Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllrs P Heinrich, S Penfold, C Rouse and N Housden.

None.

To receive questions / statements from the public, if any.

None received.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 11 June 2025.

The minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 11^th June were approved as a correct record, subject the following appendment:

Anglian Water will discuss their answers when they come back to speak at the committee. If members have any specific, further, questions, before then, these will be collated and Anglian Water asked to respond before so they can be discussed at that later meeting.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests that they may have in any of the following items on the agenda. The Code of Conduct for Members requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

None.

To determine any other items of business which the Chairman decides should be considered as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

None received

To consider any petitions received from members of the public.

None received

To consider any requests made by non-executive Members of the Council, submitted to the Democratic Services Manager with seven clear working days’ notice, to include an item on the agenda of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

There were no matters for consideration referred to the Committee by a member.

AGENDA ITEM 9: 2024/2025 OUTTURN REPORT

Decision

RESOLVED: To recommend the following to full Council:

a)  The provisional outturn position for the General Fund revenue account for 2024/25 (as shown in Appendix A);

b)  The transfers to and from reserves as detailed within the report (and Appendix C);

c) The surplus of £0.622m be transferred to the General reserve to mitigate future funding shortfalls.

d) The balance on the General Reserve of £2.825m following the transfer outlined above.

e) The surplus of £0.384m relating to retained business rates be transferred to the Business Rates reserve.

f) The financing of the 2024/25 capital programme as detailed within the report and at Appendix D.

g) The updated capital programme for 2025/26 to 2030/31 and scheme financing as outlined within the report and detailed at Appendix E;

h) Approval of additional funding to cover capital project overspends of £10,816 as detailed in paragraph 5.7.

i) The roll-forward of existing capital project funding from 2024/25 into 2025/26 as detailed in paragraph 5.9.

j). To note the addition of £55,000 towards the New Play Area (Sheringham, The Lees) to be funded from the Asset Management Reserve in 2025/26 for a total project budget of £120,000

k) The addition of £6,081 towards the Cromer Offices LED Lighting in the Capital Programme to be funded from Capital Receipts in 2025/26 for a total project budget of £178,796.

l) The addition of £20,000 towards the Public Conveniences (Sheringham & North Walsham) project in the Capital Programme to be funded from Capital Receipts in 2025/26 for a total project budget of £565,514.

m) The addition of the Holt Eco Learning Space scheme for £100,000 into the 2025/26 Capital Programme to be funded by an external contribution.

ACTIONS:

-        Pg.36, 3.10, the total income for 2024/25 Outturn should be amended to £36,358

-        Concerns were raised about the impact of LGR on staff recruitment and wellbeing and following advice from the Director of Service Delivery, it was agreed that a report on this matter should be brought forward to the Autumn, once the submission process for LGR had been completed.

The Chairman invited the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Cllr L Shires, to present this item.

Cllr Shires thanked the Committee and the Officers for their hard work. Cllr Shires noted the work done in 24/25 would put the council in a stronger position for the 26/27-year budget.

Cllr Shires summarised the report and the outturn position for 2024/25 which was a general fund surplus of £0.622m

Cllr Shires wished to add an additional change from Pg. 41 5.6(a) that the underspend in the Purchase of Bin capital budget be put towards the cost of delivering food waste which is not fully funded by the Council. She has suggested to Cabinet this be moved to an additional capital budget to help bring up the shortfall.

Cllr Shires suggested this be an additional recommendation.

The Chair then invited members to speak.

In response to Cllr Fletcher’s question, regarding the surplus and the general reserve levels, as to why the Council is retaining the surplus for future eventualities,   Cllr Shires said that early indicators suggest a significant shortfall in Government funding for next year and with that future uncertainty it was prudent to budget for a shortfall with the surplus the Council is putting in general reserves.

Cllr Bayes highlighted that none of the capital bids were east of North Walsham and questioned how this cycle could be broken to enable investment to come into Stalham, as all assets had been sold off in those areas. Cllr Shires explained the 25/26 budget would be monitored for future investment and that Stalham is referred to in the corporate plan. The Committee was informed that the Leader, Cllr Adams was positive about the budget, and investment, once a vision for the area was in place. It was recognised that Stalham, and other eastern areas, would be in a safer place to receive further investment beyond any current Council set up if local members for those areas continued to promote that need.

