Agenda item

N Howcutt introduced the item and apologised that this report was coming after the Cabinet report. He summarised the key areas of the report; the General Fund position at year end was showing a balanced position as a provision outturn. The HRA was showing a significant surplus in year of £884k – a large amount of that was because of year end calculations to do with bad debt provision. That surplus goes back into the HRA to fund future capital works. The overall capital position as of year-end had £0.4m of re-phasing which was a very small percentage of our overall capital programme which will take place in 20/21, and an end of year £2.4m overspend which was primarily across the three largest capital projects in the year; Tring swimming pool, the multi-storey car park in Berkhamsted and Bunkers Cemetery. Those three projects are either completed or near completion so there will be no additional spend past April/May. He welcomed questions from the committee.

Councillor Tindall referred to paragraph 4.2 relating to additional insurance costs for premises. He sought clarification if that was various small claims or a few bigger claims and if they were likely to be recurring. N Howcutt advised that it was a collection of small claims and he would provide Councillor Tindall with additional details.                                                                                               Action: N Howcutt

Councillor Tindall said he was concerned that we didn’t recruit for Apprentices until November and queried why. He also asked what was happening to our Apprentices during the pandemic. N Howcutt said he had an Apprentice in the finance department and they were working as normal and from home like everyone else. He felt that giving them additional support from home was slightly more difficult but we were working with them as much as possible to support them via virtual channels.

L Roberts advised that the recruitment for Apprentices was due to start mid-year and that was down to getting the scheme set up and identifying what services were required. She confirmed that no Apprentices had been furloughed and they were working from home like many other individuals.

Councillor Symington referred to page 13 relating to £55k for repairs to sports centres. She asked for clarification on what it was for and how that fits in with the arrangements with Everyone Active.  N Howcutt advised that the costs were paid out at the beginning of the financial year and related to the parts of plant and equipment that are a DBC responsibility. 

Councillor Claughton referred to paragraph 7.2 and the HRA surplus of £884k. He asked if there was an option for councillors to decide where that money goes. N Howcutt advised that the bottom line surplus is transferred to the capital funding reserve. He said no decision would be made at this point on how those funds are spent, but as part of the budget setting process the capital programme and funding is approved.

Councillor Guest asked if we had any figures on the impact of Covid-19 for car parking charges. N Howcutt advised that car parking income was the only visible impact of Covid-19 for 19/20 as there was a significant reduction of £25-30k in the last ten days of March. He said they’re unable to breakdown how much of that reduction was enforcement and how much was lack of use of the car parks. He added that the figures for 20/21 would be significantly lower and would be detailed in the Cabinet report once finalised later this month.

Councillor Barrett drew attention to the £130k for the ageing fleet in waste services. He noted there was another £190k relating to maintenance of ageing fleet. He asked if those two figures should be combined or if they related to different areas. N Howcutt advised it was two different elements as they had to hire more vehicles because there were ageing vehicles not being used, and secondly the maintenance of the existing ageing vehicles. He said although additional costs had occurred this year, we’re in a transition period whilst new fleet were coming on board. He added that due to Covid-19 and the capacity issue of workers in each vehicle, we need more fleet at the moment so we will see some pressures in 20/21 which were unexpected.

Councillor Barrett referred to the additional £200k for commercial waste and asked what percentage that was of our overall commercial waste income. He then asked what the service improvements were that were suggested in the report. N Howcutt explained we had made improvements through the year and now have a better understanding of our trade waste. He suggested it wasn’t good news for 20/21 as far less clients were working in the retail and food industry due to Covid-19. He said he would need to come back to him on the exact percentage. Action: N Howcutt

Councillor Chapman sought clarification on paragraph 7.3 relating to recovering £160k of Housing Benefit. N Howcutt explained that this is where we have more Housing benefit subsidy tenants in supported housing than we had budgeted to get so we receive more income.

Councillor Taylor referred to page 21, lines 2.16 and 2.17 regarding the over spend at Swing Gate Lane. He asked if the contamination and archaeology were known about when the agreement with signed with the developers. N Howcutt said he would need to investigate with the project lead and come back to him. 

Action: N Howcutt

Councillor Tindall referred back to the discussion about the waste services fleet. He said he couldn’t understand why we had a gap between our vehicles ageing and our new vehicles being ready for use. N Howcutt said it was a very difficult procurement that extended the delivery timeframe.

B Hosier advised that we went out to tender on two occasions – on the first occasion we didn’t obtain what we needed to so we had re-do the specification to go back to the market. He said that was the better option rather than to award a contract that wouldn’t have suited the council in the longer term.

Councillor Claughton drew attention to the large increased costs for Berkhamsted multi-storey car park detailed on page 20. He queried the total cost for the project including management fees of the temporary car park. He also asked how long it would take to pay for itself and what the projected life of the structure was. B Hosier said he didn’t have the figures to hand but knew exactly what the figures were so he would share those figures with members as soon as possible.     Action: B Hosier

Councillor Claughton noted there were issues with the speed of processing complaints within the Property and Place service. He felt it would be useful to know what the issues were. The Chairman suggested Councillor Claughton could read the minutes from the last Housing and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee as the issue was discussed during that meeting. He then asked the officers to note Councillor Claughton’s comment and provide further information to him if they had it.

Councillor Barrett asked what the tender price was for the multi-storey car park. B Hosier advised it was £4,370,599. Councillor Barrett referred to page 25 and said he understood it to be £1.162m. He asked for clarification on the original budgeted figures in the finance report. N Howcutt advised that figure would have been the planning of the car park prior to the procurement or the project and the revised budget was set post the procurement of a provider. Councillor Barrett asked if we entered into a fixed price contract. B Hosier explained that we did and a huge amount of the pricing was fixed but Brexit did have an effect and there were certain aspects that we couldn’t get fixed prices on.

Councillor Guest asked if the issues had been resolved for the Rossgate shops structural works and improvements. N Howcutt said the works would take place in 20/21 and there were two stages; works at the front of the properties and works at the rear.

The Chairman asked if we had allowed some contingency in this financial year to take in to account Covid-19 implications, the impact of social distancing and the increases in project costs. N Howcutt explained they were reviewing all revenue expenditure, income streams and all capital projects and looking at remodelling and re-profiling where they can. He said the Covid-19 report that was going to Cabinet this month will outline the initial forecasts on revenue and capital, and outline the initial reactions to funding and reserves.

The Chairman sought clarification on what transfer payments were and why they varied so much. N Howcutt advised that transfer payments were generally payments made on behalf of other bodies such as the government. Benefits are a good example as we receive the funds and pay out to those eligible.

The Chairman queried why third party payments went up by 250%. N Howcutt explained it was where we had paid someone to do something we would usually do ourselves and it was normal to see fluctuations. He said the percentages can be misleading and procuring services from a third party was often a more cost effective and efficient way of delivering a service. The example used is where DBC previously delivered the building control service and now we procure from Herts Building Control.

Outcome:

The report was noted.