The Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement submitted a report to the City Executive Board on 18 September 2018  to update Members on Finance, Risk and Performance as at 30th June 2018.

The report and relevant appendices are attached here. The appendices are available as part of the agenda for the City Executive Board meeting.

The City Executive Board agreed all recommendations in the report and resolved to recommend to Council that it establish budgetary provision as below (and set out in paras 10 -12 of the report)

Councillor Turner, Board Member for Finance & Asset Management, will present the report.

Recommendation:  the City Executive Board recommends that Council resolves to:

1.    approvethe increase of the HRA capital budget for Social Rented Housing Acquisitions by £0.444 million to a total of £1.479 million.  This will be fully funded by Retained Right to Buy capital receipts;

2.    approve the additional capital budget for the Replacement of the Housing Computer System of £0.450 million.

This item was taken after the break to allow the Board Member to present it.

Council considered a report of the Head of Financial Services and Head of Business Improvement, submitted to the City Executive Board on 18 September 2018, updating Council on finance risk and performance and seeking agreement for new expenditure requests for 2018/19.

Councillor Turner, Board Member for Finance and Asset Management, presented the report and moved the recommendations which were adopted on being seconded and put to the vote.

Council resolved to:

1.      approve the increase of the HRA capital budget for Social Rented Housing Acquisitions by £0.444 million to a total of £1.479 million.  This will be fully funded by Retained Right to Buy capital receipts; and

2.      approve the additional capital budget for the Replacement of the Housing Computer System of £0.450 million

The Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement have submitted a report to update Members on Finance, Risk and Performance as at 30^th June 2018.

Recommendations:That the City Executive Board resolves to:

1.    Note the projected financial outturn, the current position on risk and performance as at the 30^th June 2018;

2.    Recommend to council to approve the increase of the HRA capital budget for Social Rented Housing Acquisitions by £0.444 million to a total of £1.479 million.  This will be fully funded by Retained Right to Buy capital receipts.  More details are included in paragraph 10; and

3.    Recommend to Council to approve the additional capital budget for the Replacement of the Housing Computer System of £0.450 million as per the details in paragraphs 11-12.

The Head of Financial Services and the Head of Business Improvement had submitted a report to update Members on Finance, Risk and Performance as at 30th June 2018.

The Head of Financial Services introduced the report. He drew attention to the outturn forecast of an adverse variance in the General Fund of £0.094 million (against net budget of £22.098 million). The key variances contributing to that  were an adverse variance of £0.494 million  from a decline in car parking income and  a favourable variance of £0.400 million from higher levels of business rates from the Westgate Centre than anticipated. There was a favourable variance in relation to the Capital Programme of £2.35m, this was partly attributable to some slippage in completions at Barton Park. It was  noted that this slippage was due to a shortage of skilled labour rather than poor project management and was affecting the delivery of all tenures.

Cllr Turner was pleased to note that the overall picture for General Fund was positive and was hopeful that it would be on target by the year end.  In relation to parking, he noted that officers were looking at the issue of parking revenue. The consequences of a project on the scale of the Westgate centre would always be difficult to predict.

In relation to performance, 40% of indicators were on target and 25% below but within acceptable tolerance limits.

The Business Improvement and Performance Manager explained that the potential benefits of the replacement Housing Computer System (for which funding was sought ) had not all  been quantified  but it was clear that they (not all of which could be measured in financial terms) were likely to be considerable. This would include access to real-time data about customers’ accounts and early estimates suggested that a 30% increase in productivity was possible in some areas.

The indicators relating to the number of new homes granted permission in the City and the amount of employment floor space for development were not without merit but might, in future,  more usefully, be reported over a longer period than quarterly and on a rolling basis.

The City Executive Board resolved to:

1.         Note the projected financial outturn, the current position on risk and performance as at the 30th June 2018;

2.         Recommend to council to approve the increase of the HRA capital budget for Social Rented Housing Acquisitions by £0.444 million to a total of £1.479 million.  This will be fully funded by Retained Right to Buy capital receipts.  More details are included in paragraph 10; and

3.         Recommend to Council to approve the additional capital budget for the Replacement of the Housing Computer System of £0.450 million as per the details in paragraphs 11-12.

Councillor Turner joined the meeting during discussion of this item.

The Scrutiny Committee has a role in monitoring the Council’s performance.  Quarterly reports are provided on a set of selected corporate and service performance indicators. This item provides an opportunity for the Committee to identify any areas for further review, and to note and comment on Council performance at the end of quarter 1 of 2018/19.

The Committee considered the Quarter 1 Council Performance report setting out performance measures to 30 June 2018 and a supplementary paper setting out performance data for Fusion Lifestyle.

Councillor Fry asked for the reinstatement of the following performance measures included in the Quarter 4 report for 2017/18, or if these were annual targets or an explanation of the reasons for removing these:

·         BI002a: The number of training places and jobs created as a result of Council investment and leadership

·         FN033: Delivery of the council’s cost savings and income targets

·         CS001: The % of customers satisfied at their first point of contact

·         BI001: The % of Council spend with local business

·         LP187: Effective delivery of the capital programme: development milestones achieved

·         WR002: Customers supported to remove barriers to employment

·         WR003: Customers supported to improve financial capability

·         NI 191: The amount of non-recyclable waste produced in the city per household decreases each year

·         NI192 Household waste recycled and composted (YTD)

·         NI 157a, NI 157b, NI157c: targets for processing planning applications

·         PC027: Increase the number of people engaging with the Council’s social media accounts

The Committee commented that it was of concern that both performance against target BIT019i (% of contact carried out online) and CS003 (customer calls answered on the Council’s main telephone service lines without hanging up) had decreased.

The Committee noted that performance against recycling targets (including NI 191 and NI192 referenced above) was now the responsibility of Oxford Direct Services Company and would be reviewed through the Companies Scrutiny Panel.

Fusion Lifestyle Partnership

The Committee considered the Fusion Lifestyle Partnership Board Presentation and accompanying briefing note concerning visitor numbers and financial performance up until July 2018. This information was provided following the Committee’s request to continue monitoring the performance of Fusion Lifestyle on a quarterly basis. The Committee previously made recommendations to the City Executive Board on 13 June 2018 concerning visitor number targets, data monitoring and associated action plans to address the reduction of 340,000 leisure visits between 2016/17 and 2017/18.

The Committee expressed concerns about the reliability of the data it was presented with. In preparing for the meeting, Committee members had cross-referenced the financial performance information with the participation numbers for each leisure centre. In reviewing the data, the Committee was not able to ascertain how in some circumstances, a decrease in participation correlated with an increase in revenue for the same period. The Committee was unable to account for the scale of the increase in participation numbers July and questioned whether the figures were feasible and accurate. The Committee noted that the information provided by Fusion Lifestyle was requested and made available at short notice, which may have been a factor.

The Committee decided to recommend that an independent audit of Fusion Lifestyle’s financial and participation accounting should take place to help distil apprehensions about the accuracy of the data.

The Committee recommended to the City Executive Board:

That the Council, through the City Executive Board, commissions an audit of Fusion Lifestyle’s financial and participation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38