Agenda item

Report of the City Treasurer and Director of Policy, Performance and Communications.

6.1       Steve Mair, City Treasurer provided an overview of the Council’s financial position as at Period 4 (July 2015) which covered revenue and capital expenditure and finance strategic projects.  The Council was projecting a potential overall £0.553m underspend against the budget.  The forecast outturn for capital expenditure was £0.957m underspent against the budget.

6.2     The City Treasurer was asked about indications that the Government was intending to require local authorities with healthy balances to spend their reserves.  He stated that he had heard such suggestions over many years, that they had never been progressed.  He stated that the Council did not have excessive reserves, but that they were reasonable given the size of the organisation. Any private sector business of a comparative size would have similar reserves.  He was of the view that if the Government did enact such legislation it would be an incorrect approach as local authorities are liable for their own finances.  Moreover, the reserves could only be spent the once. This would have implications for future budgets as there would not be any money to draw on, if required, in subsequent years.

6.3     The City Treasurer was asked about the challenges of producing a stable budget.  He stated that the Council had always balanced its budget.  In such a large organisation there would always be variances in budget lines due to a variety of issues which are out of the Council’s control such as staff turnover and external pressures. He clarified that when formulating the Council’s budget colleagues are required to provide information on risk.

6.4     Damian Highwood and Mo Rahman, Strategic Performance Team, introduced the remainder of the report which outlined progress made against the performance management framework between April and June. The Committee noted the major achievements and performance issues against internally set 2015-16 targets focusing on where performance needs to be improved and highlighting the key challenges in the year ahead.

6.5       RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

6.6       ACTIONS:

1.     Requested analysis around the rise in the number of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in Westminster (hotspots, age groups, estimates, demographics) and the impact on children coming into care. What can Children’s Services do to plan for meeting rising demands of UASC children?

2.     Requested analysis on the numbers of freedom passes against population cohort of those that are eligible in Westminster.  

3.     In respect of the extension of Right to Buy, officers are asked to validate statement that “Kensington and Chelsea Council may lose 97% of its social housing stock”. What are the impacts to Westminster’s HRA housing stock (quantify, provide estimates and numbers, how many lost etc.)

4.     How are asylum seekers likely be treated by the Local Authority in terms of access to social housing – how would local connection requirements be handled?

5.     What would the impacts of rising asylum seeker numbers be on short term accommodation arrangements?

6.     Provide more information on Operation Neon and enforcement operations being delivered including whether this includes Pedicabs in Westminster.

7.     Provide more detail on the HTMA contracts – what do the findings of the report (that our indexation method doesn’t reflect current prices within M25) mean for the service?

8.     Provide results of benchmarking analysis of CMC indicators (against London, statistically similar, neighbouring councils) particularly Waste & Parks, Parking, Transport, Highways, Community services indicators.

9.     Provide an explanation of performance in terms of response time against lighting and highways – has the restructure has had an impact?

10.Requested clarification over use of the new iPad in libraries for scanning, with photos automatically uploaded to the online parking portal form

11.  Queried how the Council will ensure that the recent incident at the Dean Street sexual health clinic (where personal contact details were accidentally released) won't deter people from accessing the service.

(Action for Mohibur Rahman, Strategic Performance Team)