Finance and Governance Cabinet Advisory Board - Tuesday 23 January 2024, 6:30pm - Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Webcasting

Finance and Governance Cabinet Advisory Board
Tuesday, 23rd January 2024 at 6:30pm 

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Seat 3 - 0:00:00
good evening.
Councillor Market is has appointed the Cabinet Member for Finance and performance at the beginning of January, and this is my first meeting of the as Chair of Finance, the governance Cabinet Advisory Board.
welcome Stevens meeting. We have a packed agenda this evening, so before we start the meeting, there's a number of civil life issues. We're gonna go through, which I'd be grateful for your attention and now pass over to the Clock, Caroline Bruce, thank you Chair good evening everybody. In the event of the fire alarm ringing continuously, he must immediately evacuate the building at walking pace officers will directly via the most direct available route, and no one is to use the lift. We will make our way to the fire assembly point by the entrance to the Town Hall Yard car park, on once and way, once outside a check will be made to ensure everyone has safely left and no one is to re-enter the building until advise it is safe to do so. 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. Can I remind everyone to use their microphones when speaking the red light indicates that the microphone is on any comments that are not recorded for the webcast will not be included in the minutes of the meeting.
it is very important that the outcome of the meeting is clear at the end of each substantive item, the Chairman will ask whether the matter was agreed in the absence of a clear majority of the Chairman decides a full, virtuous desirable, a vote will be taken by a show of hands, Members should raise their hand to indicate their vote when caught and keep their hand up until the count has been announced.
members requesting a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken. Thank you Chair.
thank you, Chair, Councillor Alan present, thank you Councillor Dowling.
present, thank you, Councillor Frances present, thank you, Councillor Hall present, thank you, Councillor Knight.
prison, thank you, Councillor Osborne, present, thank you and Councillor Ellis present officers this evening with William William Benson present, thank you Lee Collier present, thank you Paul Taylor.
present, thank you, Claudio Vollmond.
present, thank you, Georgia Hawks present, thank you, Jane Freeman present, thank you Zoe Kent.
present, thank you, David Conlan.
present, thank you, Diane Brady present, thank you Peter Bonfield, present and Councillor bench of Lord.
present. Thank you. Thank you Chair, thank you. Members of committee should be familiar with the process, but before the benefits, and so any members of public who have been watching are likely to spend a couple of things, committee members have had their agendas for over a week and have an opportunity to ask any factual questions of the officers ahead of the meeting when we come to substantive items of the agenda this evening, members or members of the public who have registered to speak will be asked to read the statements. They have a maximum of three minutes. Each and the relevant officers will then set out the report. We will then move to the Member's discussion at the end of discussion, where my members that, without prejudice to any of the comments that may be raised, the Committee is asked to come through the following petitions, one that the recommendation to Cambridge supported by committee to the recommendations committee should be supported, subject to particular issues being addressed or free, the recommendations the Cabinet are not supported, and this is the case. The reasons should be stated
I'd like to remind everyone that this is a full meeting.
so Item agenda 1, apologies for absence.

1 Apologies

thank you Chair, we received apologies from Councillor Butcher, Alan Councillor McMillan, Councillor Good Ship and Councillor Sankey.
agenda item 2 declarations of interest.
I didn't know which it didn't item 2 to receive any declarations of interest to items on the agenda, does anyone have such declaration to make?
I see no hands here, so let's move on to the enjoys Murray.

2 Declarations of Interests

3 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

to note the members to members of the public or visiting members of the Council are British to speak, do you have any such persons, I confirm that speakers, the seeking Chair, thank you.

4 Minutes of the meeting dated 14 November 2023

so agenda item 4, we can move to agenda item 4, which has proved the minutes of the meeting held on the 14th November 2023, are there any amendments to these minutes?
no, so are we agreed, this motion is carried.

5 Forward Plan as at 11 January 2024

is?
so agenda item 5, is it considered the full plan as of 11th January 2 and 24 Members have any comments?
I've seen an so are we agreed?