Cllr Shires provided assurance to Cllr Boyle on savings on repairs and maintenance to assets. Cllr Shires agreed that assets had previously not been invested in prior to this or previous administrations due to budget constraints but assured the committee that the underspend was only due to sound budget management by the Officers. Cllr Boyle thanked Officers and Portfolio Holders for their scrutiny.

Cllr Cushing said he was pleased to see the surplus from 2024/25 but expressed concerns around sound financial planning as back in February, an approximately £1m deficit had been anticipated and this had turned into an actual £0.660m surplus. He highlighted the £1.6m variance on forecast and asked how such a big variance could be accounted for. Cllr Cushing referred to the net cost of service which went from £23.6 million in January to just shy of £19 million which provided a variance of £4.7 million. He then questioned what assurance the Committee had in any future estimates provided given the extreme differences.

Cllr Shires explained to the Committee, that previously  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Decision

RESOLVED to recommend that Full Council:

1. Approves the annual report which details the Council’s write-offs, in accordance with the Council’s Debt Write-Off Policy and performance in relation to revenues collection.

Approves the continued delegated authority as shown in appendix 2 for write offs.

Cllr Shires presented the report to the committee and congratulated the Revenues team for their hard work and their national standing and recognition.

Cllr Cushing made an observation about the low level of direct debit (DD) payments and asked if there was ongoing work to encourage more of the public to pay this way.  Cllr Shires explained that there was ongoing work actively encouraging and supporting residents to switch to DDs. Cllr Shires concluded that support and education, and awareness of Council Tax Support (CTS), to help bridge financial gaps and a shift from paying by cash for instance and onto DD, was needed. The Revenues team were working hard to achieve this, with the Financial Inclusion (FI) and Benefits teams, to assure residents’ support was out there.

Cllr Bailey sought further clarification on charging orders. Cllr Shires assured the committee this route was very much a last resort but would provide figures for the committee on this as soon as possible. Cllr Shires explained that for many there were much wider issues ongoing than not paying Council Tax and the recovery methods taken were reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Cllr Shires said that the Council wanted to support residents who were struggling financially.

Cllr Boyle thanked the team for an excellent report and their hard work.

The Chair commented that the level of DD payments was also low for non-domestic rates (NDR), at 30% and asked if members should be concerned. Cllr Shires agreed it did appear low but said that it might depend on the size of the business as many small businesses would prefer to be more in control of when they paid due to cashflow for example. Cllr Shires did recognise this was something that could be explored when the next consultation with local businesses was undertaken to try and understand what the barriers were for them not paying via DD

The Committee RESOLVED to make the following recommendations to Full Council:

1. Approves the annual report which details the Council’s write-offs, in accordance with the Council’s Debt Write-Off Policy and performance in relation to revenues collection.

2. Approves the continued delegated authority as shown in appendix 2 for write offs.

Decision

RESOLVED to recommend:

1. That Full Council approves the annual report giving details of Housing Benefit Overpayment debt recovery in accordance with the Council’s Debt Recovery Policy, Write-Off Policy, and Housing Benefit Overpayment Recovery Policy.

ACTION:

The technical nature of the report was raised and it was suggested that future reports were written in a more accessible format.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing & Benefits, Cllr W Fredericks, presented the report to the committee and said that she wished to highlight how much the Council’s teams supported residents and always took a compassionate approach.

Cllr Cushing commented it was a challenging report to draw anything from and suggested a more readable and better layout for future versions might be helpful. He asked for the following to be included: how much was paid out in Housing Benefit; the amount of and main causes for overpayment; and what was being or might be done to recoup that money.

Cllr Cushing sought clarification regarding the information set out on Pg.118, commenting that the total overpayment to recover stood at £0.918m whereas on Pg.116 it stated the Council was required to pay back the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) 60% of the overpayment. Cllr Cushing questioned whether the risk to NNDC was £0.550m.

