Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

There were no substitute Members appointed.

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non-registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

You are also requested to complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest or dispensations reported.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2022.

Resolved that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 December 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

To scrutinise the Authority’s financial management report to 30 November 2022 (reported to Cabinet on 23 January 2023) setting out the current financial position in the context of the policy priorities in the Our North Tyneside Plan, where the Authority continues to face financial pressures and its plans to address these.

The sub-committee was presented with a report, which had been considered by Cabinet on 23 January 2023, relating to the financial position of the Authority as 30 November 2022 in the context of its policy priorities set out in Our North Tyneside Plan.

The Authority continued to see areas of pressure across Adults’ and

Children’s Social Care and significant impacts on income particularly

across Sport and Leisure Services, Home to School Transport and Catering Services. The ‘cost of living crisis’ was further increasing demand on the Authority’s services and increasing costs, adding significant financial strain to the Authority’s budgets. Consequently, it was reported that as of 30 November 2022 the Authority was facing a total pressure on its budget of £23.511m. The sub-committee examined details of various mitigations to be applied within the current financial year which together would reduce the in-year pressure to £8.625m. It was expected that future actions to review activity and performance across the organisation, reducing non-essential spend and controlled vacancy management, should see the pressure reduce in the coming months.

The report also included details of a small forecast underspend of £0.090m in the Housing Revenue Account, details of the additional grants received by the Authority since the Budget was set, the position so far on the 2022/23 schools’ budgets and schools’ funding, delivery of the Authority’s Investment Plan, the Collection Fund position for 2022/23 and information on Treasury Management.

The sub-committee paid particular attention to the forecast revenue outturn for Children’s Services of £34.840m, which represented a variance of £13.477m over the budget of £21.363m. Members asked to be provided with a more detailed explanation of the long-term underlying causes for the financial pressures within the Children’s Services and whether these pressures could continue to be managed within the Authority’s existing financial plans. It was suggested that, in co-ordination with the Children, Education and Skills Sub-Committee, the Interim Director of Children’s Services be invited to attend the next meeting of the sub-committee to examine these issues in more detail.

Members also examined the actions taken to recruit a Head of Law and to restructure the legal service to attract and retain permanent staff in the service thereby reducing a reliance on locums which resulted in increased staff costs.

It was agreed that (1) the 2022/23 Financial Management Report to 30 November 2022 be noted; and

(2) in co-ordination with the Children, Education and Skills Sub-Committee, the Interim Director of Children’s Services be invited to attend the next meeting of the sub-committee to examine the long-term underlying causes for the financial pressures within the Children’s Services and whether these pressures can continue to be managed within the Authority’s existing financial plans.

To examine the receipt and spend of developer contributions received from Section 106 legal agreements as at 31 December 2022, incorporating an examination of the plans to use Section 106 funding for the improvement of parks.

The sub-committee received the latest in a series of reports setting out details of the current balances, commitments and spend in relation to Section 106 agreements.

The Authority had the power under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to require developers to make financial contributions towards the delivery of a range of services including highways, affordable housing, sport and leisure facilities, health services and play sites where these contributions would make a development proposal acceptable in planning terms and mitigate the impact of the development on an area.

The sub-committee noted that on 31 December 2022, the Authority had received £20.266m in contributions of which £6.609m had been spent. A balance of £13.656m remained in the budget but £3.910m was committed.

At its previous meeting the sub-committee had agreed to invite those officers responsible for the delivery of projects to be funded from Section 106 contributions to attend future meetings to explain the reasons why these sums were not yet committed or spent. In accordance with this decision the Head of Environment & Safer Neighbourhoods, Kim Pye, attended the meeting to present a detailed analysis of developer contributions received, spent and committed for the improvement of parks together with emerging plans to use the remaining balances.

Members of the sub-committee asked a series of question of officers when the following issues were examined and officers were asked to provide supplementary information:

a)      Members expressed concern that the spreadsheet did not contain an end date for two financial contributions. Officers indicated that work was progressing to confirm an end date but in the meantime the use of the funding had been committed and approved for improvements to Chirton Dene Park and Benton Quarry Park.

b)      It was noted that a number of developer contributions had not been spent prior to the expiry of the Section 106 legal agreement or “end date” and rated as red in the spreadsheet presented to the sub-committee. Members expressed concern that funding which appeared to have been received up to 10 years ago remained unspent and now at risk of repayment to developers. Members asked that they be provided with an explanation of the reasons why each of the financial contributions which had reached its end date had not been spent prior to that date.

c)       With reference to the financial contributions received from Bellway Homes, associated with the Moorhouses Reservoir development, it appeared that the funding had been secured without a clear plan as to how it would be spent. The sub-committee asked that they be provided with an explanation as to the Authority’s approach to identifying and developing projects to be funded from Section 106 contributions.  Members also asked that they be provided with a more detailed breakdown of the dates on which the contributions had been received to provide a clearer indication of how long the funding had been available.

d)    As many of the contributions had been ear marked for delivery of the Regeneration Killingworth Master Plan, the sub-committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item F28/22

The Sub-Committee is requested to pass the following resolution:

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 2 of Schedule 12A of the Act, 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 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

Resolved that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), and having applied a public interest test as defined in Part 2 of Schedule 12A of the Act, 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 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

To consider the risks rated as red contained within the Strategic and Operational Risk Registers of the Business and Technical Partnerships with Equans and Capita.

The sub-committee considered a report that detailed the monitoring on the risks rated as high within the Strategic and Operational Risk Registers of the Business and Technical Partnerships with Equans (Business) and Capita (Technical).

It was agreed that the Strategic and Operational Risk Registers of each partnership be noted.