6 *Governance Review

7 * Budget 2024/25 & Medium Terms Financial Strategy

8 *People Strategy 2024-27

I'd like to slightly change agenda items in order to agenda item 8, the people strategy 2024 27 next, then agenda item 17, the bank and tender 2024 25 would then revert back to the order as detailed in the agenda pack OK, so let's move on to agenda item 8, the pupil strategy so presenting offers to induce reports are where William Burton Benson,
Paul Taylor and Councillor Ben Chaplin.
thank you, Chair and good evening members, the people strategy for 24 27 comes from our external auditors feedback as part they've value for for money consideration, so Grant Thornton told us one that we had to come up with a budget savings plan.
the second thing we had to come up with a strategic plan, so we've got the current one, building a better borough which will be eventually replaced by the strategic plan, and a third part of their feedback was a people strategy which is in your agenda papers tonight, it's a three year strategy which should sell out alongside the budget strategy and the future corporate plan as you know, COVID has changed the way people work.
and so far that people can now work from home and work anywhere in the country for any councils, so we are trying to adapt and make our our in organisation more attractive to people, to work in and,
that's what we're aiming to do. There is also a Members briefing on the 2nd of February, the strategy has five elements. Five strands are, as set out in your papers and leadership in culture, talent and skills, engagement with staff, health and wellbeing and rewarding contribution, and hopefully those 5 strands will help us recruit the best people that we can to deliver an ambitious agenda for for the council. I'm gonna pass on to Paul Taylor, who may wish to add anything extra. Thank you
thank you Chair, so I think the lead is really given.
fairly concise introduction is a short strategy and it's for a purpose really, and that's because we wanted it to be clearly understood and very visual, as the Leader has said this, there's five key themes and those themes really are born out to consultation with heads of service, with our own staff, with the market, with recruiters, to make sure that we picked up those key themes, each of those themes as a statement of intent, what we're seeking to achieve through the strategy, and each of those things have a number of actions for delivery. As we as the strategy is adopted, we will then make sure that we monitor that strategy and we report back regularly and whilst the strategy is for three years, I think the market is so changeable and working conditions are so changeable that we will probably want to at some stage just revisit that strategy and make sure that we keep it current
I don't really have anything much more to add, other than obviously to take any questions, William may want to add something that I've missed.
thank you, thank you very much, do we have any questions at all?
Councillor Hall,
next year I would first of all I think I think it's a really strong piece of work but are sound principles behind it underpinning it I was interested in what you said about measuring the effectiveness of performance.
I don't know if you can elaborate a little bit on thoughts around what kind of K or Eyes or KPI as the Council be using to monitor the effectiveness of the people strategy, I don't think it's in the document, but forgive me if it is.
it's a very good question, actually no, it's it's not in the document we've got an action tracker to make sure that we complete all the actions as set out in the strategy. One of the items on the strategy is to make sure that we have better people data when we report that people data back much more frequently, I think one of our K key copies will be around recruitment and retention, so turnover rate is something that we can measure we do measure and we can also benchmark that against the national averages in the sector so, for example, that average is currently running around about 14%
we've typically run above that average, other than for the core videos going back in time we've CA, we've normally ran about 25%, which does seem to be high.
there are probably local and national reasons we are close proximity to London, south-east is an expensive area but as the world of work has changed and as the Leader said, people can work from anywhere, we may well see changes to that particular KPI and that's something I think we would want to measure and monitor very closely.
we've just agreed with our providers, I trained to provide our payroll and HR system to purchase an add-on which allows us to extract that data people data and to put it into business intelligence so we can develop individual dashboards which can be corporate, but they can also drill down to service level so we'll get greater granularity of the data but if I was to pick one I think that would be the key indicator for me.
cars at 1.00 point to that as well, which, as I think, were also another certainly performance indicator when we get a quick, keep a close eye on, is feedback from staff, so we ran regular pulse surveys and we also run regular full-blown staff surveys and those are things we pay careful attention to as well.
just a quick follow up on it, I think I think that's the the right term, the right kind of aspiration, the national average of 14% or even at the local average if we were able regional average if we can try to achieve that in terms of what you said there, William is there a measure of staff satisfaction, for instance you may be aware of the sort of Net promoter scores, for instance for staff,
that is quite a good measure as to whether or not people would recommend the council as a place to work, is that something behind the scenes that you're doing or considering?
yes, absolutely, I'm and one of the things we've historically done is we've shadowed the methodology behind the best places to work, so that was when we used to participate, and that is quite a cost associated with that, but I think they're very sound principles based upon in a lot of research.
and that's another methodology we follow as well.
any further questions.
ask them, to name just a common, really I mean, a turnover of staff, is obviously an important thing, either in or in a local authority. The difficulty that we seem to be having is the recruitment of staff, rather more than Mayor than the the turnover. The turnover, to my mind, seems about right. It's the it's the filling the vacancies, that's the issue.
and at the yeah just leave it or leave it leave that as a comment.
thank you, Councillor, going on at any one point, as well from myself to the question here, and we've got a good starting points of documents, where are we gonna go from here in order to actually get some imputation from this?
so we've got an action plan with some key deliverables, we meet regularly as an officer group to measure how we are progressing against those deliverables, and there'd be a number of pieces of work that come forward as part of that, so things like review and I'll pay.
how pay policies and we'll just make sure that we deliver out those individual elements will put in place that set a KPI as that we've talked about. We'll report that back as appropriate to cabinet and various committees and then, as I've said, we'll need to review that strategy. I think, as we go along, Councillor Doran's makes a good point actually, and we're looking one of the things we are looking at as our recruitment process. We think it's changed it's now it needs to be much more customer centric, so much more candidate centric, so we need to make it more flexible. We need to reduce the time that it takes us to get out to recruitment, but we do use, we do use a portal so we can get data from that portal. Number of people that have looked at the job number of people from looking at the job have actually then gone through to the application process and the number of people that we've interviewed
so as we bring that data into our dashboards will have a much more granular picture from going out to recruit, to retain those staff right the way through their journey through the authority.
