Agenda and draft minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 7 March be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a true record.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Financial Performance - Outturn 2023/24'. His granddaughter worked in the Finance Department at City of Lincoln Council.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Treasury Management Stewardship and Actual Prudential Indicators Report 2023/24 (Outturn)'. His granddaughter worked in the Finance Department at City of Lincoln Council.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Risk Register contained at Section B of the report be considered alongside the Strategic Risk Register Quarterly Review Report.

Emily Holmes, Assistant Director – Transformation and Strategic Development:

a)    presented Performance Scrutiny Committee with a status report of the  Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the fourth quarter 2023/24

b)    reported that the strategic risk register currently contained fourteen risks as follows:

1)    Failure to engage & influence effectively with the Council’s strategic partners, council staff and all stakeholders to deliver against e.g., Council’s Vision 2025

2)    Failure to deliver a sustainable Medium-Term Financial Strategy (that supported delivery of Vision 2025)

3)    Failure to deliver the Towards Financial Sustainability Programme whilst ensuring the resilience of the Council

4)    Failure to ensure compliance with existing and new statutory duties/functions

5)    Failure to protect the local authority's long term vision due to changing structures and relationships in local government and impact on size, scale and scope of the Council

6)    Unable to meet the emerging changes required in the Council’s culture, behaviour and skills to support the delivery of the Council’s Vision 2025 and the transformational journey to one Council approach and service delivery

7)    Insufficient levels of resilience and capacity exist in order to deliver key strategic projects & services within the Council

8)    Decline in the economic prosperity within the City Centre

9)    Failure to deliver key strategic projects

10) Failure of the Council’s key contractors and partners to remain sustainable and continue to deliver value for money

11)  Failure to protect the vulnerable in relation to the Council’s  PREVENT and compliance with safeguarding and domestic abuse duties

12)  Failure to mitigate against the risk of a successful cyber-attack  against the Council

13)  Impacts of uncertainty of Government’s migration policy on the Council’s service delivery, capacity and MTFS as well as the impacts for the City as a whole

14) Failure to deliver critical services in an emergency situation.

Members considered the contents of the report.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the fourth quarter 2023/24 be noted.

Emily Holmes, Assistant Director – Transformation and Strategic Development:

a)    provided members with the revised Strategic Risk Register as attached at Appendix A

b)    invited members’ questions and comments.

RESOLVED that the Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the fourth quarter 2023/24 be noted.

RESOLVED that the press and public be included back into the meeting.

Laura Shipley Financial Services Manager:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee with the provisional 2023/24 financial outturn position on the Council’s revenue and capital budgets, including:

·         General Fund

·         Housing Revenue Account

·         Housing Repairs Service

·         Capital Programmes

b)    requested that Performance Scrutiny Committee note that the financial outturn was still subject to Audit by KPMG, the Council’s external Auditors

c)    provided information on the following:

·         General Fund Revenue Account – for 2023/24 the Council’s net General Fund Revenue Budget was set at £14,402,660, including a planned contribution from balances of £191,110 resulting in an estimated level of general balances at the year-end of £2,228,739. The finance performance quarterly monitoring report for quarter 3 predicted an underspend against the revised budget of £476,652 (before additional transfers to earmarked reserves and carry forward requests. The provisional outturn for 2023/24 now indicated an improvement of £383,314 (before additional transfers to earmarked reserves and carry forward requests) Based on this position, additional transfers to earmarked reserves, and carry forward requests, totalling £843,547 had been proposed which resulted in an overall budget underspend of £16,419. This represented a variance against the revised budget of 1%. Full details of the main variances were provided in Appendix B

·         Housing Revenue Account –– for 2023/24 the Council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) net revenue budget was set with a planned contribution from balances of £58,930, resulting in  estimated general balances at year-end of £1,125,517, after allowing for the 2023/24 outturn position. The financial performance quarterly report for quarter 3 predicted an overspend of £13,787. The provisional outturn for 2023/24 now indicated an improvement of £19,515 resulting in an overall budget underspend of £5,728 (including additional transfers to earmarked reserves.) There was a number of significant variations in income and expenditure. Full details of the main variances were provided at Appendix D

·         Housing Repairs Service – For 2023/24 the Council’s Housing Repairs Service (HRS) net budget was set at zero, which reflected its full cost recovery nature. The provisional outturn for 2023/24 showed the HRS had a deficit of £288,844, an improvement of £263,218 since quarter 3 which had been repatriated to the HRA. Full details of the main variances were provided at Appendix F

