Cabinet

Cabinet
Thursday, 22nd June 2023 at 6:30pm

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Seat 3
Slide 1

1 Leaders Introduction and Announcements

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1 Leaders Introduction and Announcements

2 Apologies

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2 Apologies for Absence

3 Declarations of Interest

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3 Declarations of Interest

4 Notification of Visiting Members wishing to speak

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4 Notification of Persons Registered to Speak

5 Minutes of the meeting dated 20 April 2023

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Minutes , 20/04/2023 Cabinet

6 Questions from Members of the Council

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5 Questions from Members of the Council

7 Questions from Members of the Public

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6 Questions from Members of the Public

8 Consideration of the Forward Plan as at 13 June 2023

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Forward Plan as at 13 June 2023

9 Appointments to Outside Bodies

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13 Performance Summary Quarter 4

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14 Complaints Summary Quarters 3 and 4

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FINAL Complaint Summ P2 16 May 23

10 Capital Management Report Quarter 4

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11 Revenue Management Quarter 4

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12 Treasury and Prudential Indicator Management Report Quarter 4

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13 Performance Summary Quarter 4

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14 Complaints Summary Quarters 3 and 4

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FINAL Complaint Summ P2 16 May 23

15 Urgent Business

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14 Urgent Business

16 Date of Next Meeting

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15 Date of the Next Meeting

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Seat 3 - 0:00:00

good evening, my name is Councillor Ben Schaeffler and I'm the leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. I will be chairing this meeting this evening of Thomas Ross Borough Council's meeting, so welcome to the Cabinet meeting on Thursday the 22 of June 2023 before we start, please can I ask you to give your full attention to the following safety and broadcasting announcements.

Thank you Chair. In the event of a fire alarm ringing continuously, you must immediately evacuate the building walking pace officers will escort you via the most direct available route. This is a public meeting and proceedings are being webcast live online. A recording will also be available for playback on the council's website shortly afterwards, we should all be aware that any third party is able to record or film council meetings unless exempt or confidential information is being considered, council will not accept liability for any third party recordings,

it is very important that the outcomes of the meeting are clear at the end of each agenda item the Chairman asked whether the matter was agreed in the absence of a clear majority of the chair decides a full vote is desirable, a vote will be taken by a show of hands. Members should raise their hand to indicate their vote when called and keep their hand up until the coat counters being announced. members requested a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken, thank you Chair,

thank you, Caroline, for the benefit of the recording the following members of cabinet are present at Councillor Christopher Hall, Councillor Elin, Neville Councillor Hugo Pound Councillor Justin Rutland. Councillor Jane Sharratt Councillor Nancy Worne and Councillor Ben Chappel, are we also have?

from the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council staff,

Lee Collier, Paul Taylor, Claudette Vanwall, Jane Fineman, Pamela Grover, Morgan and Caroline Brit,

for the benefit of any members of the public who may be watching. I would like to explain a few things. Each report on the agenda this evening has previously been considered by the relevant Cabinet Advisory Board, and the views by the board have been taken into consideration. Members of a cabinet have had their agendas for over a week and we've had the opportunity to study the papers and to ask any factual questions of the staff ahead of this evening's meeting.

When each agenda item is being considered, the Cabinet Member will provide an overview of the report. Members of staff who have written the report will be available to answer questions. We will then move into member discussion

I will first ask four questions before opening the floor to the bait at the end of the debate, I will ask cabinet members to confirm that they have fully understood the matter and are content that any proposals and or actions have been fully captured, we will then proceed to the recommendations and votes

okay, item number 1 is

announcements from the Leader,

1 Leaders Introduction and Announcements

well, just to say that I'd like to invite every resident in the borough to take part in our residents' survey, which is open until the 23 of July 2023, if you're online, you can Google Residents' Survey 2023 and it should bring up the page and other search engines apart from Google are available to you.

would anybody else from cabinet like to make any announcements?

