To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2020.

Decision

The minutes of the meeting held on 23 June were approved as a correct record

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached.

This report provides a further update summary of the current situation in the city in relation to COVID-19 and an update on the work progressing in Manchester in relation to areas within the remit of this committee.

Further to Minute RGSC/20/26 (Update on activity under COVID 19), the Committee considered a considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which provided a further update of the current situation in the city in relation to COVID-19 and an update on the work progressing in Manchester in relation to areas within the remit of the Committee.

 The main points and themes within the report included: -

·                An update on the phased physical return to work of Council staff and what future ways of working would potentially look like;

·                Details of the progress and re-scoping of the Our Transformation strategy to ensure it supported the delivery of wider future Council objectives;

·                The programme of work underway within ICT  to support the new ways of working including infrastructure and capacity, end user device and telephony; and

·                An updated position of the impact of COVID-19 on the Council’s finances and budget.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were: -

·                In terms of Our Ways of Working, how far along was the Council in determining numbers of staff who would continue working from home;

·                Was the roll out of new ICT equipment and the move to Microsoft 365 still going ahead as planned and within the planned timeframe;

·                It was asked whether there was any clarity on the methodology used for the second tranche of government funding;

·                Further information was requested on the anticipated funding that the Council was hoping to receive to deliver the “shovel ready” schemes within the recovery plan of the Capital Programme;

·                What projection did the Council have as to the percentage of pre-COVID19 Business Rates collection it was hoping to achieve;

·                Members welcomed the trial by Money Advice Pension Service on the availability of independent debt advice and commented that they would like to support the publicising of this;

·                Was there information that could be shared with Members on a breakdown of the nature of businesses that had received Business Rate support and where these businesses were located in the city;

·                Was there any information on the take up of additional grants for Nurseries;

·                Was there any estimate on the proportion of businesses that had still not applied for Business Rates support;

·                Were any assessments being undertaken on the number of people over the next two years that would have difficulty paying their Council Tax and what impact this would have on Council finances;

·                It was suggested that information on Council Tax support and debt advice was also shared with organisations such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to ensure consistent advice was given; and

·                Had any communications in community languages been undertaken in regards to Council Tax support.

The Leader advised that the recent staff survey picked up on the fact that the majority of staff who were currently working from home were happy to continue to do so for the time being, but it had been identified that staff’s health and wellbeing had been impacted upon since working from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer attached

This report outlines the projected outturn position for 2020/21, based on spend and income as at the end of May 2020 and future projections.

The Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer which outlined the projected outturn position for 2020/21, based on spend and income as at the end of May 2020 and future projections.

The main points and themes within the report included:-

·                An overview of COVID-19 financial implications, which included a forecasted outturn position of £5.476m deficit which was anticipated to be balanced by government funding;

·                Details of additional Central Government funding for COVID-19 response;

·                An overview of the overall forecast financial position 2020/21;

·                Measures that would be taken to balance the budget in 2020/21; and

·                Proposals for the use of budgets to be allocated, grants in addition to those already planned, proposed virements, increases to Directorate budgets and the use of reserves in addition to that already planned, which all required Executive approval.

The report and proposals contained within would also be considered by the Executive at its meeting on 29 July 2020.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:-

·                Was the £4.837million allocated to rolling out of a local Test and Trace programme sufficient

·                Would local authority staff be included in the recent announcement by government of public sector worker pay rises and if so would this be built into the Council’s projected budget;

·                It was suggested that the Council pro-actively communicate with Manchester residents on the true impact of COVID19 on the Council’s future financial arrangements;

·                What, if any, assurance was being given by the Government that they would be reimbursing the Council for the costs it had incurred in tackling the impact of COVID19;

·                Was there any indication that there would be financial support from Government from the loss of revenue income from Manchester Airport;

·                It was concerning that the deficit of approximately £19 million within the HRA would result in the level of reserves being exhausted over the course of the next three years;

·                Why was there such a significant underspend in terms of the Children’s budget for No Recourse for Public Funds (NPRF), how many children in the city were within families with no recourse to public funds, was it considered generally appropriate to treat this underspend as a saving given the doubt recently cast over the legality of the NRPF scheme, and had any equality impact assessments been undertaken in using this underspend as a potential saving;

·                Concern was expressed that savings were being proposed around unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children and clarification was sought as to how these savings were being proposed; and

·                Were any additional resources going to be provided to support the Section 21 Team when the suspension of evictions ended on 23 August 2020.

The Leader advised that the £4.837million was allocated for the tracing element of the project as the funding for the testing element was separate from this amount. He added that this money was adequate in so much as it covered cost until the end of the year, but further funding would be required to continue beyond the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit.

This report provides the Committee with details of key decisions that fall within the Committee’s remit and an update on actions resulting from the Committee’s recommendations. The report also includes the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee is asked to amend as appropriate and agree.

The report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit which contained key decisions within the Committee’s remit and responses to previous recommendations was submitted for comment.

Decision

The Committee notes the report.