Agenda item

At the Cabinet meeting held on 4^th September, the following recommendations were made to Full Council:

Agenda item 9: Budget Monitoring Period 4 2023-2024

To recommend to Full Council:

1)    That a new capital budget of £0.050m is added to the capital programme to fund repair works to the Marrams Footpath, with funding coming from the Council’s Capital Receipts.

2)    That a new capital budget of £0.370m is added to the capital programme to demolish and rebuild the Public Conveniences at Albert Street, Holt with £0.120m to be funded from an insurance claim and £0.250m to be funded from the Council’s Capital Receipts.

3)    That a new capital budget of £1.040m is added to the capital programme in respect of the Local Authority Housing Fund.

4)    That the current Provision of Temporary Accommodation Budget is increased by £0.178m to £0.983m for 2023/24 following receipt of the Local Authority Housing Fund grant.

5)    That a capital budget of £1.458m be added to the capital programme for the Rural England Prosperity Fund expenditure and £0.266m be added to the capital programme for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund expenditure as shown in paragraph 4.7 and note that this will be funded by external funding.

6)    That a capital budget of £14.610m be added to the capital programme as shown in paragraph 4.8 and note that the project will be funded by external funding. 

The Overview & Scrutiny Committee considered the recommendations at their meeting on 13^th September. As this meeting took place after the Full Council agenda was published, the Chairman of the Committee will provide a verbal update on the Committee’s recommendations and comments at the meeting.

Agenda item 10: Debt Recovery Report 2022-2023

1. To approve the annual report giving details of the Council’s write-offs in accordance with the Council’s Debt Write-Off Policy and performance in relation to revenues collection.
2. To approve the suggested changes to the delegated authority as shown in appendix 2 for write offs.

The Overview & Scrutiny Committee considered the recommendations at their meeting on 13^th September. As this meeting took place after the Full Council agenda was published, the Chairman of the Committee will provide a verbal update on the Committee’s recommendations and comments at the meeting.

Agenda Item 11 - Cromer Phase 2 and Mundesley Coastal management Schemes

To recommend that Full Council:

1)    Confirm its continued support for the approach being taken in the delivery of the Mundesley and Cromer Phase 2 Coastal Management Schemes.

2)    Delegate the authority to Director of Place and Climate Change, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder, to approve quotations, tenders, funding applications, access agreements and contractual appointments/variations. This is so the schemes can continue to progress in a timely manner.

3)    Approve increases in the delegated financial authority for the Director of Place and Climate Change (up to £1 million), for the Assistant Director of Place and Climate Change (up to £500,000) and for the Project Manager (up to £100,000) for these two schemes only.

4)    Approve an increase to the value of the Cromer and Mundesley coastal protection schemes from £6.476m (approved by full Council on 1 March 2023) to £25m within the Capital Programme.  This is subject to securing the additional grant funding of £18.524m for the scheme from the Environment Agency (EA).

5)    Approve the descoping of the schemes if the grant funding secured from the EA is less than the Council has applied for so that expenditure will be fully met by the total grant to be awarded by the EA.

1.     Cabinet Agenda item 9: Budget Monitoring Period 4 2023 – 2024

Cllr Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance, introduced this item. She began by explaining that the report summarised the budget monitoring position for the revenue account, capital programme and reserves statement to the end of July 2023. The overall position at the end of July 2023 showed a £3,905,574 underspend on the revenue account, however, this was expected to deliver a full year overspend of £25,000. Referring to section 3.10, she said that the final variance on business rates would not be known until the end of the financial year. In conclusion, she spoke to the recommendations 2 – 7, which outlined additions to the capital budget, explaining the reasons behind each request. She said that she wanted to direct Fakenham members to pages 91, 92 and 95 which set out funding for several schemes linked to the town, adding that she hoped this reassured Local Members that the Administration was committed to supporting growth in Fakenham. She said that she would work with the Estates and Property Services teams to ensure that the funding allocated to the town was detailed in a clearer way in future.

The Chairman invited members to speak:

Cllr N Dixon, Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, said that two queries had been raised at the last meeting of the committee. The first related to the lack of mention in the Budget Monitoring report regarding risks linked to the delays to the External audit of the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 Final Accounts and the impact on the accuracy of the reporting of the Council’s finances. The second query related to the need to borrow £10m to pay off £6.2m. He added that there was an undertaking to provide written replies but these had not been issued yet.

