an appropriate condition.

Following the presentation of the report, Members thanked the Officers involved in the preparation of the report and the investigations undertaken thus far. It was also noted that the residents that had been impacted by these issues would be extremely satisfied that this matter was to be resolved.

The Interim Executive Director explained that recently there had been a successful meeting with BDHT. And although there were still some legal areas to finalise, it was hoped that the outcome would be suitable for all parties involved.

RECOMMENDEDthat

1)    A budget of £72k be added to the 2023/2024 Capital Programme, for the agreed contribution for upgrading of the 1) Frankley Green Sewage Treatment Plant, to be funded from borrowing or balances following consideration as part of the medium-term financial plan review;

2)    A budget of £69k be added to the 2024/2025 Capital Programme, for the agreed contribution for upgrading of the 2) Dodford Sewage Treatment Plant, to be funded from borrowing or balances following consideration as part of the medium-term financial plan review;

3)    A budget of £57k be added to the 2025/2026 Capital Programme, for the agreed contribution for upgrading of the 3) Tutnall Sewage Treatment Plant, to be funded from borrowing or balances following consideration as part of the medium-term financial plan review;

4)    An annual service charge be introduced, subject to agreement with Bromsgrove and District Housing Trust (BDHT), for all contributing properties to the three Sewage Treatment Plants from 1st April 2024, equivalent to the annual sum payable to Severn Trent Water Ltd for sewage treatment, if  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44/23

There was no urgent business on this occasion.