The Assistant Director for People Services explained that the £0.918m was total debt accumulated to the Council, over a number of systems, and increased year on year. The overpayment figure changed throughout the year as, even though the Council was recovering debt, more debt was accumulated as overpayments were discovered. As people migrated to Universal Credit (UC) there was a reduction in housing benefit (HB) being paid out but also a reduction in the means for recovery as the Council cannot recover through ongoing HB benefit payments.

Cllr Cushing asked how regularly the Council paid back overpayments to the DWP and whether HB was still a benefit that the Council was responsible for overseeing. The Asst Director for People Services explained this was through an annual subsidy claim, not a repayment and that the Council would continue to pay HB until the full transition to UC was completed.

Cllr Fredericks confirmed HB was a legacy system as people slowly converted over to UC which pays a lump sum with a housing (costs) element Included.

The Assistant Director People Services clarified that UC was not currently migrating over all HB claimants and explained that pensioners were still able to claim although there were ongoing discussions for housing costs to be included in Pension Credit. The Assistant Director explained that those in Temp. Accommodation and Supported Housing would need to claim and be paid HB as this was not currently part of UC benefit. It was highlighted to the Committee that there were challenges for recovery ahead, as systems changes were introduced, and the Benefits teams work level was not reducing. Although the number of claims was going down the high level of HB being paid was due to number of vulnerable customers and the many ‘Change in Circumstances’ for existing HB and UC claimants as these changes could affect CTS.

In response to the Chairs question regarding benchmarking across Councils in Norfolk, the Assistant Director People Services explained that the demographics of claimants was very different in each area, with North Norfolk having many older claimants compared to perhaps Norwich  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

The Portfolio Holder for Housing & Benefits, Cllr Fredericks, presented the report to the committee.

The Assistant Director for People Services explained this was an early pre- scrutiny review. This stage set out the process for the review, then the review would be undertaken over the coming months, culminating in a draft and then final strategy. The team would be coming back to O&S Committee to consider the review and strategy as pre scrutiny.

Cllr Cushing asked if the new strategy would vary greatly from the existing strategy and questioned the impact of LGR. The Assistant Director People Services explained the new strategy would be mindful of LGR, but it will not change for the people who needed support. There may be risks with LGR that meant that those people would have a larger area for which to be considered for housing, and constraints may be introduced, but Officers would continue to be as compassionate as possible, remain concerned about the quality of Temp. Accommodation and the need to keep people local. Cllr Fredericks said she was a member of the East of England Housing and Homelessness Delivery Group working with other councils in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex in this respect, for ‘life after’ LGR.

Cllr Boyle asked if the Council was fully utilising different upstream services like the Early Help Hub and other initiatives. Cllr Fredericks confirmed Community Connectors actively encouraged people to come to the Council for help before they became homeless, the Early Help Hub team was identifying those who were at risk of homelessness. The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) was also now present in the council offices for further support and cases involving bankruptcy etc.

Cllr Fletcher asked about the work to get empty homes back into use. Cllr Fredericks confirmed that officers were working very hard to contact and investigate any empty homes and to get them back into market sale or market rent but explained that it was unlikely that they could be renovated to a standard where they could be used for Temp. Accommodation as they have been unused for so long and would incur costs to renovate. 

The Chair asked if the review was tailored to the North Norfolk housing market. The Assistant Director People Services advised that the process itself was prescribed but when the data was assessed it would be localised. As far as empty homes are concerned, these would not help homelessness, and the strategy should be focussed on understanding what was needed to help that cohort as per the Council’s allocation programme. She added homelessness was higher profile for the Council than previously.

Cllr Bailey commented that it was helpful for O&S to understand geographically (at parish level) where the need was locally to help find sites. Additionally, he felt it would be helpful to hear of success stories as currently the perception was that Temp. Accommodation costs, were a short-term funding requirement and often linked to domestic abuse, and this could help educate residents and their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

To consider any responses of the Council or the Cabinet to the Committee’s reports or recommendations:

Noted

To note the upcoming Cabinet Work Programme.

No comments

To receive an update from the Scrutiny Officer on progress made with topics on its agreed work programme, training updates and to receive any further information which Members may have requested at a previous meeting.

No comments

To pass the following resolution, if necessary:

“That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph _ of Part I of Schedule 12A (as amended) to the Act.”