The Shared Director of Finance and Head of Head of Finance Shared Services provided an overview of Local Government Finance, which explained how the Council was funded.

Following the presentation the officers responded to questions from the Panel and the non-Panel Members.

There was a change of membership for this meeting: Councillor Johnson replaced Councillor Greenslade.

There were no disclosures of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2013 to be submitted and signed.  (All minutes are available on the Council’s website.)

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2013 were submitted and signed.

Report of Director of Finance

This report provides an update on the revenues and benefits service and current performance of the benefits service.

The Panel received a report of the Shared Director of Finance providing an update on the Revenues and Benefits service as requested at the meeting in September.  The Shared Director of Finance reported that the number of change of circumstance documents was under 1,000.  At the beginning of the year it had been over 3,000.

Councillor Counter said that this was an impressive reduction.  The Chair, Councillor Dhindsa, commented that this was expected as the outstanding applications had taken a long time to clear.

The Shared Director of Finance referred the Panel to Appendix 1 to the report which set out comparison information related to the recovery of overpaid Housing Benefit.  The second table showed that Watford had improved to second highest authority in Hertfordshire for the collection of overpayments.  She explained the methods local authorities could use to recover overpayments, including attachment to earnings and placing charging orders on properties.

The Shared Director of Finance introduced the new Interim Head of Revenues and Benefits who had started on Monday.  She added that the service was still seeking an Interim Revenues Manager:  The candidate who had been offered the post had declined the position.

The Vice-Chair, Councillor Rackett, said that members had been frustrated over the progress in clearing the backlog of applications.  It was good to see the improvement.  The comparative data showed that most authorities were challenged in this respect.  He acknowledged that the progress was moving in the right direction but cautioned that the service should not become complacent. 

Councillor Derbyshire referred to the Chair’s earlier comment and said that the staff should be congratulated.  He mentioned the comparative data and that Watford was in the top half of authorities for the speed of processing new applications. 

Councillor Derbyshire then commented on the Chair’s recent letter to the Watford Observer.  He reminded Members of the content of paragraph 4.1 in the September report to the Panel.  He added that the Chair’s letter had failed to mention that it was necessary to take account of the income recovered from claimants who had received overpayments. 

Councillor Johnson also referred to the Chair’s letter and said that the Chair had politicised the Panel. He felt an apology would be appropriate.

Councillor Taylor noted that overpayments arose as a result of claimants not informing the Council of any changes in their circumstances and due to local authority error.  He had observed that the amount recovered was not split to show how much had been collected for each of the reasons.

Following Councillor Turmaine’s congratulations to staff for the improvement and his questions, the Shared Director of Finance advised that she could not explain the improvements to the recovery rate of overpayments, but it was possibly due to improved recovery processes.  She added that the processing times were set by the Shared Services Joint Committee and were based on calendar days.

The Chair referred to the original report in the Watford Observer and both his and Councillor Martins’ comments.  He congratulated the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

Report of the Director of Finance and Head of Regeneration and Development

This report seeks Budget Panel’s views regarding the future use of the CPZ Reserve.

The Panel received a report of the Shared Director of Finance and Head of Regeneration and Development which provided information about the Parking Reserve Account and the proposed traffic related schemes identified for delivery within the forthcoming financial year.

Councillor Martins stated that as he was unaware of how much income would be generated by the proposed projects.  He was unable to make a judgement as requested by officers.  He felt it was too soon to make any decisions on whether the permit charges should be increased; any discussion should wait until next year’s budget discussions.

The Head of Regeneration and Development informed the Panel that the list of projects provided within the report varied from small schemes to large ones.  Some of the schemes, for example the Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) Review (Survey), had cost a significant sum but would not generate any income as a result.  In the case of new schemes, the balance of the cost had to be weighed against the cost of increased enforcement. 

The Chair commented that when new schemes were introduced it was likely that more tickets would be issued and over time it would not be necessary to use as many staff.  The Council had increased permits in April this year.  He referred to an incident a local resident had reported to him, which related to several CEOs talking in the street.  He felt that the Council should look at the cost of staff for this service.  He was aware that the Council employed six people to oversee the contract.  He said that residents in Central and Vicarage Wards had no choice but to purchase permits as they did not have driveways.  He questioned whether residents in areas where the enforcement was over a longer period should pay more for their permits.

The Head of Regeneration and Development referred the Panel to paragraph 3.11 in the report which explained about the deployment of Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs).  She advised Members that the CEOs patrolled on their own.  There were rare occasions when they patrolled in pairs, for example for training purposes or in the evening.  In view of the way the beats were organised, there might be occasions when an officer might walk through another beat.  When a new zone was introduced, it was likely that more staff would be required to patrol it initially, but this could be reviewed in the medium to long term.  This had been the case with Zone V, where at first two additional officers had been employed, but this had subsequently been reduced to one.  The Parking service was often put under pressure to increase enforcement in some areas, for example at school drop off and collection times or around the park during the summer. 

The Head of Regeneration and Development explained about the staffing arrangements at the Parking Shop.  Parking enforcement had been contracted to Vinci.  The staff employed by Watford Borough Council managed the contract on behalf of three local authorities and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

Report of the Senior Accountant

This report informs the Budget Panel of the reported budgetary variances at the end of September 2013 (period 6).

The Panel received the latest edition of the Finance Digest.  The Head of Finance Shared Services informed the Panel that ‘unplanned forecast underspend’ referred to changes in the original forecast due to unanticipated costs occurring after the budget had been set.  He advised that contact information had been provided if Members wished to discuss anything within the Finance Digest.

The Shared Director of Finance explained that the first column in the table for Capital Investment Programme Schemes showed the cumulative expenditure for the individual schemes.  The following columns referred to individual years.  For example the total contribution to the LABV was £3,000,000 which would be paid out over two years: £1,500,000 in 2014/15 and £1,500,000 in 2015/16.  She added that the loan to the West Herts Hospitals Trust would be paid back to the Council and a payment schedule had been agreed. 

RESOLVED –

that the Finance Digest (Period 6) be noted.

·               Tuesday 26 November 2013

·               Wednesday 15 January 2014

·               Wednesday 26 February 2014

·               Tuesday 26 November 2013

·               Wednesday 15 January 2014

·               Wednesday 26 February 2014