Councillor Hugo pounds.

thank you Ben just one announcement, because it seems to be a bit of a hot topic for both the Council and from a number of residents, I can confirm that this week we have made offers to three planning enforcement officers which pending agreement and contracts will be starting very soon and that is good news for planning and good news for the borough thank you.

thank you go, does anybody else have any announcements

2 Apologies

OK, so I'll move on to Item 2, which is apologies for absence, and we've had apologies from Councillor Wendy Fitzsimons.

3 Declarations of Interest

we're moving on to item 3 declarations of interests at members of the cabinet are asked if they have any declarations of interest to make on items in this evening's agenda, because anybody have any declarations of interests,

no, we have none.

4 Notification of Visiting Members wishing to speak

5 Minutes of the meeting dated 20 April 2023

item for notification of visiting persons registered to speak, we have none. Thank you, and can ask Members to turn on item 5 to minutes of the meeting dated the 25th of April 2023,

which is to approve those minutes, please can I remind members of the cabinet that only matters for discussion is the accuracy

does anybody have any amendments to make?

I'm sorry, I just noticed that my apologies for absence are not recorded and I did meet him.

thank you what will make sure those are added

OK, thank you, so with Hugo's amendments, are we agreeing on the minutes, are we agreed?

just.

sorry, Justin, thank you, that's cab

1 5 5 slash 22 there on the OK, so we went add that in because it's already in there,

6 Questions from Members of the Council

so are we agreed on the minutes, thank you very much, OK, right to number 6, which is good. questions from members of the Council.

7 Questions from Members of the Public

I can confirm that we've had no questions from members, so we'll move straight on to item number 7, which are questions from members of the public, and we have two questions from Stuart Gledhill chairman of Safe Caple

Stewart, if you'd like to take a seat and put your microphone on and ask the first question, thank you.

thank you, Chairman, as, as you quite rightly said, I'm I'm here representing Safe Capel tonight.

my first question is, will the council set out the pieces of work that are still to be completed, to inform members making the decision on the way forward for the local plan and now provide an updated timetable of the further steps to progress the examination through to adoption?

thank you, I'm gonna ask Councillor Hugo pounds as Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning to respond

right, thank you, thank you for your question, Stewart

council officers, with the support of consultants, are still undertaking a wide range of work in order to be able to put forward a development strategy that addresses the Inspector's initial findings and fundamentally is regarded as being sound and in line with the NPP F.

this work has focused on the three strategic matters that were put to the council in the Inspector's initial findings letter, namely green belt releases, options for addressing issues raised on Tudeley village and the strategy for Paddock Wood and East Caple. To be clear, the council is not testing or redrafting any other parts of the submitted Local Plan, as the Inspector has not raised concerns or challenges about any other issues than these three

due to the complex interrelated and iterative nature of this work, including further flood risk, modelling, masterplanning, transport assessments, infrastructure and viability, reviews and site appraisals flowing from the further Green Belt work. The areas' original timescale, which aimed for reporting this month, has slipped.

I have a fortnightly meeting with the Head of Planning, and obviously the local plan is a fixed agenda item. I am strongly of the view that this work should not be rushed, nor that easy solutions should be jumped on

I have therefore confirmed with him that we will not be proposing any changes to members which will then go forward to public consultation until August at the earliest.

notwithstanding, this officers are considering the three main options regarding Tudeley village that were put to the council in the Inspector's initial findings letter, namely keeping the development in the local plan. significantly reducing it or removing it entirely officers will recommend on those three options and the council will determine the matter once the outstanding work is complete.

thank you Stuart, would you like to ask your second question, please?

can I ask a supplementary

on that point?

I'm afraid not, according to the constitution.

given this further delay.

Will the council confirm that a comprehensive assessment of the full housing potential from the emerging town centre plan and call for sites, together with an update of brownfield opportunities across the borough? will be included in the modified plan, such that the garden village at Chudleigh will be removed.

