Agenda item

The Cabinet Member will verbally update the panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions.

Councillor Bellotti, Cabinet Member for Community Resources updated the Panel on the following:

·  Regarding the Keynsham One Stop Shop, he agreed that there should be scrutiny of the outcomes but he explained that the new facility has been provided so that customers feel comfortable in the environment and can speak freely about what it is they need.

·  He explained that Council borrowing is at £78m at present but will need to be increased. He explained that there is Council authority to borrow up to £215m.

·  He explained that revenue performance continues to be on budget.

·  There have been four budget fairs and different discussions at each;

·  There are no new proposed service cuts in the budget, a further £9m had to be found. Following a question from Councillor Bull on how the £9m is made up, the Cabinet Member explained that it is all from increased corporate income, not budget cuts;

·  There has been substantial new investment in the area and yet BANES has had Council Tax frozen for the last three years. There have been steps to address the poverty in some areas of the authority such as abolishment of zero hour contracts; the budget will consider measures such as how to combat payday loans and more money for food banks.

·  The Government settlement comes out around Christmas time and budgets are subject to this. The final budget will be agreed in February 2015.

Panel members asked the following questions and made the following points:

Councillor Gerrish asked if there is extra money for flood defence this year or is it the money that was not spent last year; he commented that the work on Bath Quays will not improve up stream but would just have no adverse impact. He also encouraged the Cabinet Member to address loan sharks along with the payday loan issue.

Councillor Macrae commented that the local procurement policy may be very short sighted in that it may preclude Bristol companies from being used even though they may employ BANES residents.

Councillor Barrett made three points about areas of deprivation in the city and how it is being dealt with; public convenience provision and the appearance of the streets. He stated that he felt the Council is going backwards on these issues.

Councillor Nigel Roberts stated that he is in favour of local procurement as it gives companies in this area chance to grow and £50k contracts are not the biggest.

Councillor Anketell-Jones asked if income retained from business rates can be projected over the next 5 years.

Councillor Bull asked the Cabinet Members view on the implementation of the living wage.

Councillor Bellotti addressed the points made above:

·  Regarding flood defence - there is new money and also the old money is not fully spent.

·  Regarding loan sharks – the Council cannot give financial advice and very few people will volunteer information around use of loan sharks. We have joined Curo to work on this.

·  Procurement – The EU procurement directive kicks in at a certain level. We still get some small contracts from further afield.

·  Poverty – the Connecting Families programme is beginning to show some dividends eg. working with families around unemployment. The social fund is helping people at an emergency level.

·  Public Conveniences – there are no proposals for further reductions, it is open to anyone to move extra money for this, if they can find a good source of funds.

·  Projection of business rate income – the number of households are going up so the amount of council tax goes up. Also, collection rates are going up. Officers could give you exact information.

·  Living Wage – Raising tax thresholds could also be considered and also there are national pay negotiations will raise wages. Cost factors around the living wage is not known and it could put some independent and small companies out of business.

The Strategic Director pointed out that the national pay award has not yet been agreed so there will be more detail in the budget report. The Cabinet Member stated that it is impossible to calculate the cost until pay bargaining has finished.