Transcript

Transcript

and also to welcome our officers who are supporting us to deliver on our priorities. So thank you all for being here tonight. Just wanted to start by saying that when I appointed this cabinet I did remark at council that's a cabinet I believe is bursting with talent, diamondism, competence and aspiration that would support and value council staff to improve the council's communication, policy development, public engagement and financial management so we can better deliver on the priorities of our residents and looking around the committee room this evening that's precisely what I see and whilst the items on tonight's agenda are not necessarily items that we have introduced as part of our joint administration agreement I am certain that we will see a lot more coming through in future cabinet meetings. We know we've inherited a difficult financial situation with compounded staffing issues from budget cuts and redundancies in the last municipal year that has led to difficulties around things like grass cutting and whilst it's not on this agenda I do want to thank our new portfolio holder for climate, environment and waste, Councillor Lydia Hyde and all of our officers for working so hard to get on top of the situation and putting in the additional resources required to help us up catch up with the schedule. So I know that Councillor Hyde will have some updates soon on the progress she's making and will ensure that is properly communicated through the appropriate channels. So on to the business in front of us tonight, do we have any apologies for absence? Whilst I believe he intends to attend, Councillor Gilbert has said he's running a bit late because his ankle is still injured. Thank you, okay any declarations of interest? Okay, the minutes of the meetings of the previous cabinet comprising March 4th, March 14th and April 29th 2024 are the new cabinet content for me to sign these as a true record of those meetings. Okay, agenda item 6 I believe is the Pre-Provisional Revenue and Capital Out-term 2023-24. This item has been published in both my name and that of Councillor Collins but is primarily in his area so I will ask Councillor Collins to introduce the report please. Thank you leader, a pleasure to do so. This is the first of three papers tonight that I'm producing and on annual turnout of the financial situation of the council. This paper is for the provisional revenue and capital out-turn at the end of March 2024 for the year 23-24. The purpose of this paper is to update you on that revenue out-turn for that period 23-24 and also indicate the level revenue balances going into 24-25. This paper also advises cabinet of the implications provisional revenue out-turn for 23-24 and to provide an update in the financial resilience and future financial sustainability of the council. It's pertinent this paper is framed in the language that we see here of the amount of stress across local government bodies throughout the United Kingdom and this paper demonstrates the robustness of this authority carrying on from previous years and that although we've, as I'll describe in a minute, we've had a loss on what we budget for our revenue it is minor compared to certainly a lot of our authorities in the country. This paper also informs cabinet about the capital investment program out-turn for 23-24 and to seek approval in this paper for the relevant budget carry forwards and accelerated delivery requests that are embedded in this paper. It also seeks approval in the year amendments for the current approved capital investment program for 24-25 to 28-29 five-year cycle. It also in this paper contains the carry forward of the community infrastructure levy the CIL main fund receipts from 23-24 and previous financial years and to delegate authority to agree how the CIL ward neighbourhood allocations are to be spent. And finally 1.16 to consider and provide endorsement of the submission of the council's new productivity plan to the department of levelling up housing and communities as requested by that body which is in this paper as well. The key parts of this paper leader is that the budget out-turn for revenue is a deficit of 1.89 million pounds which is, whilst regrettable, is nothing like the figures that were mentioned at the beginning of this process around the 14-15 million pound projected loss. Nothing like it at all. There is reasons for that which I'll demonstrate to cabinet as we go through this paper. The budget carry forward on the capital side is of interest to cabinet as well. I would ask their portfolios to look carefully at those papers and make sure they're agreeing those transfers and maybe they wish to speak to them as well. The HRI account is showing a surplus in this paper which is very pleasing to see and that will be carried forward for capital investments inside the programme of our HRI stock which is to be welcomed. The paper contains, bear with me one moment, the key piece leader is on page 31 of the PDF pack provisional out-turn 23/24. It shows the movement between period 8 the last time this paper was presented to cabinet to the financial year end 31st of March 24 and demonstrates that we have a 1.9 million loss deficit at the bottom of this paper but the key part leader is that the services actually overspent by 10 million pounds and due to the good husbandry of the papers and finances and the corporate budgets, financing costs, interests etc. which did very well in this period enables that 10 million overspend to be shrunk down to 1.8. It is proposed in this paper to take that 1.9 million out of the