Hugo,

thank you for that the council has given careful consideration to the capacity for housing from brownfield and other windfall sites, specifically from Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre, in the preparation of the Local Plan there is a bit of a myth circulating.

there are more as yet untapped brownfield sites which the council has failed to identify and that is not correct every available brownfield site in the borough has been assessed and the Council, in partnership with existing owners, will continue to bring forward appropriate sites for development more over the Local Plan Inspector has not raised any concerns with the council's evidence in relation to any of these estimates as presented in its relevant supporting papers and at the examination hearings in 2022.

therefore, there is no basis currently for reviewing those estimates.

the Royal Tunbridge Wells

town centre plan is at a very early stage. The call for sites process has only recently begun and runs until the 21 of July this year. Thereafter, officers will begin the assessment of the sites and their appropriateness for development as part of the drafting of the towns and to plan. It will then go through two rounds of public consultation and engagement with stakeholders and an examination process, and it is not expected to be adopted until late 2025. Opportunities for residential development will be refined through this process,

pending the Royal Tunbridge Wells town centre plan, reaching a more advanced stage. The current estimate for at least 150 to 200 dwellings provided for within the submission local plan is regarded as appropriate.

This figure may be reviewed in due course, if necessary, as the modifications stage of the borough plan. But there is no basis for doing so at present or for some time

the suggestion, therefore, that an updated brownfield assessment and the increased densification of the town centre alone could lead to the removal of the proposed site of the today Garden Village is not supported

and to reiterate the Inspector has raised no concerns about any of these estimates in his thorough examination of the issues.

thank you Hugo, thank you, Stuart, for your questions this evening and taking the time out to come and ask,

8 Consideration of the Forward Plan as at 13 June 2023

thank you very much OK, we're gonna move on to item number 8, which is consideration of the Forward Plan as at the 13th of June

and do Members have any comments.

on that item.

so I think we were proposing to take out

the item under Chris's portfolio, which is due to come in July, which is a draft council tax reduction scheme, we're going to take that

out.

okay, with that amendment, are we agreed on the forward plan?

agreed, thank you very much. OK, so we're going to move on to Item 9, which I think is the only item that Chris doesn't have to present tonight,

9 Appointments to Outside Bodies

so that's me, so this is Item 9, the appointment to outside bodies.

I'll be very quick and I'll just say that it's very much a housekeeping item.

the council has a statutory responsibilities to appoint

members to various committees which are outlined in the appendix.

and it has to be approved by cabinet.

does anybody have any questions or wish to comment on the item, no OK, in that case, can we proceed to the vote, which is the recommendations are as follows recommendation 1 that the nominated persons to be appointed to the outside bodies for the terms of office specified as set out in Appendix A to the report,

recommendation 2 that appointments are made to the Commons conservator for the period 22 of June 2023 to 31st of December 23, and at recommendation 3, that a comment that appointments are made to the Commons conservators for the period 1st of January 2024 to 31st of December 2024 are we agreed?

Thank you very much, so we were going to change the order of this evening, so sort of doing Item 10 I'm proposing to go straight to Item 13, which is the performance summary quarter 4 and I'm going to ask Councillor Chris Hall cabinet member for finance and performance to introduce the item. Please,

thank you very much Chair and I think Members will be familiar with the process now having gone through a whole year of the quarterly reports, so this is the final quarterly report in the in the sequence,

and

these were reviewed and discussed at the finance and governance Cabinet Advisory Board and I wasn't present at that particular meeting I was on holiday that week, however,

13 Performance Summary Quarter 4

my vice-chair Councillor Matthew, Sankey chair meeting and as I understand it, this report was unanimously supported by the

finance and governance CAB, so I'm not going to hand over to Pamela to introduce the report, thank you.

the performance report is a report on cancer projects, and services

projects are largely and change, there are four open, there's more detail in Appendix A of the report, and there are five underperforming service indicators, those are households in temporary accommodation council working days lost to sickness minor planning applications, other planning applications on appeal and other planning applications and the are recovery plans for HRA days at Appendices C to G, happy to take any questions.

thank you for, or any questions for Pamela, Mo

okay, there's anybody wishing to comment

on Chris.

yeah, I just like to to say you know this. This is a really pleasing report. 4 0 projects being read status, only five out of the 29 Capie eyes to be underperforming, and we know the reasons why we've had some good news tonight from Councillor Pound, which I think should help address some of the caprice regarding planning and all the ones are and forming of got development plans in place, and then you know, I'm sure those will come to fruition, I think it's

just as you know, someone is responsible for performance, as well as finance, really really pleasing.

