This meeting was a performance and finance update. The committee were scheduled to review the Council’s performance in the second quarter of 2024/25, scrutinise the proposed work programme, and discuss the implementation of the Level 2 Cornwall Devolution Deal.

Council Performance Report Q2 2024/25

The second quarter performance report showed that, at the end of September 2024, Cornwall Council was forecasting an overspend of £7.234m against a net budget of £770.857m, with the main areas of overspend within Children’s and Adult Social Care services.

The report identified a number of financial risks that had not been included in the forecast because they were unlikely to occur in this financial year. If these risks did crystallise, the overspend could increase by an additional £11.207m.

In line with the Council’s reserve strategy the overspend will need to be mitigated by a draw from the Financial Sustainability reserve.

The report contained an update on the savings programme which was approved as part of the Council’s Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024-28. £7.484m of the total £50.789m in approved savings were not forecast to be delivered this year. The report identified the reasons for the shortfalls in each of the four service areas:

• A Brilliant Place to be a Child and Grow Up
• A Thriving, Sustainable Cornwall
• Vibrant, Safe, Supportive Communities
• An Empowering and Enterprising Council

The report also reviewed progress against the capital programme which was forecast to be £337.839m for 2024/25. Expenditure to date had been £128.866m. The main projects in the programme included the Growth Programme, Waste Contract, St Austell to A30 link Road, and the Northern Access Road.

It was proposed that Cabinet approve a number of virements and a write-off in excess of £50,000. The virements related to a number of areas, including the transfer of MTFP savings from Corporate Items into the directorates where the savings were being made.

The report also included details about the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and the forecast overspend of £5.142m for the current financial year, noting that this would lead to the HRA being in deficit by £1.560m. In order to avoid the HRA going into deficit, the report proposed that a repayment of £2.416m from the Council’s General Fund Reserve to HRA Reserves, which was originally scheduled to take place in the 2025/26 and 2026/27 financial years, be brought forward into the current financial year.

A Treasury Management Strategy Mid-Year Review 2024/25 was appended to the report. This review provided an update on the interest rate outlook and a summary of the treasury activities of Cornwall Council in the first half of 2024/25, including information about investment returns, new borrowing, debt rescheduling and compliance with treasury and prudential limits.

Committee Work Programme - Mid Year Review

The report contained an update of the Committee Work Programme following the mid-year review session. The report acknowledged that this was the second time that the committee had used the work programming process that was approved by the Constitution and Governance Committee in March 2024 following the scrutiny improvement review undertaken by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS).

The CfGS review concluded that the previous work programming process was not member-led, and did not provide opportunities for the public and other stakeholders to make suggestions for scrutiny topics. The new work programming process addressed these concerns.

The revised work programme set out a number of topics for discussion in the remainder of the 2024/25 year, including:

• Council Performance Reports (Q2 and Q3)
• Level 2 Cornwall Devolution Deal – implementation
• Public Sector Equality Duty Return (Annual Review) 2024 and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-26
• Hybrid Working Policy
• Treveth, Celtic Sea Power and Cornwall Housing Ltd Business Plans
• Stewardship of Resources

In addition to these scheduled items, the report noted a number of unscheduled items for consideration for inclusion in the Work Programme, including Housing Performance and a further discussion about the Proposed Cornwall White Paper that had been scrutinised by the committee in September.

The report recommended that the updated Work Programme be approved. It also recommended that the Chairman of the Committee, in consultation with the Vice-Chairman, the Senior Responsible Officer and the Democratic Services Lead be given the authority to make changes to the Work Programme.

Level 2 Cornwall Devolution Deal

The Level 2 Cornwall Devolution Deal was accepted by Cornwall Council’s Cabinet on 28 November 2023.

This report provided an update on the progress in delivering the Deal. It began by describing the benefits of the Deal, noting that it provided additional funding and powers to the Council to deliver its priorities in three key areas:

• Adult skills
• Green energy
• Cornish culture

The report then gave more detail on what had been achieved to date in each of these areas, and also in the areas of:

• Housing and land
• Culture and tourism
• Transport
• Net zero, energy and environment
• Digital
• Innovation, trade and investment
• Resilience and public safety

The report highlighted the fact that, due to the change of government in July 2024, the Government was reviewing all devolution agreements, including the Cornwall deal. It said that the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon, had confirmed in a letter to the Leader that he was ‘minded to progress’ the Level 2 deal, subject to meeting the statutory tests.

The report concluded by recommending that the committee review progress on the implementation of the deal and make any necessary comments. It also requested the Leader of the Council to press the Government to:

…proceed with the implementation of the registration scheme and planning use class for short-term lets; and…consider the case for supporting the positive management of Cornish Hedges through the agricultural transition programme or farming reforms.

Questions from Members to Cabinet Members on their reports

The committee were scheduled to ask questions to the Cabinet Members for:

• Customers
• Resources
• Leader

Written reports from the Cabinet Members had been published and circulated prior to the meeting.