earmarked reserves for children's services and move money from the transitional reserve to cover it as well. It's a good paper and one that we can build on, leader, going forwards. It gives us the structure for us to understand what we need to do to make this city better. Colleagues will see inside their own areas how the last four months have moved and it's up to them to decide how they wish to present that if they wish but there is a lot of good things here and we obviously have a deficit looking forward for the next five years but that is manageable and I'm very encouraged by this paper that we have got through the worst of COVID, other items that have hit us, the cost of fuel etc. and we now look forward with positiveness of how we can make this work for us. I'm open to questions from colleagues around the table if they wish to look at any particular part of this report but I do recommend it to cabinet for approval. Thank you, Councillor Collins. Are there any questions or comments from members of cabinet? Thank you, Councillor Collins. It's a very detailed and fulsome report and you presented it well. Under the previous administration, I noted there was a lot of what I would describe as scaremongering claims that we were on the verge of issuing section 104 notice and declaring bankruptcy. Can I ask with Councillor Collins in charge of the finances, will there be less emotive language used in relation to finance and more sound governance that we can look forward to? Thank you, Councillor Dent. My training is in finance, insurance and governance and I'm not given to hyperbole and excitement so no, I will be very calm. Thank you. Councillor Setzer, please. Thank you, leader. Thank you very much, Councillor Collins, for the report and I just wanted to say that under my portfolio, obviously, there's an overspend of 1.8 million but a lot of it will be statutory anyway and because of the cost of living and everything, the prices have increased but the other thing is that some of the measures that are being put forward will be preventative ones and maybe the overspend will come down, we're hoping. Thank you. I may come back on that. Yes, clearly we are in a situation of still transition. It's very important and transformation as well. There's no doubt about it that the paper I'm presenting here shows that although we've made a loss of reserve of 1.89 million pounds, that's balanced off by a very good husbandry, as I said, of the finances and the money that we invest. So the regulatory, the services that we have to provide, Councillor Setzer, yes, you're right, and that was a 10 million pound overspend. We need to be constantly on top of that and it will be our job as cabinet to do that with good support of the officers there to my left. We will make sure we do that. Councillor Jones, deputy leader, please. Thank you, chair. Just to say that the housing pipeline information is very, very welcomed and I can assure you that once we go through the cabinet cycle to the next paper coming forward next month, some of the ideas of the team, of ourselves, will be detailed and will be hopefully welcomed by council with the plans around pipeline and acquisitions. So, you know, I've got to keep the powder dry a bit here, but you know, that's a priority that we wanted to deliver on. So thank you for that welcome information. Thank you. Councillor Hyde, please? Thanks leader. I just, it's a good report. I thank the portfolio holder. It was of interest, I looked at my portfolio section and there's two bits I'd like to highlight the cabinet. Firstly, on 4.12.2, we see that we've actually managed to reduce some of the overspend in the area of waste because of performance payments. And I think that's really important because although we are going through a phase of waste contract change, it is important that we uphold our performance on the current contracts. I'm pleased to see that we have recovered that where performance has not been acceptable. I'd also highlight the item below 4.12.3 on the tree maintenance that we haven't recovered this cost here, but personally, I think this is a good thing. I think that the previous administration was incorrect in, in trying to reduce too heavily on the tree maintenance budget. It's something that residents regularly inform us they'd like to see improved. And it's something that since taking up this brief, I'm looking for some immediate tree maintenance work. So I'm pleased that that has not been dropped so far. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hyde. Councillor Burton, please. Thank you. Leader, I'd like to speak to my portfolio area. So obviously we've still got the pressure in children's social care, often with the very expensive placements for children, young people with very challenging needs. But Michael and Lisa and the team are working really hard to see whether there's any people, young people we can like step down at those expensive placements. So it's often, it's a real challenge. I'm pleased that the foster care offer that I implemented last time I was portfolio holder is still doing well. And that means that more young people can be cared for by in-house foster carers that more likely they're going to be cared for locally than have to go further afield, which would be great for them. I also want to take this opportunity to thank my previous portfolio holder, Councillor Helen Boyd, who was my ward colleague for six years. And whilst we don't obviously agree politically at different parties, I do think there's a lot of good work that she did in the role. And I'm now looking forward to picking back