Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Finance and Support

Cabinet noted the report and the forecast overspend of £99k on the Net Cost of Services.

Councillor Clarke sought clarification from the Monitoring Officer in respect of the Chair’s comments on the previous item in respect of the questions he had raised.  The Monitoring Officer commented that the meeting was a Cabinet meeting at which Councillors could address.  Addresses should help to clarify any decision that Cabinet was to make.  If an address did not do this then the Chair could legitimately take the view he had expressed.  The Monitoring Officer also commented that the Council’s Constitution could not take into account every circumstance that might arise.

Councillor Clarke referred to the underspend on community centres and noted that this information had not been given to Overview and Scrutiny Task and Finish Group, which was currently looking at community centres.  He also queried the projected outturn of income of £1.4m from the cleaning and decoration of communal areas and queried whether tenants were getting value for money, as in some instances no work appeared to be undertaken and in others the cleaning might take place or cleaning and decoration might take place.  There appeared to be no uniform standard.  Councillor Clarke requested that if an answer could not be provided at the meeting, that he be written to with a response.

The Director of Finance and Support submitted a report, which identified a projected outturn position for the current financial year for the housing revenue account.  The report also included further background information and also referred to the management action being taken in response to the forecast and to minimise the impact on the HRA’s working balances at the end of the financial year.  The Director noted that the HRA had remained stable over the preceding quarter and that the projected overspend had also stabilised.  She noted that the final outturn would probably be around the budget figure.  It was expected that some works under Repairs and Maintenance would be capitalised.  The Director commented that the special services part of the HRA did not relate to community centres, which were part of the General Fund.  The cost referred to in this report related to community rooms and were mainly employee based.  Councillor Beardsworth noted that the community rooms referred to were the ones usually associated with sheltered housing schemes. 

Councillor B Hoare noted that a report had already been notified on the forward plan, which would review the service given in respect of communal areas and agreed that there should be a consistent approach.

RESOLVED: That the report and forecast overspend of £99,000 on the net cost of services to the Housing Revenue Account be noted.