Agenda and minutes

There was no apology for absence. Sharon Lea, Chief Executive, attended remotely.

The Chair welcomed Cllr Lisa Homan who was attending the meeting for the first time.

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting and to note any outstanding actions.

Matters arising

Councillor David Morton asked about the detailed information he had requested at the last meeting on discretionary secondary succession to social housing tenancy. David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance) advised that the response would be made available for Committee members reference shortly.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the meeting held on 31 July 2024 were agreed as an accurate record.

This report presents the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham’s 2023/24 Statement of Accounts, including the Pension Fund Accounts and Annual Governance Statement for approval.

Sukvinder Kalsi (Executive Director of Finance & Corporate Services) presented the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham’s 2023/24 Statement of Accounts (SoA), including the Pension Fund Accounts and Annual Governance Statement for approval.

Paul Dossett (Key Audit Partner, Grant Thornton LLP) said Grant Thornton was on target of delivering 3 audits within a calendar year against the context of backstop legislation and Select Committee’s concern on local audits. He attributed the achievement to the arduous work of responsive finance officers and their excellent engagement with his colleagues. He added that LBHF was nowhere near the backstop deadline of February 2025 for 2023/24 as that year’s SoA would be signed off shortly.

Nick Halliwell (Senior Manager, Grant Thornton LLP) summarised the auditing work of the Statement of Accounts 2023/24 which took place between June and September 2024 as follows:

• a few issues around property valuations had been identified and the Council had been requested to follow up with the valuers in October 2024. Upon Grant Thornton’s satisfaction about the updated SoA and its signing, it could then give an audit opinion for the 2023/24 SoA. After that, the authority would return to a more typical pre-pandemic audit timetable.

• the materiality levels were £13 million for which reasonable assurance was given. A number of findings and adjustments (p. 202 – 206) had been made including fixed asset accounting and determination of the pension liability however these adjustments were technical in nature and had no impacts on the General Fund. They just impacted the unusable reserve and valuations of property and pensions in the audit findings report.

• five new backstop dates would be introduced when parliamentary time permitted. (p. 209) The dates were being moved to 30 November in 2027 and 2028 from January/February in previous years.

Councillor Rowan Ree (Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform) expressed appreciation for the contribution of both sides in getting through three sets of annual figures within a calendar year. The impressive work also helped to show how well-run was this Council while some local governments were struggling in balancing the books. The audit findings spoke highly of the organisation and reflected the hard work of the professional officers. Going forward, the Council would continue to rely on the advice of the external auditors on ways to conduct its business better.

Echoing his view, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier quoted from the report that an auditor was “not aware of any issues or matters that would lead to a modified opinion” (p. 16) and that “the Council had continued to face some of the most difficult financial circumstances it had ever faced. Funding from central government had reduced by 55% in real terms and 23% in cash terms, from £164m in 2010/11 to £126m in 2024/25. The economic impact of the last few years had put further pressure on Council finances.” (p. 142) which in his opinion was a piece of underrated news. He also noted from the narrative report of the Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Services had pointed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report presents the external auditor’s Interim Annual Audit Report concerning the Council’s arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources (commonly known as “Value for Money” reporting). The report covers the financial years 2023/24.

Paul Dossett (Key Audit Partner, Grant Thorton LLP) introduced the Annual Audit Report (AAR) 2023/24 which was the auditor’s commentary relating to the Council’s arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources (commonly known as “value for money” arrangements). He recalled that in presenting the same report for 2022/23 in last November, he had commented on the Council’s arrangements as being strong with some challenges including the regulatory challenges of the Housing Ombudsman and the financial sustainability of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which was operating in the context of cost of living crisis, inflations, the war in Ukraine, covid and the new regulatory requirements driven by the Grenfell incident and damp & mould issues across the country.  While these issues could not be resolved overnight, significant changes/actions had since been made/taken to address them and put the HRA back on a more sustainable footing.

