Agenda and minutes

Cabinet - Tuesday 10 August 2010 2.00 pm

Venue: Warspite Room, Council House. View directions

Contact: Nicola Kirby, Senior Democratic Support Officer (Cabinet)  Email: nicola.kirby@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

31.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Cabinet Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest in accordance with the Code of Conduct from councillors in relation to items under consideration at this meeting.

 

32.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 94 KB

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2010

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 July 2010 were signed as a correct record.

 

33.

QUESTIONS FROM THE PUBLIC

To receive questions from the public in accordance with the Constitution.

 

Questions, of no longer than 50 words, can be submitted to the Democratic Support Unit, Corporate Support Department, Plymouth City Council, Civic Centre, Plymouth, PL1 2AA, or email to democraticsupport@plymouth.gov.uk. Any questions must be received at least 5 clear working days before the date of the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

There were no questions submitted by the public for this meeting.

34.

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

There was no urgent business.

35.

JOINT PERFORMANCE AND FINANCE REPORT pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Lead Officers: CMT

Minutes:

The Corporate Management Team submitted a written report.  The Director for Corporate Support corrected the base rate appearing in paragraph 12.2.5, on page 41 of the report, from 0.45% to 0.5%.

 

The Assistant Director for Finance, Assets and Efficiencies undertook to assess the impact of the recently announced government initiative on a 'New Homes Bonus', whereby the government was planning to give grants to councils in England for every newly-built home.

 

Agreed –

 

(1)

that a £4m reduction to the 2010/11 budget, is allocated across departments, to reflect the Council's assessment of the impact of Government Action;

 

(2)

the principle that the Council will increase charges to reflect the VAT increases, from January 2011, except where this conflicts with other Council priorities;

 

(3)

 

the changes to the capital programme (as detailed in sections 5.1 and 5.2 of the report), including new approvals of £0.596m, leading to a revised programme of £100.415m;

 

(4)

 

the Officer action taken to freeze transport schemes in 2010/11 to the value of £0.870m, pending a complete review of the capital programme; 

 

(5)

that the pay award provision is removed from departmental budgets and held under corporate items to meet the costs of redundancies and other budget pressures;

 

(6)

that Directors progress urgently, further delivery plans to address the remaining shortfall in 2010/11.

 

36.

ACCOMMODATION STRATEGY BUSINESS CASE pdf icon PDF 92 KB

CMT Lead Officer: Director for Corporate Support

Minutes:

The Director for Corporate Support submitted a written report.

 

This was an urgent key decision and approval had been given by the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, under Paragraph 16 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules (Special Urgency), that the decision could not reasonably be deferred.  To wait until September 2010 for Cabinet approval would have delayed implementation of the strategy and reduced the revenue savings achieved in 2011/12 by approximately £125,000, further increasing budgetary pressures on the Council.

 

The Chair also drew Members’ attention to the report referred to in minute 38 below. 

  

Agreed that –

 

(1)

this stage of the Accommodation Strategy is approved, i.e. vacating six satellite offices and focusing on three core office accommodation bases of Civic Centre, Windsor House and Midland House;

 

(2)

the capital investment and one-off revenue costs required to

enable implementation of this stage of the strategy, is approved;

 

(3)

 

capital funding required is, where feasible, drawn from the council’s existing investment portfolio, hence minimising further borrowing requirements; 

 

(4)

 

revenue savings generated in 2011/12 are used to fund the revenue costs of exiting existing lease agreements early. Any cashflow issues in terms of timing, or net revenue shortfall in 2011/12, to be met from the council’s accommodation

reserve;

 

(5)

a corporate provision is created into which each ‘invest to save’ scheme is required to make future financial contributions;

 

(6)

from 2012/13 onwards, 10% of the revenue benefit from this invest to save scheme, (i.e. £152k per annum), is contributed to the council’s corporate invest to save provision;

 

(7)

that the report is referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board for consideration and inclusion in their work programme as appropriate.  

 

37.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

Agreed that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

38.

ACCOMMODATION STRATEGY BUSINESS CASE (E3)

CMT Lead Officer: Director for Corporate Support

Minutes:

The Director for Corporate Support submitted a written report.

 

(See minute 36 above)