thank you, Chris, as anybody else wished to comment on item 13.

in that case I'll proceed to the recommendations,

there are three recommendations recommendation 1 reads that the Cabinet notes a summary of project performance over quarter 4 4 2022 2023 at Appendix A recommendation 2 is that the Cabinet notes a summary of service performance over quarter 4 2022 23 at Appendix B, and the last recommendation recommendation 3 that the Cabinet notes the recovery plans because for four 2022 2023 Appendices C to G, are we agreed?

thank you very much, we'll move on to Item 14, which is complaints, summaries for Quarter 3 and 4, and I'm going to ask Councillor Chris Hall to introduce the item please.

14 Complaints Summary Quarters 3 and 4

thank you, Chair, as I will be handing over to Amla again for an update on this report, which again was unanimously supported by the finance governance cap, thank you plan.

thank you.

this report is an overview of complaints closed in the second half of 2022 to 23 we closed 92 complaints in total, which is a decrease compared to the previous 2 half years.

the Council agreed with 26 complaint percent of complaints at stage 1 and 6% at stage 2.

we had four Ombudsman's decisions and three compensation payments.

happy to take any questions.

thank you, Palmer, does it Councillor Hugo Pound?

it's only a question about the CAB that her look at these.

this data in their own meeting, did they raise any questions or ask any issues of you that we haven't yet heard?

now.

thank you, does anybody else wish to ask any questions, I see none

and what he's been very quiet and well behaved tonight.

does anybody wish to say anything before we move to recommendations Chris?

thanks Chair yeah, I just think it's just really a impressive how complaints has progressed, certainly having an impact, and I love the should I congratulate you on running the pilot in Q3, I love a bit of testing and learning and try new things, and I think that was great and certainly seems to have had an effect on reducing the volume of complaints get escalated to the next stage of I understood the report correctly,

so I think that's fantastic and it's great to see the gap closing between first-stage complaints and the percentage result in time as well, so I think it's to you know great steps forward and is progressing really well, and complaints are so important to the way we engage with the public, our credibility as a council and so and how we treat people and how we resolve complaints. This is so important, so thank you for all your work

thank you order.

we'll move to recommendations recognised as one recommendation that reads that Cabinet notes the summary of complaints over period 2, which is a 1st of October 2022 to 31st of March 2023.

we agreed.

thank you very much,

10 Capital Management Report Quarter 4

so that was item 14, we're now going to go back to the original order, which is Item 10, which is the Capital Management report for Quarter 4, and I'm going to ask Councillor Chris Hall cabinet member for finance and performance to introduce the item.

thank you.

thank you very much Chair, so.

this particular report covering some some new new schemes and some variations to expenditure deferrals and proposals, was discussed at

F and G, I understand there was

some comments and recommendations raised to Cabinet.

which are detailed in the report which you may have read and which I'll allow Jane to introduce.

and we can discuss later, but you know from what I've seen, they also very, very reasonable to me, but I'll now hand over to Jane to reduce the report, thank you.

thank you

Cabinet, originally approved capital expenditure of 10.4 million for 22 23, but the actual position for the year was expenditure of 4.5 million.

the main areas of spend were disabled facilities, grants the Weald Leisure Centre, deep carbonation project, the Amelia Scott and affordable housing grants.

the net decrease in budgeted spend of 647,000 is mainly in Amelia Scott, accounting issue as the purchase price of the building was reduced by 400,000 rather than KCC passing it over as part of their contribution

the net rescheduling of 3.2 million into 23 24. mainly consists of 862,000 for the Amelia Scott project, 478,000 for the wheeled leisure centre, decarbonisation project and 358,000 for the Town Hall conversion.

the report includes three new requests for approval relating to 23 24, these are 5.4 6 5 million for local authority housing fund to buy 15 affordable houses which are part funded by government grant and match, funded by Section 1 0 6 money,

625,000 towards the Cinderhill additional plot and amenity buildings and finally 30,000 pounds towards a Bayham refreshment tat that's funded by section 1 6 money as well

a capital receipt of 64,000 was received this quarter from a staircasing payment.

