Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 31 May 2016.

The minutes of the meeting held on 31 May 2016 were amended to show Cllr Amanda Broom was present not Cllr David Recardo, and then approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Tony Lock and Amanda Broom.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (adopted July 2012), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting. A DPI is defined in The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No. 1464) and Appendix 3 of the Council’s Code of Conduct.  A personal interest is defined in paragraph 2.8 of the Code and a prejudicial interest is defined in paragraph 2.9. In the interests of complete transparency, Members of the County Council, who are not also members of this committee, are encouraged to declare any interests they may have in any matters being discussed even though they may not be under any obligation to do so under any relevant code of conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no questions raised by members of public at the meeting.

This is an opportunity for Members to question the progress on issues arising from previous meetings.  However, this does not allow for the re-opening of a debate on any item not forming part of this agenda.

There were no issues raised from previous meetings.

The Chairman informed the committee, that as a member of the Transformation Board, she had attended a Transformation Programme - technology platform – awarenessevent at the Innovation Centre.  The event was for members to see presentations from suppliers showing the technology and solutions they provide that could support the future model - Agilisys, Verint, IEP (Intelligent Enterprise Solutions), Civica and IBM Optevia.

The next transformation board meeting is tomorrow where they will be making decisions with regard to procurement.

The Vice Chairman with the support of the Deputy Leader updated the committee on the work of the Strategic Alliance, explaining work was progressing on work streams and they had been learning from Sedgemoor with regard to lettings.

Members noted the update given by the Chairman of Scrutiny Committee this included a reminder regarding the forthcoming presentation and workshops on:

·         Informing the forthcoming Economic Development Strategy 2016 - 2020 Economic Development.

·         Transformation with consultants Ignite

The Scrutiny Committee considered the reports contained in the District Executive Agenda for the 7 July 2016 and made the following comments:

Five-year Housing Land Supply Update (agenda item 7)

The Principal Spatial Planner and Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning (Place Making) introduced the report and raised the following points during discussion and in response to member questions:

·      SSDC can currently demonstrate 4 years and two months housing land supply.

·      SSDC is not unique in facing this challenge, a recent Savills report highlights approximately 50% of other Councils across the country are also not able to deliver a 5 year housing supply.

·      There are implications to not having a five-year housing land supply, but it does not mean that the Council has to give an “automatic” approval to  all schemes, the Council’s starting point is still the Local Plan, and it the scheme is a poor scheme that creates unacceptable impacts then it can still  be refused.

·      Ultimately the issue is affected by poor delivery against targets over the last 10/11 years, since 2006, which includes a period of major recession and lack of activity in the construction sector.

·      The Council’s ability to set out a future supply of sites for housing remains healthy and has been fairly consistent – it is the fact that delivery figures (number of homes built each year) is falling behind target and makes the overall calculation more difficult..

·      The delivery is not coming forward on some of the larger sites as quickly as expected.

·      There are some complicated sites (mixed use, both housing and employment land and requiring substantial infrastructure) which are taking longer to deliver than had been expected.

·      The solution is unlikely to be reached by reducing the number of homes that are required to be built in South Somerset, as population is growing, and so the housing requirement is likely to stay similar to what it is now. The forthcoming Strategic Housing Market Assessment will be publicised soon, and is likely to show a similar housing requirements figure.

·      It’s not just about giving the permissions, developers will only build where they are confident they can sell, and so there is an issue about market capacity. .

·      To help larger sites come forward SSDC may need to consider underwriting some of the risks or infrastructure costs.

·      CIL is unlikely to have an impact on sites coming forward.

·      A planning Case Officer will always consider the policies relating to housing and the local plan, the context and circumstances of the site, the locality and the housing delivery in the local area.  Although you cannot ignore SSDC has less than five years supply.In looking at future housing requirement figures there may be the opportunity to factor in issues such as the local wage economy.

Approval of the Somerset District Authorities Regulatory Services Enforcement Policy 2015-2020 and the environmental Protection Enforcement Policy 2015-2020 (Agenda item 8)

Members supported the recommendations.

2015/16 Revenue Budget Outturn Report (Agenda item 9)

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The Chairman introduced the report and made reference to the previous meeting when members agreed to request a report.

During discussion members sought clarification of the decision making process for each of the boards from the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) and the Assistant Director (Legal and Corporate Services).

The committee raised the following points/questions:

·         The Income Generation board has no delegated powers, all decisions regarding expenditure for income generation will go to District Executive. District Executive can utilise up to 5% of Unallocated Capital Receipts (currently up to £900,000 per annum), and if a single element exceeds £900,000 the decision will be taken by Full Council.

