BRIGHTON & HOVE CITY COUNCIL
Policy & Resources Committee
4.00pm 6 October 2022
Hove Town Hall - Council Chamber
decision list
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Part One |
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58
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Targeted Budget Management (TBM) 2022/23: Month 5 (August)
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Contact Officer: |
Jeff Coates |
Tel: 01273 292364 |
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Ward Affected: |
All Wards |
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RESOLVED: That the Committee –
(i) Noted the forecast risk position for the General Fund, which indicates a potential forecast overspend risk of £13.114m. This includes a net overspend of £0.088m on the council’s share of the NHS managed Section 75 services;
(ii) Notee the forecast for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which is currently an overspend of £1.167m;
(iii) Noted the forecast position for the Dedicated Schools Grant which is currently an overspend of £0.313m;
(iv) Noted the forecast outturn position on the capital programme which is a forecast overspend of £9.030m and approve the variations and slippage in Appendix 6 and new schemes as set out in Appendix 7;
(v) Agreed in light of the comments in paragraph 12 of the report, that an urgent report be brought to the Member Budget Review Group as soon as TBM Month 6 is available, and request that the Chair of P&R calls a Special Policy & Resources Committee meeting or Policy & Resources Urgency Sub-Committee meeting should, in the views of the Budget Review Group the situation has not shown any significant improvement and that such a meeting is needed. |
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59
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Cost of Living Update including the Household Support Fund Tranche 3
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Ward Affected: |
All Wards |
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RESOLVED: That the Committee –
(i) Noted the updates on the local situation regarding the Cost of Living impact including the ongoing and planned work and actions, with statutory and Community & Voluntary Sector partners, to provide advice and support to households in need;
(ii) Agreed that the city council should lobby government for urgent and sustained support throughout the Cost of Living crisis including:
- Fully funding Cost of Living pay increases for schools and local government in the current year and 2023/24; - Immediately increasing the minimum wage in line with September 2022 inflation; - Reintroducing a top-up to Universal Credit of £20 pw until at least March 2024; - Introducing a rent freeze or cap to reduce the incidence of evictions and homelessness, as has been done by the Scottish Government; - Providing increases in Local Housing Allowance rates in line with rent increases and welfare benefits in line with RPI to ensure that they keep pace with inflation as a minimum; - Reintroducing a temporary ban on evictions during this exceptional inflationary period (until at least March 2024); and - Providing Free School Meals for every primary school child in England, and the city council will endorse this lobbying point by signing the Free School Meals For All Open Letter to the Prime Minister.
(iii) Agreed that the city council should formally support the #BusinessSOS campaign and further recommend to government the measures and support for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The campaign has seen over 150,000 businesses from across the UK lobbying the government to support small and medium sized businesses by taking the following actions; - Suspension of Covid loan debt repayments for up to two years (with potential eligibility criteria); - Reduction of tourism VAT to 5% (i.e. holiday and hospitality services and packages), and; - Introduction of dedicated Business Grant support for SMEs and pubs to help with costs over the winter (with potential eligibility criteria).
(iv)
Agreed that the council will work with
the city’s MPs to lobby for: - Extension of business rates relief for all SME’s and pubs – using usual Treasury relief mechanisms - Reduction of VAT on energy for businesses to 5% - Energy prices to return to 2021 levels for SME’s and pubs
(v) Agreed that the council will work with local business representatives to understand their members’ concerns and work with them to continue supporting small businesses. These representatives include Brilliant Brighton (the local Business Improvement District - BID), the BH Economic Partnership, BH Chamber of Commerce and BH Federation of Small Business;
(vi) Instructed the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, advocating for the advantages and business literacy of adopting the Brighton Hove Living Wage;
(vii) Agreed the council will work with regional public and private sector partners in the Greater Brighton Economic Board to assess the impact of the cost of living to support local SME businesses through sharing intelligence and offering mutual support;
(viii) Agreed the approach to developing potential warm banks for use over the winter period, including working with the Community & Voluntary Sector regarding their assets, as set out in paragraphs 5.9 to 5.12;
(ix) Agreed the proposed communications campaign set out in Section 9 to promote awareness of available advice and support for those in need, and to re-promote charitable giving toward the Cost of Living crisis from those who are able and willing to help;
(x) Agreed the council will support the ‘Warm This Winter’ campaign which calls for government support to provide immediate emergency support, help to upgrade homes and access to cheap energy to lessen reliance on gas and oil;
(xi) Approved the proposed indicative allocation of HSF tranche 3 as set out at paragraph 10.7, noting the associated Equality Impact Assessment at Appendix 1;
(xii) Agreed that officers may make adjustments to allocations where there is evidence of changing need throughout the 6 month period of HSF3, to ensure that all of the fund is spent;