thank you, I was just going to add. One point to that, which is we've very recently had a corporate peer challenge, as members will be aware, and a number of Members have input into that wheel, that there is one of the kind of recommendations from that is likely to obtain to. The sort of areas will make sure that we kind of hoover up any recommendations and integrated into the people strategy. I would say also that one of the first things they said to me and I have undertaken corporate peer challenges in the past and you know pretty quickly through you know, once you've walked through the door of an organisation as to what sort of organisation it is and their both their early feedback and their consistent feedback was that the passion, enthusiasm and calibre of our staff is absolutely out of this world. so I think that's something that you were very fortunate to have, and you know I take Councillor Dorling's point about recruiting people and it means we are operating in a very challenging market, the public sector, the south-east the proximity to London but I do think we've got a number of USB so that we can play in to
thank you him, Councillor Knight.
yes, thank you, Chair, just following on from Councillor Hall really just two points I'd like to know a bit more about the KPI, as I sort of just could you unpack, now, what are we actually measuring and really in 2027?
when we get there, how will we know this has been successful, what will success look like some, I'm really not clear that a woman
OK so, as I said in my introduction, each of the individual themes as a statement of intent that was meant to be a pithy objective, really to know whether will have achieved the strategy set inside each of those individual themes as a number of different actions. So by completing those actions hopefully will have delivered on each of those statements of intent. We will then make sure that we link that back to a key set of performance indicators, and I wouldn't say we finalise those indicators yet because once we've got the plug in for a trend and we know exactly what data we can get out of our HR system, then we'll be able to refine and agree and look down on those set of KPIs, but it will endeavour to cross, or are, I think, the whole spectrum of our recruitment process to our retention.
to our promotion and to staff development, so there will be a abroad basket of indicators. I'll be happy to come back and talk about those once we've had time to look at the plug in and see what data we can we can get out of the system. Perhaps we can do that at another all Member briefing as well, so we can then give you an indication of what the baseline for those metrics are.
if that is helpful.
yeah, so I take Councillor S Ma Councillor audience, then Councillor Hall and Councillor on and off to that.
look, I think this is a really fine document, I think it's substantially formalising arrangements that we have in place already, and I think that's good.
my comment about recruitment, it always seems to me that you know the first thing we do, we first thing we think about recruiting is after someone has just left and I think there is a slightly earlier stage in the process that that could be done, I mean just do point out that I think turnover is good I mean if you've got a really good member of staff, he's obviously going to go places and wants to work for a bigger or more major authority, then that's that's to our credit.
and by the same token.
we have a good attitude here and it's the sort of place that people do want to come and work, and if that helps us recruit, then that is also really good and I think there are opportunities here where you know perhaps people who have been working in London and decide that working more locally is is it's more pleasant and I think we have a really good opportunity there but as I say I think this is a
a good structure, substantially formalising what we do already and with the exception of getting on with recruitment, I think we did a pretty good job.
thank you to Councillor Hall.
thank you Chair, I think, just coming back to the attracting staff rather than retaining them, I think the section on reward, I think that's always very interesting, isn't it, in terms of what level of overall package can we offer is obviously important but crucially pays is a key reason why people are attracted to roles and and why they stay in them.
to what extent do you think you have the power to be flexible around pay for key specialist roles, roles that are in demand and to what extent is not explained in the strategy, and I wouldn't expect it to be, but I think it's it it seems to be one of the key things that we need to get right what and what's underpinning the reward it is a review of pay and structures going on and can you elaborate on that?
so if I start on this, so we are pay is based on a job evaluation scheme, so we've got we haven't the the the value and evaluate staff we are pay policy, is we pay to the median of some ankle, P, N, F, P, public and not-for-profit sector in the south-east excluding London? That's our pay policy and historically, at a time when inflation was quite low, we would kind of review that periodically. It might have been the sort of every three or four years. obviously we've lived through a pretty extraordinary period in recent times and it's difficult to get sent to the market because it's moving so quickly so but when we keep theirs at a Member presentation will kind of show where people lie on that.
as you're quite rightly saying, there are huge distortions within that, so there are, in particular, roles that you know where demand is dramatically exceeding supply and or certain specialism, so we have within our HR toolkit the ability to utilise either retention payments or market supplements we've got a whole variety of tools we can use but obviously they have to be used appropriately and you know sort of evidence has to be copied and so on so,
that that's in essence, how he base things, perhaps I could just add that there were a number of really important surveys in the sector last year, actually won by the LGA and one by C IPD, the four key things that came out from both surveys in pretty much the same proportions. What people are looking for in in the market today in the sector is
better pay and benefits, as you rightly point out, Councillor purpose, increased job satisfaction, maybe that's something that's eroded over overtime and perhaps since COVID better work-life balance, there's no surprises there and we've moved the way we work to a hybrid working model, we've paid particular attention to our accommodation improving the accommodation for flexible working,
and change a career development opportunity, so you'll see in the strategy that a lot of emphasises is placed upon that last point as well, it does depend where you are in your career.
dependent upon that demographic, you may have different expectations and you may value these things in indifferent percentages, I guess, but we've tried to make sure that we pick up all those things in the strategy and we've actions to try and address all of those issues mindful that the market may well change over the next few years as well, thank you.
unless any further questions were to finish off, we will form Camp Adam.
and Paul just through to output, yes very well put together a document I can recall that in Audit governance and we we discussed the issue of staff retention in some detail, and I remember there was a figure of around 25% staff turnover was is that still the case now as it was it come down or raised can you clarify on that?
yes, thank you, you're absolutely correct Councillor, Yes, it was at a roundabout 25%, I'm looking at a graph that I've got in front of me, I'll need to put my glasses on bear with me.
1.5 2 yeah, it's now currently for quarter 3, it's a 10.5 2 which is exceedingly low. Actually, it's the lowest we've been since 15 16 Emily said since records began because that's a phrase well used, isn't it, but at this moment in time we seem to be running well below what we normally run at and if you do go back as far as 2015 16, you'll see, we were somewhere around about 17%, against the a sector average which has stayed pretty much the same really roundabout 13 14%, with some fluctuations. If you look at the south-east and that's slightly different, but yes, it's it's come down significantly, which is a good sign
thank you.
any further question removes the motion.
right so the

17 Banking Tender 2024/25

recommendation to a full Council is that Full Council endorse and adopt the people strategy 2024 27 are we all agreed, thank you so, moving on to agenda item 17, the bank and tender presented officers, to introduce the report of Jane Feynman, Head of Finance procurement and pocket straight
thank you Chair the existing banking and merchants services contract expires on the 31st of March 24.
we must be able to carry out banking activities and to take card payments, so we do need a new contract, we went through the government's Find a tender service process, that's the new post-Brexit version of OJEU, which you you may well remember, which was the official Journal of the European Union tender process we had one compliant tender and that was from Lloyds Bank who are our current banker.
this is for a five-year contract, with the ability to extend it for five years if it's commercially advantageous, the merchant services costs per transaction are mainly the same as we have currently, but the cost of banking has increased due to an increase in the cost of Bach's transactions.
the five-year costs the five-year contract costs tendered would move banking costs from 459,000 to 475,000 for the term, which is an increase of about 3%, and there is sufficient budget for 24 25 to cover this cost, but due to the value of the contract I need Cabinet approval for us to be able to to sign the continuation, thank you, thank you Jane doesn't have any questions to drain the swamp.
as he was not so fairly uncontroversial as well, so let's move straight to the recommendations, so there's two options here option 1 is Cavani PRUs and was a five-year contract, given the 1st of April 2024 to Lloyds Bank supplying the bank and emergency services to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.
and option 2 is the Cabinet approval to extension of 16 months to the end of the initial five-year contract term contingent upon the contract, continuing to provide a value for money and statutory service performance levels, so
on the basis of that.
I, just like such leads run through, do we look at option 1?
here we actually do agree to that, so do we approve that?
thank you.
OK thanks, Joe, thank you.

6 *Governance Review

so we move back to the original agenda now, so agenda item 6, it's the Government's review presented the officer tinctures reports, he is winning benzene Chief Executive.
thank you Chair, so in your papers you've got the governance review.
following the changes to the ward boundaries in May, we've decided to take an opportunity to review how we govern the council, so the cross-party governance review group, Councillor Dorling's myself, Councillor Hugo pounds and Councillor Nick Pope, have made a number of recommendations to Full Council and they there are five main ones one is,
Key changes to Cabinet, we've decided to scrap, sorry, we're recommending to scrap general purposes, I should say we've looking to change the Cabinet arrangements and allow substitutes on licensing, overview and scrutiny and planning, and we are proposing to.
remove the East West balance, that's a historical hang-up, in our view, on the planning committee, and then we would like to take the opportunity to move to online meetings where possible.
which will be subject to the Chair on the recommendation of officers without meeting takes place online or in person, so they will go to Full Council in February, should you approve them and Cabinet, and then there will be some constitutional changes are for that.
for the April at Full Council meeting, I am happy to take any questions in a minute, but I'll just pass on to William, if you want to add anything.
not not a huge amount to add just to say that we, in addition to the Member working group we've tried to involve all Members, there's been a survey of all councillors, there have been various presentations to members, and I think also,
you are as, as the Leader said, this is triggered by the reduction in the number of councillors and, if you look at the allocations to committees with the substitutes added in, we end up with a roughly proportionate number relative to the reduction that we've seen in the number of councillors. I should also say that there are. This was also an issue that was picked up by the corporate peer challenge and I think in large measure what's proposed addresses some of the key concerns they had. But if there are any other consequences that flow from the final report, when we receive it, there's always the ability to include those as additional recommendations in the April Council meeting.
thank you, Ben William so we move to questions, do you have any questions?
Councillor dwellings, no question just a comment I mean, I think the one of the factors that emerged in the course of this study was the attendance at meetings I mean, we've got for members who aren't here today the
so I think he when it comes to the decision-making committees.
licensing, Overview and Scrutiny and Planning, I think the introducing of substitutes is really important development and I think that's just one issue I think we I'd highlight, is what a sensible measure that is.
otherwise, I think it broadly broadly forms in in insurgents reducing the number of Members on each Committee by the sort of similar percentage that.
Avie overall number of councillors has gone down and I think that's perfect, perfectly sensible, I do think that the issue on attendance of
as opposed to joining online, is quite important, I actually find it quite refreshing to meet my fellow Councillors, whether or whether other councillors feel that as well, I've got no idea.
but.
I I mean I do think that, as well as advantages from the fact that someone could be at home, there are advantages actually now in coming in and coming a meeting here, so I think that to be prescriptive is probably wrong and I think to leave it to a committee is to decide how it functions it is probably right, thank you.
and Councillor Dorner's, I think there's a fair and reasonable comments there, so do any amounts, questions or comments.
no, thank you, so it's moved to the recommendations showing.
the recollections go forward to Cabinet.
the Council note the results of the research activities carried out to the Council notes and results of the council survey.
free, the Council greys recommend committee structure and number of seats set out in section 4 of this report item before the Council note the consequential changes constitution and terms of reference of the committee or board because of the new arrangements will be brought to Full Council at the meeting on the Wednesday 3rd of April 2024 and item 5 the Council agrees to review the number arrangements to be undertaken by Head of Governance and Democratic Services after 12 months.
are we all agreed agreed, thank you.

