To receive a presentation from Councillor Dave Waters – Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management.  

83.1           The Mayor invited the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management, Councillor D J Waters, to make his presentation to the Council.

83.2           The presentation covered the following main points:  

·           What the Finance and Asset Management Portfolio covered; some of the achievements of the teams; and some of the challenges faced.

·           Finance – the team looked after all of the Council’s accounts, budgets, payroll and finances.

·           Asset Management – in line with S151 Regulations, the team looked after the Council’s physical assets, buildings, trees etc. The team also looked at disposing of, and acquiring, assets.

·           Revenues – this was the team that brought the money into the Council as well as that which was owed to the Parishes, the County Council and the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office through Council Tax.

·           Benefits – the team managed the Housing and Council Tax Benefits which residents were owed; ensuring that they received the correct payments in a timely manner.

·           Finance Achievements – one of the biggest achievements was the unqualified audit opinion which had been attained; this meant there had been no faults identified with the finances or the processes behind them which was excellent news. The procurement of new insurances and cash collection contracts had saved over £30,000 per year, which was significant, and a new purchase ordering and commitment accounting module had been installed which would mean better purchasing arrangements. Improvements made in financial reporting to both Officers and Members had resulted in financial challenge panels for Service Managers being implemented and it was hoped this would, in turn, result in a better understanding of the finances in different areas. In addition to this, the finance team supported many corporate projects the most intensive this year being the waste fleet and Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) procurement.

·           Asset Achievements – the team had analysed whether the Council could benefit from the building of a crematorium; a lot of work had gone into the options appraisal but, unfortunately, it had been found not to be cost effective at this time. A new tree management system had been put into place which made use of electronic mapping technology. In addition, a Watercourse Management Strategy was now in place which was very important, as was the new Investment Strategy which looked at the procurement of commercial properties to help the Council’s income streams, and a new ‘Property’ helpdesk had been introduced which would log issues around the building so that they could be dealt with more efficiently. One of the main successes over the last year had been the completion of the Leisure Centre on time and on budget and the subsequent demolition of Cascades. In terms of Spring Gardens the plans to develop the site were first class and it was hoped that, in time, this was something that could be picked up again. The Riverside Walk had been delivered after around 60 years following the successful negotiation of the ‘missing link’ piece of land and solar panels had been installed on the roof of the Public Services Centre just before the end of the grants for green energy schemes. The purchase of a £15 million commercial property would bring £940,000 per year in revenue to the Council; a lot of lessons had learnt during that process and the Lead Member had been encouraged by the way the team had worked on that negotiation. Finally, it was his view that the Asset team had done a fantastic job in helping to facilitate the refurbishment at the Roses Theatre which was now a superb building.

·           Revenues Achievements – due to the considerable growth in new homes being seen in the Borough, an additional £2 million was being collected in Council Tax and the previous year’s collection was 98.1% above the national average. In terms of business rates, the Borough was seeing significant growth resulting in an additional £1.5 million to be collected on the previous year; to date £1.3 million had been collected above last year. Last year’s collection of business rates was at 99.1% which was way above the national average.

·           Benefits Achievements – the processing of new claims was at 16.6 days against the national average of 21 days and change in circumstances processing was completed in 6.8 days which was below the national average of 8 days. Welfare reforms including the bedroom subsidy, the benefit cap and the early stages of universal credit had all offered some challenges to the team and the work of the Financial Inclusion Partnership had brought together various organisations to assist those that needed help in the face of financial difficulties; take-up for the Partnership had not been great but this was not the fault of the team and Officers were working to try to improve that. Current claims to housing benefit were falling gradually as were Council Tax support claims.

·           Asset Challenges – the team was looking to review opportunities for service efficiency and explore additional fee earning services such as securing tenants for the next phase of the refurbishment of the Public Services Centre; the hope was that the services that worked from the Public Services Centre could be increased as this brought in additional revenue to the Council as well as additional services for residents. The top floor of the building needed to be let so that it was bringing in revenue. The team was about to deliver a signage project for Tewkesbury Town which would help with tourism and the promotion of walks around the town. Particular attention was drawn to the ‘Gazebo’ building by the river and the Lead Member explained that this was a listed building for which it would be nice to find a use; if anyone had any ideas they should let him know.

·           Revenues and Benefits Challenges – the main challenge would be the roll-out of universal credit. From December 2017, the Department for Work and Pensions would start the full roll-out and new claims for working age claimants would no longer be processed by the Borough Council instead they would be included in universal credit claims. The Borough Council would still be required to administer existing working age claims on its caseload but these would gradually reduce as many found work or increased their earnings and dropped out of housing benefit. The Borough Council would still be required to administer housing benefit claims for pensioners but, in time, it was expected that they would also be moved onto universal credit.

·           Finance Challenges – replacement of the income management systems, optimisation of the Council’s payment channels, selection of new external auditors and the introduction of a Fees and Charging Strategy were all on the team’s programme of work.

·           The Budget – this was a significant financial challenge. The headlines included:  £2.2 million deficit over the next five years; reduction in funding including the revenue support grant and new homes bonus; increases in staff costs; pension deficit; and service growth. The budget would still be short by around £824,000 even if the government’s Council Tax limit of £5 on a Band D property was used. 2017/18 could be financed with the use of reserves and new homes bonus but the challenges for the future would be great.

·           Summary – the portfolio consisted of two small teams that provided both internal and external support and made a real difference to the lives of residents. The teams had a number of important achievements and, whilst there were massive challenges to come, he felt sure staff would rise to them.

83.3           The Lead Member offered his thanks to the staff for their hard work over the past year and to the Transform Working Group for its support, challenge and ideas all of which had helped the Council maintain momentum and meet the financial challenges it faced. The Mayor thanked the Lead Member for his informative presentation and invited questions from Members.

83.4           A Member queried what the numbers were regarding benefit fraud faced by the Council. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management explained that he did not have the figures to hand but there was a lot of work done within the Revenues and Benefits teams to tackle Housing Benefit fraud and Council Tax fraud. There was a report on the Agenda for the current meeting which sought to build on the work already undertaken by the Counter Fraud Unit which had saved the Council a significant amount of money during its pilot period. In terms of the future for business rates, the Lead Member indicated that no one knew what the new Scheme would be as there was currently no detail from the government. His personal view was that, whatever the scheme was in the end, there would have to be some equalisation across it so that the authorities that benefited from it shared with those that did not. In addition, the Head of Finance and Asset Management advised that the Council would continue to collect business rates but there would most likely be a tariff so most of the money collected went back to the government for redistribution. In addition, it was likely that the potential retained income would be outweighed by successful appeals; the current year was the third year in which the Council would be in a safety net position in terms of business rates retention. All businesses were looking at the recent revaluation and there were a large number of appeals likely. In terms of new homes bonus, the Lead Member indicated that the government had already top sliced the funding and reduced the scheme to four years; the funding could pick up again depending on the level of building being undertaken so it was hoped this would be an advantage to Tewkesbury Borough.

83.5           Accordingly, it was

                  RESOLVED          That the presentation provided by the Lead Member for                                      Finance and Asset Management be NOTED.