To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 16 October 2019.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting on 16 October 2019.

The joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer and Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) is attached.

The seventh biennial Manchester International Arts Festival (MIF) was held between 4 July 2019 to 21 July 2019. A joint report submitted by the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer and the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) presented an evaluation of the success of the festival. The report also explained the transition that would need to take place over the next two years, in anticipation of the opening of The Factory in 2021/22.

The objectives for the 2019 Festival had been:

·         To continue to grow the international reputation of the Festival and the city – with artists, audiences, partners and media coverage from all five continents and from a wide variety of backgrounds – in turn driving reach for the festival, attracting people to the city and the best staff to our team.

·         To bring the most extraordinary artists from around the world to Manchester to create diverse and inspiring new work – made in Manchester and shared across the globe.

·         To connect in new and ever-deeper ways with the city and region of Manchester, increasing the range and diversity of those engaging with the Festival, with an ever-more visible and transformative presence in the city.

·         To develop the brand, profile and awareness of MIF/The Factory locally, nationally and internationally in readiness for opening in 2021/22.

The report examined each of these in turn and set out the details of how well the objective had been achieved. The festival’s financial performance was also explained. Arts Council England had supported the Festival as one of its National Portfolio organisations and invested £10.5m over the two-year cycle, of which £9m was their contribution to the running of The Factory and to build MIF’s capacity to run the new facility. Box office income achieved during the Festival was on target at £1.1m. Co-commissioning income and co-producing value in kind support had made a contribution of just under £3m. The final amount raised from individual donors, corporate partners for MIF19 was £2.37m, including value in kind. MIF19 had been supported by 65 corporate sponsors and media partners.

The meeting was addressed by the artistic director and chief executive of Manchester International Festival, John McGrath. He said he felt the report painted a very positive picture of both the economic and the social impact of the 2019 festival. He spoke of the long-term collaborations with homelessness organisations in the city, and the 2,700 free tickets that had been given to targeted community groups to further develop the ownership of the festival amongst the people of Manchester.

On international impact, he felt that the festival had been the most successful ever including the £3m income from co-commissioning with other international arts bodies. Nine of the shows at the festival were now touring elsewhere in the world. The invitations for other arts leaders from around the world to visit the city and to see the development of The Factory had also been very successful.

The report recognised the importance and the valuable contribution of the volunteer programme with 507 people  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92.

The report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) is enclosed.

As a result of Manchester’s participation in the Cabinet Office’s Delivering Differently for Young People, we had supported the development of an independent Youth and Play Trust. That trust could then enter into a financial agreement that would see it develop, coordinate and manage the commissioning of youth and play services across Manchester (Minute Exe/16/014).

By supporting the establishment of an independent Youth and Play Trust, known as “Young Manchester”, that independent charity was now able to attract additional investment into the City for young people’s services in a way that the council could not.

A report submitted by the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) proposed the adoption of a new strategy that would be the framework for future partnership work between the Council and its partners and stakeholders, who all shared responsibility for making sure that young people had access to a high quality offer that addressed their universal and their specific and targeted needs.

The strategy put forward a proposed vision for these services:

“Ensure our young people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and benefit from the economic prosperity of the city. They will contribute to, and benefit from, supportive and dynamic neighbourhoods with access to a wide range of youth, leisure and recreational opportunities.

Their voice and citizenship will continue to be placed at the heart of the city’s current and future identity, recognising that our young people are the future of Manchester; economically, socially and culturally. They will come to define our city, and its relationship with the global community.”

The strategy set of a set of proposed actions, referred to as ‘we wills’, divided up into four key themes:

·         Thriving Young People

·         Highly Skilled Young People

·         Progressive and Resilient Young People

·         Living Well, Healthy & Safe Young People

·         Connected & Heard Young People

The vision, themes and proposed actions were all supported. The role that the Council’s Youth Strategy Team were to have in implementing the strategy was explained in the report.

The report also examined the requirements for the Council’s future financial contributions to the delivery of Youth and Play services. The intention was for investment by the council into the Youth and Play Trust to be used as leverage to secure additional third party investment which would support the sustainability of youth and play services across the city. The facilitate that the Council would be asked to considered setting a three-year budget for the service as part of the coming budget setting processes for 2020/21 and beyond.

We noted that the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee had considered the report at a recent meeting and had endorsed the recommendations (Minute CYP/19/47).

Decisions

1.         To agree, subject to budget, the continuation of investment into Young Manchester for the next 3 years, on the basis that Young Manchester uses this as leverage to grow external investment to support the sector.

2.         To consider and approve the adoption of the proposed vision, strategic themes and ‘We Wills’ to deliver the Strategy over the next 3 years.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93.

The report of the Strategic Director (Growth & Development) is enclosed.

