Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Adam Connell, Rachel Leighton, and Patricia Quigley.

Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Rebecca Harvey.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2022.

7.02pm – RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Full Council meeting held on 19 January 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

The Mayor noted that an additional exempt urgent item (6.7) had been added to the agenda, published on the Council’s website, and circulated to all members on 23 February 2022.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan, and Councillor Mark Loveday made speeches on the invasion of Ukraine.

The Leader/relevant Cabinet Member to reply to questions submitted by members of the public.

John O'Callaghan-Williamson was unable to attend the meeting, so a written response was sent to him. The question and response can be found in Appendix 1.

The Council is obliged to set a balanced budget and council tax charge in accordance with the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

The 2022/23 revenue budget proposals are set out regarding:

·       A Council Tax freeze

·       £7.434m of new investment in services

·       Savings proposals

·       Fees and charges

·       Budget risks, reserves and balances

·       Equalities Impact Assessments

7.20pm – The report and recommendations were moved for adoption by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

In accordance with Council convention, the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan, and the Leader of the Opposition, Councillor Victoria Brocklebank-Fowler, were given unlimited time to speak on the Budget report.

Speeches on the report were also made by Councillors Andrew Jones, Helen Rowbottom, and Rowan Ree (for the Administration) – and Councillors Adronie Alford and Andrew Brown (for the Opposition).

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan, then made a speech winding up the debate.

The report and recommendations were put to the vote and a roll-call was undertaken, in accordance with Council convention when voting on the budget:

FOR                        17

AGAINST                10

NOT VOTING         1

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.09pm – RESOLVED

That Full Council, for the reasons set out in the report and appendices, agreed:

1.             To freeze the Hammersmith & Fulham element of the council tax charge for 2022/23 and not apply the 2% increase modelled by the government for the coming year.

2.             To not apply the government modelled “adult social care precept” levy of 1% for 2022/23, and to instead use council savings and income to fund growth in adult social care spending.

3.             To set the Council’s own total net expenditure budget for 2022/23 at £125.657m.

4.             To approve £7.434m of new investment on key services for residents.

5.             To approve fees and charges, as set out in paragraph 10, including freezing charges in adult social care, children’s services and general fund housing.

6.             To note the budget projections to 2025/26 made by the Director of Finance in consultation with the Strategic Leadership Team.

7.             To note the statement of the Director of Finance, under Section 25 of the Local Government Act 2003, regarding the adequacy of reserves and robustness of estimates (paragraph 37 of the report).

8.             To approve the reserves strategy and realignment of reserves as set out in Appendix J and Appendix K (of the report).

9.             To require all Directors to report on their projected financial position compared to their revenue estimates in accordance with the Corporate Revenue Monitoring Report timetable.

10.          To authorise Directors to implement their service spending plans for 2022/23 in accordance with the recommendations within this report, the Council's Standing Orders, Financial Regulations, relevant Schemes of Delegation and undertake any further consultation required regarding the Equalities Impact Assessment.

11.          Set the Council’s element of council tax for 2022/23 for each category of dwelling, as outlined in the table below and in full in Appendix A (of the report) and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.1

This report presents the Council’s four-year Capital Programme for the period 2022 to 2026.

9.10pm – The report and recommendations were moved for adoption by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

Councillor Andrew Jones made a speech on the report (for the Administration).

FOR                        17

AGAINST                10

NOT VOTING         1

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.15pm – RESOLVED

1. To approve the four-year General Fund Capital Programme budget at £187.6m for the period 2022/23-2025/26 (presented in Table 2 and Appendix 1 of the report).

2.    To approve the continuation of rolling programmes for 2022/23 funded from the Council’s mainstream resources. For financial modelling purposes, these programmes are assumed to continue at the same level until 2025/26:

3. To delegate approval of the detailed programmes for use of the rolling programmes, in recommendation 2, to the relevant SLT Director in consultation with the Director of Finance and relevant Lead Cabinet Member.

4. To approve the four-year Housing (HRA) Capital Programme at £389.6m for the period 2022/23-2025/26 as set out in Table 5 and Appendix 1 (of the report).

