Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) presenting capital expenditure and funding monitoring information for the first three quarters of the financial year.

Report of the Executive Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) providing capital budget monitoring information for the first three quarters of the 2016/17 financial year. 

RESOLVED:

(1)        That the Cabinet agrees to a reduction of £0.012M in the 2016/17 current budget for the capital programme bringing the total budget to £40.585M.

(2)        That the Cabinet agrees to the revised funding for the capital programme.

(3)       That the Prudential Indicators be noted.

Report of the Executive Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) presenting revenue budget monitoring information for the first three quarters of the financial year.

Report of the Executive Director (Resources, Environment and Cultural Services) presenting revenue budgetary control information for the first three quarters of the 2016/17 financial year. 

RESOLVED:

(1)         That the changes to the General Fund forecast outturn as at 31 December 2016 be agreed and included in the current budget, which in turn would then be used as the basis of comparison to the forecast outturn.

(2)         That the changes to the Housing Revenue Account forecast outturn bringing the current budget in year deficit to £3.547M which would be used as the basis of comparison to the forecast outturn be agreed.

(3)         That the position on debts and rechargeable works be noted.

Recommendation from the meeting of the Cabinet Housing and Planning Panel on 12 January 2017 - Local Plan – Annual Monitoring Report (Forward Plan Reference FP780)

The Cabinet Panel had considered the report of the Executive Director (Public Protection, Planning and Governance) submitting the Local Plan Annual Monitoring Report.

(1)        The Decision Taken

RESOLVED:

That the Annual Monitoring Report be approved for publication, as recommended by the Cabinet Housing and Planning Panel and that the Head of Planning be given delegated powers to agree any minor alterations to finalise the Report, following consultation with the Executive Member (Planning, Housing and Community).

(2)       Reasons for the Decision

The 2015/16 Annual Monitoring Report was the twelfth produced by the Council covering the period from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016.

It presented an overall picture of how the Borough and its people were performing, with a range of indicators including ones which very topically set out the amount of new development being undertaken.

Whilst the Council was required by Regulations to publish a Report.  It was also a good opportunity to flag up the successes of the Borough and what the Council was doing well.  Equally, it was an opportunity to identify what might need to be improved.

The Office for National Statistics estimated that the Borough’s population had also again risen significantly during the year to 119,000.

During the year 408 new homes were completed including 116 new affordable homes.  Whilst the number of new homes built was below the Council’s overall target which was now 498 homes per annum it was the highest for many years and showed how the housing market had recovered from the recession.

Progress on preparing the new Local Plan had enabled a significant number of new housing sites to be included in the housing supply and the Borough now had a 5.03 year housing land supply in line with the need set out in national policy.

The Borough’s employment floorspace decreased by a fairly substantial 10,600 sqm during the year, with a particularly large loss of office premises.  At least another 5.9 hectares of employment land were now expected to be lost as a result of office-to-residential conversions for which permitted development rights had now been made permanent by the Government.

The number of jobs in the Borough had again increased to 84,000 which had enabled the rate of Job Seekers Allowance claimants in the Borough to fall right back to its pre-recession levels.

(Note: There were no declarations of interest by a member(s) in respect of the matter decided).