up. So just put on record my thanks for that. Thanks. Thank you, Councillor Terry. Thank you, Lina. So yeah, I was very pleased to read the document. It's very complicated and detailed, a long read. But I was very pleased to hear the portfolio holder, Councillor Collins say that he will be cutting down on hyperbole. I think it was reputationally damaging to constantly say that our city's going bankrupt. And because that undermines confidence and investment. But it's one thing I wanted to look at, which I've now lost, and I found it again, I want to refer to specifically in appendix for the productivity plan. In item two, it refers to one of the challenges being the election cycle, local government association, corporate peer challenge reported the council's current model of elections by thirds can hinder strategic decision making, we've made a decision now, prior to this being after this being printed. So I just want to read something from a legal expert, which talks about perder. Unlike for ministers and civil servants, there is no clear guidance to advise local authorities on how they should act during the pre election period. Due to this lack of clarity, local authorities can often align themselves with guidance for central government. That as we go through transformation, because the portfolio holder mentioned transformation, it's for me, it's something that's a driving force. We do need to look at how we discharge the taxpayers purse efficiently. Now that we've made the decision to remain with third elections, we need to make sure that perder doesn't get in the way of our productivity, which is the title of this sheet. So I'll be driven by that and making sure that we run things as efficiently as possible for our resident taxpayers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Terry. So I think I echo a lot of comments that have been made. And I really thank the officers for their work and effort going into this. It's just a comment to the question really to the portfolio holder. I'm sure he's aware that the budget last year was revised by by some 6 million pounds in year. And we also had better than expected returns of interest of up to 5 million pounds. So whilst we have a positive position better than many local authorities, thanks to the hard work of of officers and changing rates of interest by the Bank of England, we, we have benefited from things or previous administration, would you agree benefited from things largely outside of their control to the tune of about 11 million pounds, and we could have inherited a much worse position, if not for the hard work of our officers? Thank you leader. Yes, that's why I highlighted it in that paper, I asked colleagues to look at how the final out term paper shows for the individual responsible areas for the portfolio holders. Yes, the financing of this authority through its good ownership of money and the way it looks at investments hasn't undoubtedly helped us interest rates, yes, has undoubtedly helped us. So that's been a positive thing for us to take advantage of. Without it, we would have had a situation to deal with. And we won't always be able to rely on that. That is something that's going to diminish over the next year, I would imagine. So we need to be very careful. So as the portfolio holder here, I will be making sure candidates aware of what we can afford and what we can't afford, and how we're going to make sure it works for us. And as Councillor Terry's talked about transformation, I think that's important. It's part of the journey that this council is on, as all councils are, so we're not unique in that. But undoubtedly, it will not be as so profitable for income in the next couple of years, because interest rates won't be quite as high. But we do have good schemes also, and that'll be another paper we'll talk about later on. We've got the next paper, the annual Treasury Management Report, so we'll be discussing it in more detail there. But yes, you're right. The previous administration has been fortunate in that regard, that it has good officers here in this authority, which I'm very pleased to support and work with. Thank you. Any final comments? Okay. Do we agree the recommendations? Great. Excellent. Agenda Item 7 is the annual Treasury Report, and we are back to Councillor Paul Collins. Councillor Collins, would you like to introduce this report? With pleasure, leader, yes. Again, this is another annual report for the cabinet to consider and to agree, I hope. This one is for the annual Treasury Management Report for the period to the end of 31st of March 2024, and the out-term prudential indicators for 23/24 as well. This paper contains notes regarding the capital expenditure of the year of £50.066 million, which has been funded in accordance with the schedule set out within Table 1 of Section 4. This paper also notes that the capital financing and Treasury management were carried out in accordance with statutory requirements, good practice, and in compliance with CIPFA. The prudential code between 23/24 notes that the following respect and return of investment in borrowing, loan and investment portfolios were actively managed to minimise cost, maximise interest earned whilst maintaining a low level of risk. Clearly, the paper shows £6.319 million of interest in income distributions for all investments were earned during this period to the end of 31st of March 2024, at an average rate of 4.59%. The level of borrowing from Public Works Board remained at 347.3 million. That's important to note, leader, because that means we have not borrowed any money in the last