The Allocations Scheme is used to assess the eligibility and priority of applicants for the social housing the Council has available. The scheme was revised in 2007 (Minute Exe/07/134) and again in March 2010 (Minute Exe/10/35), with the current version coming into use in 2011. Since 2011, and using delegated authority, officers had made further minor amendments to the details but the policy had remained fundamentally the same for eight years.

A report from the Strategic Director, Growth and Development, explained why it was now felt that the Allocations Policy needed to be reviewed. The report looked at how the turnover of social housing had reduced whilst demand had increased. It described a process of engagement with stakeholders that had been used to develop a range of policy solutions, seeking to ensure that the proposals would not have a disproportionate effect on applicants with protected characteristics. It also described how the proposals were consulted upon with statutory organisations and with the wider public. The outcome of that work being a well-considered set of recommendations.

The report explained that city’s housing situation had changed significantly since 2011. There had been a significant rise in homelessness. The associated cost to the Council of households in temporary and supported accommodation were becoming unsustainable. Welfare reforms and rising private sector rents were also proving to be major challenges for people seeking new social housing. The turnover and availability of social homes had reduced significantly. The number of households on the housing register had risen by 27% over the previous four years, but there had been a 21% decrease in the number of homes that had become available for letting over that same time period.

Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996 requires local authorities to have an Allocations Policy that describes how social homes should be allocated and to give “reasonable preference” to certain groups of applicants:

·         people who need to move on welfare or medical grounds;

·         people who need to move to a particular area of the borough to avoid hardship;

·         people living in overcrowded, insanitary, or otherwise unsatisfactory housing; and

·         people who are homeless within the meaning of Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996.

The current policy therefore used six bands to decide the relative priority to be given to applicants for social housing.

Band 1 - applicants in real housing need (reasonable preference) who are in very urgent or emergency need to be rehoused.

Band 2 - applicants in real housing need (reasonable preference) who make a contribution to their community.

Band 3 - applicants in real housing need (reasonable preference) who do not contribute to their community.

Band 4 - applicants not in real housing need but who make a contribution to their community

Band 5 - applicants not in real housing need and who do not contribute to their community.

Band 6 - applicants demoted from bands 1-5.

Given the recognised need for the policy to be reviewed, a set of policy objectives were established for the review.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.

The report of the Strategic Director (Growth & Development) is enclosed.

A report by the Strategic Director, Growth and Development, explained changes in the student accommodation market in the city. The report set out the context for consideration to be given to a review of the policies relating to purpose built student accommodation (PBSA). That review would be on an interim basis in advance of a review of Core Strategy Policy H12: “Purpose Built Student Accommodation”, as part of an update of the Core Strategy.

Manchester has one of the largest student populations in Europe, with over 90,000 students at Greater Manchester’s five universities, and over 380,000 students at the 22 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within an hour’s drive. There were 74,164 students enrolled at one of Manchester’s three HEIs in 2017/18, of which 48,393 had a term-time address in Manchester. Of the remaining c.25,000 students, a significant proportion live at home with their families across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Policy H12 of the city’s Core Strategy was adopted in 2012 and had been developed with the objective of managing the supply of student accommodation in the city. It set out the criteria to be used to guide planning applications for student accommodation and to manage the appropriate delivery of PBSA. The policy had helped ensure that housing had been developed in the city centre, prevented an oversupply of PBSA, and created a dynamic residential market. The Council, working with partners, had used Policy H12 to manage the controlled delivery of a limited but sustainable supply of new PBSA, in response to increasing student demand for accommodation in the city centre. A small amount of PBSA has also been developed in the south of the city, including the University of Manchester’s plans in Fallowfield.

The report explained that whilst Policy H12 remained relevant, changes in the student accommodation market had created the need to review the interpretation and application of the policy. This primarily related to affordability challenges and the need to locate accommodation in close proximity to the HEIs.

The report described in detail the changes in the market and the pressures that were arising across the city. It explained the background and context that a review of the policy would need to take into consideration.

The meeting was addressed by Councillor Davies, a councillor in the Deansgate ward. She said that students were welcome and spoke of the valuable contribution that students make to the city. However, student accommodation demands and pressures could have a detrimental effect on other longer-term domestic residents. In particular she said that student numbers correlated strongly with more use of delivery companies for packages and food, and that increased traffic was putting pressure on neighbourhoods. She hoped that the Executive, in approving the report, would ensure that city centre residents were a key stakeholder in the proposed consultation.

It was proposed that there should now be consultation with key stakeholders on the changing market context, with a view that the conclusions of that could be taken into account in determining planning applications, in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95.

The report of the Strategic Director (Growth & Development) is enclosed.

A report by the Strategic Director, Growth and Development, put forward an approach to acquiring properties which were offered to the Council to increase the amount of affordable housing and to reduce the number of former Council properties entering the private rented sector.

