Agenda item

To review and scrutinise the performance management information and, where appropriate, to require response or action from the Executive Committee. 

13.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 28-76, attached performance management information for quarter 4 of 2015/16.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee was asked to review and scrutinise the performance information and, where appropriate, identify any issues to refer to the Executive Committee for clarification or further action to be taken.

13.2           The performance management report comprised the Council Plan Performance Tracker, the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) set, the Revenue Budget Summary Statement, the Capital Monitoring Statement and the Reserves Position Summary.  Members were informed that this was the last monitoring report on the Council Plan 2012-16 and, going forward, the Committee would continue to monitor the new Council Plan 2016-20, which was approved by the Council on 19 April 2016, on a quarterly basis.  Although some actions were still progressing within the previous Council Plan, and had not been brought forward to the new Council Plan, the Corporate Services Group Manager provided assurance that they would continue to be monitored within the Member arena; for example, the Workforce Development Strategy would be included within the Annual Governance Statement which was monitored by the Audit Committee, the Peer Review Action Plan would be monitored separately by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Community Infrastructure Levy would be taken to Council.  

13.3           With regard to the Performance Tracker, attached at Appendix 1 to the report, Members were informed that the majority of actions had been progressing well and Paragraph 2.3 of the report highlighted a number of achievements since the last update including: approval of a Customer Care Strategy, including corporate customer care standards; introduction of a new complaints framework and policy; approval of the Council’s first ever Digital Strategy which included development of a new website; a visit to the Borough from a Chinese delegation where a successful business event was held to showcase local engineering firms; formal handover of the new leisure centre to Places for People with opening on 30 May; agreement of significant project work for the regeneration of Tewkesbury town; approval of a Community Infrastructure Levy Draft Charging Schedule; advancements in a number of neighbourhood plans; and 180 groups being supported or signposted to potential funding streams by the Community Funding Officer.  The Corporate Services Group Manager went on to advise that, due to the complex nature of the actions being delivered, inevitably some had not progressed as smoothly or quickly as envisaged.  Those actions were highlighted at Pages No. 30-31, Paragraph 2.4, of the report and included renting out the top floor of the Council Offices due to the proposed expansion of One Legal not going ahead and the development of the Workforce Strategy which had been impacted by staff sickness.  It was noted that the majority of these actions had already been highlighted to Members.

13.4           Members raised the following queries in respect of the Performance Tracker:

13.5           Attention was drawn to the KPIs, attached in full at Appendix 2 to the report, and Members were informed that the status of each indicator was set out at Paragraph 3.2 of the report.  Key areas of interest included KPI 12, processing of major planning applications, which had shown a significant improvement in quarter 4 leading to 87.5% of all applications being processed within the agreed time, however, targets for KPIs 12-15, all of which related to planning processing times, were unlikely to be achieved and processing times were down compared to 2014/15; KPI 15-16 which showed that processing times for benefit applications and change of circumstances were the best ever and continued to show improvement; KPI 24 which demonstrated that recycling rates continued to plateau; KPI 26 which indicated that enviro-crimes had increased significantly since 2014/15; and KPI 30 which confirmed that 229 affordable homes had been delivered in the year, the largest number since 2007/08.

13.6           During the debate which ensured, Members raised the following queries in relation to the KPIs:

13.7           The Financial Budget Summary for quarter 4 showed a saving of £916,947 against the budgeted profile, although it was noted that this was not the end of year position.  Page No. 32, Paragraph 4.2, set out the summary of the Council’s position split into the main types of expenditure and it was noted that the majority of savings had been made in relation to employees and services and supplies.  Furthermore, almost £1.4M of additional income had been generated; this was predominantly through planning applications but also from trade waste, car parking, garden waste, and licensing which had all performed very strongly over the last quarter.  Other reasons for the movement between the reported quarter 3 and quarter 4 positions were the release of New Homes Bonus not spent during the year; a one-off gain from the release of a provision held to cover the potential cost of service charges relating to a leased asset which had not been realised; and income relating to the Large Site Infrastructure Fund (LSIF) not being spent during the year.  Whilst the underspend on budget was a positive result it was noted that £490,000 was ring-fenced and would be spent in the following financial year.  Members were also advised that the retained income from the Business Rates Scheme was showing a deficit of £365,000 due to a series of revaluations on various properties within the borough and write-off of several debts which had proven to be irrecoverable.  The budget projection had been for a surplus above the business rates income target which would have contributed £250,000 to the budget; the Gloucestershire business rates pool would now be providing that amount to support the Council’s position.  A summary for each Group Manager showing the current variance against their budget was set out at Appendix 3 to the report. 

13.8           The capital budget position for quarter 4 was set out at Appendix 4 to the report and was currently showing an underspend against the profiled budget of £1,848,372 which was principally due to the capital asset fund of £1.9M that had not been spent during the year.  The new leisure centre was now open which had involved significant expenditure, however, the final bill had come in under budget.  Other expenditure included the solar panels which had been installed on the Council Offices building and refurbishment of the Roses Theatre.  Based on the major underspend of the capital investment fund, at its meeting on 6 April 2016, the Executive Committee had agreed the purchase of a property for investment purposes and this was currently being programmed for quarter 2 of 2016/17.  It was noted that £7.8M of capital funds had been spent on projects during 2015/16.  A Member questioned whether the Council maximised potential interest on underspends and was advised that the money was tied into investments via the treasury management function with most in cash deposits in money market funds or institutions such as banks and building societies.  The current rate of return was approximately 0.8%, which was considered to be a good return, and the property purchase would make even better use of resources.

13.9           Appendix 5 to the report contained a summary of the current usage of available revenue reserves and it was noted that £2.6M had been spent on reserves during quarter 4 of 2015/16, £1.6M of which was used to fund an adjustment relating to business rates.  This left a balance of £7.9M which would be added to the financial surplus from the year to form the new reserves for 2016/17 which would be taken to the Executive Committee for approval in July 2016.

13.10         Attention was drawn to Page No. 34, Paragraph 4.10, of the report which set out a change to the way in which financial information was reported.  The Finance and Asset Management Group Manager explained that the performance management report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a quarterly basis and was then taken to the Executive Committee at its next meeting some three weeks later, as such it was felt that the Executive Committee was not receiving enough timely financial information in line with its responsibilities as set out in the Constitution.  In order to rectify this, in future the finance report would be extracted from the performance management report and sent directly to the Executive Committee at the end of each quarter to enable it to properly discharge its duty and make informed decisions based on the current financial position of the Council. 

13.11         It was

RESOLVED          That the performance management information for quarter 4 be NOTED.