year, or in fact, years previous to that, and there's no intention in my role under this Cabinet to do that. Again, we will not be borrowing anything further. We do not need to, so we need to work on the monies we have. The paper sets out the prudential outcome of the paper. It shows to find detail all the investments we have for Cabinet to look at. The capital budget is very interesting because they say we spent £50.066 million. The capital challenges, leader, will carry on, and from this point forward, we've got meetings in July being framed up, meetings in October, meetings at the end of this year and beginning of January 2025 to review all capital projects to make sure they're on track, they are viable, and if then neither of those two, then they will be changed either to be pushed back to succeeding years or withdrawn altogether. We also are receiving in grants as well, as it shows in this paper, so the capital side is always moving around, with government giving out grants to authorities to do certain tasks, so we'll be managing those as well. But the paper is very clear, and I'm very pleased to report this to you, leader, that this is a positive paper showing good practice, good governance, and a good outcome for us. Thank you, thank you, Councillor Collins. Are there any questions, comments? Councillor Setzer? Again, thank you to, thank you, Chairman, thank you to Council Colleagues for the, this comprehensive report, and also to the officers for their hard work. I was interested in the funding for Invest to Save schemes, where we're actually taking out interest-free loans to fund from the Department of Energy and Climate, and that's a very good project, I think, and at least we're, we're trying to keep carbon neutral and also at the same time making money from it. But could you explain a little bit more about it? Thank you, Councillor Setzer. This is actually coming to an end, and we're looking at 6.10, 6.11. Yeah, this is something that Councillor Terry was involved with back in 2014, where the street lighting across the city was made into LEDs, converted to LED, but also within that, there was other projects that we did and we took interest-free loans as it sets out here for those particular items. Those are, those projects have finished and been done, Beechcroft Art Gallery has been done, replacement lighting in the south and PEZ has been done, and we're now just finishing off paying those interest-free loans, which is 6.11, and in the next two years, would you say, are we over? Two or three years. Within three years, then we will have paid it all back, but there's no new projects here, it's actually just something that we concluded that was started by Councillor Terry back in 2014. Okay, I'll take it there are no more. Councillor Terry? Yes, I just wanted to slightly expand on Councillor Setzer's question, and to remind the town, really, that when people talk about financial competence, that we took out an interest-free loan to install LED lighting, which saved 85% of our energy costs for lighting and at the same time massively reduced our carbon footprint, which was really important, and the lanterns on those columns generally last about 25 years, so not only did we save a huge amount of money on energy, we also saved a load of money on maintenance too, so all around it's a win-win, and I too would like to jump on the bandwagon and actually take the opportunity to thank our officers for all the hard work they do in our finance department. I think it's really important, given the previous period we've had, that my full confidence is behind our officers in this regard. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor, Councillor Hyde, please. Thank you, leader. This isn't a completely new question, it's something that I've raised before I joined the cabinet, but regards to our property fund investments, our long-term property fund investments, with Pat's Trivia, Hanover and Loughborough Property Trust, I notice here that for Pat's Trivia, we've seen that investment return drop by 4%, and for Loughborough Property Trust, dropped by 12.69%, for those that are looking, it's on page 146, we have seen a continued decline in these long-term property investments. I know that there were some issues with us being locked into one. Could the portfolio holder give me a summary as to where we are with these property investments? Do we foresee further drops, and what are our options if we did want to withdraw from them? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hyde. The paper is very clear about the fund that is actually being subsumed into UBS, and we're following that. These investments are as much for income as they are for actual value themselves. The paper shows here that actually over a long period of years, we've had these funds, they've earned us more than the then current interest rate that the Bank of England was giving to the marketplace. So they've been very worthwhile to do, and they still continue to give us good income. The fund that we are now locked into, as you described, because that is being moved into UBS because they're purchasing out that fund, we're going to follow that and take on those funds. The valuation, and I can give more detail after this meeting if Councillor Hyde wants, but we have actually earned more than we could have done through other means. We always manage these funds, and they are for the long term, which means you do stick with the rough times, or the poorer times, as well as the good times. I do talk to Joe Chesterton, the 1.1 officer, and also to Caroline Fozard, and we will