Agenda item

General Fund

JDeane confirmed that there were no changes affecting the remit of the committee so there is nothing to report.

Cllr Birnie congratulated JDeane on putting in annex A which was the explanation on what comes under the different categories, it’s very useful.

JDeane said thank you and that it has been in a few years and they were considering removing it, he said if there are ever any ideas to make it clearer to let them know.

Cllr Birnie asked for questions from the committee.

Cllr Birnie referred to appendix A, He said there are 2 figures one for RSA 940K and another for Council Tax deficit of 150k, he said he can’t understand why they don’t go through to the final estimate and was it an accounting thing he didn’t know about?.

JDeane explained if you follow through on the revenue support grant line, the 1^st column you have zero for 2021, and then the assumption was that it would be suspended this year and we would have a negative hit. When this came to the 1^st meeting in December that assumption was still there because we hadn’t had the settlement, he said the final version is a zero because we have now had confirmation within the local government finance settlement the negative RSG is being suspended so we haven’t got any growth in that area.

Cllr Birnie asked if it was the same in Council Tax

JDeane confirmed he wasn’t sure why this was a zero at the end and said that the report went to cabinet in December it is an estimate and they do the final version at the end of December It goes to Cabinet for approval and that’s the version they use to set the baseline budgets for the amount of Council Tax they expect to get in, that takes into account all the timing delays that feed in from the previous year so you get slight movement in the tax base. He said in terms of the ins and out on the report, they have had a reduction in the tax base, the tax base is less that they thought as the growth was less than they assumed within the NTFS for this year which is understandable as they have slowed the delivery of new builds and were expecting more people to move into the council tax support system next year.

Cllr Birnie asked if the final zero should in fact be 151

JDeane said no that’s is showing that we have had movement, we were forecasting growth, they had growth of 150k in our tax base, the tax base is correct it shows we have had movement throughout the process and it’s a very small percentage of the overall tax base.

Cllr Birnie asked if it was a case of one is negative and the other positive so they cancel each other out.

JDeane said no there is movement, he said its one of those lines that are included however not particularly helpful, it’s to ensure the whole thing balances.

Cllr Birnie asked when it comes to movement of reserves we are putting in 1.85 million, he asked if he was correct.

JDeane confirmed that he was, we had expected to take 4million out of the Dacorum Development reserve and put it into the Covid recovery reserve, however we have been able to put 1.7million back. He said the hit that was taken in term of the ability to invest Dacorum is now 2.3million instead of 4million.

Cllr Silwal asked about the local government finance settlement he asked if it’s a one off or if we needed more would we get it.

JDeane said that it’s a wait and see situation, central government are in the same situation as us, they’ll have worked out through the spending review what can be allocated out in terms of support and analysed the quarterly returns that every council will submit to try and get an idea about what the requirements are likely to be next year. He said the reality is if the vaccines don’t work or lockdowns are ongoing, income gets hit then there is going to be a need for more funding. He said whether or not this comes from local authorities or central government is going to be the subject for negotiation as we move into next year. Ultimately this is why we haven’t had the multiyear settlement as they just don’t know what’s going to happen in 12 months’ time.

Cllr Birnie referred appendices E1 page 26 and details of the SPAE’s budget and appreciated that there were no major changes. However he asked if they could get some comment from the other officers. He said there is a 21% variance on supplies and services and was it Covid related?

JDeane confirmed that that’s the overall summary, however the appendix below will explain. He said one of the things that may be an increase in there is the work we are doing with Hemel Gardens Community project and the consultancy, He asked JDoe to confirm.

JDoe confirmed that some of that would be down to the Garden Community project, some would be from CThorpe’s area as it’s a generic figure across all departments under this committee’s remit..

Cllr Ransley referred to the promotion of town centres. She said she was confused as she hadn’t seen promotion of town centres and she asked where this money was being spent. She asked if this is all of the town centres or just Dacorum, and pointed out that it is half a million so it is a lot of Money.

JDeane confirmed this was not in the remit of Strategic Planning, but it’s under Finance & Resource.

JDeane referred back to Cllr Birnie’s question about Supplies and Services and confirmed that 300k of it is within the Strategic Planning budget and will be linked to the Hemel Community Gardens project, using reserve funding.

Cllr Birnie commented, it’s as much  trying to see where funding comes from as looking at the actual expenditures.

JDeane said they try and follow the guidelines as to how to report it and he agreed it’s not clear, particularly when they’re including a reserve draw down, which they cover  in the narrative so that when the budget comes through members can see exactly what we’ve drawn down and why.

Capital Budget

James Deane explained they have broken it down in to the committees.

Cllr Birnie said he didn’t understand the budget for replacing refuse vehicles. There seems to be a rolling programme that looks to have had some delays, and then the whole programme that had been agreed, subject to delays, is that correct?. He said there are 2 negative numbers for 20/21 and 22/23, he asked if those 2 negative numbers mean that what has been allocated is being delayed?

JDeane confirmed this was correct. There have been some delays and there is no change to what’s been budgeted it’s just being phased differently into subsequent years.

Cllr Birnie referred to the next appendix, which shows the fleet replacement programme which runs up until 2026. He asked if he can assume that this is a replacement on a rolling basis.

CThorpe confirmed that this figure was representative of the vehicles that are due to be replaced over the next few years however there is always movement on build times of these and we’ve had a significant delay on vehicles ordered this year. He said that makes it difficult to be precise about when the spend will occur.

Cllr Birnie referred to the previous table and under fleet replacement programme is 524k in 21/22 which is negative. He asked if that would only be waste vehicles or a range of different types.

CThorpe confirmed that it does include other vehicles, such as small ones for Clean Safe and Green, however the smaller vehicles can be kept on for longer as they have less to go wrong. He said that the refuse trucks are more costly and spend on them is quite significant when they go wrong.

Cllr Birnie asked who decides if an item should be delayed until a following year due to financial reasons. Would this be finance in conjunction with a group manager?

JDeane responded that they’re not at a stage where they would be telling people to put holds on projects for financial reasons. The items that are there are planned through. Sometimes you have services that have competing priorities or you get the kind of delays that occur with the refuse vehicles and they will end up having to re-phase and push it back. He said that decision would not come from finance.

Cllr Birnie asked if finance would implement what department heads decide.

JDeane said that what happens is finance will make a budget available for them when they say they need it. If that budget slides but they still need to deliver the project because it’s been approved by members, they will re-phase it for them.

Cllr Anderson wanted to re-iterate that we’re not just talking about refuse trucks and there are many vehicles that come under the heading of fleet. He said he just wants to corroborate what JDeane had said in that it’s down to operational need, in terms of a budgeting discipline process. There is a budget which makes the resource available to pay for things as they are needed but, just like any plan, you will always have things that crop up and cause delays and this causes slippage in the figures, on all the capital bid budget figures not just on the vehicles.

The report was noted