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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3UY. Please enter the building through the Contact Centre entrance via the seafront.
Contact: Democratic Services on 01424 451484 email: democraticservices@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
Apologies received from Councillors Roberts, Turner and Webb
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
Councillor
Item
Interest
Cllr Hay
4,5,6
Personal – ESCC Councillor
Cllr Hilton
4,5,6
Personal – ESCC Councillor
Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2023/2024 - Quarter 1 PDF 128 KB
(Coral Harding - Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Officer)
Minutes:
The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Officer updated that meetings are being set up so that the committee can gather information. The LGA Finance Peer review meeting has been set for the 19th September. The Head of Environment and Operations will be speaking with the living environment group at the end of August. Other meetings around tourism and cultural strategy are also being arranged.
That the committee note the progress of the Overview and Scrutiny work programme for the 2023/24 municipal year and follow up actions
Reasons
It is the responsibility of members serving on the Overview and Scrutiny committee to set their own work programme for each municipal year and complete the associated actions by the end of year.
Performance Monitoring 2023/2024 - Quarter 1 PDF 125 KB
(Stephen Dodson – Head of Strategic Programmes)
Minutes:
The Chair explained the period under o review is April to June. The Chair gave thanks to all staff that have helped to make the performance monitoring dashboard available.
Members of the Senior Leadership Team and Lead Councillors were present to answer questions. The committee asked questions:
Q: Regarding Community Safety KPI is activities delivered to time cost and quality. This is too vague. What evaluation is in place to assess where money is spent and whether it achieves an increase in community safety?
Cllr Rogers explained the targets are Hastings based. Gating of alleyways has happened to assist to reduce anti-social behaviour. Night time taxi marshals have been paid for over Christmas. Cllr Hilton asked a follow on questions of how is success measured. Cllr Rogers explained this is hard to monitor and overall levels of crime data are not always matched with perceptions of crime
Q:The second KPI is street and community safety ASB but again no measurement to indicate why it’s green?
Cllr Rogers explained she will ask if the crime figures can be shared which may help with measuring success.
Q: Regarding FPN’s how can 2 for the quarter be amber?
Cllr Rogers explained she would speak with the Head of Community and Regulatory Services and ask for the KPI’s to be updated.
The Committee noted that the same question was asked at the quarter 4 meeting and requested a explanation at the next quarter 2 meeting.
Q: On the Enforcement KPIs it states meeting appropriate performance indicator measures but there appears to be no definition of what these are so how can we assess them?
Cllr Rogers explained she will review how these measures are recorded and if they are reflecting the crime figures. The committee requested that The Safer Hastings partnership to be asked how they measure success.
Q: Will the council revise its EV charging usage target now a fee is being applied? And if so, how will the target be calculated?
Cllr Barnett answered the base line has changed and the new KPIs may take longer due to the capacity of staff. Cllr Barnett suggested that new KPI’s start at the beginning of the next finance year. The committee asked how performance is to be measured? Cllr Barnett answered that Housing and Finance KPIs’s will be updated this year.
AGREED: The Committee agreed to delay the review of all KPIs whilst officers deal with the housing crisis and financial challenges, with the caveat that the Housing and Finance KPIs would be reviewed and as necessary updated and be the focus of O&S monitoring for 2023/24.
Q: Will the portfolio holder be revising the affordable homes target or modifying the performance indicator? It would be more helpful if the performance indicator indicated how many of the 500 affordable homes have been delivered so far?
Cllr Barnett answered that the KPI was to achieve 500 affordable homes by 2027. The homes that were to be built on the land that is ... view the full minutes text for item 154.
Financial Monitoring - Verbal Update
(Kit Wheeler - Chief Finance Officer)
Minutes:
The Chief Finance Officer explained there had to be a delay to the report due to further scrutiny of the data. This combined with some staff leave has delayed the report. The report will be ready for the future meeting in September.
LGA Finance Peer report Discussion PDF 240 KB
(Coral Harding - Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Officer)
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair explained there will be specific meeting regarding the LGA Peer Review report on September 19th.
The Chair highlighted a significant part of the report:
‘The peer challenge team reviewed the Council's finances, budget reports and financial monitoring information. Having reviewed these documents and discussed them with interviewees, the peer challenge team are very concerned about the Council's financial sustainability, the low level of unallocated revenue reserves and the record on achievements of savings and overspends in housing. Unless the revenue budget position is addressed as a matter of urgency, with savings promptly realized, then the Section 151 officer will be left with little choice but to issue a section 114 notice to the Council at some point during the financial year of 2023/24’.
The Chair asked with the focus on temporary accommodation what could have been done in the past that were doing now. The Chief Executive explained that all the tools of the past have changed over time. The council does not have its own housing stock. The main route was to discharge people in temporary accommodation is into private rented sector which has collapsed in terms of size and affordability for many people. Cllr Batsford explained a lot of councils have found themselves in the same position. Accommodation that was previously let for bed sits etc have been purchased and changed into family houses and rents have increased significantly. The Council has employed more housing officers to assist with the crisis. A lot of the suggestions in the report are work that has been completed by the council for years, but now there is a large increase in volume. Cllr Barnett explained the temporary accommodation crisis is a national crisis.
The committee requested a timeline of how and when the recommendations will be actioned to be provided at the September meeting.
Cllr Carr requested if documents mentioned in the LGA Report can be made available for the meeting in September.
- The documents that set up the housing company
- The senior leadership’s detailed delivery plan for the use of resources, focus and time.
- The 15 recommendations and the report from the LGA Housing Advisory Program.
- The financial sustainability program action plan
- The Housing Improvement Program Action plan
- The current housing allocations policy (available on the council’s website)
Cllr Barnett answered that most of the documents are available. It was requested the documents are shared to all Overview and Scrutiny members.
The committee requested an update regarding the phase 2 restructure to be given at the September meeting.
The Committee discussed CIPFA training. The Chief Finance Officer explained there is training planned and a date needs to confirm.
Cllr Carr asked if the East Sussex procurement hub for temporary accommodation had been signed up to. The Chief Finance Officer explained that there were some areas in the report that the Council and the LGA have different views on. There is no joint contract or framework to join at the moment, but that work was underway ... view the full minutes text for item 156.
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