bringing the total received for the year to 104,000, which was transferred to the Capital Receipts Reserve and used to finance capital projects during the year.

and finally, as Councillor Hall mentioned at the beginning, there are four recommendations around enabling the council to take advantage of opportunities for government funding for housing, and they keep offering this at very, very short notice and they require us to actually.

put in our beds very quickly and spend the money very swiftly afterwards.

we wish to have the appropriate approvals in place to benefit from both existing and future funding allocations and, as explained in the report, government is moving at a pace in this respect, so the recommendations are a little revised from those that were supported by the finance and governance CAB but they're very very much in the spirit of what the Advisory Board recommended thanks very much I'm happy to take any questions

during does anybody have any questions for Jane?

I see none, but I suspect people will want to comment on this one.

you go fighting to go, first, go for it, it wasn't. it was offered to me and I was very kind, thank you.

thank you very much for that report

and I think, as every member of of cabinet knows, the additional recommendations that came forward from the finance and governance cab on the 6th of June are welcome and I just wanted to say that I think all of us were enormously grateful to staff in all sorts of areas of the Council for a huge amount of work that has gone on in the last couple of months to secure funding for the Local Authority Housing Fund,

which is one of those rare occasions where central government and perhaps KCC as well Kent County Council, and we are working in harmony together to actually deliver something, and it's it's it's a good move

and none of us can claim or hold sole credit for the delivery of more housing. in the short term, for these schemes for those refugees who have landed on our shores recently, but in the longer term, for the benefit of all of our residents in the barracks, I think that's very good news,

my only other comment I'd like to say is that the Cinderhill

redevelopment, I'm extremely glad that the amenity building is being upgraded. I have to admit that I'm disappointed that we did not find the funds to provide it with an air source heat pump, a new conflict combi or we have come for combi boilers instead,

we will try and do better next time, perhaps thank you.

thank you again,

Chris, you wanted to say something,

no, no, I didn't have anything to add, and I just want to yet support the recommendations I fully endorse what was proposed by an account

yeah, I just before we go to the recommendation I'd just like to thank the officers really this is another government

initiative

where

there's lots of strings

attached very small deadlines to apply and suddenly everybody's got to jump and get it done within the timeline so,

the fleet of foot shown by the the officers has been excellent, so thank you very much right. So there's lots of recommendations here, some one gonna do, is I'll take the original for first, and then we'll come and do five, six and seven and eight separately if that's OK.

Thank you, right okay. Recommendation 1 is that Cabinet note the unaudited actual gross and net expenditure for the year and the source of finance, as shown in Appendices B to D that cabinet sorry. Recommendation 2, that Cabinet approve the proposed variations to the capital programme set out in notes 4.3 to 4.11 recommendation 3 that Cabinet approve the proposed movement between years, set out in Note 4.12 recommendation 4 reads that Cabinet note the inclusion of new schemes into the capital programme, as set out in notes 4.1 3 to 4.1 5

are we agreed

thank you very much, so there are also on this item additional recommendations following the finance and governance Cabinet Advisory Board on the 6th of June, which are detailed in note 5.2 so recommendation 5 reads that Tunbridge Wells Borough Council seeks to take advantage of any funding opportunities to alleviate short term pressures such as home so Ukraine's or schemes to support Afghans or longer term housing pressures and that where possible these funds are used to create a lasting legacy by providing a new and permanent supply of affordable housing.

recommendation 6 that any external contribution to the Council's match-funding requirements for the local authority's housing fund scheme are used to deliver the scheme with the councils and match funding from section 1 0 6 developer funding reallocated to deliver affordable housing

recommendations 7, that permission be granted to refurbish the four Crescent Road properties into three, four and five bedroom houses, to provide short term options for housing, Ukrainian guests and longer term affordable housing for UK nationals.

and recommendation 8, which is the longest

it reads that delegation be granted to the section 1 5 1 officer and the monitoring officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing, to allocate funds from the homes for Ukraine programme, local authority, housing fund and any other similar funding programmes or sources and to source any necessary match funding so as to alleviate the housing pressures in line with the above objectives and in light of advice from the Council's housing and property teams.