continue to do that. So we will look at this on a regular basis, and it will be reported quarterly, but we'll talk about it with those colleagues in demeaning times, and we'll monitor them. But I have confidence that they've earned us a lot of money, and continue to do earn us a good amount of income. And the value themselves, yes, I don't see the reason coming out of them at this stage. One further question on that, I appreciate it obviously gives us an income, and time to time, you know, the money we get back. However, when we first originally invested it across these two funds, we invested 48.2 million pounds, I believe, and now the total worth of those is 30 million. So we've dropped 20 million in total wealth. Obviously, I've raised before going back for the reports 2018, 2019, and looking at those total values, and particularly over the last two years, the Loughborough Trust is reduced from 18 million, and the Pat's Trivia one is reduced from 28 million pounds within the last three years. So I do think that we need to look at the actual total investment and how much that is dropping, regardless of how much we're getting as regular payments from it. Thank you. You said 48 million pounds. I can see that the funds, one of them, the Pat's Trivia is 19 million pounds at the start. Yes, I mean, the point is made, and I'm sure other institutions, not just this council is looking at it in the same way, and what is their pinch point before they start thinking about moving money elsewhere. You sometimes have to take a view of these that they're long-term, and whilst they're giving us a good return, better than we could have got elsewhere, I'm not inclined to at this point take out, remove them, but they are on constant review. I can assure you of that, and this is a conversation that myself and my five-year-old officer will always be having. I support his decision taking at this moment is that we stay where we are. Thank you, Councillor Jones, please. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to say, I mean, I'm going to say to Joe, this Treasury management report is always an interesting rate, but I just have to say that there was a great deal of positivity within this report, and we are coming into periods of uncertainty. So I just wanted to say thank you to the team and for the position that the council is in, but the position that they're in as the people that do the work on the ground and work with auditors, et cetera, because when there is changes in administration, possible changes in national administration, it's a challenging time because what comes next is not always a certainty, and we have to have belief in the people that we work with here that that will not impact on the people that we serve, and I would like to thank them for giving me the confidence that that is the case. So just to say, we are expecting great things still, of course, no matter what happens next week, but we have confidence that this city is in a good place. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Jones. Would you like to wrap up? Yes, thank you, Lid. I will. Yeah, the property market is interesting, isn't it? And I'm not an expert on that at all, the property side, but I am aware of our investments work and how government changes can make major changes in how people see things, and how people suddenly take investments in a different light. So we will see what happens after next week to see if that has a move, if there's some big burst of home building, property building, and investment into that area by the new government, whatever colour it may be. So that will have an impact on these funds, no doubt about it. We will keep monitoring them. I'm very confident with our senior officers that I deal with will do the right thing, but they also get my challenge as well, Leader. I can assure you of that, and they know it. So we will be discussing this on a regular basis, but I am very happy to present this paper to you for agreement by cabinet. Thank you, Councillor Collins. Do we agree the recommendations? Agreed. Agenda Item 8, Licensing Act 2003, Review of Statement of Licensing Policy. This one is for Councillor Ian Gilbert. Would you like to introduce the report, please? Thank you, Chair, and apologies for being a few minutes late this evening. This, unfortunately, I wasn't at pre-cabinet scrutiny when this item came there. I was at my sister's wedding, so if Councillor Jones, who I think represented on that occasion, has anything to add, then obviously that would be welcome. But the Council has a statutory duty to review its statement of policy every five years and publish a revised policy before the beginning of 2025. This is seeking, it's not the final document, this is seeking cabinet's permission to commence a statutory public consultation. This will involve statutory authorities, members of the trade and the public, and a full list of consultees is at 3.3 in the report. The main changes proposed within this policy are updating the language in terms of Terrorism Protection of Premises Act, stronger guidance to applicants on control measures, a new section giving advice on minimising waste in licensed premises, additional guidance on child safeguarding, and new appendices designed to give applicants and licensees licensing guidance in one place, that's Appendices C2E. So the updates reflect changes to the law and assist applicants and licensees to access information without the need to formally request it from the Council. Once consultation is complete, we'll undertake a final review, taking appropriate responses into account, and return to