The Chief Executive said that similar points had been raised at the recent meeting of the Governance, Risk & Audit Committee. In respect of the outstanding audit / external audit completion, he had explained that Local Government Minister, Lee Rowley, had written to local authorities advising that due to a national issue relating to the sequency and capacity of external auditors across the local government sector as a whole, this was a widespread issue. He reminded Members that the Leader had advised Full Council earlier in the meeting that the accounts for 2021/21 had now been completed. The Chief Executive went onto say that the Director for Finance had attended a Department of Housing, Levelling Up and Communities (DHLUC) webinar which laid out the key dates for future outstanding audits to be completed by. Regarding the short-term borrowing of £10m to cover the repayment of covid grants, he said this was due to a cashflow issue due to the short notice from the Government to repay the funds. He explained that there were cashflow issues at the time due to the payment of parish precepts, which were £6.7m. For this reason, £10m was borrowed to cover the cashflow issues. The Director for Finance confirmed this, adding that council tax income was received over a 10 month period, whereas precept payments were paid over a 12 month period, causing cashflow issues in February and March each year. This had been exacerbated this year by the request from central government to repay the Covid grant funding at short notice.

Cllr H Blathwayt, commented that the Coastwise scheme was a good example of external funding that the Council received. Cllr Shires agreed.

Cllr L Vickers referred to the earlier comments regarding investment in Fakenham and said that it seemed as though local members, Cllr Housden and the County Councillor had not been included in key discussions about the future of the town. She asked whether the Portfolio Holder for Finance would be willing to meet with them to discuss the allocation of funds to Fakenham. Cllr Shires said that she would welcome the opportunity.

It was proposed by Cllr L Shires, seconded by Cllr H Blathwayt and

RESOLVED

1)    That a new capital budget of £0.050m is added to the capital programme to fund repair works to the Marrams Footpath, with funding coming from the Council’s Capital Receipts.

2)    That a new capital budget of £0.370m is added to the capital programme to demolish and rebuild the Public Conveniences at Albert Street, Holt with £0.120m to be funded from an insurance claim and £0.250m to be funded from the Council’s Capital Receipts.

3)    That a new capital budget of £1.040m is added to the capital programme in respect of the Local Authority Housing Fund.

4)    That the current Provision of Temporary Accommodation Budget is increased by £0.178m to £0.983m for 2023/24 following receipt of the Local Authority Housing Fund grant.

5)    That a capital budget of £1.458m be added to the capital programme for the Rural England Prosperity Fund expenditure and £0.266m be added to the capital programme for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund expenditure as shown in paragraph 4.7 and note that this will be funded by external funding.

6)    That a capital budget of £14.610m be added to the capital programme as shown in paragraph 4.8 and note that the project will be funded by external funding. 

2.     Cabinet Agenda item 10: Debt Recovery Report 2022-2023

Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance, introduced this item. She explained that this was an annual report providing details of the Council’s collection performance and debt management arrangements for 2022/2023. She drew Members’ attention to pages 107,108 and 110 which set out the key information. She concluded by saying that the Council sat in the top 5% for business rates collection and the top 11% for council tax collection, nationally. She thanked staff for their continued hard work.

It was proposed by Cllr L Shires, seconded by Cllr W Fredericks and

RESOLVED

1. To approve the annual report giving details of the Council’s write-offs in accordance with the Council’s Debt Write-Off Policy and performance in relation to revenues collection.
2. To approve the suggested changes to the delegated authority as shown in appendix 2 for write offs.

3.     Cabinet Agenda item 11: Cromer Phase 2 and Mundesley Coastal Management Schemes

The Portfolio Holder for Coast, Cllr H Blathwayt, introduced this item. He explained that the report provided an update on the schemes and recommended next steps.

It was proposed by Cllr H Blathwayt, seconded by Cllr W Fredericks and

RESOLVED

1)    Confirm its continued support for the approach being taken in the delivery of the Mundesley and Cromer Phase 2 Coastal Management Schemes.

2)    Delegate the authority to Director of Place and Climate Change, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder, to approve quotations, tenders, funding applications, access agreements and contractual appointments/variations. This is so the schemes can continue to progress in a timely manner.

3)    Approve increases in the delegated financial authority for the Director of Place and Climate Change (up to £1 million), for the Assistant Director of Place and Climate Change (up to £500,000) and for the Project Manager (up to £100,000) for these two schemes only.

4)    Approve an increase to the value of the Cromer and Mundesley coastal protection schemes from £6.476m (approved by full Council on 1 March 2023) to £25m within the Capital Programme.  This is subject to securing the additional grant funding of £18.524m for the scheme from the Environment Agency (EA).

5)    Approve the descoping of the schemes if the grant funding secured from the EA is less than the Council has applied for so that expenditure will be fully met by the total grant to be awarded by the EA.