7 * Budget 2024/25 & Medium Terms Financial Strategy

let's move on to agenda item 7, which is the budget 2025 medium term financial strategy. Update so presents and officers are to induce report is Lee Collier, Director of Finance Policy and development of duly. Thank you Chairman. This is the final report in the process of setting the budget for the year 24 25. The development of the budget has been informed for a number of reports throughout the year, starting with the budget projection and strategy report in July, then, in October, Cabinet approved the budget update, along with a savings plan in November. Myself and the portfolio holder attended Overview and Scrutiny to talk through the approach and process, and then in December, Cabinet approved the draft Budget for consultation. Just before Christmas, we received a provisional local finance settlement. The summary in the table at power 2.5 shows that the Council will receive an extra 259,000 pounds over the current settlement. The settlement was a dangerous for a single year and there is no information on the replacement for the new homes bonus scheme
and the Department for levelling up housing communities appear to be awaiting the outcome of the next general election, which should then lead to a comprehensive spending review and policy development, leading to a review of outcome finance, the longer this delay happens is actually better for this council's finances because of the lack of population growth in the census for this borough.
will be a detrimental impact in any redistribution of of funding in terms of the revenue budget, the major variances to the budget over the current year, as set out in the table power 2.3 1, the additional income from fees and charges, car parking and investment returns along with delivering that savings plan have in effect offset the inflationary pressures on expenditure leaving a balanced budget.
the budget gap, however, over the medium term, is illustrated in the Crocodile graph at par 1.4, and that shows the widening divergence between income, which is largely capped at 3%.
and the rising expenditure driven by inflationary pressures now this gap widens considerably.
from the year 27 28 as a result of the major contracts maturing, including the cost of procuring those in what is currently uncompetitive marketplace I provided for additional costs of those contracts, 2 million pound extra on waste, 200,000 for grounds maintenance and I've assumed that this Councillor no longer would receive the 290,000 pounds management fee for the leisure contract. In terms of the capital programme, the Council's assets will continue to require substantial investment, with an additional gross funding of 5.3 million pounds. In addition to rolling forward the capital programme, there are, however, some capital receipts in progress which have not been included at this stage, which should help to fund the capital programme. I prefer to account for those when the receipts are actually delivered. We will use the first 500,000 pounds from any business rate growth to also fund the capital programme
within the report, there is a paragraph called Section 25 Statement now as a legal requirement where I have to give an opinion on the adequacy of reserves and robustness of the figures, and you'll note that's a much shorter statement than in previous years and that's good news, and that reflects that over the past year, advice has been heeded and the actions taken has helped to bring the budget back into balance and also we've set out a programme of asset disposals. The draft Budget was subject to consultation and the results of that consultation are appended. The budget survey was undertaken and are generating impressive response. 1,500 and 49 respondents there are 1,160 last year
the response actually exceeds the residents survey as well, the response rate was right across all age groups, which was very encouraging and was broadly in line with the census data, apart from that, the gender balance the survey asked the public which statutory service they paid the most and,
consistent with previous years, the public said they buried waste and recycling street cleansing, housing, homelessness and the puppet were then asked to allocate funding across the discretionary services to see how that compares with the draft budget in terms of a council tax increase, 54% supported an increase we did go further and say would anybody be willing to make a voluntary contribution?
and the resounding 58% said no.
sorry, we might need to review that question in future.
60% said that the Council does deliver value for money and as a heat map appended which showed responses were a really good spread right across the borough, and yes, there were some response outside the borough, but that's because the town's an attractive place for visitors and people to work and their views are equally important as well so,
in summary, we've arrived at a balanced budget for the first time in three years, which demonstrates that the Council has successfully managed its finances following the disturbance from the pandemic and is now on a sound financial footing and there are still challenges in future years as expenditure exceeds income but these are broadly manageable until the expiry of the major contracts from 27 28, but we are already considering procurement options which may include in-house provision widening those partnerships or other options whilst that market is not functioning effectively. Happy taking questions Chairman,
thank you Lee, do you have any questions, please?
Castle is one.
thankfully, I was just interested really in the the survey and Louis ever-so survey expert with a sputum, the respondents all seemed to be over a period of two days, basically the first and or the second third and fourth of Jan there's any particular reason obviously a very successful certainly having 1,500 respondents but them all arriving sort of 13 the same time I've gone wondering why that had happened.
there is a very good reason for that.
so as as part of using the budget survey, we are allowed to use the council tax e-mail addresses for those arrested for for Ebeling, sorry that will be one dataset that we use and send out, and also after Christmas we use the e-mails we hold from businesses and clearly after Christmas businesses are back ready for the start of the year so we target council tax payers and businesses and those that direct e-mailing out generate significant response rate.
thank you Jennifer questions.
I thought it was also interesting, I mean the the discretionary services response, you just say, parks and open spaces very positively, supported by the respondents, but it's interesting at the other end, so the little support, the Amelia Scott and even less support for the Assembly Hall which I thought was surprising.
both both of them, trumped by public conveniences, which I know has been a controversial issue in the past.
that is consistent with previous years, but the way the budget survey works, we asked the public to take the same tough decisions as you do and try to reallocate funding, so as far as the public would like to spend more money on some services, we forced them to balance the budget and that requires them to take money away from from other services that they may or may not use or may value less than their preferences.
any further questions, Councillor Frances.
there were not so much a question as a comment.
agreed to
accused me of of being an expert on this. No, nobody would suggest that a clustering of the response rates would indicate a bias in there in the responses I will not on this type of survey, so I would I wouldn't think that it would cause any problems at all or cheerily speaking though I was very, very impressed with the the figures that came out today
but that came out in this report, thank you.
Councillor Jennings, I think they all came back to their e-mail after the room after the New Year break.
yeah, you made a comment earlier, which I was interested in about.
getting over the pandemic can be the main issue during the pandemic, which we had to deal with when we were making a or.
a loss of around a million pounds a month in the early stages of the lockdown.
and the main reason for that was the fact that no one was coming into any car parks is car park revenue, now I mean it, car park income is one of the one of the things that.
has got rid of the shortfall that we had in the in the autumn for for next year's budget, do you think that car parking income is now at a higher level than pre pandemic?
yeah, so during the pandemic we were unsure whether car parking income would ever recover to the levels we had before the pandemic, changing in and visitors to the town centre workers and visitors, but I'm pleased to report that actually the gross income now is above pre pandemic levels. Sorry, one of the reasons we were able to close that gap between the draft Budget and the final budget is we looked again at our trajectory trajectory. Car parking income was increasing, but the latest figures we haven't been able to slightly increase that structure further, so that's very healthy for the Town Centre and for the council's revenues.
do you have any further questions or comments anyone?
OK, so you can move the recommendations to go forward to Cabinet.
the Council considers that changes the base budget, along with assumptions and approach detailed throughout the report item to the question that the Council considers the responses to the budget consultation, I am afraid the Council approves the revenue budget for the Council PRUs are rolling forward the capital programme including additional gross funding of 5,000,300 8,900 pounds for new schemes listed within the report 5, the Council approves the increase in the basic amount of Council Tax to 5 pounds 70 in brackets 2090 plus present pupils 9% for 2024 25 for the band D property and 6
that the
with grants the Council Tax, the Council approved the levy of 100%.
long term empty premium for properties that have been empty for more than the year from the 1st of April 2024, and to deliver 100% to a second home premium properties from 1st April 2025 and 7, the Council approves the Pay Policy Statement 2024 25 set out independency are we all agreed?
OK, thank you.

