Agenda item

F Jump presented the Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring Report and asked Committee for any questions.

The Chairman confirmed that Cllr Williams had mentioned that the agenda was becoming quite large, because there was a lot of business to be done and we must stick to questions that relate to the agenda items.  If there any additional areas that you want to discuss please contact me as the Chair and we can table it onto a future Committee.  The comment wasn’t aimed specifically at this group but just Members in general.

Cllr Mahmood queried how long the garages have been on the agenda and wondered whether this could be taken forward.  Cllr Mahmood wondered if there is an opportunity to sort them once and for all.  F Williamson advised there was an action plan and we want to ensure performance is optimised.  We are currently part way through a stock condition survey and we will be able to look at our investment strategy.  Aligned to that is the disposals programme, where the Council started two years ago disposing of garage sites.  We have a future programme of disposals and we are trying to ensure we maintain the occupancy of those garage sites up until the point we have a firm offer.  We have had a number of sites where offers have fallen through which have obviously delayed the sales process and we have had all of those garage blocks void during those periods.  In terms of our approach there are various things that we have now introduced into the system and we are looking to advertise and promote the garages, we have just appointed a new officer who has started in post, they are working through an online lettings process, which is similar to Choice Based Lettings.  That will enable people to express an interest and we can look at demand for certain sites.  The aim is to have a complete purge of all of the void garages to get them advertised and from the demand and stock condition information we will be able to rationalise the use of those garages that we can get to virtually full occupancy, looking at the some sites for disposal.  We are not just looking at open market disposal for development but for other opportunities such as potential use for allotments or self-build projects, so we are now considering wider opportunities that could benefit the community. 

Cllr Mahmood asked if we had looked at the option of building garages that are more suitable for modern day cars.  F Williamson said that we have looked at this, we have obtained quotes for new modular garages that are larger and have more capacity for the larger modern cars.

Cllr England said that one of the first questions he had asked three years ago was whether there was a stock condition survey for the garages, at the time he was told that there wasn’t one and he was told that in 2014 a number of sites were identified for disposal.  Cllr England asked which are the garage sites that are now being looked at, are they those sites which were for disposal or is there another list. 

Cllr Griffiths highlighted the point made by the Chairman earlier and would it be worth perhaps speaking to you afterwards and asking for the strategy on garages to come to this Committee, which she thought it was already and she was not trying to stop the debate, but the agenda item is about the outturn and not really about garages.  The Chairman said it was a valid suggestion and asked if Cllr England was happy with that.  Cllr England confirmed that he was.

Cllr England said that on the revenue side, we have had two years where we’ve put the rents up by 10% which is a large increase and especially a large one to be repeated.  Cllr England asked if we felt that the two increases had not worked and had not been appropriate in retrospect.  F Williamson confirmed this had been looked at in the overall strategy and the decision was made this year not to have any increase and that included an inflationary increase.  It puts us, in terms of comparable garage rents, in the locality, we are competitive and therefore the desire to keep them at the level they were last year without any increase is in part to try and address that concern.

Cllr Mahmood mentioned the underspend on vacant posts if we seem to be doing a good job without them, are the staff needed.  We have had this saving for years and years and Cllr Mahmood wondered how we are coping without those people.  L Warden advised that we definitely need the staff and we are just about coping but we are not particularly reducing the risk that we should be.  A lot of the vacancies have been things like secondments, which is a great opportunity for staff to trial other posts on a short term basis but often they tend to move around housing, which has a knock on impact on subsequent roles.  We are then struggling to fill posts which mean they are vacant for longer.  It is actually putting a huge pressure on the service at the moment so we’re trying to find a number of things, for example we have agency staff in some posts.  Alan has been doing a lot of work with the surveyors looking at salary rates because some of that isn’t competitive with private sector so we struggle to fill those posts.  It has had quite a significant impact on the service and we are continuing to try and do the best that we can which is highlighting some of the key risk areas and focussing on those, but the pressure is definitely building up.  The important thing for us now is to make sure that we get those posts covered as quickly as possible to allow us continue to make sure we are not missing things

Cllr Mahmood asked about the provision for bad debt where we always seem to have £975k, where does that go.  F Jump advised that it was held on the balance sheet and it is reviewed on a regular basis and drawn down as needed.  It will either be increased or reduced at the end of the financial year as deemed necessary.  It is utilised if needed but any balances that are not used are carried forward into future financial years. 

The Chairman highlighted the £1.2m underspend on Stationers Place because the contingency wasn’t needed and this comes up every year when we say are we forecasting correctly, previously it was that we were going over-budget but this seemed to be significantly under-budget and I’d like to understand what the issues were around why it needed such a big contingency.  F Williamson replied that with Stationers Place, the main issue was in respect of some work that the Environment Agency had asked us to carry out to a culvert and ultimately we made the decision that rather than undertake that work, which would be very costly and potentially not have a huge benefit to the orientation of the site, it was better to look at the scheme design and reduce the number of units by two, so that in part is why there is a larger contingency because the original budget included for the works to the culvert. 

Cllr England asked for clarification on Eastwick Row and the £900k purchase of the land, if it was just moving money around from Housing Revenue Account to General Fund.  F Jump confirmed it was movement within the Housing Revenue Account from one Capital line to another, so it’s taking money from the new build general expenditure line and moving it to Eastwick Row.

Cllr Hollinghurst mentioned the difficulties with the Environment Agency found itself in with the culvert, we’ve lost two housing units and asked if we got any compensation.  F Williamson confirmed it was two flats and because of its proximity to canal and in order not to cause any contamination issues into the canal, there was a requirement for us to either change our design in terms of piling and also diverting the culvert, on balance our view was that it was better to redesign and reduce the number of units by two.

Cllr Hollinghurst felt this was the responsibility of the Environment Agency or were we as landowners acquired responsibility.  F Williamson advised that as the developer of the site we would be responsible for any changes that might affect the water course. 

Councillor Mahmood said that it sounded like a good decision.