all we agreed

11 Revenue Management Quarter 4

great, thank you OK, we're now moving on to Item 11, which is the revenue management report for quarter 4, and I'm going to ask Councillor Chris Hall to introduce the item, thank you.

thank you very much Chair, and so this is the

the report that we've all been waiting for the Revenue report.

so I think members of Cabinet will be familiar with the trajectory and how things were progressing from quarter 3, as it looks increasingly that the deficit was being. narrowed and potentially we might actually,

we might actually overcome it and close the gap and finish the year strongly, and I think we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, that we, we have done so in our first year as a borough partnership,

how we've done it and the means by which we've got there. I will allow Jane to elaborate on before before I, for you, know, reserve any comments until until after the report, but

and Dr Jane Feynman, now thank you Jane.

it's really nice to be able to bring some some good news, so the unaudited Year end actual outturn, they say on audited, because our audit doesn't start until the 3rd of July,

the unaudited year end actual outturn for net expenditure on services was 13.4 million 1.1 million under budget and an improvement since quarter 3 of 961,000

as previously reported we started the year with a 944,000 of revenue costs budgeted to be funded from reserves.

as can be seen, this was unnecessary as the 1.1 on the spend was more than sufficient to balance the revenue budget.

the war in Ukraine and the considerable levels of inflation over the past year have put significant pressure on our already stretched budgets, the main concern has been energy costs, which have increased by point 9 million for 22 23,

this has been offset, however, by a reduction in staff costs of 1.3 million.

the council has struggled to recruit and retain its staff as budgets are limited, and it's quite difficult to compete in a tight labour market.

we are showing over 48 full-time equivalent vacancies at the end of the year.

the council overachieved on its income budget by point 9 million, due mainly to additional parking income.

parking income plummeted during the pandemic as working from home and online shopping became the norm for many,

the recovery from Covid was better than expected, however, and in the latter part of the year, parking prices were increased to help finance the additional costs of running and maintaining the car parks.

as detailed later in the Treasury Management report, there was an increase over budget of 1.1 9 8 million in investment interest and it can also be seen that 1.1 6 2 million was achieved from the growth in business rates

now this is always on budgeted as it's how we in Tunbridge Wells fund our capital programme.

additional grant funding of 216,000 was received during the year, mainly for new burdens grants, for example, the delivering the administration of the energy rebate schemes which we completed in house rather than outsourcing it in order to be able to retain the grant.

as can be seen in Appendix D, but cancel head 32.5 million pounds of usable reserves, as at the 1st of April 22,

some amounts have been transferred in and out of the reserves as the budget.

as per the budget or used to fund the capital programme and 5.5 million has been transferred from the grant volatility reserve to fund the collection fund deficit.

a sum of 4.2 million has been transferred into the capital and revenue initiatives reserve from the surplus to budget, along with 2 million from transfers from other reserves.

so I'm really pleased to be able to say that this reserve now has sufficient funds in it to finance the approved capital programme for 23 24, and this is a really really important point when it comes to proving my going concern for the up and coming audit.

the closing balance in usable reserves is 28.8 billion, of which just 1.3 million remains for the capital, remains for the collection fund deficit for 23 24 and therefore cannot be spent by us.

it can also be seen that the Council's internal borrowing has been reduced to 5.1 million by the end of 22 23, the Council has overpaid its minimum revenue provision by 755,000, therefore reducing this outstanding internal debt

again, this will be another really good ticking the box when it comes to our audit process.

and finally, a lost sum of 18,000 was added to the General Fund

and this was the final surplus to budget, following all of the movements to and from reserves as described previously.

this means that the closing balance on the General Fund is 4.3 5 4 million

so, in summary, our finances are in good order at the end of 22 23, but I have to say this has been through good fortune, with interest rates, increasing and significant staff vacancies which are affecting the ability of the Council to deliver services and has hampered the delivery of the capital programme as well.

in 2023 24, increases in interest have already been included in the budget and anything further,

you probably saw the interest rates went up to 5% today

will probably be offset by inflationary cost pressures that we still haven't got into the budget yet.

