Agenda item - Worcestershire Regulatory Services Business Plan 2017-2020

Agenda item

Worcestershire Regulatory Services Business Plan 2017-2020

Minutes:

The Board was asked to consider and approve the Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) Business Plan 2017/2020.

 

The Head of Regulatory Services, WRS introduced the report and in doing so informed Members that the business plan was a high level document that informed the development of the service for the foreseeable future.  The business plan was updated in 2016.   

 

The business plan detailed how WRS would offer a viable service within the projected partner envelopes; and to understand what a base line service would look like for partners who needed to reduce their financial contributions further into the current economic climate.  WRS would support other partners to maintain service levels above this, where required.  The business plan also provided details on the plans to ‘Grow the Business’ and increase income in order to maintain resilience in the face of continued austerity.

 

Income generation would remain the key factor in the business strategy.  It was possible that authorities could be encouraged to engage more with WRS and look more widely at contracting services to those who could offer expertise and resilience in service delivery.  This would make the challenging income targets more deliverable.

 

Members were further informed that the demise of the Shropshire’s outsourced regulatory team meant that there were fewer serious competitors, the 2020 partnership around West Oxfordshire, Cotswold and Forest of Dean District Council’s remained the main challenger.  However, authorities were now recognising income generation as a strategy so we could see others entering the market place, albeit they were unlikely to be able to match WRS’s scale.  Support from partner authorities at all levels, but more particularly Director, Chief Executive and Leader level would be necessary in selling WRS in what remained a significantly more competitive environment.

 

The Head of Regulatory Services, WRS continued and further informed the Board that understanding their costs and with good support from the Host Authorities Finance Team, they had been able to forecast the income needs going forward even beyond the period of the plan.  The table as detailed on page 22 in the report highlighted the five key tables most likely for expansion.  The income from the Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) would need to be retained and WRS would look to build on this relationship going forward. 

 

On the assumption of a cash standstill budget, the service would need to generate in excess of £350,000 in income by 2020 to continue to be able to offer the current service levels to partners and clients. This would be challenging but the management team believed that this was achievable.

 

WRS would need to continue to build on income streams such as Primary Authority and carry out work for other local authorities.  The levels of grant income currently achieved would need to be maintained and tap into new income streams such as pre-application advice, if the forecast requirements are to be met.  This could only be achieved if the service retained its current flexibility to re-invest income in resources where necessary.  The service would need to retain the current flexible and well qualified staff cohort and build on it where possible.

 

The Head of Regulatory Services, WRS highlighted that the previous business plan was predicted on only taking on business from other authorities through contract.  The experience of bidding for the work of Stratford on Avon district has suggested that this would not always be a winning strategy, especially where there was a partnership option available. 

 

Although the proposed partnership between Stratford on Avon and the 2020 Group of authorities did not come to fruition, it was still important that we gave consideration to how we might look at opening up the partnership to new members in the right circumstances.  As previously discussed with Members this would need to be to the benefit of all and the Head of Service would continue to work up the idea with senior officers from each partner authority.  The authorities that have been approached have yet to given a strong indication of interest.  The service needed to be prepared for this eventuality and be in a position to move quickly if it was to our advantage.

 

The Head of Regulatory, WRS responded to several questions from Members and in doing so explained that although the changes from Central Government, in respect of New Homes Bonus payments, would not directly impact on WRS, it would have a direct impact on the financial pressures for each partner authority and that could introduce some risks for WRS further down the line.

 

With regard to Service Level Agreements (SLA’s), SLA’s would be the preferred option, but in relation to a whole delivery service, a partnership offer could be made whereby a full service delivery was being sought.  He would reassure Members that, whilst taking into account future SLA’s / Partnership offers, the main priority would be to ensure continued protection for existing partner authorities and the investment made by those existing partner authorities.

 

The Head of Regulatory, WRS was mindful of the comments made during the course of the meeting with regard to a cash standstill budget being presented; and that some Members felt uncomfortable approving a three year budget where there was increase in the level of costs or expenditure. The Head of Regulatory, WRS agreed to take the concerns raised and discuss them with Partner Officers to see if there were any changes that could be made to the cash standstill budget and report back to the next meeting of the Board. 

 

As suggested by Members the Head of Regulatory, WRS agreed to provide a more detailed income table, which would be presented to future meetings of the Board on a quarterly basis, in order to give a clear indication of how WRS would balance their budget.

 

The Head of Regulatory, WRS responded to further questions on information in the Business Plan as follows:-

 

·         Page 19 in the report, that WRS had reached a point where they were turning work away in the five areas, as detailed on page 19.  Members were informed that the volume of work needed to be looked at, more specifically areas where technical expertise was required.  This was something he needed to look into, plus the possibility of an additional post in the service.  Further information regarding volume of work to be presented to the next meeting of the Board.

 

·         Budget alignment, the way the budget figures were detailed on page 30 in the report did not align with the information as detailed on page 68 in the WRS Revenue Monitoring report.  This had caused some confusion.  The Head of Regulatory, WRS and the Financial Services Manager agreed to align future budgets and clarify the information shown under ‘Supplies and Service’ (as detailed on page 30) and ‘Contractors’ (as detailed on page 68 in the WRS Revenue Monitoring Report).

 

RESOLVED that subject to the actions as detailed in the preamble above the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Business Plan 2017/2020 be approved.

Supporting documents: