Venue: Parkside, Station Approach, Burton Street, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. LE13 1GH
No. | Item |
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Child, Fisher and Holmes. |
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To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2019. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2019 were approved and authorised to be signed by the Chair. |
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Declarations of Interest PDF 50 KB Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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For Scrutiny |
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Questions to Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity PDF 95 KB Verbal presentation to be provided, setting out current performance, focus and challenges for the portfolio. Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Growth and Prosperity, Councillor
Higgins: (a) gave
a presentation (copies of which had been circulated at this meeting and is
attached), setting out current performance, focus and challenges for the
portfolio around:- ·
Town Centre, Tourism, Events and Place Promotion ·
Economic Growth and Inward Investment ·
Planning Policy and Housing Delivery ·
Major Developments (b) asked
Members if the format of the presentation had been useful and advised that more
in-depth information would be provided as the portfolio grew. Members commented that the presentation had been helpful and
they looked forward to receiving more information in due course. A Member asked if it was viable for the Council to set up a
housing company to tackle housing needs.
The Councillor Higgins provided a brief overview of how a housing
company would work and the Director for Growth and Regeneration, Mrs. Parikh
advised that there was an appetite for this.
The Council had approved it in principle last year and an outline
business case has been prepared.
Drafting a detailed business case was the next stage, once development
information was in place. A Member queried if there had been any progress on car
parking charges, in relation to pay on departure. Councillor Higgins confirmed that he had
raised this with Mrs. Parikh. This could
increase revenue for the Council. Another Member asked if developers would find it more
viable to build if the ‘builder’s contribution’ was ended. Councillor Higgins advised that the
contributions were required to provide community facility but viability was
taken into account. Referring to the Council’s five year land supply, a
Member asked how many new homes could be built during that time. The Assistant Director for Strategic Planning
and Regulatory Services, Mr. Worley advised that the Council’s supply was just
under eight years and this equated to approximately 2,500 new homes which could
be built. Another Member commented that tourism formed part of this portfolio and enquired whether the Council should recruit a Tourism Officer. Councillor Higgins advised that as yet it was unclear what the remit of such a position would be and there was no money available to fund this role. It was highly likely that if the Council did wish to recruit a Tourism Officer, the position would be funded through the revenue it created and should be partly supported by the businesses it would be involved with. |
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[The meeting adjourned at 19:35.] |
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[The meeting reconvened at 19:45.] |
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Consultation on Corporate Debt and Income Maximisation Policy PDF 113 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received a report on the Corporate Debt and
Income Maximisation Policy from the Deputy Chief Executive and Director for
People and Communities. Mr.
Aubrey, Deputy Chief Executive and Director for People and Communities,
provided a brief overview of the report, advising that Cabinet had approved the
commencement of an eight week consultation period for the Corporate Debt and
Income Maximisation Policy, as detailed at Appendix 1 of the report. The Committee were invited to provide
comments as consultees. Mr Aubrey
highlighted that details about sundry debts had been circulated to Members via
email (for background information) and hard copies of the email were available
at this meeting; A Member asked how much debt had been written off by the
Council and how performance had improved since the Debt Officer post had been
in place. Mr. Aubrey advised that the amount of debt would have to be
confirmed outside this meeting, as the information was not on hand. Bad debt provision had been increased and the
Debt Officer post had been in place for around two years. The focus had been on collecting current debt
and in year performance on collecting the current debt had improved from around
77% to around 85%. During discussion the following points were noted:- ·
Over half of the Council’s debt was in respect
of housing benefit overpayments. Members
raised whether this was in any way as a result of Universal Credit
problems. It was important to be
realistic about the likelihood of recovering this debt. ·
Members queried whether there had been an
increase in council tax support to vulnerable people and if this had
contributed to them having greater debt arrears. ·
Members wanted to be reassured that the Council
provided help, support and intervention for vulnerable people and were pleased
that this had been addressed in the Policy. ·
A Debt and Income Maximisation Policy was
needed. However, consideration should be
given as to why the Council’s level of debt was so high and this in turn needed
to inform the Policy, to ensure it was fit for purpose. ·
Members enquired about the Council’s debt,
whether it had been growing and whether officers had been chasing the debt or
if it would be written off. The Council
should put every effort into recovering monies owed to it. (The Chair highlighted that the Council aimed
to maximise its debt recovery and that this was the purpose of the Policy). ·
Payment up-front and withdrawal of service, as
detailed at paragraph 3.6 of the report was positive. It was noted that payment up-front was not
appropriate for the Lifeline service and withdrawal of service only applied to
discretionary services. ·
Members noted that the Council had a high number
of debtors opting to make payments via direct debit and that the Council aimed
to increase this number further. · The ‘balanced approach’, as detailed at paragraph 3.7 of the report was welcomed. Help and support must be given to people but action, including court action should be taken when necessary. ... view the full minutes text for item 14. |
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For Approval |
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Establishment of Task and Finish Group PDF 102 KB Housing Management Voids and Temporary Accommodation. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received a report on the Establishment of a
Task and Finish Group from the Director for Law and Governance. Mrs.