vacancies will also need to be filled, so the current 943,000 revenue budget deficit will need still to be addressed, along with the sale of capital assets to help fund the capital programme into the future

and, just to say, our annual financial report

was issued on the 31st of May which is the deadline but we are given by government.

we were delighted to be able to hit that target, which was brought forward from from the 31st of July, which was what it was last year.

and we were one of very few in Kent to be able to deliver that

and you may want to go and have a look on the website and have a read for a bit more detail, thank you.

thank you join Chris, you want to say something,

but we questions next

to apologise my mistake, yes, questions for joint first.

no, no questions,

so Chris over too

well, I think.

I just wanted to say a few things and I think Jane

covered it in many ways, but

I think it was an incredibly tough, tough year, 22 23,

and I think it's a testimony to both officers and you as Cabinet working so well together, both being agile and taking decisions when they needed to be taken around our investments. we're also taking some of the tough decisions that we needed to take on fees and charges, which you know if you think back, we were told that they might have a deeply negative impact on local businesses, reduced visitor numbers to the town centre and so on, and that hasn't been the case at all.

So in retrospect you know, we took the right decision at the right time and our finance team of ably managed our investments, and you know, we've been a bit fortuitous as well think in terms of the staff costs save and we can't rely on that. We don't want to rely on that,

so you know the challenge over the next few years remains there. We need to address it again as we have done, but with some further we begin by looking at those three things that we always said. We would focus on income, looking at our expense and expenses and a savings plan which we are hopeful of being able to deliver fairly soon and getting on with some some of those asset disposals of surplus assets that we need to which are starting to come along now and you know come through in the pipeline, and I mean it's excellent that we're able to get a sufficient surplus to fund the capital programme. That's so important in our and I completely agree with what you said Jane we've had to differ so much in the past and different authorities and we've OK we can actually get on with funding it now, which is which is good for us good for the council, good for residents, so it's a good important step in terms of safeguarding the council's finances, but there's still some challenges ahead. Jane's sort of elaborated on them in her update and but I think we can sort of breathe a sigh of relief to a certain extent that that first year you know ended the way did

in very positively, so thank you, that's all I could say.

thank you Chris very well summed up as anybody asked wish to comment Justin.

I just want to say thank you to the officers and, and I think I can speak for all of us when we say we not.

we don't want to be achieving a surplus because we don't have sufficient staff, so we know it's really important.

to recruit and retain more staff because we want to deliver services well, and we also want to deliver the projects that are residents always asking us for, so

you have our complete support and we do what we can to assist with it. thank you.

thank you just see me, as anybody else wished a comma

like OK yeah, so on the staffing, I think you know for residents who can see that as a positive in terms of saving, if we put that into a school situation or a hospital situation running with 15%.

missing staff is not sustainable, so we can't

rest on on the proverbial laurels, and the deficit for 23 24 is still 943,000 pounds, so there is work to do. I know that's come down from 2.6 for 9 million as it was projected a year ago, but there's still a lot of work to do

and obviously we're trying to address the staffing issue with the people strategy that we're doing.

It's anybody else. We should comment

OK, so we'll proceed to the recommendations, so item 11 recommendations, there are two of them, which is recommendation 1, that Cabinet note, the unaudited actual revenue expenditure outturn and impact on reserves for the year ended 31st of March 2023 recommendation to the Cabinet note that the withdrawal from reserves of 944,000 pounds to meet the budget deficit will not be needed and the sum of 18,000 pounds will be transferred into the general funds are we agreed,

12 Treasury and Prudential Indicator Management Report Quarter 4

thank you very much, we're gonna move on to Item 12, which is a Treasury and Prudential indicator management report for quarter 4, and I'm going to ask Councillor Chris Hall to introduce the item please.

thank you very much, Chair, and I'll be very brief on this one was unanimously supported by the finance and governance CAB.

and I'll hand over to his Jane again who'll be presenting this one, thank you chain and I've seen her.

thank you sounds a bit shorter.

