Agenda item

The Chairman invited Cllr L Shires, Portfolio Holder for Finance & Assets, to introduce this item. She began by saying that the report that would be presented to Full Council would be updated to reflect the recent staff pay award. She then outlined each of the recommendations in turn and directed members to the relevant sections of the report, which set out the supporting detail for each one. Cllr Shires then spoke about page 37, section 2.8 of the report, which detailed the increasing cost pressure of providing temporary accommodation to homeless households. She asked Cllr W Fredericks, Portfolio Holder for Housing to elaborate on this.

Cllr Fredericks said that she had recently been asked to speak at a National Temporary Accommodation Summit, along with four other councils, presenting to 110 councils. The aim was to ask to Government for more financial support to deal with the issue of homelessness. She said that the main reasons for the increase in homelessness were domestic abuse and private lets coming to an end – often because the properties were being sold or because they were being turned into holiday lets. The original budget was between £600-700k a year and it was likely to be £1.2m in the next financial year, which was a huge increase. Many families were placed in bed and breakfast establishments, usually out of District and away from family, work and school. She said that this was a nationwide problem and all councils were asking for financial support from Government. She said that the Council was doing everything it could but was running out of feasible solutions.

Cllr L Shires concluded by referring members to page 39, section 3.7 of the report. This set out the current position with retained business rates.

The Director for Finance & Resources (DFR)advised the Committee that officers were taking measures to review budgets and make savings. The savings that had already been achieved on staffing would be taken forward.

The Chairman invited members to speak:

      i.        Cllr C Cushing referred to the amount of money that the Council was spending on borrowing, approximately £300k. He said he had raised this as a concern previously and had asked how this could be avoided in the future and he wondered if there were any other examples of when access to available cash may be needed at short notice. The DFR replied the Council was required to hold a certain level of liquid assets in terms of cash and everything else was tied up in investments. The amount lost in payments on interest on borrowing had been off-set by the amount not taken from investments.  She added that she was closely monitoring any borrowing to ensure that it was managed very carefully and only done for short periods of time. Cllr Cushing followed up by asking if there was a facility for Councils to access funds on a short-term basis without losing too much interest. The DFR replied that the Council had access to money market funds but these did not have the level of interest that other investment funds achieved.

     ii.        Cllr Dr V Holliday commented on the underspend on staffing in some areas. She asked whether whether this had an impact on productivity and output. She then asked about the reduction in the Delivery Plan reserve and queried whether this should be addressed as it could potentially impact on the delivery of the Corporate Plan objectives. The DFA replied that regarding staff vacancies, it was often where officers had either not had the time to recruit or not been successful in recruiting. It did impact on teams and the service they were able to provide and was an issue across the Council.

The DFA said that the projected level for this reserve was expected to be £1.8m as at the end of this financial year. This figure reflected planned spending from this reserve. She added that at this point in time, there were no plans to top up this reserve. Cllr Holliday asked if this was potentially a risk to the organisation if the reserve was gradually depleted with no plans to replenish it and the corporate plan objectives could not be achieved due to reduced funding.  Cllr Shires agreed that this could potentially be an issue and said that the situation would be reviewed annually. The Chief Executive added that currently the Council was in a sound financial position and this reserve had been built up over many years. He acknowledged that the context within which local authorities were operating in was changing significantly and the Council’s core spending power had reduced significantly and the flexibility moving forward was likely to be more constrained. He concluded by saying that over time the ambitions to deliver against the Corporate Plan may be diminished, particularly as the Council faced the challenge of rising temporary accommodation costs.

iii.        Cllr N Housden referred to revised staffing costs and sought more information. The DFA replied that the staff pay award had been announced following the Cabinet meeting on 6th November and there was not enough time to update the report. She said that the overall impact would be £120k over what was budgeted for. This was due to the flat rate of £1925 per employee. Cllr Housden then referred to the recent supreme court ruling regarding the Rwanda scheme. He asked whether this could potentially result in additional demands on the Council regarding housing costs as more migrants may need to be housed in the area. The Chief Executive replied that there were no Government commissioned hotels for asylum seekers in North Norfolk and the housing pressures and associated temporary accommodation costs in the District were almost exclusively related to local people.  He added that the Council was having to place people in temporary accommodation out of the district due to the numbers requiring support. This was an issue across the country but particularly in Essex and Hertforshire, where costs were considerably higher than elsewhere. This was why the District Council Network had recently convened an emergency meeting to agree an approach to dealing with this issue. He went onto say that as the Goverment reduced the number of asylum seekers placed in hotels and tried to process asylum claims in an expedient manner, it was possible that there could be additional pressures on accommodation and the duty and associated costs as it would no longer fall to the Government to fund this but to local authorities. 

iv.        The Chairman thanked the Chief Executive for his explanation and said that the displacement from areas subject to such pressures could ultimately then place pressure on rural authorities such as North Norfolk as people began to disperse and seek alternative areas to live in. The Chief Executive agreed, saying that there were proposals for quotas that would be allocated nationwide, however, many asylum seekers wanted to be placed in cities rather than rural areas and to date, this meant that North Norfolk had not seen a high number of asylum seekers wanting to settle in the area.

v.        Cllr M Hankins asked about council tax collection for mixed-use caravan parks. He said that many people who had purchased residential properties on these sites had opted not to register to vote and therefore were not laible to pay council tax. He asked what was the protocol for addressing this issue. The Revenues Manager replied that the Valuation Office (VO) rated caravan sites and they classified whether it was for business use of domestic use. The Council would then bill based on the valuation. If it was believed that it was in the wrong category and someone was residing there full time, then the Council would report it to the VO and they would re-categorise it.

vi.        Cllr W Fredericks thanked the Chief Executive for explaining the national situation regarding the pressures placed on local authorities regarding temporary accommodation costs. She said that in cities, many Council Leaders were reporting that the Home Office was outbidding local authorities on bed and breakfast places.

vii.        Cllr J Boyle asked about long-term empty homes and requested an update on how the council was progressing with tackling this problem and bringing more back into use to alleviate pressure on the Council’s finances. Cllr W Fredericks replied that the Council’s Empty Homes Officer was working extremely hard and between April and October 2023, 92 empty homes had been brought back into use. This provided much needed accommodation and also enabled council tax payments to the Council.

It was proposed by Cllr P Fisher, seconded by Cllr M Hankins and

RESOLVED

That Overview & Scrutiny Committee supports the Cabinet decision to

1)    Note the contents of the report and the current budget monitoring position and note that officers will work together to take action to reduce the overall projected deficit on the General Fund at the year-end of 2023/24.

And supports the following Cabinet recommendations to Full Council that it approves:

2)    An additional capital budget of £58k so that the work for the refurbishment of the Red Lion roof (Cromer), the Art Deco Block roof and handrails (Cromer) and the Chalet Block at Sheringham can be awarded as one contract. And that approval be given to fund the additional expenditure from the Asset Management Reserve.

3)    An increase to the DFG capital budget of £118k and approves that it is funded by the additional grant received for this purpose from the Government.

4)    The provision of a new play area at the Lees in Sheringham and approves a capital project budget for this of £65k and that funding for this should come from the Delivery Plan Reserve.

5)    The capital spending of £11k on the Morris Street Car Park Boundary Wall and that it be funded from the Asset Management Reserve.

6)    That the £85k of the Car Park refurbishment capital budget is reallocated to the Public Conveniences so that the outstanding works can be carried out and complete the scheme.