(xiii) Agreed that the Council has a leadership role to play in co-ordinating support for residents across the city through this crisis. We agree to bring key partners together in an urgent ‘Cost of Living Crisis Summit’ to request commitments from the city’s anchor institutions of how they can help to build longer term community resilience. This summit should bring together key stakeholder organisations in Brighton & Hove, including:
- Financial advice and support organisations such as Citizens Advice Bureau, Money Advice Plus and the Credit Union - Large private sector anchor institutions such as Legal & General, American Express, Brighton & Hove Football Club, Sussex County Cricket Club and others - Brighton & Hove Economic Partnership - Brighton & Hove Food Partnership - Community Works - Local Trade Unions - The local NHS Integrated Care Board
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60
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Allocation of Carbon Neutral Fund 2022-2024
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Contact Officer: |
Max Woodford |
Tel: 01273 291666 |
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Ward Affected: |
All Wards |
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RESOLVED: That the Committee – (i) Agreed the allocation of £7,808,990 of the Carbon Neutral Fund to the climate action and biodiversity projects as set out in Appendix 1;
(ii) Agreed officers report back to Policy & Resources within three months, outlining the projected measurable carbon savings to be made by each of the projects in Appendix 1 and associated with the aforementioned allocation of funds, to allow the committee to scrutinise and ensure that funds are being spent in such a way as to measurably maximise carbon reduction in pursuit of carbon neutrality by 2030. |
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61
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Environmentally Sustainable procurement policy and weighting
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Ward Affected: |
All Wards |
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RESOLVED: That the Committee –
(i) Approved the Environmentally Sustainable Procurement Policy set out at Annex 1 on behalf of BHCC;
(ii) Delegated authority for approving any future changes to the policy to comply with legislative changes, or to ensure alignment with other approved changes to procurement policies and practice to the Chief Finance Officer in consultation with the Procurement Advisory Board;
(iii) Approved setting a default minimum sub criterion weighting of 10% of the quality criteria for environmental sustainability, (with the expectation of a significantly higher percentage weighting in sectors where this can be easily achieved, such as catering and cleaning), and approves the recommendations at 3.14 and 3.15 below;
(iv) Instructed officers to report back to Policy & Resources via Procurement Advisory Board with a progress update in 18 months to outline what has been achieved - listing decisions that changed as a result of social value scores. |
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62
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Future Ways of Working
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Contact Officer: |
David A. Jones |
Tel: 01273 293430 |
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RESOLVED: That the Committee –
(i) Agreed to the programme expenditure of £0.223m for office and workspace equipment as described in paragraph 3.6 below to be funded from the council’s Modernisation Fund;
(ii) Noted the continuation of the Future Ways of Working (FWOW) programme and requests officers submit a report by the end of the financial year to Policy & Resources Committee for approval outlining:
- A Terms of Reference for the programme - A ‘Working Asset Strategy’ outlining the council’s ten year requirements of operational capital assets linked to the above and; - A ‘Customer Service Strategy’ outlining the council’s ten year approach to customer service options and improvements |
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63
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Brighton & Hove Response to Refugees and Asylum Seekers
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RESOLVED: That the Committee –
(i) Noted the Homes for Ukraine funding received and expenditure defrayed to date to fulfil the obligations placed on local authorities by the government’s Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme;
(ii) Noted the priorities for the council’s support of refugees and asylum seekers for the coming year as set out in the report;
(iii) Gave delegated authority to the Executive Director Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities, in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer, to defray unallocated current and future resources in accordance with the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme requirements and conditions and to fulfil the council’s obligations under the scheme. |
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64
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Learning Management System Replacement
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Ward Affected: |
All Wards |
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RESOLVED: That the Committee –
(i) Noted the decision taken under Officer urgency powers (as set out in the report and the offer decision record in the Appendix) to: · procure and implement a replacement LMS, including the provision of interim systems and processes and; · approve expenditure as detailed in the part II report over 3 years for the purchase, implementation and licensing of the replacement LMS to be met from a combination of revenue commitment, borrowing (capital financing) and/or addition to the Modernisation Fund subject to the final split of costs between capital and revenue;
(ii) Noted the intention to integrate our learning management system into a fully integrated HR, recruitment, payroll and finance system (which was approved at P&R committee in July 2022) from 2025 onwards. |
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