Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Room 4, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD. View directions
Contact: Peter Goss - Democratic Services Manager 020 8937 1353 Email: peter.goss@brent.gov.uk
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Declarations of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant financial or other interest in the items on this agenda. Minutes: None declared. |
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Deputations (if any) Minutes: None. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting PDF 101 KB Minutes: RESOLVED:-
that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 6 December 2011 be approved as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising Minutes: Jacqueline Casson (Senior Policy Officer) confirmed the action taken since the last meeting on the following: · Circulation of examples of equality impact assessments related to projects included in the One Council programme, · Further information supplied to Councillor Mashari on trade waste, and · Information requested on the New Homes Bonus to be provided at this meeting. |
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Regeneration and Major Projects budget issues PDF 103 KB The Director of Regeneration and Major Projects will attend the meeting to present to Members the current budget issues facing this service. Minutes: Andy Donald (Director of Regeneration and Major Projects) circulated a Powerpoint presentation outlining the context in which the department's budget was set, the budget pressures and other issues facing the department and the major capital projects underway. Andy Donald explained that because the department had only been formed in October 2010 the current year was one of transition. The year ahead was the first chance to view the department's budget as a whole and plan for the future. The biggest pressure on the current year's budget was the level of spend on temporary accommodation which was forecast to overspend by £928,000. Andy Donald explained that the main reason for the overspend was due to the Local Housing Allowance cap introduced in April 2011. The service had in the past been managed largely as a demand led service but with a rise since 2010/11 of 38% in the number of homeless applications received and an 86% increase in the placing of families into hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation, a different approach was needed. Actions being taken to mitigate the overspend included the provision of advice, strategies to prevent homelessness and encouragement to take housing out of the borough. However, Andy Donald stated that the situation was only likely to get worse as Housing Benefit and wider welfare reforms were implemented. The committee noted that a contingency budget of £1M was being held centrally to fund any final overspend in this area for the current year. The department's agreed savings of £3.8M remained on track with £1.2M coming from the supporting people budget, £440,000 from the staffing structure review and a collection of smaller changes to the housing service.
Andy Donald drew attention to the budget issues for the future. By 2014/15 the borough would need the equivalent of 70 additional classrooms to cater for the increased demand for school places. A sum of £25M had been secured from the Government to help address this but a figure in the region of £60-65M was needed. Therefore work was underway on reviewing the Council's entire portfolio of school buildings to assess how best to use the funding secured and meet the demand. The New Homes Bonus would appear in the Council's budget for the first time in 2012/13 in the sum of £1.068M. It had been decided that this money would be used to support the Council's capital programme. Andy Donald reported that it was anticipated that new rules would be passed to allow Councils to recover the total cost of their planning service which would lead to an increase in income during 2012/13. He further explained that presently planning fees were set nationally, but if the Council was allowed to recover its total cost it would generate an additional £800,000 approximately. More savings were to be taken from the supporting people service and from the housing needs transformation project. There would also be revenue savings taken from capital projects. A big change to the Housing Revenue Account would take place on ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Budget update The Director of Finance and Corporate Services will provide an update on the current budget position. Minutes: Clive Heaphy (Director of Finance and Corporate Services) reported that the case concerning the money owed by the Icelandic banks was now settled and almost all of the £5M Glitnir loan would end up being recovered with a small element of interest added. Clive Heaphy then presented an economic forecast that suggested interest rates would remain low, inflation would come down and unemployment would continue to rise. The pay freeze for the public sector would continue into 2012/13 and thereafter only increase by 1% for the next two years. Activities within the Eurozone would continue to have a potential impact on the British economy and GDP was forecast to contract during 2012 and increase slightly in 2013.
The local government settlement was published on 8 December 2011 and Clive Heaphy reported that the Council received the grant it largely expected which was £13M less than in 2011/12 and set to fall by £1M in 2013/14 and by a further £12M in 2014/15, with an extended period of reduction up to 2016/17. He felt this was a critical period for local government which was now faced with the likelihood of having to make further significant year on year cuts up to 2017.
The Chair commented that the role of local authorities would continue to be to provide for the basic needs of the most vulnerable people in society with other elements of society responding to fill the gap left by a diminished public sector. Councillor John expressed her fear for the future of local government as it was presently constructed and saw a threat to local democracy from the removal of services from local councils and an increase in a regional approach to procuring services.
In answer to a question, Clive Heaphy reported that the education settlement had resulted in the schools grant remaining static in cash terms (thus falling in real terms after taking account of inflation) but that the pupil premium had increased from £488 to £600 per pupil. |
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Discussion on the Committee's first interim report Discussion on the content of the committee’s first interim report, which will be sent to members of the Executive prior to the publication of the draft budget in February 2012. Minutes: Clive Heaphy (Director of Finance and Corporate Services) outlined the process that had led to the drafting of the committee's first interim report, a copy of which had been circulated to all members of the committee. He took members through the main elements of the report. He pointed out that as a result of the Local Government Resource Review, from April 2013 the Council would receive little in the way of direct grant from government and instead would have to rely on income from the business rates and the New Homes Bonus. He also drew attention to the proposal to localise Council Tax benefit which would mean Councils have to devise their own scheme instead of administering the present subsidised national scheme which would potentially add considerable costs to the Council.
Councillor Mashari asked that the recommendations in the report should include submitting regular reports to the committee on how the Council was achieving the savings it had identified. She also asked that the committee be kept informed of the income being generated by the New Homes Bonus. Members asked that the committee monitor spending in three key areas of pressure - Adults Social Care, Children’s Social Care and Temporary Accommodation.
The first interim report as drafted was agreed subject to amendment to include the points raised above. |
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Any Other Urgent Business Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Democratic Services Manager or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64. Minutes: The Chair asked what the implications were of the Trade Unions position on pension reform. Clive Heaphy (Director of Finance and Corporate Services) reported that whilst Unite had come out against the new proposals, to the best of his knowledge, Unison and GMB had yet to express a final view. He stated that the recent Government proposals had significantly amended the scheme. From the Council's perspective it was important to stabilise the fund and the Government’s proposals went some way to doing this. |
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Date of Next Meeting The next scheduled meeting of the Committee is on XXXXXXX. Minutes: It was noted that the next meeting would take place on 8 February 2012. |