Agenda item

An update from the Cabinet Members on key areas within their portfolios are attached.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Property and Corporate Services will be in attendance to answer questions from the Committee.

5.1     The Committee received written updates from the Cabinet Member for Finance, Property and Corporate Services and the Cabinet Member for Housing on the key issues within their portfolios. 

5.2     The Committee submitted questions to the Cabinet Member for Finance, Property and Corporate Services.

          Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) Funding

5.2.1   The Cabinet Member was asked whether the Council had lobbied the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on the impact of its decision to reduce the Council’s DHP funding for 2017/18 by 47% compared to the previous year. Councillor Mitchell advised that the Council had written to the Minister of State stating that it did not agree with the settlement given the particular characteristics of Westminster’s housing market but regrettably only received a standard response in return.

          Financial Planning 2018/19 and beyond

5.2.2   Members asked for an explanation why the revenue budget proposals for 2018/19 and other financial reports were being put forward for the Council’s consideration earlier this year than usual. The Cabinet Member advised that the four-year funding settlement that the Council has agreed with Government provides greater financial certainty until 2020. He stated that it is increasingly common for local authorities to consider revenue proposals separately from its spending plans. Many other local authorities are taking decisions in this way. He advised that the Council would trial this approach and review how well it worked.

          Legal Services

5.2.3   The Cabinet Member was asked for details of the business case for the organisational changes to Shared Legal Services and what it will involve. Councillor Mitchell explained that the proposals which were agreed by Cabinet on 30 October and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) on the 19^th October would see the Shared Legal Service merge with LGSS Law Ltd, creating a firm owned by five local authorities. One of the key objectives of the proposals for an alternative business model is to deliver significant financial benefits to the owner councils and this would be achieved through reduced internal legal costs through economies of scale, reduced external legal spend through significantly more work being done in-house and increased income through attracting new external clients by trading surplus capacity.

          Managed Services

5.2.4   Members asked for details of the timeframe for the replacement of the BT Managed Services. Councillor Mitchell explained that a detailed business case will be submitted to the cabinets of both RBKC and the City Council for consideration in late November and early December respectively, to seek agreement to progress with public to public partnership. He advised that it is in the Council’s interest to accelerate its exit from the BT contract by the 1 October 2018. The proposal is to join a partnership of two county councils. They do not levy business rates or Council tax so the Council will need to put in place arrangements for those areas not provided by the partnership. In future years if and when additional unitary partners join the partnership they could vote to add these additional services to the system.

5.3     In the absence of the Cabinet Member for Housing, Barbara Brownlee, Interim Executive Director Housing, responded to questions.

          Ebury Bridge Regeneration

5.3.1   Barbara Brownlee was asked whether the Communities Futures Group (CFG) had been established and started to hold meetings. She advised that it had and that an initial meeting had taken place and that a further one was due to be held during the week. She advised that the Council was committed to working wholeheartedly with the CFG on proposals both pre-and post-planning stages. In response to a supplementary question she advised that relevant Ward councillors had been consulted on the CFG and would be updated every six weeks on CFG meetings.

          Rough Sleeping

5.3.2   Members noted that there had been a continued reduction in rough sleeping figures across Westminster and asked about the causes for this. Barbara Brownlee explained rough sleeping numbers are seasonal, reducing in autumn and winter compared to summer. She advised that the Council had a target to keep this figure under 200 at any time.

5.4     ACTIONS:

Finance, Property and Corporate Services

1.       Advise the committee about the amount of money that has been allocated from the Council’s General Reserves to fund DHP payments in the last two years and how much of this money has been used. (Action for: Martin Hinckley, Head of Revenue and Benefits)

2.       Provide a briefing note on the Council’s approach (and that of third party providers) to writing off debt and working across teams to ensure vulnerable residents who owe money to the Council are dealt with sensitively. (Action for: Steve Mair, City Treasurer)

3.       Provide more information on the contingency plan for the ASC work stream of the digital plan. (Ben Goward, Interim Head of ICT)

4.       Provide Councillor McKie with a copy of the report previously considered by the committee on the Council’s property investment portfolio. He was particularly interested in how commercial rents are set and that the Council has a fair policy for small businesses. (Action for: Aaron Hardy, Scrutiny Manager)

5.       Add the findings of the 2017/18 staff survey as a potential agenda item on the committee’s work programme. (Action for: Aaron Hardy, Scrutiny Manager)

Housing

1.       With reference to the gas and fire safety update, provide more detail on why Southwark Council disconnected the gas supply to some of their large panel system buildings in August. (Action for: Tom McGregor, Director of Housing and Regeneration)

2.       Add a review on rough sleeping as a potential agenda item on the committee’s work programme. Councillor Roca requested that his concerns at the £2 million reduction in funding for rough sleeping and the loss of 100 bed spaces is relayed to the Cabinet Member for Housing (Action for: Aaron Hardy, Scrutiny Manager)

3.       Councillor Roca asked that his view that residents should be given a vote on the Ebury Bridge regeneration proposals be forwarded to the Cabinet Member for Housing for consideration (Action for: Aaron Hardy, Scrutiny Manager)