8 *People Strategy 2024-27

9 Revenue and Benefits Shared Service Proposal Report

moving on to agenda item, 9 Revenue benefits shared services, proposed report, now Georgia, Hughes, Director of Beacon Services and Zoe Kent Interim Head of Revenue benefits and introduce report before I pass out to them, so I would like to note that the item contains exempt appendix set out in restricted papers under agenda item 20,
report May
be discussed and decided upon in public session, provide no exempt information, disclosed and Members are happy to take exempt information as read alternatively, if members wish to discuss anything which appears to the exempt appendix please indicate before discussion discussion will then be held are held over and discussed in private session later, so present officers introduced the report
thank you, Chairman and good evening members, and I will be brief for the poor passing to Zoey, but I just wanted to say that over the last two years a lot of work has been done across the partners, the three partners and by soy in particular in order to get us to a position where an expanded shared service including Mainstone, Tunbridge and Swell would be feasible.
and I hope you'll agree that the business case that you see before you this evening is a comprehensive document and it explores the savings, the benefits and the risks of expanding the shared service to include swale and Zoë in particular again has worked incredibly hard on it and that is why that is all I am going to say before I pass over to you Chair and out today.
thank you for that for.
sorry.
thank you Chair.
two years have now passed since I started managing Mid Kent revenues and benefits and I have used this time to really understand how a shared service, including swell could work swell has bought in all the challenges that were raised with them but have changed to a council tax support bandage scheme, the testing of the any see document management system is complete and will go live in March and they have moved their calls to customer services there have been or there have been significant costs to moving the document management system which shows Sewell are committed to becoming part of the shared service.
performance information is given in part 4 of Appendix A. The business case and the productivity comparison in Part 10 table 6.
since moving to abandoned scheme swells performance has improved due to the universal credit automation, the ratio of staff to case loads is now much closer and analysis of the different options is given in table 7, this shows option 3 is the preferred option.
this option brings savings and further resilience to the partnership.
the timetable for the implementation implementation of the shared service, if it is agreed by all three Councils, can be found in Part 17 table 10.
the new staffing structure is given in the CSEB B Appendix.
and we are expecting reductions in staff numbers in Yvonne, you, too, will be used to bed in the team, and we then expect further reductions from year 3 to 5, that information is already public to the staff, analysis of the risks is given, in part 18 table 11 if swelled joining the shared services approved.
as with any changes, there are risks, however, what this change will do is to provide resilience to the service during the last two years, work has been carried out to start to align the processes between Mid Kent and Swell, and many of the processes are already aligned.
we are currently reviewing the highest risks risk to failure to agree a collaboration agreement, the collaboration agreement is being worked on to ensure it is completed and we will be reviewing this with legal.
Ms Ford, the business case becomes obsolete, any changes brought in by the government or by the authorities would need to be picked up, whether the shared service was to go ahead or not risk 5, failure to retain key staff.
this is a risk we are working to alleviate, even if the shared service does not go ahead, this may still be an issue, succession planning is being implemented to alleviate any pressures risk 11 Biswell staff currently work a 34 hour week, we are looking at the Tupou arrangements and this is being discussed by the chief executive of Mainstone as the employing authority for Mid Kent revenues and benefits and the swale chief exec risk 15 unplanned work that must be accommodated.
revenues and benefits often have additional work given to them by the government, any future projects will be discussed with the 1 5 1 officers to ensure appropriate staffing can be provided.
except Appendix B shows the savings and costs of swelled joining the shared service, the cost of implementing the shared service will be offset by year 3, the savings and costs of the service are based on the case loads of the authorities, thank you.
thank you judges are.
do you have any comments or questions for children's eyes up Councillor Ball?
thank you Chair.
yeah thanks, Georgia, thank Zoe, I know from working with you just how much effort has been made on this on this business case, and it really is a very thorough piece of work. I am in favour of option 3, I think is clear from from reading your business case of some minor productivity differences, but they could be ironed out the silage synergy of benefit systems. The operating principles are very similar and it will deliver a saving. I think you've really analysed and explained how are you going to manage the risks really really well and a lot of detail? the only question, therefore, that I had was around the pace of the implementation and I am used to perhaps changes like this from my own corporate background being done a little bit faster than three years. Is there any reason why it's three years why it couldn't be done at a slightly faster pace?
I would say we have learnt from previous collaborations and we we know that revenues and benefits there's so many processes that we have to work through. For example, we just starting annual billing this lots of changes comma in, for example, from lace paper, the the changes that will have to bring in for empty properties in the next year and we want to have time to bed in so so that the chief execs and the Section 1 5 one of us is one and the committees are, all three authorities will be able to review the processes and the
give time to bed in performance, I would say it may be that we get through any changes at a quicker pace, but we're looking to minimise the amount of redundancies, and so we're looking at staff leave, we might be in be able to bring in some automation that is part of the process where we will be using.
we're hoping so staff leave them, we may not replace them and we're hoping that this will be a gradual process and it won't be rushed that we may want to add anything.
my favourite question is, though.
Councillor
a comment I think that back in 2021, when this process kicked off, this is the sort of outcome that we hoped for, and I am certainly very pleased that this is where we've got to well done.
any further comments and questions to Thomas.

