Agenda and minutes

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2018 were taken as read and signed by the Chairs as a correct record.

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable interest were made.

Details of questions should be notified to the Corporate Manager Democratic and Civic Support at least three working days prior to the meeting.  Further information and a copy of the procedure are available from Democratic Services (Committees) (Tel: 01392 265115) and also on the Council web site - https://exeter.gov.uk/councillorsfaq/

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One member of the public, Mr Cleasby, submitted a question under Standing Order 19, in relation to the budget.

Councillor Pearson, as Portfolio Holder for Support Services, responded and a copy of the question and response is appended to the minutes.

To receive questions from Members of the Council to appropriate Portfolio Holders.

In accordance with Standing Order No 20, three questions were submitted by Councillor Musgrave.

A copy of the questions had been previously circulated to Members, and together with the responses from Councillor Pearson, the Portfolio Holder for Support Services are appended to the minutes.

To consider the report of the Chief Finance Officer.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the report on the Revenue Budget for 2017/18, advising Members of the overall projected financial position of the HRA & General Fund Revenue Budgets and for Members to note the Council’s projected financial position and approve any additional expenditure required during the financial year.

He provided Members with the budget variance over and under spends for the general fund, HRA and Council own build houses. Members were referred to the key variances of the report, which highlighted the net interest underspend. Advice has been received recommending to avoid longer term borrowing to reduce the interest spend. The repayment of debt was lower than forecasted.

In response to questions from Members, the Chief Finance Office responded:-

·         The £110,000 expenditure for major projects for Place Scrutiny Committee, covered the compensation payment toStagecoach as a result of the termination of their lease;

·         There were challenges with spending this year, which if property fund underspend money were to go into the general fund balance, would need approval by full council;

·         During quarter one, there was an over spend on services, which the Leader had asked the Directors to address Quarter two spending had broken even;

·         There was a typo in the outstanding sundry debt text of the report, which would be amended;

·         A detailed explanation would be requested from the Customer Access team about the housing rent debt write off and would be provided to all Members;

·         The underlying issues for the corporate property assets had been discussed which highlighted the resource challenges resulting in a significant underspend of £156,000. Although the amount issignificant, it was lower than in previous years;

·         Treasury management fees of £31,000 were paid to the CCLA to manage investment. Property fund investment was £5,000,000, which was invested to provide for a better return on the investment.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee noted the report and requested Executive and Council to note and approve:

(1)  The General Fund forecast financial position for the 2017/18 financial year;

(2)  The HRA forecast financial position for 2017/18 financial year;

(3)  The outstanding Sundry Debt position as at December 2017;

(4)  The creditors’ payments performance.

To consider the report of the Chief Finance Officer.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the report on the Capital Monitoring Statement which local authorities were required to produce to monitor progress against the amounts estimated when setting the prudential indicators for capital expenditure.  . The annual capital programme was updated every three months to reflect cost variations, slippage or acceleration of projects.

He referred Members to the report, highlighting the current position of the Council’s revisions to the capital programme since the last meeting and performance which showed the revised capital programme for the current financial year was £17m, with £6.6m spent in the first nine months, equating to 38.37% of the revised programme.  The main expenditure variances for 2017/18, deferred schemes to 2018/19 and beyond, and the achievements from the third quarter were discussed.

In response to a question from a Member, the Chief Finance Officer explained that the budget bidding process for 2018/19 had required a timeline for the delivery of each project and phasing across a three year periodto enable Scrutiny Committee monitor progress and require attendance by Project Managers to explain delays or deferred schemes to Members.

Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee supported the report and requested Executive to recommend to Council to approve the revision of the annual capital programme to reflect the reported variations detailed in 8.4 and 8.5 of the report.

To consider the report of the Chief Finance Officer.

The Chief Finance Officer presented the quarterly report which advised Members of the differences to the revised budget for the Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee. He advised that local authorities had a statutory duty to set and monitor budgets during the year and to action potential overspends or income losses.

He discussed the key variations from the budget, which suggested that the net expenditure for the Corporate Services Scrutiny committee would decrease from the revised budget by a total of £294,280, representing a variation of 3.73%, which included the previously agreed supplementary budgets. He explained there was a revaluation of superannuation every three years.  However, Devon County Council’s projections of the increase, were higher than the final amount leading to a saving for Exeter City Council. Members were provided with an overview the significant variations from the various management units.

In response to Member questions, the Chief Finance Officer responded:-

·         The two elements in unapportionable overhead were the past service cost of pensions and unused portions of buildings. The term unapportionable overhead will be changed to identify them as pension related in the future;

·         Budget figures would be split to clearly identify where there was an over or underspend.

The Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee noted the content of the report and were satisfied that prudent steps were being taken to address the key areas of budgetary pressure highlighted in this report.