Agenda item

Angela Andrews, Chief Executive and Town Clerk:

a.    tabled the document ‘Vision 2020-Aspirations to Reduce Inequality’

b.    provided Performance Scrutiny Committee with an update on progress towards the ‘Reduce Inequality’ strategic priority contained in Vision 2020, covering both those projects being progressed in year one, alongside the ‘day to day’ service activities that happened across the council that were vital to the delivery of this priority

c.    described the background to Vision 2020 published in January 2017 containing four strategic priorities (Reduce Inequality; Economic Growth; Quality Housing; and Remarkable Place), which involved the establishment of four Vision Groups to manage and monitor Vision 2020 along with an important strand of work focusing on High Performing Services as detailed at paragraph 3 of the report

d.    referred to the project statement attached at Appendix A to her report which captured the day-to-day work by the council integral to delivering this strategic and the Project Monitoring Table attached at Appendix B which provided an overview of the year one projects for this strategic priority

e.    highlighted a set of emerging performance indicators to monitor the outcomes of these projects once completed, as detailed at Appendix C, emphasising that as more projects came to an end more performance data would be added to the table to ensure the full range of indicators could be considered by Performance Scrutiny Committee in future progress reports

f.     requested members’ consideration on the content of the report.

Members raised the following questions:

·         What could the Council do to assist those benefit claimants moving over to Universal Credit who were having to wait six weeks for their first payment?

·         : This was a central government policy. Support mechanisms were in place working with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) including training facilities. However, this was not an easy task as payments were made in arrears.

·         Would the council be chasing tenants who couldn’t pay rent due to this situation?

·         : Policy decisions although not yet taken would be discussed to alleviate problems for tenants in difficulty. There was capacity within the DWP to make payments directly to the landlord in cases involving vulnerable tenants. It could not be underestimated how challenging the transition to Universal Credit would be and the additional resources required to assist this transition.

The Chair highlighted the huge impact Universal Credit would have on the Council, noting that it would be interesting to see how council income was affected.

The Chief Executive and Town Clerk agreed that overpayments carried forward would be affected by Universal Credit as tenants would be struggling financially. She highlighted that the City of Lincoln Council was well prepared for these challenges compared to other districts.

Members praised the City of Lincoln Council’s lead in securing funding to tackle rough sleepers and gave thanks to the Welfare Team for all their hard work

Members asked what had been the take up on Sheffield Money before the scheme fell through?

The Chief Executive and Town Clerk advised that roughly 170 people had applied for the scheme, with rates better than loan sharks A viable alternative was being sought.

RESOLVED that progress on the Reduce Inequality Vision Group be noted.