Nil items

Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, please see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are reminded to declare the nature of the interest and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it’s the Members’ responsibility to declare any interests form and to update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of your interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services

1. Councillor Marc Francis due to his wife Councillor Rachel Blake being the Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing; and
2. Councillor Bex White due to her father being resident in a Care Home within Tower Hamlets.

To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).

Nil Items

The Committee is asked to review of the Changes to the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)

The Committee received and commented on the review of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy the Committee (Attached as an appendix to these minutes) has been working on an appraisal of the budget proposals from the from the Executive that were published with the papers for the Committees meeting on the 25^{th of} January 2021. The main points of the discussion on the review of the changes to the MTFS may be summarised as follows:

The Committee:

v  Noted that this meeting had been convened considering the new elements for the Council’s Budget Capital Programme, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and other changes to proposed savings that were considered at the Cabinet meeting on 27^th January 2021.

v  Commented that more information was needed regarding any overspends in the HRA projects that were referenced to in the papers published as part of the Cabinet agenda for the 27th of January 2021.

v  Noted that in the report to Cabinet on 27^th January 2021 reference had been made about a report by Savills on the borrowing and investment capacity within the HRA, and Members wanted to know when a copy of that report will be circulated as they wished to know if the additional 1,000 new homes could be delivered e.g. to have confirmation which projects would be carried out by which Housing Company.

v  Expressed concerns around the asset transfer of land or buildings which the Authority owns and what that would mean if the Council were to look at different vehicles for delivering this programme and the sustainability implications of such different approaches.

v  Noted that whilst this is a really challenging budget the report identifies what needs to happen to make this a better budget and that decisions made are necessary.

v  Questioned why cutting services (£13.5M savings proposals for 2021-22) to allow for topping up of reserves (e.g. £7M New Homes Bonus) when reserves are sufficient.

v  Noted proposal to: Provide further poverty relief by making up to £100K available (one-off for 2021-22) to foodbanks who are under financial pressures in meeting community needs; and expand the Resident Support Grant to £150K (one-off for 2021-22) for vulnerable people to access – funded from additional £7million New Homes Bonus which is earmarked for reserves.

v  Commented that after a year in which local authority savings plans have been squeezed and income reduced, funding gaps in many areas for councils are considerable.

v  Commented that there is no real certainty over when income streams will start to pick up again and that demand for services will continue to be high with many households hit with reduced income or even unemployment over the past year.

v  Commented that whilst the Government seems to be anticipating councils to put up taxes and the proposal to Council tax recommends an increase of 4.99% the Local government Chronicle reported last week that looking at a percentage of councils across England that 47% have chosen not to impose the maximum increase.  Therefore,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.1

The Committee is asked to review the 2021-2022 Budget Proposals

As a result of a full and wide-ranging discussion on the appraisal of the budget proposals.

The Chair Moved and it was: -

RESOLVED to:

1.    Thank all those attendees for their contributions to the discussions on the changes to the MTFS; and

2.    Agreed the changes to the review as detailed in the attach Budget Scrutiny and Budget Pre-decision Scrutiny Questions and responses.

To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

Nil items

As the agenda circulated contained no exempt/ confidential reports and

there was therefore no requirement to exclude the press and public to allow

for its consideration.

To consider any other exempt/ confidential business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

Nil items