5. To delegate authority to the Director of Finance in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Commercial Services to approve the potential use  of  up to £4.3m of capital receipts under the Government’s Flexible Use of Capital Receipts provisions for funding of  Invest to Save schemes in 2022/23 and 2023/24 (as identified in Appendix 5 of the report) and potential match-funding opportunities.

6. To approve the Capital Strategy 2022/23, as set out in Appendix 4 (of the report).

7. To approve the annual Minimum Revenue Provision policy statement for 2022/23, as set out in Appendix 6 (of the report).

8. To note the existing mainstream funded schemes previously approved, but now reprofiled to 2022/23 and future years as detailed in Table 3 (of the report).

This report sets out the Council’s proposed Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy for 2022/23.

9.15pm – The report and recommendations were formally moved by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

The report and recommendations were then put to the vote.

FOR:                      17

AGAINST:               0

NOT VOTING:         10

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.16pm – RESOLVED

1. That approval is given to the future borrowing and investment strategies as outlined in this report.
2. That the Director of Finance, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Commercial Services, be delegated authority to manage the Council’s cash flow, borrowing and investments in 2022/23 in line with this report.
3. In relation to the Council’s overall borrowing for the financial year, to approve the Prudential Indicators as set out in this report and the revised Annual Investment Strategy set out in Appendix E (of the report).

The Council is required to prepare a pay policy statement for each financial year that sets out the Council’s approach to recognising and rewarding its employees in a fair, consistent, and equitable manner.

9.16pm – The report and recommendations were formally moved by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

The report and recommendations were then put to the vote.

FOR:                      UNANIMOUS

AGAINST:               0

NOT VOTING:         0

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.18pm – RESOLVED

1. That Council approve the pay policy statement for 2022/23 as set out in Appendix 1 (of the report).

2. That Council note the benchmarking of the Council’s median pay multiple against the average of other Inner London Boroughs contained in section 2.5 (of the report).

This report performs the statutory annual review of Members’ allowances for the 2022/23 financial year.

9.18pm – The report and recommendations were formally moved by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

Speeches on the report were made by Councillors Ben Coleman and Stephen Cowan (for the Administration) – and Councillor Alex Karmel (for the Opposition).

The report and recommendations were then put to the vote.

FOR:                      17

AGAINST:               10

NOT VOTING:         1

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.28pm – RESOLVED

1. That the recommendations of the Independent Panel on the remuneration of Councillors in London (January 2022) be noted.

2. That the Members’ Allowances Scheme 2022/23 as set out in Appendix 1 (of the report) be adopted.

This report asks Council to approve updates to the Scheme of Delegation to Officers.

9.28pm – The report and recommendations were formally moved by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

The report and recommendations were then put to the vote.

FOR:                      UNANIMOUS

AGAINST:               0

NOT VOTING:         0

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.28pm – RESOLVED

1. That Full Council approve the updates to the Scheme of Delegation to Officers, detailed in Appendix 1 of the report.

This is an urgent item and was added to the agenda on 23 February 2022.

This report has been classified as exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 and is not for publication. The report has therefore been circulated to councillors only.

Any discussion of the contents of the report will require Full Council to pass the following resolution:

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following item of business, on the grounds that it contains the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

9.28pm – The Mayor noted that the report had been classified as exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 and so was circulated to councillors only.

The proposed resolution to exclude the public and press from the meeting was put to the vote.

FOR:                      UNANIMOUS

AGAINST:               0

NOT VOTING:         0

The resolution was declared CARRIED.

9.30pm – RESOLVED

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following item of business, on the grounds that it contains the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Mayor thanked members of the public for attending or watching the open part of the meeting before moving into private session.

9.30pm – The exempt report and recommendations were formally moved by the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Cowan.

A speech on the report was made by Councillor Alex Karmel (for the Opposition).

The report and recommendations were then put to the vote.

FOR:                      UNANIMOUS

AGAINST:               0

NOT VOTING:         0

The recommendations were declared CARRIED.

9.31pm – RESOLVED

1. The Council approves the appointment of Sharon Lea as the Interim Chief Executive and the Interim Head of Paid Service.

2.    The Council approves the appointment of the Interim Chief Executive as the Returning Officer      and Electoral Registration Officer.