·         General Investment Programme – the revised General Investment Programme (GIP) for 2023/24 amounted to £15.334m  following the quarter 3 report. At quarter 3 the programme had reduced by £3.702mm to £11.632m as shown at paragraph 7.2. The overall spending on the General Investment Programme active schemes for the final quarter of 2023/24 was £10.4m, which was 86% of the 2023/24 budget as detailed in Appendix I

·         Housing Investment Programme – the revised programme for 2023/24 amounted to £16.120m following the quarter 3 position. At quarter 4 the programme had decreased by £1.388m to £14.732m as shown at paragraph 7.10 of the report. The overall expenditure on the Housing Investment Programme for the final quarter was £14.732mm, which was 91.3% of the budget as detailed at Appendix J of the report

d)    invited members’ comments  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Laura Shipley, Financial Services Manager:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee on the Council’s treasury management activity and the actual prudential indicators for 2023/24

b)    explained that the Council held £17.543m of investments which was £19.142m million lower than at 31 March 2023 as detailed within the investment profile at Appendix A, and section 4.3

c)    highlighted that the Council’s total debt (including leases and lease-type arrangements) at 31 March 2024 was £107.742m as detailed within Appendix A, and section 4

d)    invited members’ questions and comments.

Councillor Preston gave thanks to officers for the information and reassurance provided within the report given the financial pressures faced by many Councils. She referred to the report that stated that during quarter 3 there was a short period where liquid funds dipped slightly below the target £5m liquidity level. Why did the funds dip?

Laura Shipley Financial Services Manager responded that there was a short period of a few days where the liquid funds dipped below £5m, it was expected and was monitored daily. A decision was made not to call in an investment early as it was only for a few days. She further provided assurance that cash flow was monitored on a daily basis.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

Councillor Murray left proceedings at 7pm.

Michelle Hoyles, Business Manager – Corporate Policy and Transformation:

a)    presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee with an outturn summary of the council’s performance in Quarter 4 of 2023/24

b)    explained that the full report was attached as Appendix A of the report, with the full list of performance measure outturns and supporting performance commentary provided at Appendix B of the report

c)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Question: There were some Council properties that had their recycling facilities removed, would they be restored?

Response: Those properties that no longer had recycling bins were predominantly flats where there had been a significant amount of contamination. If the recycling had continued it would have resulted in the whole round being rejected by the waste recycling centre. The Government would be mandating recycling in the future, therefore the facility would be reinstated in due course.

Question: With reference to the number of live cases open in relation to Public Protection and Anti-Social Behaviour (PPASB), what constituted a live case? What was Officers capacity to reduce the number of live cases and how were they prioritised?

Response: The cases were categorised across all PPASB services and would be prioritised with the urgent cases being dealt with first. There were two new Officers within the team funded by the Safer Streets Fund. Their primary focus at the moment was to tackle issues in the City Centre. There was a commitment to retain them when the funding ended in March next year which would provide additional resource to the team.

Comment: Pleased to see that the PPASB Officers were doing good work within the City Centre, however, the problems were then dispersed to areas outside of the City.

Response: It was important that residents reported incidents of anti-social behaviour. The Police were reactive when the incidents were reported.

Question: What would be the waste recycling provision for the new waste contract?

Response: The specification for the new contract included the current recycling provision. Provision for food waste would be provided from September 2026. Discussions were taking place with Lincolnshire County Council on paper and card collection.

Question: Under the new waste collection contract could the new bins include a warning sticker regarding leaving bins on the street?

Response: The new contractor would take over the existing bins. The process was that the waste contractor would put an initial sticker on the bins and if this was ignored it would be escalated for PPASB enforcement action.

Question: How long would it take to be escalated if the resident ignored the warnings?

Response: The process was that a tag would be left on the bin, followed by two letters then a fixed penalty notice. A stepped approach was taken to allow time for the resident to address the issue.

RESOLVED that:

1. The report be noted and forwarded to Executive for approval.

2. The format of the performance report continued to meet the committee’s requirements.

Emily Holmes, Assistant Director – Transformation and Strategic Development advised that due to the General Election being called, all committees were being looked at. A revised work programme would be circulated following the meeting.

The Chair requested that performance measures on the new central market be reported to Performance Scrutiny Committee in future.

Simon Walters, Director for Communities and Environment confirmed that some performance measures for the new central market were currently being developed and they would be reported to Performance Scrutiny Committee in due course.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.