Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Alison Atherton, Senior Professional Democratic Services  E-mail:  alison.atherton@harrow.gov.uk

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Items
No. Item

1.

Attendance by Reserve Members

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Members:-

 

Ordinary Member

 

Reserve Member

 

Councillor Kandy Dolor

Councillor David Perry

Councillor Ameet Jogia MBE

Councillor Susan Hall

 

2.

Membership

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 1.5 the Conservative Group have given notice that they wish to replace Councillor Philip Benjamin with Councillor Paul Osborn on the Forum. Councillor Benjamin will replace Councillor Osborn as a Reserve on the Forum

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that Councillor Paul Osborn had replaced Councillor Philip Benjamin as a member of the Forum and that Councillor Benjamin had replaced Councillor Osborn as a Reserve.

Resolved Items

Additional documents:

3.

Appointment of Chair and Vice Chair of the Forum

To appoint (i) a Chair from the Employees’ side and (ii) a Vice-Chair from the Council side for the Municipal Year 2022/23.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To appoint Davis Searles as Chair and Councillor David Ashton as Vice-Chair of the Employees’ Consultative Forum for the 2022/2023 Municipal Year.

4.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from all Members present.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

 

Agenda Item 9 – Draft Revenue Budget 2023/24 and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2023/24 to 2025/26

Councillor Susan Hall declared a non-pecuniary interest in that she was a member of the Greater London Assembly.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

 

Councillor Graham Henson declared a non-pecuniary interest in that he had been a member of the GMB, former member of Unison and an Honorary Member of the Communications Workers Union.  He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

 

Councillor Paul Osborn declared an interest in that he was the Chair of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, a precepting Authority. He would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon.

5.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 455 KB

That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2022 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2022 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

6.

Petitions

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions were received.

7.

Deputations

To receive deputations (if any).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations were received.

8.

Public Questions

To receive any public questions received.

 

Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received.  There will be a time limit of 15 minutes for the asking and answering of public questions.

 

[The deadline for receipt of public questions is 3.00 pm, Friday 6 January 2023.  Questions should be sent to publicquestions@harrow.gov.uk

No person may submit more than one question].

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED: To note that no public questions were received.

Recommended Item

Additional documents:

9.

Draft Revenue Budget 2023/24 and Medium-Term Financial Strategy 2023/24 to 2025/26

Report of the Director of Finance and Assurance.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Forum received a report of the Director of Finance and Assurance which set out the draft revenue budget for 2023/24 and draft Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for 2023/24 to 2025/26 and had been considered by Cabinet on 8 December 2022.  The budget and MTFS would be submitted to Cabinet in February 2023 for approval and recommendation to Council.

 

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Human Resources introduced the report which showed a budget gap of £10.923m for 2023/24, a balanced budget position for 2024/25  and a budget gap of £10.964m for 2025/26.  The indicative Local Government Financial Settlement that had been announced on 19 December 2022 had been substantially worse than expected and the objective was now to optimise the resilience of the Council moving forward and to minimise the use of reserves.  The Portfolio Holder explained that the challenge was that most of the Council’s resources were from Council Tax and that whilst the Council would like to reduce Council Tax this was not currently practical and, taking advantage of the new flexibility, it was proposed to increase it by 4.99% in 2023/24.

 

The Portfolio Holder advised the Forum that another challenge in the budget was that the inflationary expectations had been set in February 2022 but had been much higher than had been anticipated.  The draft budget before the Forum contained reasonable assumptions in terms of salaries moving forward.  Whilst it been difficult to prepare the draft budget for the next financial year, he advised that it would even more challenging in years 2 and 3.

 

In response to a question from a Unison representative in relation to the £10m shortfall in the budget and service standards for residents, the Portfolio Holder advised that he hoped that they would not be impacted but that there was a delicate balance.  One of the Council’s priorities was to put residents first and therefore improve services.

 

The representative of Unison questioned the impact on staffing levels and the potential programme for redundancies and restructures and was advised that there was currently no programme.  The Portfolio Holder advised that approximately 23% of the Council’s staff were agency which was costly.  His preference was to have permanent staff in posts which would encourage loyalty both ways.  In response to a question in relation to long term agency staff and whether they would be offered permanent jobs, the Forum was advised that this would be subject to a number of factors but jobs would be offered if appropriate.

 

The Leader of the Council advised that the Administration was considering the senior management structure in terms of the spans of control and reducing duplication with a view to making savings.  There were, in his view, too many layers at the top of the organisation.  He added that he was also keen to have an apprenticeship programme and that it had been disappointing to have returned funding allocated for the apprenticeship levy.

 

Further to the comments made by the Portfolio Holder and Leader of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.