Paul Dossett remarked that the financial sustainability of the General Fund and the governance arrangements of the Council were strong. In terms of economy efficiency and effectiveness, the Council ran some good services and achieved good regulator scores. That was why the commentary on financial sustainability and housing performance were both downgraded from red to amber. It was expected to see the measures taken to address those issues would be fully in place beyond 2023/24 to bring about further improvements in 2024/25. Paul highlighted that among all the councils that he had worked with, LBHF had probably done one of the best recoveries from a poor position and it was moving in the right direction on top of the issues.

Noting that the direction of travel for three out of the four issues listed under the overall summary of value for money assessment of the Council’s arrangements (p. 362) were upward, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier asked whether the trend would continue at the next audit.

In response, Paul Dossett advised that the challenges on HRA was first raised in July 2022 and the progress of work ever since had been positive and moving in that direction. When the same report was delivered by this time next year, he expected that aspect would move from amber to green.

The Chair noted that the auditor had recommended the Council to include scenario planning as part of developing the annual budget. Given the market shocks in the past few years such as Brexit, mini-budget, the war in Ukraine which were unique scenarios with unique challenges, he was concerned how scenario planning could be embedded in developing the budget.

Paul Dossett said that councils used to develop the medium-term financial plan based on the information currently available including demand pressures, inflation forecasts, ongoing impact of the events mentioned earlier. Scenario planning was to adjust information e.g. revising the rate of forecast inflation, or having spiking demand for children’s services, and then assess the scale of challenges reflected in the plan. It might also help push down particular path in terms of revenue raising or savings. Paul stressed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This report highlights the Council’s activities and performance in health and safety at work for the financial year 2023/2024.

Paul Neary (Head of Corporate Safety) introduced the report which highlighted the Council’s activities and performance in health and safety at work for the financial year 2023/2024 as follows:

• there was an increase in incidents, and incidents relating to violence and aggression in a lot of areas, particularly libraries.

• eight RIDDORs (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations) were reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which did not issue any follow up responses.

• additional training was conducted for staff on the accident and incident recording system, AssessNET and the new Risk Assessment module.

Councillor Lisa Homan understood that some incidents of violence and aggression against LBHF’s staff had been reported to the Police. She enquired about the number of prosecutions, if any, and the support provided to the victims during the process.

Paul Neary noted that there was no record of prosecutions which would happen only if the victims wanted to take the case forward. Nonetheless, each case would be investigated by the Corporate Health and Safety team to see if the relevant training delivered by the Community Safety team or Civil Enforcement team needed any adjustment. Any colleagues having issues and concerns could seek help from the Employee Assistance Programme via their manager.

Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier expressed grave concern about local public servants being attacked while providing public services. He asked about the point of friction in libraries leading to incidents of violence and aggression. Paul Neary pointed out that libraries were not the quiet place they used to be. Some people went into libraries to get off the street, and get warm. Sometimes, violence and aggression occurred when staff requested them to lower their voice or stop searching the bins. The responsible director was currently looking into the feasibility of deploying security staff in libraries.

Sharon Lea (Chief Executive) remarked that libraries in H&F were a wonderful resource for the community, and  were well used by many residents for gaining knowledge through reading, doing research and/or participating in activities. People causing disturbance or violence and aggression in libraries were only a small minority. While violence had increased in society generally across many areas, the Council had worked closely with the public-facing library staff and supported them with the excellent CCTV network and unique Law Enforcement Team. Deploying additional resources to make library staff feel safer must be done with them as they might not prefer having security staff on the premises. The Health and Safety Officer responsible for libraries had written to the Director and Assistant Director about further measures that could be taken to ensure the safety of library staff.

On incidents of violence and aggression against H&F staff and prosecution, Sharon Lea reassured the Committee that she personally would take up the matter with the Police. It was the staff’s decision to pursue further having regard to their willingness to be a witness or their preference to come back to work sooner. To prevent these incidents from happening again, the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

This report summarises the Council’s performance and learning from resident complaints during the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.  It includes all complaints covering stage 1, 2, Ombudsman and statutory complaints.

Nicola Ellis (Strategic Director, Chief Operating Officer) presented the report which summarised the Council’s performance and learning from resident complaints during the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 and included all complaints covering stage 1, 2, Ombudsman and statutory complaints. She highlighted the importance to recognise repairs and housing were on an ongoing improvement journey and issues highlighted in the report was as at that point in time. She summarised the report as follow:

• the Council’s performance in managing complaints had improved with an increase in the responses at stage 1 and stage 2 complaints being closed within the corporate timescales, with an uplift of 8% on stage 1 and 29% on stage 2 complaints compared to 2022/2023.