10 *Discretionary Rate Relief Report

in those cases, move forward the recommendations Cabinet, the Cabinet agreed to expand the weekend service revenue benefit partnership, which include Swell Borough Council, are we all agreed, thank you, let's move on to agenda item 10 discretionary rate relief report presents an office to ensure support is that weekend Interim Head revenues and benefits, so would you say?
thank you Chair.
discretionary rate relief is awarded to charities and non-profit making organisations following our discretionary rate relief policy charities receive 80% mandatory relief, which can we can top up by 20% for other non-profit-making organisations we are able toward 100%.
in the past, we have been able to backdate this relief following the government legislation from 1st April 2024, we were able to decide the maximum period for the backdating of awards.
the award of discretionary rate relief is not a cost to the borrower, it reduces the amount of rights we collect. The preferred option would be to backdate for a maximum period of 12 months. The reason for this is it awards the same amount of backdating for all businesses, making it fair for all local voluntary sector providers. We are also making a recommendation to review the discretionary rate relief scheme during the next financial year. We are currently required to give 12 months notice to change the scheme
thank you,
thank you, sorry, do you have any questions from the original?
I'll see non hairstyle web, she moved forward to recommendations will go to Cabinet, so one is to prove the change, the backdating of discretionary rate relief to maximum period of 12 months to to prove the Redfern obstinacy legit relief policy between 24 or 25 and free the Cabinet recommends a full council but a full review of the policy is carried out in 22 25 and we will agree.
thank you.

11 Cleaning and Hygiene Maintenance Tender

so moving on to agenda item 11, which is clean and hygiene matters tender now the officer who was initially present, looking to present this, is no longer with us, so any officers prepared to actually run through Debenhams, OK no promoted so.
again similar to situation. Here, I would like to note that the items containing exempt appendix is which are set out in restricted papers under agenda item 21, the report may be discussed and decided upon public session, provided no exempt, information is disclosed and Members are happy to take exempt information as read. Alternatively, if Members wished to discuss anything which appears in the exempt appendix please indicate during the discussion the discussion will be held over and discussed in the private session later, so she will end. Thank you and thanks very much Chairman, so I think most of the information you need to put all the information needed to make the decision is contained within the public boards you can see the process we've gone through and the kind of metrics in terms of the number of responses, the basis upon which we've assessed those returns and it also sets out the reason why we've not extended the tender we're looking to include some of our temporary accommodation stock in.
within the contract, and I think also it just makes sense to go to market, to see whether or not we can derive efficiencies, particularly given our financial position, as you can say within as you can see within the reports, are the preferred contractors account based company that's been operating for well over a decade throughout the south-east region and that already provides similar contracts for a number of other.
nearby district councils have so.
I think that's the last thing, William there's an important question from Williams on this.
I see none, so let's move towards recommendations Cabinet 1, the Cabinet agrees the ward, the new clean and hygiene contract to preferred provider for up to free it from the 1st of May 2024, with options of two extensions of one year at a time to the draft and completion of the contract and the relevant accelerate the documentation and delegate to the Head of legal partnership I'll be agreed.
thank you.

12 *Treasury Management Policy and Strategy

let's move on to agenda item 12 Treasury Management Policy and Strategy report sent an officer, is Lee Collier, Director of Finance Policy and Development.
thank you really thank you Chairman. This is the annual report that sets out the strategy and policies for managing the Council's investments and borrowing. CIPFA produces a Prudential and Treasury Management Code, and this strategy is in full compliance with that Code, the limits for how much how long and with whom the Council can invest remains unchanged and this report will then go on to Cabinet for final approval report Council happy taking questions, Chairman Gilly, do you have any questions or comments here?
I have seen him so well.
this moves the recommendations, so the recommendation to cabinets are that the Treasury Management Policy and Strategy 21 to 25 set out Appendix A is reported to be adopted.
we were agreed.
thank you.

13 *Capital Strategy

so item number 13 Capital Strategy, again presenting officer is Lee Collier, thank you, another annual report Chairman this sets out the high level a long-time overview of capital expenditure and financing, and the structure has been updated to reflect the Council's strategic priorities within the Tommy Jones Borough Council Plan.
this report will also go on to Cabinet and then onto for council tenants, thankfully, any questions will illness.
again thin on, say.
recognition go forward to Cabinet the Capital Strategy 24 25, as set out in Appendix A to the report be adopted and we all agreed.
thank you.

