Agenda and draft minutes

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RESOLVED: Councillor J Collingham was appointed Chair for the meeting.

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RESOLVED: Councillor C Sampson was appointed Vice Chair for the meeting.

RESOLVED: The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.  Those declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak on an item, or simply observing the meeting.

There was none.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chair proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act, 1972.

There was none.

Councillor A Kemp was present.

Councillors F Bone, I Devereux, H Humphrey, Parish and D Tyler were present on zoom.

There was none.

Papers will follow and will be included in the Agenda for the Cabinet Meeting on 7^th February 2023 once published.

Members are requested to consider the reports and make any appropriate recommendations to Cabinet.

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Officers presented the Financial Plan 2022/2027 to Members.  The Chair thanked officers for their presentation and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below, some of which had been provided in advance:

In response to a question on suggesting the IDBs reduced their levies to assist with the funding gap, it was noted that they were able to raise their levy each year by statute, and the Council was not in able to withhold funding or dictate their levies, but lobbying of the government on how they were funded would continue.

The question of how business rates were assessed and shared  between County and District as the Borough should not depend on rebates if it was to grow.  The report set out the issues with the business rates retention scheme, currently the surplus growth in rates was distributed in the Norfolk Pool.  However it was not known how this would work in the future until Government announced their proposals for the scheme going forward.  Councillor Morley clarified that it was important to know the distribution of the business rates with the County Deal.

A question on the breakdown of renewable energy rates into onshore and off shore was raised. The response was that offshore wind farms were not rateable (the Crown owned the seabed) so no business rates came directly from them.  We do get business rates from the cables connecting the offshore windfarms to the national grid if the substation and the majority of distance the cable runs over land is in our area.  Solar Farms were rated on their output in MWH.

Councillor Crofts asked for the breakdown of the amount of Council Tax collected which came to the Borough.  This was confirmed as 7% which came to the Borough, and 3% of that was passed out to the IDBs leaving 4% to the Borough.

Under standing order 34 Councillor Kemp asked whether the Borough would continue to receive the Shared Prosperity Fund in 2025 if the County Deal was approved. It was confirmed that the Fund was picked up in the Capital Programme report.  SPF allocations up to 2024/25 were allocated directly to the Borough Council and other districts and it was understood that under the County Deal arrangements would to NCC.  It would be important for the borough to engage with NCC to ensure the priorities identified in the West Norfolk Investment Fund continued to be met from the SPF.

Councillor Bubb asked which fees and charges were rising.   It was explained that work was being carried out on fees there were some statutory charges would go up including the planning fees.

Councillor Ryves asked about the major projects in the capital programme and the projected profit or loss shown over the years on some projects when the property market may reduce and whether additional losses had been factored in.  It was explained that the major housing projects formed the significant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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Officers presented the Treasury Management Strategy and informed Members that the Council was required to receive and approve the Treasury Management Strategy Statement, Annual Investment Strategy, and Minimum Revenue Provision Policy Statement.

The Chair thanked officers for their report. There were no questions.  On being put to the vote there was 1 abstention.

RESOLVED: That the Joint Panel support the recommendations to Cabinet as set out below.

Cabinet is asked to recommend that Council approve:

·         The Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2023/2024, including treasury       indicators for 2023-2027.

·         The Minimum Revenue Provision Policy 2023/2024

·         The Investment Strategy 2023/2024

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Officers presented the Capital Strategy for 2023/24 which outlined the principles and framework that shaped the Council’s Capital decisions.

The Chair thanked officers for their report and invited questions and comments from the Panel, as summarised below.

Councillor Morley asked whether there was enough flexibility in the Treasury Strategy to respond to the capital programme.  It was confirmed that there was monthly monitoring of the programme and finances and opportunity to amend the forecasts in the mid year treasury report.  At the moment it reflected what was in the capital programme, but more work would be undertaken on the projects feeding into it.  There was increased volatility due to the current climate which meant it was important to regularly monitor them.

Under standing order 34 Councillor Kemp asked whether with the saving of money on turnover savings would it put additional pressure on staff with already heavy workloads.  It was confirmed that at the present time there were a high number of unfilled posts which were actively being recruited to.  Where there was a need other alternatives to fill those gaps were considered.

Councillor Kemp also asked if there was a fair apportionment of staff resources on the Town Deal or MUCH work.  It was confirmed that the County Council had staff working on their projects whilst the Borough Council staff had supported the business case side of these projects as the accountable body.  There would be some support going forward but not to the detriment of the Borough.

Councillor Morley commented that officers should be advising on the prudential indicators and what they meant.

On being put to the vote, there were 4 Abstentions. 

RESOLVED: That the Joint Panel support the recommendations to Cabinet as set out below:

1)     That Cabinet approve the Capital Strategy for 2023/2024.

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Officers presented the Capital Estimates report which revised the 2022/2023 projections for spending on the capital programme, set out an estimate of capital resources available for 2022-2027, detailed new capital bids to be included in the programme and outlined provisional figures for capital expenditure for the period 2022-2027.

The Chair thanked officers for their report and invited questions and comments, as summarised below.

Some questions had been submitted in advance as follows:

It was suggested that the reserves be held at the current figures as they were under threat.  The expenditure per annum may be overstated as the forecast had been reduced from £69m to £35m.  It was reported that reserves would be on hold pending evaluation to support the budget proposals set out in the financial plan.

More information was requested on the Capital Financing Requirement against the backdrop of costs escalating over time and a potential funding gap that would need covering.  It was reported that there was an increase in unsupported borrowing requirement built into the financial plan based on the current programme and projections.  Projects would undergo reassessment  and financial implication would be determined through the decision making channels.  A breakdown of the financing requirement could be seen at section 4.7.1 of the financial plan.

With regard to what assets would exist against unsupported borrowing, it was reported that these funding streams supported a number of projects in the capital programme, the detail for which would be provided in a separate table to follow.

A question was asked on what the predicted deficits of the major housing projects were.  This was covered earlier in the meeting.

In response to a question on what the options for disposal of assets, it was confirmed that there was currently no strategy in place  to deal with the disposal of assets and no proposals in the financial plan for such  other than the housing development.

Following a question on the cost of de carbonisation, it was explained that this was being looked at and would be responded to when the information was available.

A question was asked on where the underwriting of the Guildhall and Parkway deficit.  The funding of the Capital programme was set out in section 7 of the Capital programme report, although the detail of funding against each capital project would follow.

In response to a question on the cost of operational schemes attention was drawn to Appendix 2 of the Capital Programme report which listed each project.

In response to a question of how the leisure refurbishment was funded, it was explained that it was through various schemes -  capital receipts, unsupported borrowing, grants and reserves.  The detail of the funding against each project would follow.

A question was raised on whether risk assessments had been carried out on various strategies.  It was noted that emerging pressures continued to be updated and reflected in the corporate risk register and project registers. There was a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.