cabinet for consideration of the final documents. Thank you, Councillor Gilbert. Councillor Jones, you had something to add as the Member at Pre-Scrutiny. Thank you, Chair, and if I may, I think sort of, it was a, it was a very, it was quite a lively meeting, you know, when you think that it might be, oh, let's just go to consultation. I think members across the piece had a great deal to put in, you know, and it was, it was generally well received, you know, and contemporary matters, particularly around spiking and stuff like that, and current behaviours, as you say, around the terrorism, shows that we do need to review policies very regularly, and members sort of like, feel very strongly about this in our own geographical context. So hopefully there'll be a really strong response from the consultation, from members from Licensing Committee, et cetera, and differentiating between Alcohol-Free Zones and Public Space Protection Orders is really important for us to understand. It's really important for the authorities to understand, and it's also important to know how far we can go with what we say to licensed premises. You know, we're in the business of encouraging business as well, but in a safe manner. So really look forward to how this comes back through the consultation, and Councillor Gilbert, it was my pleasure to step in for you, because you very rarely take time off, and it was a special occasion. Thank you. Thank you, thanks Councillor Jones. Councillor Martin Terry. Thank you, Leader. Yeah, this very much in a way cuts across the bowels of my portfolio, which is of course community safety, and there are some really good strengthening additions to this, and I mention this in the sense that we only recently had a, it actually happened to somebody in my family, and we occasionally get spiking incidents, and there's strengthening in 10.2, drugs misuse and drugs dealing, it does mention terrorism there, but more importantly in 10.3, the use of drug safe where appropriate. Well that caused quite a bit of inquiry and consternation. Why would you want a safe for drugs? Because it's where, it was made clear, it's where drugs are taken away from someone, and they need to be stored for collection by the police, but one thing I particularly liked reading about was the fact that it refers to the Ask Angela campaign, which is very much about, you know, if you're in a bar or anywhere, and you feel unsafe, then just you say to a member of staff Ask Angela, and that is a pathway to help, and of course it was a new addition, regular attendance by a premises manager at trade authority meetings, such as PubWatch and membership of the Nighttime Economy and Purple Flag groups. These are all really good strengthening parts, which I hope, my role as community safety, is that we want people to come out in South End, we want people to enjoy themselves, but we want them to be safe also. Thank you. Thank you Councillor, Councillor Lydia Hyde, please. Thank you, Leader. Firstly, I've welcomed number 12.7, talk about the minimising of waste, and particularly draw your attention to this idea that members of the public would be able to refill their water bottles free of charge to reduce the plastic bottle waste, and I think that's a really positive step that I really hope that these establishments can really take on board. My brief comment is, I'd just like to commend my ward colleague, Councillor Faulkner-Hatt, who I believe raised at the meeting on this, about the fact that spiking doesn't always mean spiking of alcohol drinks, and within days of her saying those comments, we saw a spiking incident in the city which was not put into an alcoholic drink, it was alternatively given to that person, and the unfortunate fallout of that, I just wanted to acknowledge her foresight in doing so, and reflecting that spiking can be much broader, as she mentioned there. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Hyde, would you like to wrap up, Ian? Yeah, thank you, Chair. I thank members for the comments, I think there's been some constructive feedback, and of course as we go through consultation, if there are any further measures that we can put in to strengthen this, particularly around spiking and women's safety issues, I know that we'll be very open to considering what more can be done there, but thank cabinet for their comments, and hope we can send this out to the public for consultation. Thank you. Does cabinet agree the recommendation in the report? Great. Excellent. Agenda item 9, review of the council statement of gambling policy, we're back to Councillor Gilbert to introduce the report. Thank you, Chair. Yes, much like the previous item, this is a statutory responsibility, we have a responsibility to review this policy every three years, again, and publish a revised policy before the beginning of 2025. The government are currently consulting on a review of the Gambling Act 2005, which obviously could involve necessitating changes to our policy, however given the uncertainty of the general election, a potential change in government, and when a new government may come back to this, I think it's right that we proceed now and ensure that we have a compliant policy in place. I think it's fair to say that, you know, within gambling policy, we are heavily constrained by statute in terms of what we can and can't put in to the policy. Again, I wasn't at pre-cabinet scrutiny, so again, if Councillor Jones has anything to add, that will be gratefully received, but yeah, I hope the members can agree and allow us to commence the consultation. Thank you, Councillor, I