Agenda item

To receive an update on the work of the Council and future plans.

The Committee received an update on the work of the Council and its future plans from the Leader of the Council,Councillor Mark Brunt.

The Leader gave an overview on policy development across the Council. Items that were discussed included:

·       The Draft Corporate Plan 2020-25 – this would go out for consultation shortly to get more ideas and wider input from partners and the public, including areas that could have been missed. It was identified that the scrutiny role was very important. Councillors were asked to engage residents in the new Corporate Plan consultation. Tackling climate change would be included following a recent Local Government Association motion in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the role of local government in delivering these.

·       Housing Delivery Strategy – the Council strategy focused not on planning or how or where houses are built but on homes for people, social rent, homelessness and the growing affordability gap which was pricing people out of accommodation and the role of local government to support residents. It was not just about managing the housing list and allocating housing but how the Council could take an active role in delivering housing and enabling residents to find homes. There would be more consultation, including input from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The strategy was due to be adopted by the end of the year.

·       Climate change – policy work was continuing to support the environmental motion on climate change that was made at Full Council at its 7 February 2019 meeting. It was looking at what resources would be needed to understand the Council’s environmental impact as an organisation. To make a significant impact it would need to invest in skills to enable it to achieve this.

·       Partnership working – including work with Surrey County Council was continuing. It was looking at services that were delivered to residents and who would be in the best place to deliver that service. This could be a number of organisations including the third sector. It had just carried out a review of the voluntary, community and faith sectors.

·       Corporate Planperformance measures – work was ongoing. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were being reviewed to make sure Councillors had the right level of information and data when making decisions. This needed to be local performance measures not just government performance measures. Officers would look to work with the Committee so performance measures and information were more meaningful and timely. It was reported that the Council’s recent Internal Audit into its governance arrangements had received a high rating with the internal auditors satisfied with what the Council was doing. This was a credit to the Committee’s work, including its work on the Commercial Governance review. Although the feedback was very positive it was important not to be complacent.

·       External accounts and auditfor 2018/19 – these would be reviewed at the Executive meeting on 18 July 2019. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee would consider the report from External Auditors in September. Finances continued to be challenging as there was now no Revenue Support Grant but the Council continued to manage its finances well. It had a future funding gap but its plan would not just be about cutting costs. In some areas, it was felt too many costs had been cut. The Budget Review Group was working with Executive Portfolio Holders as it continued its service and financial planning for next year’s budget. The government position on business rates was unclear as yet, so revenue from this area could not be relied upon until confirmed. If it was continued, then this would be a bonus. Group Leaders had discussed the future funding gap and felt it was important for Members collectively to understand this and recognise the urgency of tackling this funding gap.

·       Capital Investment strategy – work was continuing on this to look at how it could address the funding gap and understand what would be needed. It would continue to understand the realities of the funding gap and put in place some building blocks to address this.

Committee Members had a number of questions in the discussion that followed.

·       The Leader’s comments on climate change and adopting the Local Government Association motion were welcomed. It was noted that this item would come back to the Committee at a later meeting. The Corporate Plan would recognise the challenges and set out what the Council plans to do and look its role in setting good practice across the borough. It needed to have a clear picture of what its environmental impact was currently. The Council could not commit to how much resource will be needed yet as this was ongoing work.

The Leader said that rather than the Council putting forward a short-term climate change emergency motion, a better way forward would be to have environmental impact as part of a longer term plan. It should be part of the five year Corporate Plan (with key milestones) rather than adopted as a short term project.

Cllr J. Essex declared a non-pecuniary interest as a director of Furnistore during the discussion of the item on the community and voluntary sector review.

·       More information about the community and voluntary sector review and its outcomes were requested. It was identified that the review looked at the work with the community and voluntary sector, how the Council distributed funding and how it could make the most of the voluntary sector. For example, it could commission an organisation such as the Citizens Advice (CAB) to provide specific services over three years which would give both the council and the CAB more certainty. It was clarified that the detail of the review was outlined in the 20 June 2019 Executive report.

·       Committee Members were pleased to see that the number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) would be reviewed and rationalised. It was identified that the performance measures would be developed this year and put in place for 2020/21.

·       Members asked if it had been possible to obtain new powers for the Joint Enforcement Team (JET). It was identified that it had tried to do this but would now take a different approach and look at what powers it already had and how it could use them, for example, on anti-social behaviour (ASB) such ASB parking.

·       It was noted that on the topic of partnership working, a consultation on libraries was going to Surrey County Council cabinet in mid-July for discussion. There would be a broad consultation in September. Surrey County Council members would be interested in the Borough’s approach at that time and ask for views.

The Leader identified that the Community Hub in Merstham was a good example of how the community can become involved with libraries. Visitors from other Boroughs had come to see what it was doing, including a Leaders’ meeting to be held in the hub to see how it works.

·       In the case of youth work, the Council’s responsibility is to the borough but if it was in the best position to influence and enable services then this should happen with support from Surrey and other partners to develop a strategy. It was identified that the Borough was co-designing a potential youth strategy for the borough in conjunction with the County Council and third sector partners e.g. the YMCA. If Surrey does not have the staff to run a service and is not using the buildings in Preston or in Merstham, then it could work with organisations like the YMCA to gain access to those buildings at low or no cost so they could deliver youth services.

·       Members asked about how the Council would look at the historic performance of those organisations which received funding and how the Council can challenge those groups to give residents the services they want. It was identified that it was early on in the commissioning process, but the Council would look at its priorities set out in the Corporate Plan and commission the services needed. The new approach to the Community and Voluntary Sector Review puts great emphasis on performance management and measuring success.

·       Members noted that, while major towns in the south of the borough and Horley had good transport links, in the north of the borough improved transport links were needed. It was identified that the Council could look particularly at disabled transport across the Borough as well as looking at cycle networks. It could use the Surrey County Council Local Committees to bring up these issues as responsibility was with Surrey County Council Highways. The County Council was planning a consultation on rethinking local transport. It was identified that lack of rural bus services was a real issue although the Council did have some good transportation links by road and rail compared to neighbouring boroughs such as Tandridge.

The Committee Members thanked the Leader for his update and would ask for a progress report when he returned to the Committee to give a further update at the 11 December 2019 Committee meeting.

RESOLVED – that the update from the Leader and the comments of the Committee be noted.