Agenda item

The report of the Chief Executive

Presented by the Infrastructure Portfolio Holder

The Infrastructure Portfolio Holder presented the report.

In response to a written submission, the Chair invited Councillor S Lambeth to provide comments on the report on behalf of the Labour Group.

Councillor S Lambeth discussed the key criticisms that the Labour Group had of the Delivery Plan, as set out in the document circulated at the meeting. He suggested that the administration’s plan lacked ambition, had created a serious financial issue in the long term, failed to address the impact of inflation on reserves in the current year and future years and consequently meant that the real value of the reserves was being reduced. The result was the deterioration of services, the potential need for service cutbacks, and declining employment conditions for Council staff. There was a failure to do prudent long term planning. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were, he added, insufficient and failed to provide the appropriate metrics to scrutinise performance.

Councillor K Merrie refuted these criticisms. He noted that there had been a recent update in the process of reporting on the budget and explained what this entailed. He also outlined that the in-year position for 2023-24 will be reported to Cabinet on a quarterly basis.   

In terms of Council Tax increases, he explained that this will be considered as part of the approach to setting the budget for 2024-25 alongside a range of budget options and after consideration of the funding announcements from the Government’s Autumn Statement and the Local Government Finance Settlement. 

He also explained that the Council has a timetable for its budget setting process which will examine a range of budget options in support of setting a balanced budget for 2024-25.  All Councillors are scheduled to be briefed on the budget options on 12 December 2023. 

He added that the Council Delivery Plan reflected an attempt to bring in all stakeholders including the opposition, and the Scrutiny comments lacked specific, direct suggestions of how the Delivery Plan should be reshaped. Nevertheless, Officers and the Alliance had tried to accommodate Scrutiny comments where possible, and more so than in previous Delivery Plan drafting processes. These comments were captured in Appendix 5 of the report.  He also had a conception of how KPIs should operate which was different to the conception of KPIs held by the Labour Group.

The Chair said the KPIs as existed reflected the Portfolio Holders private industry experience, though he accepted there was still work to be done. The Opposition still had a constructive role to play.

Councillor S Lambeth advised the Cabinet that he had a lot of experience of setting appropriate KPIs and wanted to work with the administration on the KPIs in the Delivery Plan.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Lambeth’s input going forwards.

Councillor K Merrie confirmed that he would engage with Councillor S Lambeth again during the next stage of the process.

It was moved by Councillor K Merrie, seconded by Councillor M Wyatt, and

RESOLVED THAT:

The Council Delivery Plan be noted by prior to its progress to Council.

Reason for Decision: To progress the Council Delivery Plan to the next stage which is consideration by full Council.