Agenda item

The Committee will receive the report of the Finance Task Group which met to consider the following Finance Reports:

a)    Revenue Monitoring Report Period 6, 2017-2018 (Appendix D)

b)    Capital Monitoring Report Period 6, 2017-2018 (Appendix D1)

c)    Mid-Year Review of Treasury Management Activities 2017/18 (Appendix D2)

d)    Income Collection April 2017 – September 2017 (Appendix D3)

The Minutes of the meeting of the Finance Task Group are attached in Appendix D4

The Chair referred Members to the minutes of the meeting of the Finance Task Group where the four finance reports had been considered.  The Director of Finance gave a brief introduction to each report and commented that the Task Group had welcomed the change of style in the Capital Monitoring Report which showed the progress being made on each different programme delivery. From the income collection report, it could be demonstrated that the Council collected 99% of the debt that was raised.

The Chair referred to the Income Collection Report and said that serious concerns had previously been raised in relation to debt arising from housing benefit overpayment. However this debt now totalled £18m which raised even more serious concerns, particularly in view of the fact that universal credit was due to be rolled out in Leicester in 2018.  The Director of Finance responded that overpayments in housing benefit were being recovered but it was a slow process and some of the households with a low income found it very difficult to pay off the debt. She said that they would continue to try to recover the debt from individual households but believed that when Leicester moved over to Universal Credit, they would ask the Department of Work and Pensions to take on the debt.  The Director added that some, but not all of the debt, would be collected. The City Mayor added that this was a systemic problem and Leicester’s situation was very much in line with other similar urban areas. The problem did not just arise at local level but was related to the way the system worked, particularly around a change of circumstances.

A Member commented that while it was right that debts should not be written off, some people did get into debt and needed help in order to re-pay by an affordable amount each week. The Director stated that staff were sympathetic in pursuing debt and people were asked to talk to the council staff; however some people chose not to inform the council about any change to their circumstances because they knew that it would affect their benefit payment. The Council did not judge people and tried to be fair and equitable in all cases.

A Member referred to the increasing numbers of Looked After Children (LAC); the situation was volatile and created challenges in financial planning. She questioned whether scrutiny had looked into this issue and the related issues of out of area placements.  Councillor Dr Moore, the Chair of the Children, Young People and School’s Scrutiny Commission explained that the commission had looked into this area; the rising numbers in Leicester reflected the national trend. She had asked whether children were being taken into care unnecessarily and was reassured that this was not the case. Councillor Dr Moore added that it was expensive to put children in out of area placements and asked the City Mayor, if at some point in the future, he would be agreeable for the council to establish its own specialised ‘in-house’ provision. Councillor Dr Moore suggested that this could bring income to the Council. The City Mayor responded that he would talk to the Assistant City Mayor for Children, Young People and Schools but understand that this had been done elsewhere and had not proved to be an effective financial solution.  Councillor Dr Moore added that it could be very difficult to find placements for children with behavioural problems and parents were frequently unwilling to put their child in a school a long way from home.

The Chair drew the discussion to a close and asked Members to note the reports.

AGREED:

that the Revenue and Capital Monitoring Reports Period 6, 2017-2018, the Mid-Year Review of Treasury Management Activities 2017/18 and the Income Collection Report April 2017-September 2017 be noted.

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