Agenda item

The Executive Member for Corporate Policy and Resources and the Executive Member for Finance, Governance and Organisation and Deputy Leader.

The Executive Member for Finance, Governance and Organisation, Councillor Lewanski, introduced the report into the Council’s quarterly performance (Quarter 4 2022/23 – January to March 2023).

Of the 11 Key Performance Indicators reported on in Q4, ten were on target or within the agreed tolerance. One indicator was off-target and outside the agreed tolerance. The red-rated indicator was KPI 3 – staff turnover. Against a target of 12%, 19% was seen in Q4. This was explained by a combination of lower than usual turnover during the pandemic and a particularly buoyant labour market that have led to a release of pent-up demand for a move in job.

Councillor Lewanski reflected on the overall performance as KPI reporting concluded for the year 2022/23. This included the recovery on Council Tax and Business Rates following the pandemic to 98.6% and 99.8% respectively. The Council was above target for overall housing completion with 1129 affordable units delivered in the borough against a target of 1100 set out in the 15-year plan.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 15 June 2023. Councillor Harrison, Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, told the Executive that with a new Committee and some new Members, it had been heartening to see a wide range of questions on nine of the KPIs with the greatest focus on staff turnover. New KPIs which included contextual indicators were helpful.

There were no questions from Executive Members.

Visiting Members asked questions on the following areas:

·        KPI 11 relating to the reduction of the Council’s carbon footprint and information on offsetting – Members asked if the Council could be more ambitious on KPI 11. They also queried the graph on the RBBC reduction in carbon emissions including offsetting. Also they asked for further information about offsetting in the energy contracts. Executive Member, Councillor Lewanski, said that the Council had carried out an energy audit of all the Council’s estate and the detailed report was being reviewed. This will be looked at as part of the Executive Member for Environment and Sustainability’s portfolio, Councillor Moses. Once this work has been done, they would be in a position to comment on offsetting carbon. The Leader and the Managing Director confirmed they would look at this and ask officers to distribute detailed information on offsetting to Members.

Members also noted the Overview and Scrutiny Committee draft minute described offsetting such as tree planting and installing Electric Vehicle charging points. If offsetting was different in the report it would be good to clarify in the O&S minutes in due course.

·        Affordable housing – Members asked about the affordable housing targets (KPIs 6 and 7) and commented that the Council was underdelivering on the percentage of affordable housing. The excess housing was meeting the wider London demand for housing but did not meet the borough’s housing need. Only half of housing was affordable housing for rent. A useful indicator could be how long a resident has to wait for a certain size of property to become available. The Leader said the Council was doing more than many councils to provide affordable housing such as Wheatley Court in Redhill. At 1129 units it was slightly overdelivering in the 15-year plan. Teams were looking at how to improve on the Council’s own stock of housing and they need to be robust with affordable targets that builders and developers had to meet. Councillor Lewanski said that each year the Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviews all the KPIs prior to agreement by the Executive and all Members have a chance to take part in this to propose any changes for the 2024/25 Municipal Year.

Members responded that they did not necessarily need KPIs for this. They noted that there was £30m of receipts to spend on affordable housing so this could be used to support Raven Housing Trust or for the Council to build housing to do more to help residents. The Leader noted that the Council had started to address this and had already spent £1m on improving temporary accommodation and looking at ways to provide more truly affordable and social housing for residents. Visiting Members noted that the Council needed to deliver value for money for residents and schemes such as Cromwell Road had demonstrated it could do this. The borough contained a lot of green belt land, and it was important not to spoil this.

Councillor Neame said officers in her portfolio of Housing and Support were working hard on this area to look at the needs of residents. There was more temporary emergency accommodation and projects were underway and would be rolled out over the coming months. Visiting Members noted that £30m could be spent quickly and it should be used as effectively as possible to provide a return as otherwise this was a diminishing asset.

The Executive Member for Finance, Governance and Organisation, Councillor Lewanski, also introduced the Revenue Budget and Capital Programme Outturn 2022/23. The full year outturn for Service budgets was £17.8m against a management budget of £18.0m resulting in an underspend of £0.2m (1%). For Central Budgets, the outturn was £0.5m against a management budget of £2.1m resulting in an underspend of £1.6m (76%). The underspend was mainly due to lower treasury management costs driven by favourable rates and lower borrowing requirement than budgeted.

The Capital Programme showed the outturn position as £21.2m which is £55.8m (70%) below the approved Programme for the year. This was due to £55.7m slippage and a net underspend on various schemes of £0.1m. The majority of this slippage will be carried to be included in the Programme for 2023/24 onwards.

The continued focus on cost control and income generation meant that the Council was starting from a position of relative strength for the coming year.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee had discussed the report at its meeting on 15 June 2023 and Members’ observations were published in an Addendum to the Executive agenda.

Councillor Harrison, Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chair, commented that this was clearly a good result. It was encouraging to hear that variances were being reviewed to ensure that they had been captured in this year’s and next year’s revenue budget planning. It was also favourable, from a Treasury investment perspective, that interest rates were rising. Questions had been raised regarding an unspent capital allocation of £100k for investment in Vibrant Towns and Villages. Members had asked whether this could this be used for projects rather than deleting it from the Programme. The Committee was also disappointed that they had not yet been given the information they requested on the budget outturn for the Pitwood Park (now Camelia Close), Cromwell Road (now Wheatley Court) and Lee Street housing developments. There was also discussion on how to identify suitable future projects for planned housing investment.

Councillor Lewanski commented that the £100k for Vibrant Towns and Villages was an allocation in the Capital Programme, to be funded from borrowing. As there had been no significant expenditure to date it had been deleted from the Programme during 2023/24 budget approval earlier this year. The Leader suggested that opportunities could still be suggested by members to improve high streets or local neighbourhood areas as there were other sources of funding available.

Visiting Members asked questions and made the following observations:

·        Vibrant Towns and Villages – Visiting Members asked for written confirmation regarding what the £100k allocation in the Capital Programme was originally intended to achieve.

·        Affordable housing – Visiting Members asked for clarification on the allocation of up to £30m in the Capital Programme in previous years for investment in Affordable Housing and how it was to be funded. A written response will be provided.

·        Capital Programme carry forward – Members asked for a breakdown of the carry forward and whether it would all now be spent in 2023/24. A written response would be provided.

RESOLVED – that the Executive:

(i)               Note the Key Performance Indicator performance for Q4 2022/23 as detailed in the report and Annex 1;

(ii)             Note the Revenue budget outturn for 2022/23 as detailed in the report and at Annex 2 and approve the recommended budget carry forwards to 2023/24;

(iii)           Note the Capital Programme outturn for 2022/23 as detailed in the report and at Annex 3 and recommend the additional capital schemes that were approved during the year totalling £4.038 million to Council for inclusion in the Programme.

RECOMMENDS that the Council at its meeting on 20 July 2023:

(iv)           Approve additional capital schemes that were approved during the year totalling £4.038 million for inclusion in the Programme.