Agenda item

In accordance with Standing Order No. 8, the following question was put by Councillor Hannaford to the Leader.

 

Question – The Children’s Burial Fund

Families grieving the loss of a child through death or stillbirth are to be given up to £2,000 to help cover funeral costs, under a new government scheme. 

Every year an estimated 4,350 children die under the age of 18 and grieving parents can face thousands in council fees for burial or cremation costs.

There is also considerable variation in charges, with some councils waiving fees altogether.

The Children’s Funeral Fund (CFF) aims to bring an end to this and provide families with the support they need. 

The scheme aims to reduce the financial burden for families by reimbursing burial authorities, cremation authorities and funeral directors directly.

The fund will be available regardless of the family’s income, and will also include a contribution of £300 towards the cost of a coffin.

Under the scheme, parents will no longer have to meet the costs of burials or cremations.

Fees will be waived by all local authorities and met instead by government funding.

The intervention brings England in line with Wales and follows a cross-party campaign by bereaved parents to remove fees for funerals for those under the age of 18.

1. Can the portfolio holder please confirm how this scheme is working in Exeter?
2. What work has been done to amend and alter the policies and practices of the council?
3. How many local families have been helped and supported by the new scheme so far?
4. What work are we doing with other key stakeholders to publicise and promote this scheme?

The Leader replied that the Children’s Funeral Fund came into effect nationwide on the 23 July 2019. This scheme allows those that provide elements of a funeral (in our case an interment plot within our cemeteries) to claim back the costs so that parents do not need to worry about managing these expenses themselves. The scheme is available regardless of a family’s income, and covers costs for children under 18 and stillbirths after the 24th week of pregnancy.

1.    When a case comes in that meets the above criteria then the arrangements will be made with the funeral director as normal but no charge will be made if they require the Exclusive Right of Burial or Memorial Rights (we have not charged a burial fee for children for a number of years). We will then contact the Funeral Fund and request funds from them to cover these costs.

2.    All members of the team have been made aware of these new practises when dealing with cases such as this.

3.    So far we have had no applications for interment that have met the criteria and no claims have yet been made to the fund.

4.    No advertisement of this scheme has been undertaken directly by ourselves. This is a nationwide scheme that is open to all and was well publicised in the national press when it was launched. All reputable funeral providers will be aware of this new scheme and will advise families accordingly who find themselves in these tragic circumstances.

 

Councillor Hannaford asked a supplementary question requesting that the scheme be published in the Exeter Citizen.

 

The Leader agreed to ensure that this was looked into.

 

In accordance with Standing Order No. 8, the following question was put by Councillor K. Mitchell to the Leader.

 

Neighbouring Teignbridge District Council has announced a top to toe review of its existing planning policies to ensure they have enough weight to facilitate the Councils aim of being carbon neutral by 2025. How confident are we that our existing policies will facilitate our aim of being carbon neutral by 2030 and will we be undertaking a similar review?

 

The Leader responded that Teignbridge District Council commenced work to update the Teignbridge Local Plan two years ago and will consult on a draft plan in Spring 2020.  Subject to public consultation, the plan will include policies that enable Teignbridge District Council to achieve its target of ‘zero carbon emissions by 2025’.

 

In order to introduce new planning policies that enable us to achieve our zero carbon target, we first need to adopt a new Exeter Local Plan (or the Greater Exeter Strategic Plan).  The process for adopting a new Local Plan is time consuming and involves several statutorily required stages, including public consultation, i.e.

 

- Issues consultation

- Draft Plan consultation

- Publication (Proposed Submission)

- Submission to the Secretary of State

- Hearings

- Adoption following receipt of Inspector's report

 

Due to the process involved, it is unlikely that a new Exeter Local Plan can be in place until towards the end of 2023 at the earliest.

 

In the meantime, the adopted Core Strategy contains a number of policies that are conducive to achieving the Council’s environmental/zero carbon ambitions, e.g.

 

-          Policy CP11: requires development to be located and designed so as to minimise and if necessary mitigate against environmental impacts.

-          Policy CP13 sets out the Council’s ambitions regarding Decentralised Energy Networks, including requiring new development of 1000+sqms to connect to an existing or proposed DEN.

-          Policy CP14 requires new development of 1000+sq ms/10+ homes to use decentralised and renewable or low carbon energy sources.

