To authorise the Chair to sign the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 5 June 2023 as a correct record of proceedings.

The Chair was authorised to sign the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 5 June 2023 as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chair to ask if any Member present is substituting for another Member and, if so, to declare his/her name as substitute Member and the name of the absent Member.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor B.J. Coupar.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct. Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

Declarations of interest were made by Councillors in the Minutes as indicated below:

Clark                Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as a Member of East Sussex County Council.

Maynard          Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as an Executive Member of East Sussex County Council.

McGurk           Agenda Item 6 – Personal Interest as a social worker in Adult Social Care.

Members received and considered the report of the Interim Deputy Chief Executive on the Draft Revenue Budget and Capital Programme Outturn 2022/23, which had been referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Members’ information and for any recommended actions to Cabinet as necessary. The report updated Members on the Council’s finances as at the end of March 2023 and included a brief update on the Collection Fund performance, as well as information on income write offs for the last financial year, as required by the updated Constitution.  Members noted that all numbers in the report were subject to external audit and potential change.

There had not been any reportable virements since the last financial update to Members. Commentary on the more significant year-end variances was included within the report, with further supporting information provided within the appendices.

The Revenue Budget outturn position for the year ending 31 March 2023 was that the drawdown had now reduced to £1.5m, which was £1.7m less compared to the budget.  This represented an improvement of £1.5m since the Quarter 3 forecast.  The position was summarised in Appendix A to the report and material variances that had been identified since the last forecast were explained in the report. These included: higher than predicted Legal services costs; income from returned Disabled Facilities Grants; increase in Planning income surplus and a net reduction in estimated provision for costs claims; higher contributions to staff costs from Community Infrastructure Levy and the housing company; lottery income and grant receipts; reductions in operational costs of the waste contract; continuing high levels of demand for Temporary Accommodation; lower than predicted impact of Housing Benefit Overpayments; staff turnover; late receipt of additional COVID-19 New Burdens grants; rising interest rates and improved cash management; lower than anticipated borrowing costs due to delays with the delivery of the capital programme; and the positive variance on Section 31 grant income.

There had been little change to the Financial Stability Programme (FSP) deficit since the Quarter 3 forecast, due to a review of existing agreed savings. Any potential savings from devolving public conveniences would not be realised in the original timeframe and engagement was underway for phase two of devolution to protect discretionary services across Rother.  Several savings were however already being achieved in the 2023/24 financial year, which were identified within the Service Planning process for implementation in 2024/25 and were detailed within the report.

A review of all Capital Projects and Property Investments was being scheduled to test assumptions, in particular the cost of borrowing and the impact against the planned return on the investments.

The Capital Programme draft outturn as at 31 March 2023 was £23.4m, which was more than £150m lower than the revised budget and £1.3m higher than forecast expenditure at the end of Quarter 3. Large variances were the result either of significant underspend against the 2022/23 budget and/or the change in spend profile. The main variances were outlined in the report and the overall position was summarised in  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC23/14.

Members received the report of the Revenue and Benefits Manager on potential changes to the Council’s working age Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) and the amount of council tax charged on second homes. The CTRS could not be amended in-year and could only be changed following consultation with the public and the major preceptors, East Sussex County Council (ESCC), Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and East Sussex Fire and Rescue.

The current CTRS administered by the Council was divided into two schemes, with pension age applicants receiving support under the rules prescribed by Central Government, and the scheme for working age applicants being determined solely by the local authority. Pensioners, subject to their income, could receive up to 100% support towards their council tax. The Council had no power to change the level of support provided to pensioners and therefore any changes to the level of council tax relief (CTR) could only be made to the working age scheme.

When the CTRS was introduced in 2013, for working age applicants the Council broadly adopted the previous means tested Council Tax Benefit Scheme as the basis of awarding support.  However, due to the reduction in funding from Central Government, the Council had, since that time, also required working age applicants, even those on the lowest income, to pay a minimum payment of 20%.  This was the key issue with the current scheme, significantly increasing the financial pressure on low-income households, particularly given all the wider economic pressures around the cost-of-living crisis.

At the current time, Rother and Eastbourne were the only Councils across East Sussex which had not reverted to a 100% scheme. Since the CTRS’s introduction, low-income taxpayers, the poorest households, had struggled to pay the balance leading to additional costs, court, and enforcement action and, in some cases, the amounts demanded had been written off as uncollectable.  Whilst the overall level of council tax collection in Rother had remained relatively stable at around 98%, the collection levels for working age CTR applicants was significantly lower.

In addition, the cost of the administration of cases by the Council had increased significantly over the years and these were borne by the Council. With the difficulties experienced, the relatively low level of payment and the high administration costs incurred, it may no longer make the amounts economically viable to collect, notwithstanding the negative effects to those poorest households.

Since its inception, the number of Council Taxpayers receiving CTR had reduced, mainly due to the continued decrease in pensioner cases which had been reflected nationally. The costs of the schemes had reduced in terms of the CTR as a percentage of the Council Tax Base, due to both the changes in caseload and the change (increase) in Tax Base.

The current scheme cost the collection fund c£8.2m; a change to the scheme for 2024/25 to increase the working age maximum to 100%, would increase the cost to the collection fund to an estimated c£8.95m, subject to additional modelling and analysis. Members noted that  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC23/15.

Consideration was given to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme. Members were reminded that any Councillor could make a request for an item to be placed onto the Council’s Scrutiny Committee Work Programme.

The following additions to the Work Programme were noted:

•     11 September 2023 – Temporary Accommodation Purchase Strategy;

•     11 September 2023 – Rother District Council Owned/Managed Accommodation Policies;

•     16 October 2023 – Discharge of Homeless Duty into Suitable Private Sector Policy; and

•     16 October 2023 - Allocations Policy

A report on the Terms of Reference for a Housing Development Strategy Task and Finish Group would be brought to the Committee in due course, the date to be confirmed.

RESOLVED: That the Work Programme at Appendix A be agreed, as amended.