Wylie, Director for Law and Governance introduced the report by highlighting
that at the last meeting of this Committee, Members had considered the Workplan and had indicated that they would like to
undertake a review of Housing Management Voids and Temporary
Accommodation. Mrs. Wylie drew Members
attention to Appendix 1 of the report (Terms of Reference), advising that the
scoping exercise could be used to determine if these were appropriate. Any revisions would be proposed at the next
meeting of this Committee and would not inhibit the Task Group from starting
the review. The revised Scoping Document
and an update on the work of the Group would be presented at the next meeting. A Member commented that they did not want to lose focus on
Homelessness. The impact of registered social
landlords and private landlords needed to be considered. RESOLVED (1) To
APPROVE the establishment of a Task
and Finish Group to review Housing Voids Management and Temporary
Accommodation. The review will support
the organisational review of service quality and will give Members the
opportunity to understand the systems thinking methodology currently being
deployed for service improvement; (2) To
APPROVE the Terms of Reference
(which included the scope of the review) and NOTE that revisions may be proposed to the next meeting of the
Committee, as scheduled in the Annual Calendar of Meetings, once a Scoping
Document has been completed by the Group.
Any revisions shall not inhibit the Group from commencing the review; (3) To
NOTE
that the Scoping Document shall include a timetable for completion of
the review and shall be presented to the next meeting of the Committee, as
scheduled in the Annual Calendar of Meetings; (4) To APPROVE the membership of the Task and Finish Group to be no more than four Members, which shall include the Chair of this Committee and three other Members, as determined by the Chair (one place to be offered to the Opposition Group). |
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For Review Only |
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Review of Forward Plan and Annual Work Plan PDF 80 KB To consider the Forward Plan and identify any relevant items for inclusion in the work plan, or to request further information. Copies of the latest Forward Plan will be available at the meeting. It can be found on the website using the following link:- Minutes: Mrs. Wylie (a) asked
Members to consider what they would like to include in the Work Plan. Comments should be submitted to the Chair and
Vice Chair; (b) confirmed
that currently, there were no consultation items on the Forward Plan (for the
period August 2019 to October 2019).
Relevant items would be brought to Members attention accordingly; (c) highlighted
that the new Democratic Services Manager would be in post on Monday (29 July). A Member asked Mrs. Wylie, Director for Law and Governance
to clarify that the Members were able to request that the Leader of the Council
attend a Committee meeting to answer questions and she confirmed that Members
were able to do this. Other Members asked if it would be possible to invite
partner organisations, such as the Police and Crime Commissioner. Mrs. Wylie highlighted that the Leader was
the Council’s link to the Police and Crime Commissioner and confirmed that the
Committee was able to invite any partner agency to attend a meeting if they
wished. Any relevant items for inclusion in the Work Plan should be submitted to the Chair for further consideration at the next meeting of this Committee (on 17 September 2019). |
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Review Updates To receive any updates on reviews which are being undertaken. Minutes: There were no review updates. |
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Urgent Business To consider any other items that the Chair considers urgent Minutes: There was no urgent business. |