Agenda item

The Scrutiny Committee considered the reports contained in the District Executive Agenda for the 1 September 2016 and made the following comments:

SSDC / Yarlington Homes Right to Buy (RTB) Clawback Agreement (Agenda item 6)

This item was discussed as a separate item on the Scrutiny Agenda

SSDC Medium Term Financial Strategy and Plan (Agenda item 7)

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) introduced the report and explained that the report was being brought before members a month early to consider the Rate Support Grant (RSG) offer by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Regarding the four year settlement and the potential negative RSG in year 4, Scrutiny members asked how many other authorities nationally are in a similar position and to what extent a co-ordinated approach with such authorities is being pursued?

Some members queried recommendation 8 and suggested that the decision should in fact be made by Full Council and to accommodate this, a meeting could be arranged for 13^th October.

Members questioned whether there should be a more explicit reference in the report to the risk (and appropriate mitigating actions) should the Transformation Programme not deliver the anticipated savings? The Committee noted the Leader’s comments that there is in effect no risk as if the Transformation savings are not achieved, services will be cut to balance the budget.

Scrutiny Committee asked if the explanation in paragraph 22 could be amended to reflect that the savings are all over the 5 year period and are in addition to the potential savings attributed to Transformation.

Affordable Housing Development Programme (Agenda item 8)

The Corporate Strategic Housing Manger introduced the report and provided the headlines of the report, he emphasised that SSDC will need to increase the amount of money available to ensure a supply of affordable homes remain available for rent.

Members thanked the officer for a very comprehensive report and noted that the outcome of the ongoing Task and Finish Group looking at the issue of the disposal of affordable housing in rural communities will have an impact on this report going forward.

South Somerset Authority Monitoring Report (September 2016) (Agenda item 9)

The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning (Place Making) and the Assistant Director (Economy) gave an overview of the report and gave examples of the work being undertaken to address the issues identified.

Members noted that there is no explicit reference to ‘Tourism’ within the report and felt that this was a significant omission given the important contribution Tourism makes to the local economy. The Committee were pleased to note that the team would look at this point.

Members thanked the officers for a very detailed and accessible report produced during a very busy time for the team.

The Committee also noted that it is important strong links are maintained between this monitoring report and the emerging Economic Development Strategy.

Quarterly Corporate Performance and Complaints Monitoring Report – 1^st Quarter 2016/17 (Agenda item 10)

The Performance Officer provided an overview of the report.

Scrutiny members suggested that in the officer comments for PI 003 (% of Planning Appeals decisions allowed) it would be useful to also include the amount of any costs awarded against the authority. Members were pleased to note that officers said this information is readily available and is already being monitored at the request of the Portfolio Holder.

PI 019 - Average number of days in Temporary Accommodation, Scrutiny Committee members requested their appreciation and thanks are passed to the Housing Staff who very effectively and efficiently managed a very complex and serious incident earlier this year whilst maintaining the usual service.

PI 031 (% of calls to contact centre resolved in the contact centre)

Last time the Performance monitoring report was discussed, Scrutiny Committee members noted that whilst it is not currently possible to collect the data for this specific indicator, there is a significant amount of useful performance information that is available and could be reported to members.

Scrutiny members felt that continually reporting that the data is not available could be damaging in a public report and whilst members recognise the value to the Transformation Programme of this particular indicator, they would recommend that additional indicators are included to provide as full a performance picture as possible. In particular, Scrutiny Members would suggest that additional indicators to monitor the length of time taken to answer calls to the contact centre and levels of customer satisfaction that are already collected are included.

District Executive Forward Plan (Agenda item 11)

Scrutiny Committee made no comments.