The Committee will consider the reports detailed below as part of the 2019/20 budget refresh process.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive and the City Treasurer which provided an update on the Council’s financial position and set out the next steps in the budget process.  The report summarised Officer proposals for how the Council could deliver a balanced budget for 2019/20.

In conjunction to the above, the Committee also received and considered the Neighbourhoods Directorate Business Plans and Strategic Development Business Plans for 2019/20, which set out in broad terms the directorate’s key priorities, key activities and revenue and capital strategy for 2019/20, which was a refresh of the directorate’s Business Plans for 2018/20 in the context of current resources, challenges and opportunities.

Taken together, the report and the directorate Business Plan illustrated how the directorate would work together and with partners to deliver Our Plan and progress towards the vision set out in the Our Manchester Strategy.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committees discussions were: -

·         Members recognised the hard work undertaken by staff delivering services in neighbourhoods;

·         Members unanimously stated that no consideration should be given to reducing the already stretched neighbourhood services;

·         That the results of the BHeard survey are circulated to all Members as soon as the results are available;

·         Consideration needed to be given to allocating additional funding to the neighbourhood service;

·         A review of the waste contract was required to ensure that it was still fit for purpose;

·         Neighbourhoods Services should not be outsourced;

·         Following the recent ward boundary changes consideration needed to be given to how resources are allocated across the city to reflect this;

·         How did the numbers of staff working in neighbourhood teams compare to other cities of similar size;

·         An assurance was sought on the figures relating to business rates;

·         How confident was the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods that the savings identified could be achieved from increased rates of recycling;

·         Clarification was sought on the reported underspend by Highways and was enough being allocated for the maintenance and repair of footways; 

·         An assurance was sought regarding that social value was included in the commissioning of services and contracts;

·         Consideration needed to be given as to how the Council could generate income;    

·         What work had been done to support district centres;

·         Clarification was sought as to where Social Housing would be built and an assurance was sought that ward members would be consulted with;

·         When building social housing consideration needed to be given to the planning and delivery of other services, such as schools and doctor’s surgeries to meet the demand of the local population;

·         The need to stop the Right to Buy scheme for social housing;

·         Public transport and connectivity needed to be improved across the city so that residents could access employment opportunities; and

·         What was being done to address homelessness especially for families living in temporary accommodation.

The Deputy City Treasurer responded by saying that the increased revenue from the collection of business rates and the increase in the council tax base had been modelled based on intelligence of the local economy. She said that whilst consideration had to be given to the current uncertainty regarding Brexit there was not enough detail as yet to confirm the likely impact.  She also noted the volatility of appeals and that these assumptions are subject to scrutiny by the Council’s external auditors. She commented that further information as to how the figure had been calculated would be circulated to the Committee.

The Deputy Chief Executive noted the Members comments regarding staff delivering services in neighbourhoods on behalf of residents. She said that the current proposals did not represent any reduction in service and the proposals would be achieved through efficiencies, such as the waste levy contract and PFI arrangements. She said that she would circulate the savings that had been identified in the 2017/18 budget that would describe these arrangements in further detail. 

The Deputy Chief Executive said that income generation could be achieved via an increase in the penalty charge for offences such as littering, with the revenue generated then reinvested into services. She further commented that a commercial strategy would be developed to explore other opportunities such as sponsorships and a review of contracts to generate income that could then be reinvested to support services. She said that the current proposals were in draft form and the business plans would be submitted to the February 2019 meeting for comment prior to the Executive approving the budget. 

The Deputy Chief Executive further commented that a significant amount of work had been undertaken, including the Highways Department in relation to social value and district centres. She explained that this activity had been reported and monitored by the Ethical Procurement and Contract Monitoring Subgroup and the District Centre Subgroup respectively.

In response to a Members comment calling for an increase in enforcement activity in relation to flytipping, the Deputy Chief Executive advised that a substantive report describing the work of the Compliance and Enforcement Service would be considered later on the agenda.

The Executive Member for Neighbourhoods said that he recognised that the significant budget cuts imposed by Central Government had an impact on services delivered in local neighbourhoods. He commented that he remained confident that the savings identified in relation to waste and recycling could be achieved. He reported that Phase 1 and 2 of the recycling changes in apartment blocks had been completed and the initial analysis indicating that residual waste had reduced and recycling had increased. He informed Members that Phase 3 and 4 was due to commence and he was confident that the same results would be achieved. He described that this Our Manchester approach demonstrated a commitment to working with, and supporting residents to achieve positive outcomes and achieve the required savings.

The Director of Operation (Highways) responded to the questions regarding the underspend in 2017/18 planned maintenance programme by commenting that the previous winter had been particularly challenging due to the exceptionally bad and long winter. When asked about progress in 2018/19 he noted he was confident that there was the required capacity to deliver the planned programme of work but weather could be a factor again if winter is worse than average.

The Executive Member for the Environment described that when she initially acquired responsibility for highways she undertook a review of the planned programme of work to ensure that all wards received improvement works. She said that social value was incorporated into the procurement activity and staff had been recruited to increase the number of highways inspections undertaken. She commented that all works were planned and managed to minimise the disruption and reiterated the point that appropriate works were undertaken in the winter months and that is all works in year were carried out just in summer the disruption would be considerable.

In response to the comments regarding the reported underspend on Highways the Chair recommended that a report on this would be required for the next meeting of the Committee, and that this report would include the underspend figures, including for 2017/18; an explanation to the reasons for any underspend; the planned programme of works and information on the capacity to deliver this programme of work. 

The Strategic Director (Development) said that all of the land the Council owned would be reviewed to help identify any suitable areas on which to build new homes. He said that he acknowledged the comments regarding consultation with local ward members and gave an assurance that this would be undertaken. He further acknowledged the comment regarding the adequate planning of schools and health services and said this would be taken into consideration as the plans developed, and further reports on this activity would be available next year.

The Strategic Director (Development) further commented that the Council was working with private developers within the National Planning Policy Framework to deliver a range of housing products for Manchester residents. He also informed the Committee that the Spatial Framework and the Local Plan would be available for consideration and comment at the February 2019 meeting of the Economy Scrutiny Committee.

In respect of public transport and connectivity the Strategic Director (Development) explained that the Economy Scrutiny Committee had reviewed this topic, noting the Mayor of Greater Manchester was undertaking a review of bus services across the city region. He further commented that planning conditions linked to employment could also be used when developers are seeking permission.

In response to the questions regarding homelessness the Chair agreed that a briefing note would be provided by officers and circulated to members of the Committee.

Decisions

The Committee: -

1. Note the reports and request that the comments of the Committee be taken into consideration when the final business plans were produced.

2. Requests that a further detailed report on the Highways underspend be submitted to the next meeting. This report would include the underspend figures, including for 2017/18; an explanation to the reasons for any underspend; the planned programme of works and information on the capacity to deliver the programme of work.  

3. Requests that a briefing note on homelessness and the actions taken to address this be provided by officers and circulated to members of the Committee. 

4. Recommend no further reduction in neighbourhood services.

5. Recommend that the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance explore opportunities to invest additional funding to deliver neighbourhood services.