To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2024.

Decision

The Executive approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting on 24 July 2024.

Report of the Chief Executive attached

The Executive considered a report of the Chief Executive which provided an update on key areas of progress against the Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 which reset Manchester’s priorities for the next five years to ensure the Council could still achieve the city’s ambition set out in the Our Manchester Strategy 2016 – 2025.

The Executive Member for Vibrant Neighbourhoods reported that a major three-year investment programme had been launched to invest in neighbourhood improvements across the city.  £15m Clean and Green Manchester programme aimed to renew, replace or improve infrastructure to enable neighbourhoods to be cleaner, greener and well maintained.  The replacement of 2,400 litter bins in community shopping centres and on street    in local neighbourhoods across the whole of Manchester, was the first of a planned and phased programme of Clean and Green Manchester work.  As part of the wider investment programme, local communities would see parks and green spaces become more accessible, additional highway improvements, new benches in community areas as well as repairs or replacement of old play equipment in parks. Local parks with damaged bins would also be replaced later in the year and the project would also support safe active travel to school.  

The Deputy Leader (statutory) reported that Manchester had welcomed news that the Household Support Fund (HSF), which was due to expire at the end of this month, had been extended until the end of March 2025.  In the most recent round of HSF funding, running from April to September 2024, the Council had received £6.45m of funding and had used the funding to help address the impact of fuel and food poverty and to target support at the most vulnerable households.  Although details of the Council’s allocation under the latest round of HSF were awaited, it was anticipated that it would be in in line with previous allocations. 

Councillor Johnson sought clarification as to how the Council would support more Manchester residents applying for pension credit in light of the Government’s budget intention to cut winter fuel allowances for the majority of pensioners across the country.

Councillor Leech sought clarification as to whether the Council would be investigating whether the Household Support Fund could be used to help support those Manchester residents who would lose their winter fuel allowance that needed financial support.

The Deputy Leader (Statutory) also reported that a new app was launched on Wednesday 4 September 2024 to help people make safe journeys in Manchester, no matter what the time of time of day.  The WalkSafe app, which was free to download, let people pick known safe routes through the city, as well as allowing them to share their location with family or friends, as well as sending an automatic alert out if a person fails to reach their intended destination.  The roll out of this app went hand-in-hand with the steps already taken by the Council and its partners across Manchester to make the nighttime economy safe for everyone, but especially women.  

Councillor Leech queried  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

Report of the City Treasurer attached

The Executive considered a report of the City Treasurer, which outlined the projected outturn position for 2024/25. It was based on expenditure and income as at the end of July 2024, projected to the end of the year.

The Executive Member for Resources and Finances advised that the current budget monitoring forecast was an overspend of £17.4m. This was in the context of significant financial stresses being faced across the Local Government sector. The Council’s position reflected the national pressures in the health and social care sector and trends being experienced across most Social Care providing local authorities.

The Medim Term Financial Plan outlined a forecast budget shortfall of £29m in 2025/26 increasing to £41m by 2026/27. Officers were challenged to identify a stretch target of £50m savings options, for Member consideration, to bring the medium-term position back into balance. It was acknowledged this was difficult following 14 years of austerity. Over this time the Council had successfully delivered over £440m of cuts and efficiencies, required due to funding not keeping pace with an increasing population and rising demand.

The Executive Member for Resources and Finances stated that if the overspend were to remain at £17.4m by the end of the financial year, this would significantly impede the financial sustainability of the Council and its ability to set a balanced budget in future years, with any overspend funded from the General Fund reserve.  When the budget was approved the General Fund reserve balance at 31 March 2025 was forecasted at £23.4m. The current overspend would reduce this to £5.9m.  This would bring additional pressure to the 2025/26 budget as the reserve would need to be topped back up to maintain a robust level. In addition, any ongoing impact of the pressures faced this year must be addressed in next year's budget to arrive at a truly balanced position.

It was reported that the Children’s Services directorate was projecting an overspend of £9.2m. The biggest pressure related to external residential placements for Looked After Children (LAC) and the increasing complexity of need of the current cohort. Additionally, there was a shortfall in the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) grant for the numbers now being accommodated and increased demand for Home to School Transport. 

The Adult Social Care directorate projected overspend was £9.8m, driven by long term care placements and cost pressures which were outpacing demand management interventions. The Long-Term Care (LTC) budget was forecasted to overspend by £10.6m across learning disability services, Disability Supported Accommodation Service (DSAS) and older person care, offset by underspends on short term care and infrastructure and back office. 

