Agenda item

R Baker introduced the report providing details of the projected outturn for 2016/17 as at Quarter 2 for the: General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme full details can be found in the report.

R Baker was happy to take questions.

Cllr W Wyatt-Lowe refereed to page 3, overarching targets, and asked if this can be made more difficult.

E Brooks stated that it’s a difficult area; they only sell garages that are hard to let. There are more people in garages now than expected.

Cllr England asked if there were stock conditions on garages.

B Brooks response was that he was unsure as estates dealt with that.

They decide which ones can be disposed of.

Cllr England asked what the cost of a garage was.

E Brooks stated that it was between £10-£11 per week however they could charge more.

Cllr Mahmood asked if the garages were wide enough for car storage.

E Brooks stated that he accepts that most people renting garages are not using them to store a car in, most garages are tight and that they might not be suitable for the cars on the market today.

Cllr Mahmood referred to page 5, 3.1. Employees - £81k over budget for staff, is that shared across the services, what exactly does it mean?

R Baker said that it’s related to the vacancy provision that we put against all salaries and 5% allowance for staff turnover.

Cllr Mahmood referred to the over budget item, 3.2. The last line, we have balanced out so why are we seeing this so early on, how do we monitor this.

R Baker stated that they have 2 schemes, 1 which has previously been approved and rolled forward. The other is the strategy review.

Cllr Mahmood referred to item 4.5, maintenance which is nearly half a million pound over budget.

E Brooks stated that this is the figure at the end of quarter 2; things have moved on since then, quite a lot of work with the officers from the housing team. There was £200,000 worth of work that had been coded into revenues which is actually capital works. So works that should have come out of another budget where they were underspent have now been re coded to the capital works programme.

Cllr Mahmood asked what 4.7 meant.

R Baker explained that it’s basically when budgets are moved from one area to another and to align the capital budgets to what they forecast to spend. What they look to do is increase the revenue budget in line with current spend and reduce the capital budget but the underspend is there.

Cllr Adeleke referred to page 7. 4.7. As part of Capital programme being reviewed, the tactic used is delaying some jobs. One of his residents has been waiting 2 years for a door replacement. How effectively are tenants being advised?

E Books stated that that type of incident isn’t really the type that R Baker explained. They are talking more alone the lines of works that aren’t urgent. What you’re referring to is likely to be an error in the system.

Action: None

Outcome: The report was noted.