Owners of former council owned properties were obliged to offer them to the Council if they wished to sell within 10 years of purchase. Other properties were also offered to the Council and this policy was intended to cover any properties so offered.

The intention was to establish a capital budget of £1.5m to be used over the next three years to provide both gap funding to Registered Providers and to purchase properties for City Council ownership. It was intended that the one-for-one Right to Buy capital receipts would be used in the first instance to establish that budget. Government guidelines on the one-for-one receipts meant that a receipt could support a maximum of 30% of any property acquisition. If acquisitions were to be made for City Council properties, then there would be a need for 70% of the funding to be identified from within the existing housing capital programme.

This proposal would be a similar approach to the larger property acquisitions proposals agreed in March 2018 (Minute Exe/18/041). Under that scheme the Council and Registered Properties had jointly purchased 19 four bedroom properties to provide homes for larger homeless households.

The proposals in the report were supported.

Decisions

1.         To approve the principles outlined in this report.

2.         To authorise the Head of Housing Services in consultation with the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer and the City Solicitor to progress and formalise arrangements with the Registered Providers.

3.         To authorise the Head of Housing Services in conjunction with the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer and the City Solicitor to review and make minor amendments to this new policy during the next 3 years.

4.         To note that a request for a budget of £1.5m for the acquisition of properties over the three-year period will be advanced through the City Council's capital approval process.

The report of the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer is enclosed.

A report concerning requests to increase the capital programme was submitted. We agreed to recommend two changes to the Council and to make a further four changes under delegated powers. These changes would increase Manchester City Council’s capital budget by £2.143m across 2019/20 and 2020/21, funded partly from borrowing, the use of reserves and the Capital Fund, and external contributions.

We also noted two changes that had been approved by the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, £200K for the Peterloo Memorial and £433K for CCTV improvements.

Decisions

1.         To recommend that the Council approve the following two changes to the capital programme:

a) ICT – Collaboration Platform Replacement. A capital budget allocation through transfer of £2.100m from the End User Experience budget is requested, funded by borrowing.

b) Neighbourhoods – Cremator and Mercury Abatement Plant Replacement Strategy. A capital budget increase of £1.551m is requested, funded by borrowing.

2.         To approve the following four changes to the capital programme:

c) Neighbourhoods – Hough End Master Plan – Strategic Football and Multi Sports Hub – Development Costs. A capital budget increase of £0.241m is requested, funded by £0.100m External Contribution and £0.141m Waterfall Fund.

d) Neighbourhoods – Range Stadium Capital Project. A capital budget increase of £0.465m is requested, funded by borrowing on an invest to save basis.

e) ICT – Income Management Solution. A capital budget decrease of £0.114m is requested and approval of a corresponding transfer of £0.114m to the revenue budget, funded by Capital Fund.

f) Highways Services - A6 Stockport Road. A capital budget allocation through transfer of £0.125m from the Highways Investment Programme is requested, funded by borrowing.

3.         To note increases to the programme of £0.633m as a result of delegated approvals.

The report of the Deputy Chief Executive & City Treasurer is enclosed.

The Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer's report informed us of the revised capital budget 2019/20 to 2024/25 taking account of agreed and proposed additions to the programme, profiling changes, and the latest estimates of forecast spend and resources for the 2019/20 capital programme. The report explained the major variations to forecast spend, and any impact that variations had on the five-year Capital Programme.

The forecast of expenditure for 2019/20 for the Manchester City Council capital programme was £292.7m, compared to a proposed revised budget of £290.4m. Spend up to the end of September 2019 was £78.0m. The forecast for the capital programme on behalf of Greater Manchester was £151.2m, compared to a proposed revised budget of £151.2m. Actual GM spending to the end of September was £28.1m.

Appended to the report was a schedule of projects within the overall capital programme where the allocations needed to be revised and funding allocations vired between projects. The appendix showed the virement needed for each scheme and each project. We agreed to recommend to the Council the proposed virements greater than £500,000, as set out in the appendix to these minutes. The virements of less than £500,000 we approved.

Decisions

1.         To recommend that Council approve the virements over £0.5m between capital schemes to maximise use of funding resources available to the City Council as set out in the appendix to these minutes.

2.         To approve virements under £0.5m within the capital programme as set out in the appendix to these minutes.

3.         To note that approvals of movements and transfers to the Manchester City Council capital programme, will reflect a revised total budget of £290.4m and a latest full year forecast of £292.7m. Expenditure to the end of September 2019 is £78.0m.

4.         To note that approvals of movements and transfers to Capital Programme on behalf of Greater Manchester, will reflect a revised total budget of £151.2m and a latest full year forecast of £151.2m. Expenditure to the end of September 2019 is £28.1m. 

5.         To note the prudential indicators in Appendix C of the report.

Appendix – Capital Budget Virements