will open it up to questions and comments, and I believe we have Councillor Martin Terry. Yes, I have a, thank you, leader, I have a very large tongue in my cheek, but it's quite ironic that in this very period the government is reviewing its own gambling policy. I won't say any more, but perhaps they'll look at home. Thank you, Councillor Terry, a little bit of light relief. I can't see any more questions or comments, I don't know if you wanted to say anything to wrap up, I think there's only the one comment to say anything about Ian. Yeah, I don't think there's any need to say any more, I hope members will support this and we can commence the consultation. Thank you, does cabinet agree the recommendation in the report? Excellent, so we move on to our final agenda item, which is the corporate debt management position as at the 31st of March 2024. It's back to Councillor Paul Collins, would you like to introduce this report, please? Thank you, leader, with pleasure, yes, this is a quarterly paper that this cabinet will see, this is the one at the end of 31st of March 2024. The purpose of this report is to update cabinet of the following, but this is the current position of all outstanding debt owed to the City Council as at 31st of March

1. This paper also sets out debts that have been written off or are recommended for write-off for the financial year to 31st of March 2024, to seek approval for write-off for irrecoverable debts that are over £25,000 in accordance with the council's constitution. Please note that this paper notes the new service reporting arrangements to the director of financial services and discusses in appendices those individual items that we've just mentioned, 2.2, 2.3. Background information for cabinet, which is of interest because the way that this paper will run forward is that the way the structure of the section 151 officer submits regular reports to cabinet, as I've just disclosed, but what we are doing is that the director of financial services is actually taking control over certain areas of this council to look at the bad debt situation and debt situation overall and some of this paperwork shows that. We also want to report under 3.1 that the September paper will include an update on the performance of integration of services that now come under that person, the director of financial services, which is important because we believe a consistent way of looking at debts and how it's organised in this council will be for our advantage. Where we are with debt collection is very good. If I can draw council's attention to 4.1, particularly 4.4, we are strong performers in collection of council tax, 97.6% collected, which is very good, and under 4.4, actually that equates to a monetary value of £1.9 million above the median collection rate of other authorities in England and £2.2 million when compared to collection rates of other median and smaller local authorities. In other words, our performance has monetary value and that's demonstrated there and just same point item number 5 on page 253 of the pack. Similarly, on business rates, we are collecting a rate of 98.9% which is very good and under 5.4, the equation of what that is value to us, it's value to us of £621 million above the median collection rate in England and £0.781 million compared to collection rate achieved by the median of small, similar local authorities. So our collection rate is good, we have good systems in this authority and it's very pleasing to see. So it's a pleasure to produce this report to you, leader, and I hope that the cabinet will accept the paper as presented and also open to questions. Thank you, Councillor Collins. Councillor Satza. Thank you, leader. It's just a declaration of interest that I volunteer for King's Money Advice Centre, which is a debt counselling service. Thank you. Councillor Jones. Thank you, Chair. At 4.8, the Council holds currently x amount of uncollected debt for prior financial years and the work that's going to be going on. It says that the work will commence in the third or fourth quarter. Where will that work be coming back to and at what point in the financial year or will it drift over a tad? Thank you. I'm advised by the one fund officer that it's an ongoing work. I will report back to cabinet in a quarter, three months time, to see how we're progressing. We'd like to collect it as soon as we possibly can. I do think it's not going to be within one financial year. I'm sure some of this debt is much older than this shows here. So we will actually report to you as the time progresses and I'll be challenging officers to make sure that debt is reduced to zero as close as we can, as soon as we can. Okay, any further comments or questions? Did you want to wrap up or did that cover everything? Thank you very much indeed. I'm pleased that the Director of Financial Associates is taking control over some parts of the way the organisation is run. It'll be very important to us. I think that will help us with our future organisation to make sure we don't have any provision for bad debts that we've had to do in the past and so I'm looking forward to the September meeting where we're going to progress on how that integration is working across the council and how beneficial that is for us and I will be looking forward to reporting to cabinet on that basis. Other than that, no, I just would like approval for this paper. Thank you, Councillor Collins. Does cabinet agree? Recommendation? Excellent. Well, that concludes the business of cabinet this evening. Thank you all for coming. I think you could turn off the web...