Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 4 March 2024 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of the proceedings, and that the outstanding actions be noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Andrew Jones.

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.

1.      That Cabinet delegates approval for award of contracts to the Strategic Director of the Economy and Strategic Director for Finance, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Economy and Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology with contracts awarded after the announcement of grant funding in March /April 2024.

2.      That Cabinet notes the contracts will be up to a value of £ 12 m (subject to the size of the PSDSC grant awarded by Salix), but where the total value of the contract will not exceed the combined amount of grant funding received (£5.465m or less) and Council funding available to be allocated to the scheme.

3.      If the current application with Salix is unsuccessful, for Cabinet to confirm the same delegation for future Salix applications up the same value of £ 12 m without returning to Cabinet again for approval. 

Councillor Wesley Harcourt, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology, stated that this was a joint report with Councillor Andrew Jones, Cabinet Member for the Economy. This report requested to delegate authority to the named directors, in consultation with Councillor Jones and himself for award of contracts to enable the expediting of a major decarbonisation capital investment programme of works that would be part funded by grant.

Councillor Harcourt added that thetimeframe forspending theentirety of thegrant was very short and, without the action being recommended in this report, there was a risk of not being able to spend the full grant amount before the expiry of the grant.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS:

1.      That Cabinet delegates approval for award of contracts to the Strategic Director of the Economy and Strategic Director for Finance, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Economy and Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Ecology with contracts awarded after the announcement of grant funding in March /April 2024.

2.      That Cabinet notes the contracts will be up to a value of £ 12 m (subject to the size of the PSDSC grant awarded by Salix), but where the total value of the contract will not exceed the combined amount of grant funding received (£5.465m or less) and Council funding available to be allocated to the scheme.

3.      If the current application with Salix is unsuccessful, for Cabinet to confirm the same delegation for future Salix applications up the same value of £ 12 m without returning to Cabinet again for approval. 

1.     To note the General Fund financial forecast at Month 9 and the significant improvement in the position since the previous report at Month 6.

2.     To note that the position on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as set out in paragraph 11.

3.     To note the in-year Dedicated Schools Grant High Needs Block forecasted surplus of £0.056m (thereby reducing the cumulative deficit).

4.     To approve General Fund budget changes totalling £6.139m (this includes £3m of balances transferable to reserves) as detailed in Appendix 10.

Councillor Rowan Ree, Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform presented the report outlining the fourth financial review of 2023/24. It described the pressures on the budget, mitigations, and contingencies.

Councillor Adronie Alford stated that there was a larger pressure this year on homelessness and asked what the impact on both the General Revenue Account and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) would be and the contingencies made for it.

Councillor Ree replied that an additional budget on £1.5m had been allocated as part of the Housing Solutions to help with the increase in homelessness demands. This sum came out of the General Revenue budget rather than the Housing Revenue budget. He stressed that he was confident that the HRA budget would balance this year, as predicted, and there would be no need to use reserves.

The Leader emphasised that following many years of austerity it was a great tribute to Councillor Ree, Councillor Umeh and officers that they had managed to not only maintain a balanced budget each year but also to invest significant capital into refurbishing homes across the borough.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS:

1.     To note the General Fund financial forecast at Month 9 and the significant improvement in the position since the previous report at Month 6.

2.     To note that the position on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as set out in paragraph 11.

3.     To note the in-year Dedicated Schools Grant High Needs Block forecasted surplus of £0.056m (thereby reducing the cumulative deficit).

4.     To approve General Fund budget changes totalling £6.139m (this includes £3m of balances transferable to reserves) as detailed in Appendix 10.

This report has one appendix which contains information exempt within the meaning of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 and is not for publication. The appendix has therefore been circulated with restrict access.

Any discussions on the contents of an exempt appendix will require Cabinet to pass the proposed resolution identified at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and the press the proceedings for that discussion.

1.    To note that Appendix 1 is not for publication on the basis that it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) as set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

2.    To approve the re-procurement of the Housing Caretaking service, via a competitive procedure with negotiation, to start on 12 May 2025, for a period of 5 years with the option of up to 2 years extension, for an anticipated total cost of up to £35,000,000.

Councillor Frances Umeh, Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness presented the report requesting approval to re-procurement the Housing Caretaking service. This service maintained clean, tidy, and safe surroundings for residents in council housing stock across the borough through cleaning and inspection regimes to internal communal and shared external residential areas. The re-procurement was necessary to update the existing service specification in response to new legislation such as the recent Social Housing Act as well as resident and officer expectations.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS:

1.    To note that Appendix 1 is not for publication on the basis that it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) as set out in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

2.    To approve the re-procurement of the Housing Caretaking service, via a competitive procedure with negotiation, to start on 12 May 2025, for a period of 5 years with the option of up to 2 years extension, for an anticipated total cost of up to £35,000,000.

The Key Decision List was noted.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 - ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Proposed 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 an item of business, on the grounds that it contains the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 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.      

There was no discussion of exempt elements.