In addition, the Neighbourhoods directorate had projected overspend by £430k. This related to a shortfall of income in markets and pressure in leisure due to the costs of providing support following step in arrangements at both Wythenshawe Active Lifestyle Centre and Broadway Leisure Centre.

It was noted that the service Directorates were overspending by £19m which was partly offset by increased grant income of £0.5m and a forecasted  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70.

Report of the City Treasurer attached

The Executive considered a report of the City Treasurer, which informed Members of progress against the delivery of the 2024/25 capital programme to the end of July 2024, the latest forecast of capital expenditure and the major variances and the proposed financing of capital expenditure for 2024/25 and affordability of the Capital Programme.

The Executive Member for Finance and Resources stated that the latest forecast of expenditure for 2024/25 for was £476.6m compared to the current approved budget of £512m.  Spend as of 31 July 2024 was £64m. The £780.6m multi-year programme was subject to continual review to establish whether the forecast remained achievable.  Whilst the intention was for the Council to progress the programme as stated, some projects and their sources of funding may require re-profiling across future years

It was reported that the main variances related to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, Asset Management Programme, Back of Ancoats Mobility Hub and Public Realm and Collyhurst Programme. These variances mostly related to timing differences meaning reprofiling would be required. 

The current forecasts showed that the financing costs remained affordable within the revenue budget available including reserves.   The capital financing reserves would start to be drawn down to meet the costs associated with the borrowing in 2024/25. The model was based on a significant number of assumptions, including the timing of future borrowing and forecast future interest rates and the position was subject to change.

It had previously been reported that many projects in the capital programme had faced an extremely challenging two year period with intense pressures on costs due to extraordinary levels of inflation and unprecedented pressure on the supply chain (labour and materials availability). These pressures continued to be seen and remained a significant risk across the capital programme.  Although inflation was falling, the impacts of a sustained inflationary period could still be seen in the construction sector. Annual average for all construction works remained 0.9% higher than the average from the previous year, and 20.1% higher than the average for 2021.

In addition, it was reported that there were schemes that had been developed or had received external funding that were now ready for inclusion in the Capital Programme.  The proposals which required Council approval were those which were funded by the use of reserves above a cumulative total of £10 million, where the use of borrowing was required or a virement exceeded £1m. These included the following proposed changes:-

·            Private Sector Housing – This City Phase 2a - The proposal was to bring forward planning applications for the This City vehicle on an initial four sites out of the future six allocated to Phase 2.  This funding request was to cover design, project management and survey costs for these four sites. A budget increase of £5.1m was requested, funded by borrowing.

·            Neighbourhoods – Biffa Vehicle Refresh Programme – A budget increase of £2.702m, funded by borrowing was requested for phase 1, to replace 10 Refuse Collection Vehicles. This funding would be repaid to the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

Report of the Executive Director Adult Social Care attached

The Executive considered a report of the Executive Director of Adult Social Services, which sought approval to amend an aspect of the Council’s policy for home adaptations in relation to the discretionary elements of activity.

The Executive Member for Healthy Manchester and Adult Social care stated that demand for home adaptations for Manchester residents had greatly increased in recent years beyond the amount of funding received from the Government’s Disabled Facilities Grant and during a time of significant financial constraints for the Council. 

In order to allocate the available budget effectively and fairly, two changes were proposed to the discretionary elements of activity.  These were alongside the new delivery model being introduced in September 2024 that would bring all major adaptations work previously undertaken by lead Registered Providers (RPs) in house:-

·       The introduction of means testing for adults seeking adaptations funded by the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG),

·       Revert to a funding cap of £30,000 for individual cases, in line with Government guidance, with discretionary payments beyond this to be considered by the Executive Director of Adult Social Services in exceptional circumstances, in consultation with the Strategic Director of Children's Services where appropriate

The proposed changes would only affect a small proportion of residents and would be made following an Equalities Impact Assessment.  The proposals would bring Manchester into line with other authorities across England and national guidance.

It was reported that if these changes were not made, the risk was that older and disabled people across the city would not receive major adaptations in a timely manner and would wait longer for their major adaptation – resulting in more widespread loss of independence, an increase in admissions to hospital, and additional strain on carers. Means testing allowed for a more equitable application of the grant and would release additional funding for the completion of more adaptations.