-          Policy CP15 requires new development to incorporate sustainable design and construction methods, be resilient to climate change and to optimise energy and water efficiency.  As part of this, the policy requires all new homes built from 2016 onwards to be zero carbon (i.e. Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5), but the Council is currently unable to implement this due to a 2014 Government statement that limits carbon reduction targets in Local Plans to Code Level 4.   

 

The Planning and Energy Act 2008 allowed Local Planning Authorities to set standards for energy performance of buildings.

 

In 2012 Exeter City Council adopted the Core Strategy including Policy CP15 which staircased Carbon Emissions down to “zero carbon” by 2016.  This definition of zero carbon is equivalent to Code For Sustainable homes Level 5.

 

In 2015 Ministerial Statements which are a material consideration in decision making, limited by Local Planning Policy no more than CSH4 (equivalent to a 19% additional abatement above B’ Regs 2013), even where those policies were already in place.

 

The Deregulation Act 2015 included provisions to legislate to this effect, however these were not been implemented.

 

The Government’s stated intention at that time was that a zero carbon policy would be introduced through the Building Regulations ‘later in 2016’.

 

Exeter City Council have been mindful of those Ministerial Statements and have since 2015 only required new dwellings to achieve CSH4.

 

No tightening of Building Regs part L beyond 2013 levels or a National Zero Carbon homes standard has been introduced as was stated would be the case in 2015 Ministerial Statements.

 

Following announcements in April 2019 a consultation on a proposed ‘Future homes Standard 2025’ was launched in October 2019. This consultation draft would reduce emissions by 20-30% from current position by 2020 and by 80% by 2025. This consultation includes provisions to formally remove the ability of Local Planning Authorities to require standards higher than those in the Building Regulations.

 

Councillor K. Mitchell asked a supplementary question – can an assurance be given that all schemes within the Liveable Exeter programme will be Carbon Neutral developments.

 

The Leader reiterated the Council’s declaration on 23 July 2019 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and to be energy independent by 2022 which also applied to Liveable Exeter, referring also to the Council’s ambitious house building programme. His vision was for Exeter to be an exemplar in these areas.

 

In accordance with Standing Order No. 8, the following questions were put by Councillor D. Moore to the Leader.

 

1. In light of the Government's recent decision to raise the public works loan board interest rate by 1%, what impact will that have on the viability and affordability of projects that are in the Councils pipeline that require borrowing that has not yet been taken out?

 

The Leader responded that the Council will have to take into account the rates in the market when assessing future business cases.  However it important to remember:

·         Rates are close to a historic low, so the increase merely reverts rates to the level they were at in 2018;

·         The decision of the Government to increase their margin, will likely attract new lenders back into the market, for example the private sector and the Municipal Bonds Agency, so the loan rates available may still be lower than the PWLB rates on offer.

 

Councillor D. Moore asked a supplementary question that, in light of the increase in the business rate, would the Council agree to no longer supporting free car parking on Thursday evenings.

 

The Leader responded No.

 

2. Council approved a budget of £52.8m for the bus station and leisure centre in 2018. In light of the interest rate rise for public works loan board loans how will this affect the project budget and by how much will annual loan repayments be increased by?

 

The Leader responded

·         To explain the budget for both the Bus Station and Leisure Complex was £51.8m of which £18.15m is the borrowing requirement, not £52.8m which the question could lead people to think.

·         The original business case for the Leisure Complex provided for an interest rate of 4.5% and was updated in November 2018 using a rate of 2.8% (which is broadly the same as the rate today).  At no point has the business case used a rate as low as they were before the PWLB increase;

·         Regardless, the Council borrowed £49.45m from the PWLB a week before the increase was announced.  This tied in loans at the following:

o   £36m – 1.8%

o   £8.8m – 1.71%

o   £4.65m – 1.61%

·         The amount borrowed, whilst not directly attributed to the Leisure Complex, will ensure the Council has sufficient cash available to deliver the project without needing to take out any further long term borrowing.  This has had a positive impact on the medium term financial plan by reducing costs by about £350,000 a year.

 

3. I am pleased to hear the amazing archaeological finds under the new bus station will  not delay the progress of the project. However, please can you provide an undated on if and by how much these works will add to the project budget and if these are archaeological works are covered by insurance.

 

The Leader responded that the budget for the bus station and leisure complex included sums for anticipated archaeological works and the build plan included assumptions for archaeological works. At present there are no concerns regarding the critical path or the budget.