·         Transformation Board has delegated powers to spend up to the amount that full Council allocated to the project. 

·         Donna Parham Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) is on the Transformation Board and it is part of her role to ensure monies are spent in accordance with planned expenditure.

·         The actions of the Transformation Board will be recorded at each meeting and presented to members quarterly.

·         Transformation Board will have no pre-decision Scrutiny. Can the meeting timetable be altered to enable this?

·         There is no ‘call-in’ provision for decisions taken by the Transformation Board.

·         Having Scrutiny Committee members on the Transformation Board doesn’t preclude Scrutiny of Transformation.

·         The decision of full council to proceed with transformation was on the basis of the report presented to it and the objectives set out within. It is a very important project and the decision did not mean that members would not be allowed to track progress against those objectives.

·         Should non-executive members be on the transformation board if it is decision making?

·         Are Councillors Sue Steele and John Clark going to have conflicts of interest being on both the Transformation Board and Scrutiny Committee?

·         Can agendas and reports be made available to all – perhaps use ModGov.

·         Can all members attend all board meetings to observe?  Just like committee meetings.

·         If I am on a board, am I there in a Scrutiny capacity? If I have to bring information back how do I go about reporting confidential information?

·         The main purpose of Transformation is to save money, this needs to be clear in the Vision of the Transformation Board terms of reference.  A specific figure should be included as detailed in the Business Plan and Medium Term Financial Plan.

Members agreed a document detailing the comments and concerns should be shared with the Leader of Council to ensure the discussions at August Scrutiny Committee are informed.

Members agreed to participate; no additional questions were suggested at the meeting.

It was agreed an invitation to participate should be sent to all members.

Members were updated as follows on the progress of the Task and Finish Groups currently underway:

Council Tax Reduction Review 2017

The Scrutiny Manager explained this Task and Finish group are due to meet again on 14th July.  The group intend to consider all the evidence to date, including impact assessments and to make decisions regarding:

·         What should be included in the consultation?

·         Who should be consulted?

·         How the consultation should be promoted?

·         What work if any needs to be carried out with external organisations to encourage continual feedback?

Discretionary Housing Payments

This Scrutiny Manager explained the next meeting is scheduled for 15^th July and will be attended by representatives from Shelter and Citizen’s Advice to advise members on various sensitive issues relating to this review.

Consent to Dispose of Housing Stock / Local Connections Allocation Policy

The Scrutiny Manager explained a further meeting is arranged for 28^th July to assess the evidence gathered so far and to consider SSDC’s rural lettings policy.

NNDR

NNDR discretionary relief policy review – the changes from the revised policy have taken affect from 1^st of April, this has resulted in some more feedback from ratepayers, the Task and Finish group will review this and changes in legislation regarding mandatory relief to ensure the policy still achieves what it set out to do and that the impact of the changes to mandatory relief are taken into account.  This group has yet to be formed invitations to all members will go out shortly when officer time permits.

The Leader of Council submitted a request to establish a Task and Finish group to consider elements of the proposals to establish a combined authority should members agree at Full Council to make an ‘in principle’ decision to create a Combined Authority.

The suggestion was that the Task and Finish group would work to address the concerns raised by members and to provide clarity and reassurance prior to any formal commitments being made to allow members to support the ‘in principle’ decision in July, thus ensuring SSDC remains an active participant in the ongoing Devolution discussions whilst providing capacity to thoroughly investigate the pertinent issues.

The Committee agreed they would be happy to establish a Task and Finish group; however this would be to consider suggestions and evidence provided by an officer.  This is due to the committee members and Scrutiny Managers already having a substantial workload.

Cllr Jon Clark volunteered to participate in the Task and Finish group.

Members discussed that District Executive had agreed to defer the review of Performance Monitoring until after Transformation and agreed they would like opportunity in the work programme to consider:

·         If the existing measures are still relevant and providing the specific detail that members feel they need, is it fit for purpose

·         If amendments should be made now a new Council Plan has been adopted

·         If different measures should be reported to better benchmark and measure the impact of the forthcoming changes as a result of transformation

The Scrutiny Manager informed the committee that Keeley Rudd, Chief Executive of Community Council for Somerset (CCS), had agreed to meet with members todiscuss how SSDC and CCS could work more closely together to achieve more for the community.  She was awaiting a response regarding potential meeting dates.

Members noted the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee would be held on 2 August 2016, in the Main Committee Room, Brympton Way.