Agenda item

Report No: PAS/WS/19/001

The Service Manager (Finance and Resources) presented Report No: PAS/WS/19/001, which showed the final performance and financial outturn position for St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Forest Heath District Council for the year 2018-2019.  Future reporting from 2019-2020 would be in respect of West Suffolk Council only.

Attached to the report were a number of appendices, as follows:

-      Appendix A: 2018-2019 Performance Indicators – Commentary;

-      Appendices B to E: - Performance Indicators by Strategic Priority;

-      Appendix F: West Suffolk Income and Expenditure report; and

-      Appendices G to  P: Financial Performance of each council.

Assistant Directors then answered questions on their performance indicators set out either in the commentary section or Appendices B to E and highlighted key areas for the Committees attention.

Members considered the report and asked questions of the Assistant Directors on their indicators, to which comprehensive responses were provided.  Discussions were held on capital and reserves; car parking income; external funding received for infrastructure (Local Enterprise funding (LEP)); the council owning housing stock and income from the solar farm.

In particular, detailed discussions were held on:

Appendix A – (Number of households in temporary accommodation) – Members acknowledge that the end of year value was above target, and questioned how much was the council paying for temporary accommodation.

Members were informed that the council had predicted an increase in demand due to the change in legislation in April 2018.  In response to this, both councils had increased its temporary accommodation.  With regards to the cost, this was off-set by housing benefit and the rent levels at each temporary accommodation had to be approved by Anglia Revenues Partnership (ARP).  Registered housing providers and voluntary/charity organisations provide the support and management of the temporary accommodation. 

Appendix C – (Number of flytipping incidents recorded in West Suffolk) – Members questioned how much it cost the council to clear-up flytipping.

In response officers explained that West Suffolk was fortunate enough not to have extreme cases of flytipping incidents.  Members were informed that the council had recently prosecuted an offender and explained the process of having to have clear evidence to ensure a successful prosecution.  With regards to the cost of clearing up flytipping, officers agreed to provide a written response.

Appendix E – (Uptake of pre-application advice (% of all applications - major/minor).

In response to a question raised, members were informed that the pre-application advice was to help those people developing land.  The council had committed resources and was marketing the service through a multifaceted approach.  The take-up for the service the previous year was 20%, and it was growing and predicted that in 2019-2020 this would increase to 30%.

Appendix J – (Parish Council S106 Grants) – Members questioned whether Parish Councils could apply for S106 monies, and what projects had the £61,444 used to fund.

Officers agreed to provide members with a written response on the breakdown of how the £61,444 was used.

There being no decision required, the Committee noted the 2018-2019 Performance Report – Year End Outturn.