the actual outturn for interest from investments and bank interest for 22 23 was 1.6 4 3 million, an increase of 1.1 9 8 million from the approved budget of 445,000

it was due to increases in interest rates available and an increase in the funds that we had available to invest.

the bank interest rate set by the Bank of England was point 7 5%, at the start of the year, but this increased steadily towards the end of the year and ended up 4.25%. on the 11th of May 23, it went up to 4.5% and you know again, it's gone up again today to 5%,

so the Council achieved an actual interest rate for 22 23 of 2.37%, compared to the original budget of 1.0 9, showing that we've actively taken full advantage of the interest rates that were on offer

as they steadily increase throughout the year.

the funds available for investment were also higher mainly due to a number of projects on the capital programme being deferred from 21 22 and then again in 22 23, and this was due to a lack of resources to be able to deliver them.

In addition, the government has asked us to distribute grants over the Covid period and subsequently to write to residents during the cost of living crisis, this was a lot of the energy grants that we distributed for them, so the cash paid upfront we invested whilst the money was awaiting distribution.

the 9 million pound investment with the property fund was valued at 10.00.2000000 as, at the 31st of March 23 the value has decreased by 2 million this financial year as the value of commercial property has fallen.

the dividend paid for 22 23 was a net interest of 4.84%, which is still very good, but now it's very close to what can be achieved risk free from other investments, so the Council has now served notice on that investment and we will sell the units currently held in the fund

at the end of September after having given the six months' required notice.

and finally, just to confirm that none of the prudential indicators were breached in quarter 4, thank you.

thank you join any questions for Jane.

you can't predict which, where interest rates are going to go, can you because I'm about to remortgage?

yeah, that's why I think

yeah.

any no, no questions does anybody wish to comment

Hugo?

just a quick note, it was part of my own learning, actually,

which I received from the section 1 5 1 officer I had rather naively assumed that we had a Treasury team who were managing all of this fantastic stuff and the returns that we were getting, we don't have a treasury team, we just have the finance team who

a sort of opportunistic and well-planned and sensibly bold,

and it's from that that we have got the results. I think we should be very grateful to the Finance 2 minutes entirety now that I know that we don't have a pure treasury team, thank you.

thank you, does anybody else wish to comment?

I came in that case I move to the recommendations for item 12, there are two recommendations, the first one is that Cabinet note the treasury management and prudential indicator position for 22 23 recommendation 2 that Cabinet note the unaudited actual for investment and bank interest is 1.643 million pounds an increase of 1.198 million pounds for the approved budget of 440

5,000 pounds and a further improvement of 48,000 pounds from quarter 3 projection are we agreed?

13 Performance Summary Quarter 4

14 Complaints Summary Quarters 3 and 4

15 Urgent Business

16 Date of Next Meeting

thank you very much, so, having done items 13 and 14, we're going to skip to our item 15, which is the urgent business, and I can confirm that we have none, so we're going to move on to item number 16, which is a date of the next meeting. so the next cabinet meeting will be held on Thursday, the 27th of July 2023 at 6.30, and I'd just like to thank everybody who attended our guests

and our Speaker, thank you very much for attending and I wish you good evening, the meeting is now closed.

Cabinet - Thursday 22 June 2023, 6:30pm - Feedback Tab - Start video at 0:41:34 - Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Webcasting

CabinetThursday, 22nd June 2023 at 6:30pm

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Cabinet

Seat 3 - 0:00:00

1 Leaders Introduction and Announcements

2 Apologies

3 Declarations of Interest

4 Notification of Visiting Members wishing to speak

5 Minutes of the meeting dated 20 April 2023

6 Questions from Members of the Council

7 Questions from Members of the Public

8 Consideration of the Forward Plan as at 13 June 2023

9 Appointments to Outside Bodies

13 Performance Summary Quarter 4

14 Complaints Summary Quarters 3 and 4

10 Capital Management Report Quarter 4

11 Revenue Management Quarter 4

12 Treasury and Prudential Indicator Management Report Quarter 4

13 Performance Summary Quarter 4

14 Complaints Summary Quarters 3 and 4

15 Urgent Business

16 Date of Next Meeting

Cabinet
Thursday, 22nd June 2023 at 6:30pm