14 Property Transaction Report July to December 2023

let's move on to agenda item 14, the property transaction for July to December 2023 David Conlin, head of economic development and property could introduce the report, but before we pass it over again, I would like to say that this item contains exempt appendix as set out in the streets of papers under agenda item 22,
what may be discussed and decided upon in public session provide no exempt information is disclosed, and Members are happy to take exempt information to, as read alternatively, if members wish discuss, anything appears an exempt appendix, please indicate during discussion discussion would be held over and discussed in private session later so OJEU David and also Pink Peter as well.
Williams Chairman, the property transactions reported a six-month report updating on tracks transactions completed under delegated authority.
the paper is written by the senior Estates Officer, Peter Benfield, and the investment property manager, Diane Brady, and they're both here today to answer any questions related to the open, all the exempt reports in the open report, the section 1 highlights the delegation including the amendments to the constitution and delegation which were enacted by a full Council decision on the 13th of December 2023 where the values were increased and a specific delegation related to our BP was was was approved.
all the transactions are listed in either appendix A and are exempt Appendix A and the section to provide a very brief overview of transactions completed, however, there is one additional transaction to add, and I just ask Diane to make a comment regarding that please.
thank you, in addition to the seven licences and the for tenancies that will let us that are reported, there was also a lease that was completed for one of the occupy, one of the units in RVP that wasn't reported in the documentation, but it will be reported to Cabinet.
and to reflect this additional lease, paragraph 2.8 of the open report should now read 12 occupational matters have been completed and very happy to talk about the details of that lies in exempt if you require, thank you.
thank you.
do you have any questions, the officers have done this?
I see none so recantation going forward to cabinet, the report is to be noted and we were agreed.

15 *Asset Management Plan 2024/25

moving on, so we now move to Item 15, the Asset Management Plan, 25th for 25 presented officer to introduce the report, David Candlin, head of economic development and property safety, David
thank you, Mr. Chairman, the draft asset management plan is yet another of the annual documents that comes through to Cabinet and then on to full Council the draft Asset Management Plan was approved by Cabinet for consultation in December 2023, the draft was placed on talking point and consultation opened on the 18th of December consultation unfortunately doesn't close until the 26th of January 2024, so today will be a verbal update on comments received.
however, we will be providing.
the Cabinet full Council version of the report will have written comments regarding those that have been received during the consultation period.
the AMP is approved annually with the Council budget at full Council in February, it sets out the principles, procedures and mechanisms adopted for the management of the property asset portfolio, as I indicated were currently out at consultation to date on talking point we have are at least 20 individuals of access, the consultation of which 10 people have read the Asset Management Plan and 6 have made a comment, the over one comment was just no.
of the five people making a more substantial comment, one person has raised the impact of loss of parking in the town centre in general capacity, one person was not in favour of the council acquiring RVP due to the potential additional burden it may put on Council air resources, one person certainly wanted a RVP empty units being brought back into use as well as making reference to units elsewhere in the town centre two people are referred to investment in the Wesley Centre in Paddock Wood and one person sought at some carbon neutral investment at Puntland Leisure Centre.
one person did comment directly on the Asset Management Plan and perhaps take the point that the document is quite long.
thank you, David, I read it.
do we have any questions for David on this?
Councillor Dowling.
I just.
I just worry that we declare items.
surplus and potential disposal.
when I'm fairly sure that we can't dispose of all of them
I just think we just thought to be a little bit careful about
publishing what we might dispose of, particularly well, I think we really got very little chance of disposing of them.
thank you, Councillor Golton, you have never questions at all or comments.
OK, so let's move to the recommendations, go forward to Cabinet the fog Council approves and adopts the Asset Management Plan and 2024 25, I will agree.

16 Lease of 8 Grosvenor Road - The Gateway

thank you, so let's move on to agenda item 16 Lease of 8 Grosvenor Road, the gateway.
now Peter Fenn board senior states of Azerbaijan will introduce the report again a bit like Groundhog Day here, but before I pass over him I'd like to first like to note. The item contains an exempt appendix which is set out in stricter papers under agenda item 23. The report may be discussed and decided upon in public session providing no exempt information. Disclosed Members are happy to take the exempt information as read or sensibly if members wish to discuss anything which appears in the exempt appendix please indicate during the discussion
the decision will be held over and discussed in private session later, thank you, O G Peter.
thank you Chair.
yes.
managers to report on the proposal to grant a lease for the premises at 8.00 Grosvenor Road I hope you will see that all the relevant information for design is included in the report, but just to give her to have an overview, the at the premises is the formal Council drop-in and and service delivery centre.
adjacent to RVP, the property has been largely vacant for the past two years or so, and is currently being occupied by a local charity on a temporary basis we are proposing to grant a lease on a
very strong commercial terms, too, are a national retailer who will be a new and appealing addition to the town centre.
the property has been widely exposed, having been on the market for much of those previous two years and firmly believe that the offer that has been presented is as good as we could possibly expecting in in the market and indeed was the result of a high degree of competition for the property towards the in recent months.
review, it represents a strong vote of confidence in Tunbridge Wells and the town centre as a location and care, and we are confident it could encourage further interest in the town by
3 in retaining Anthony increasing the amount of footfall through the town at various various parts of the day.
the alternative additional benefit, I think I have a considerable benefit to the property's investment value as a result of the rent agreed, the length of the lease to be granted and the quality of the tenants covenant.
certainly recommend it's the the approval of the grant of the lease, thank you.
thank you, Peter, do you have any questions on this item or any comments?
I see none inside Webb, the recommendation could afford a cabinet 1. The Cabinet approves the grant of the lease referred to in the report and appendices to the Cabinet delegate authority to the Head of economic development and property in consultation with the Director of Finance Policy and Development and the Cabinet Members of Finance performance to negotiate and agree the terms of the lease as set out exempt appendix B free, that Cabinet delegate authority to the Head of legal services to complete all legal formalities that are necessary and incidental to the recommendation in the report as negotiate, execute and complete all necessary agreements, deeds and documents arising from necessary or incidental to these decisions are we all agreed,

17 Banking Tender 2024/25

18 Urgent Business

19 Date of the Next Meeting

thank you agenda item 18 urgent business to be considered by urgent business, I confirm that there's no such business, so agenda item 19 Date of next meeting next meeting was scheduled to take place Tuesday, 5th of March 2024 at 6.30 if agenda items 9 11 14 16 were concluded, the public meeting is now closed.