• more complaints were received than the previous year because of improvement around complaint handling and accessibility. The increase enhanced learning from feedback and helped improve the services.

• the Repairs Service delivered 58,310 reactive repairs and received 2,254 stage 1 complaints equating to 4% service dissatisfaction.

• a total of 483 complaints were received for the waste service which mainly related to missed or incomplete refuse and recycling collections.  During 2023/24 3.4m bins were collected which equated to a low dissatisfaction rate of 0.014%.

• In relation to the annual letter of the Local Government Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), the Council’s performance was positive in comparison with other boroughs, having the lowest number of upheld LGSCO decisions per 100,000 residents and was second lowest for the upheld % rate (excluding City of London).

• as a percentage of all findings of fault across 53 cases identified by the Housing Ombudsman (HO), 84% were maladministration.

• on Friday 25 October the HO confirmed that the Council had completed the 10 recommendations from the Paragraph 49 of the Special Report published in February 2024.

Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier referred to LGSCO’s letter (p 508) and found it reassuring and encouraging to receive the positive remarks from an independent third party. Addressing his enquiry, Nicola Ellis noted that the Council had completed the self-assessment against the HO’s Complaint Handling Code and was compliant with all the areas. Similar exercise would be conducted against LGSCO’s code in April 2025.

Councillor Adrain Pascu-Tulbure noted that there was a significant increase in compensation paid during the period April 2023 to March 2024 – up from £519,521.37 in 2022/2023 to £792,007.18. He questioned whether the Council had done its utmost to serve the residents.

Richard Shwe (Director of Housing) remarked that now, the Repairs team was still dealing with the HO’s backlog complaint from 2020, and the amount of compensation was determined by the HO. More recent complaints were being dealt with properly, with staff working seven days a week. There was no overdue stage 1 and stage 2 complaints since this September. Richard said they had discussed with the HO on the compensation culture and the Council’s policies about the levels of compensation.

Sharon Lea (Chief Executive) considered complaint handling was a major project of learning and improvements and she always  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

This report sets out the Council’s Treasury Management Outturn for 2023/24 and is in line with the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy (as approved by Council on 23 February 2023). The details are subject to external audit review and this report will also be presented to Audit Committee (in line with governance and regulatory requirements).

Patrick Rowe (Strategic Finance Manager, Treasury and Pensions) and Sophie Green (Treasury Manager) briefed members on the report, including  </AI8>

• the treasury position as at 31 March 2024;
• the borrowing strategy for 2023/24;
• the borrowing outturn for 2023/24;
• compliance with treasury limits and prudential indicators;
• investment strategy for 2023/24; and
• investment outturn for 2023/24.

Councillor Rowan Ree (Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform) remarked that treasury management was very crucial in ensuring the Council was able to pay its bills and manage its finances in the most efficient way possible. He highlighted the team’s prudence in adhering to treasury limits and prudential indicators when undertaking for the treasury function in  2023/24. He also appreciated the team’s efforts to raise money to tackle climate change through issuing the Community Municipal Investment (CMI), a bond like instrument commonly referred to as the Green Bond which was the largest of its kind.

Agreeing that the CMI (Green Bond) was a unique and impressive initiative having attracted the most individual investors out of all CMIs to date, Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier sought details about the idea initiation and implementation. In response, Councillor Ree said the CMI (Green Bond) had raised £1.75 million in two tranches for investment into green projects. The outreach programme had been particularly effective in attracting more individual investors than any other local authority’s funds. He further mentioned about plans to launch another tranche soon with the limit capped at £5 million.  At the time of launching the first tranche, it was the largest target of all CMIs.  Councillor Ree noted it was important to learn what had worked well last time and make them better.

RESOLVED

That the Committee agreed to note the report.

The following meeting dates have been scheduled:

·       9 December 2024

·       10 March 2025

The Committee noted the dates of future meetings:

• 9 December 2024
• 10 March 2025