Agenda item

The Committee received an exceptions report which set out the performance and risk headlines from the performance and risk reports which had already been reported to the four main policy committees earlier in the committee cycle.

The report presentation made reference to the following issues:

• KPI CS 5 had been discussed by the Community Services Committee as it no longer reflected the performance of the Joint Environmental Health Team.  It was noted that the KPI would be reported annually in the future.

• The Planning Policy Committee had discussed the challenges associated with producing quality and timely performance data.  It was noted that the current regime and some of the key risks identified on the Planning Policy Risk Register were being addressed as part of the Planning Transformation Project.

• The number of people in urgent need on the housing register continues to be high despite the council house building programme that is in place.

• The time taken to re-let Local Authority sheltered housing property was delayed over the past year due to issues related to Covid.

• Customer Services were continuing to be impacted by the number of calls received from residents. Ongoing efforts are being made to direct residents to the website where possible.

• Responding to Freedom of Information requests was still a concern however ongoing work on policy training and systems was in place to improve the Council's performance in this area. A review was being undertaken of FOI requests to minimise spurious, repeated and dubious requests.

• It was noted that the Future Tandridge Programme would seek to address long standing resource and capacity issues and redesigning the delivery of services.

Three key risk areas from the report where highlighted by the Chair for further scrutiny by the Committee: 

Planning Transformation and Capacity (4.11 in the report)

This is a title to represent several risks under the Planning Policy Committee. The Committee felt the suggested actions put in place by the Planning Policy Committee to deal with ongoing issues in the Planning Department were adequate but a concern remained regarding the defending of planning appeals and associated applications for costs.  It was suggested that the Council, in partnership with other Local Authorities, could recruit expertise to counter advice from statutory consultees where it is felt that the advice received is not complete or satisfactory.  It was noted that there were insufficient costs in the budget to defend such cases and this should be reviewed.

The Chair was of the view that  because the  current budget may be insufficient  to  address an eventuality, as soon as should one arise, the likely cost implications must immediately be flagged up giving time to  identify a possible funding source. 

Inability to make savings as identified in the Medium Term Financial Strategy and to balance the Council budget (4.9 in the report)

It was noted that all policy committees were in the process of agreeing their separate budgets for the next year. 

The Chair felt that actions were in place to make sure that the Council makes the required savings and no further action needed to be taken by the Committee.  This was subject to the proviso that if any proposed savings were rejected, the relevant Committee would have to find a replacement saving from within its own budget. 

A concern was raised about a recent suggestion to use reserves rather than finding budget savings.  It was suggested that this practice should not be considered in the future. 

Inability to maintain high standards for delivery of statutory services (4.13 of the report)

It was assessed that the Future Tandridge Programme comprised elements that were addressing  this risk and no further action  could be taken at this time.  It was noted that staff sickness levels should be reviewed at a future committee meeting as they constituted to over 1750 lost working days and the matter was long overdue to be resolved.

Following a request by the Committee, an update had been provided on the Council’s current debt management position.  It was noted that the Council could consider selling its debt to a third party in order to release an immediate fund of money.  However, this would require careful consideration.  It was confirmed that debt collection agencies are already used by the Council for Council Tax and Business Rates recovery. A question was asked about repeat debt offenders and whether steps  are being taken to prevent such situations occurring. It was agreed that this could be happening and this was likely to be discussed in the debt report that was on the Strategy & Resources Committee agenda for 1st February 2022.

R E S O L V E D – that the Committee accepts the report.