Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Downes, Hudson and Pope for whom Councillors Cracknell, Shaw and Xhaferaj attended respectively.

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Bartholomew.

It was RESOLVED:

that the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2024 be signed as a true record.

It was RESOLVED:

that the Order of Business be as printed on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

43.1.    Councillor M Cook, Portfolio Holder for Resources, introduced the budget update, noting that as there had been a budget delivery plan agreed in September the financial position had more recently been discussed by Full Council than in a typical year. Setting a balanced budget remained a challenge following years of reduced funding, additional responsibilities and economic shocks, and additional savings would need to be identified.

43.2.    The Director – Resources & Housing, Ian Blofield, gave a presentation on the Council’s budgetary position and the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP). Key points were:

-       Pressure had been placed on the budget by continued high service demand, as well as previous funding reductions. The 2023/24 Out-Turn had been improved by receipt of over £1m in unbudgeted income related to a tax case which had originated in the 1970s.

-       An overall budget gap of £23m had been identified in preparing the Budget Delivery Plan; £15.8m was planned to be addressed through the measures in that plan, but a further £10m of savings were needed to close the gap and cover the costs of implementing the savings.

-       Cost pressures included non-pay inflation, procurement of a Finance / Human Resources software system, asset disposal costs, the fees charged by external auditors, increased National Insurance costs, and a reserve created to cover costs associated with proposals for the re-organisation of local government.

-       Income received was expected to be close to that forecast, with income targets having been reviewed to better match post-pandemic trends.

-       Additional income was expected via Extended Producer Responsibility monies, but this would not meet the additional costs resulting from the Simpler Recycling programme.

-       The Council’s Core Spending Power was estimated in the Funding Settlement to increase by 1.3%, assuming that a 3% Council Tax rise was applied. The increase in Core Spending Power was significantly behind inflation. The Council would gain £688k in Recovery Grant, but lose £1.005m of Funding Guarantee money. The Council would also have to make higher National Insurance  contributions; whilst some funding was available for this the current estimate was insufficient.

-       Assumptions made in the setting of the budget were: that pay inflation would be 2% in future years; that existing savings plans would be delivered in full; that Council Tax would increase by 3%; that a collection rate of at least 99% would be achieved.

-       The net result of the budget calculations was that additional savings of £1.6m needed to be delivered in 2025/26.

-       There was potential for a Government led funding review to be carried out and completed by the 2026/27 Financial Year.

43.3.    Councillors Bartholomew and Reynolds arrived during the presentation.

43.4.    Councillor Hughes asked whether the Domestic Abuse Safer Accommodation Grant was ringfenced. Councillor M Cook confirmed that whilst this was held in General Fund balances it was administered separately.

44.1.    Councillor M Cook noted provided an update on the Portfolio; the key points made being:

-       There had been lots of personnel changes in the Portfolio over the past year. The Deputy Portfolio Holder was now Councillor Ruman Muhith, the Assistant Director – Finance was now Tamsin Malone, and the Head of Finance was now Philippa Dransfield. There were now joint Heads of Legal Services, with Jonathan Reed responsible for contentious matters and Kate Theobald responsible for non-contentious matters.

-       There had been significant work on improving the Council’s financial position, with income forecasting improving significantly. The September Budget Delivery Plan had helped to deal with many of the pressures on the Council’s finances, but there were still large savings to be made, which were increasingly difficult to find.

-       There was significant additional demand for homelessness services which was leading to cost pressures, whilst the increase in National Insurance contributions also had the potential to cause a significant cost pressure if sufficient funding wasn’t received from Government.

-       The Council’s Auditors had now caught up with their backlog of the Council’s accounts, although in some years they had not carried out the same depth of audit as usual. There was a national problem with the auditing of Council accounts which had led to Councils paying more for a worse service.

-       During the year there had been updates to the Council’s Constitution, to the Whistleblowing Policy and to the Contract Management Strategy.

44.2.    Councillor Blacker asked whether many of the FOI requests received were vexatious or repetitive. Councillor M Cook reported that whilst FOI legislation was very important, many FOIs were from companies trying to win business or otherwise make money from the Council. Whilst the Council’s performance had reduced slightly it was right that the Council didn’t devote excessive amounts of resources to answering FOI requests quickly to the detriment of delivering for residents; mitigations had however been put in place to improve performance within existing resources.

44.3.    Councillor Grant asked whether the issues with the timeliness of procurement activity which had previously been identified had now been resolved. Councillor M Cook confirmed that the Contracts Register and other measures seemed to have been successful and that there were now very few papers brought to Executive where contracts were about to or had expired.

44.4.    Councillor Long asked what GeoPlace Addressing was. Councillor M Cook explained that the Council’s Street Naming and Numbering Team had to provide address details which were then used, through software such as GeoPlace, as the definitive address of a property.

44.5.    Councillor Shaw noted that there was a significant disparity between the time taken to process changes of circumstance in Ipswich and in some other parts of Suffolk and asked how the proposed local government reorganisation would affect this. Councillor M Cook reported that Changes of Circumstance were processed by the Shared Revenues Partnership, run in collaboration with Babergh and Mid-Suffolk District Councils, and which had been very successful.

44.6.    Councillor C  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

45.1.    The Committee discussed the areas in the Communities and Sport Portfolio and agreed to request reports regarding community engagement after Area Committees had ceased, specifically covering how the public would be able to engage with the Police and how the Council would engage with seldom heard groups.

45.2.    Councillor Hughes noted that she was planning to submit a proposal for a Task and Finish Group on the effectiveness of the Council’s Empty Homes Policy.