Without making such changes, Manchester Equipment and Adaptations Partnership (MEAP) would have a shortfall of £7.5m in capital funding in 2024/25 to deal with the waiting list and to ensure waiting times were at six months or less.  From 2025/26 there was expected to be additional demand equivalent to £2m per year to keep waiting times to six months or less. This was based on the increase in the number of requests and the increasing costs during the last few years.  It was noted that the Council was intending to make representations to Government for an increase in allocation to meet this demand.

The report had been considered by the Health Scrutiny Committee at its meeting in 4 September 2024 and the Committee had endorsed the proposed recommendations in full.

Councillor Leech sought clarification as to how many of the 1,437 assessments in 2023/24 would not meet the proposals that were being out forward.  He also asked whether there would be any guidance as to what would constitute an exceptional circumstance in regards to discretionary payments beyond the proposed £30,000 cap.  Furthermore, he sought clarification if the proposals would reduce waiting times for home  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) attached

The Executive considered a report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development), which provided an update on the new regeneration masterplan for the Grey Mare Lane estate in Beswick.

The Executive Member for Housing and Development stated that the Council was committed to the long-term regeneration of East Manchester and an integral part of the future vision was the Grey Mare Lane estate. The Eastlands Regeneration Framework (2017 & 2019) and subsequent Grey Mare Lane masterplan in 2021 set out the need to improve the estate including building 290 new homes across a range of tenures. Since the publication of the 2021 masterplan, the Council had published a new Housing Strategy (2022-32) which set out a new long-term vision for Manchester designed to tackle the city’s housing priorities.

Considering the Council’s new ambitious housing delivery targets, the Council had increased the regeneration boundary of the Grey Mare Lane estate masterplan to include the former police station site and a wider area at the southern end of the estate.  The new masterplan presented a high-level overview of the regeneration opportunities within the estate, including improvements to highways and green spaces, and outlines potential approaches to its delivery.

Following public consultation on the new masterplan, community and stakeholder representatives had clearly outlined the aspiration of residents for improvements to the estate and to provide the infrastructure needed by existing and future residents of the area.  In terms of next steps, once endorsed, the Council would look to progress the interventions as recommended in the masterplan.

Councillor I Robinson (Ward Councillor for Ancoats and Beswick) attended the meeting and addressed the Executive, welcoming the new regeneration masterplan and the consultation that had taken place on this.

Councillor Leech raised concerns in relation to “right to return” for existing residents and One Manchester’s approach in dealing with this.  He proposed that the Executive should consider making a commitment to ensuring those residents that would be required to move out of their existing properties, which were to be demolished, had the “right to return” to a new property once built.  He also raised concern on the viability and capacity to deliver 1000 affordable homes as part of the masterplan.

Decisions

The Executive:-

(1)       Approve the Grey Mare Lane Masterplan and request that the Planning and Highways Committee take the Masterplan into account as a material consideration when considering planning applications in the Grey Mare Lane area.

(2)       Note the recent progress made by the Council and its partners to drive the delivery of regeneration of the Grey Mare Lane estate, welcoming that pace at which progress us being made.

(3)       Note the outcome of the public consultation on the new Grey Mare Lane masterplan.

Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) attached

The Executive considered a report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development), which proposed the adoption of a Shopfront and Signage Design Guide (SSDG) which would provide guidance at a more granular level of detail on how to apply the principles of good design where works were proposed to signage and shopfronts across the city.

The Executive Member for Housing and Development stated that the guidance was intended to help enhance the city’s built environment, stimulate positive change to shopfronts and signage, assist officers in decision making and positive management of change to commercial premises, help set a quality benchmark for new applications and manage the expectations of owners, developers, applicants and shopkeepers. It would also support consistent decision making across the city.

The importance of setting out clear expectations for good shopfront and signage design across Manchester was particularly important in light of the fast-changing commercial landscape, quick turnaround of businesses and frequent changes of use.

The proposed guide illustrated best practice, examples of shopfronts and signage to encourage new development of comparable quality and positive impact on buildings and places, alongside specific and clear advice on the installation of new shopfronts and works to existing shopfronts. Matters covered include individual shopfront elements (frame, pilasters, fascia, stallriser and doors & windows), finishes, security, lighting, awnings and ventilation and where relevant, the document referred to specific regulations, legislation and guidance.

Decisions

The Executive:-

(1)    Note the progress made to create a comprehensive guidance to Shopfront and Signage Design across the city.

(2)    Endorse the Shopfront and Signage Design Guide and request that the Planning and Highways Committee treat it as a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.

(3)    Agree that the Shopfront and Signage Design Guide forms part of the evidence base for any future policy plan making as part of the review of the Local Plan.