Agenda and minutes

To receive details of any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Jo Trigg, Cllr Ruth Hopkinson, Cllr Johnny Kidney and Cllr Jonathon Seed.

The following substitutions had also taken place with Cllr Jacqui Lay attending the meeting in place of Cllr Jonathon Seed.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2025.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2025 were presented for consideration, and it was;

Resolved:

To approve and sign as a true and correct record of the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2025.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

There were no Chairman’s Announcements.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Thursday 6 February in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response, questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Monday 10 February. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no questions or statements submitted by members of the public.

Amendments will be taken in the order they are submitted and one at a time unless agreed otherwise. Although some of the amendments may be interdependent in that they relate to combined savings and/or growth, Overview and Scrutiny will want the opportunity to comment of each although with the ability to acknowledge their dependency if appropriate.

The running order of speakers on each will be:

Respective group leader/spokesman/individual to present the circulated amendment explaining the purpose, implications, intended outcome and link to the Business Plan;

·       The Leader of the Council and/or responsible Cabinet Member(s) to be given the opportunity to respond;

·       Corporate Leadership Team to comment (if appropriate);

·       Management Committee Members to ask questions of the proposer(s) and respondent(s) in order to gain evidence;

·       Clarification from statutory officers and other relevant directors (if necessary);

·       Contribution from any other Members (if invited);

·       Chairman to sum up and seek a consensus view of the Committee as appropriate.

Any consensus views of the Committee (and not of individual members) will form part of the minutes of the meeting for report to Council on 25 February 2025.

The procedure for consideration of amendments to the budget was detailed as set out in the agenda papers.

To consider amendments from any political group or individual Members on the initial draft of the executive proposed budget.

Please note a report from the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee meeting which took place on 28 January 2025 has been included as an appendix to the minutes.

Any amendments that may be received will be circulated as soon as they are available.

A budget proposal was agreed by Cabinet on 4 February 2025 for discussion at Full Council on 25 February 2025, following its consideration by the Committee at its meeting on 28 January 2025.

On 5 February 2025 proposed amendments to that budget were received from Cllr Jon Hubbard

The amendments were presented as detailed in the agenda supplement.

Amendment A – Free swimming for children and young people during school holidays

The proposal sought to introduce free swimming for children and young people during school holidays across Council run facilities within Wiltshire. This would cover all school holidays including half term breaks. The proposal would increase Council Tax by 0.115% in 2025/26 resulting in an impact of £1.288m over the MTFS period and would have a cumulative positive impact on the Council Tax income for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years.

Comments from statutory officers including the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer were set out in the agenda supplement with further clarifications set out in the appended Committee report.

Amendment B – Increased capacity in the Reablement service

The proposal sought a permanent increase in Wiltshire Reablement Services. It was proposed that this would deliver increased capacity to work with individuals to improve levels of independence and quality of life and reduce reliance of funded long-term care. The proposal would increase Council Tax by 0.375% in 2025/26 resulting in an impact of £4.201m over the MTFS period and would have a cumulative positive impact on the Council Tax income for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years.

Comments from statutory officers including the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer were set out in the agenda supplement with further clarifications set out in the appended Committee report.

The Committee discussed the proposed amendments as detailed fully in the report appended to these minutes, seeking details on what data had been used to calculate cost implications of the amendments, why the amendments had been proposed and the relation of the amendments to the Business Plan.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1. To thank Cllr Hubbard for submitting his budget proposals to the Committee and to note that they have been scrutinised.
2. To ask Full Council to take note of the comments of the Committee, which will be presented in a report.

To review the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget Setting 2025/26 including Dwelling Rent Setting 2025/26 and 30-Year Business Plan Review. This report was considered by Cabinet on 4 February 2025.

The Chairman noted that within the agenda pack was a report proposing the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan, Budget and associated housing funding decisions.

Leader of the Council, Richard Clewer introduced the report and noted the importance of council housing provision and that if the Council wasn’t to build it would need to find other ways to provide affordable housing. Reference was made to the challenges faced from inflation and government decisions and how it was important for Wiltshire to keep leaning into work taking place, for example the Leader had signed the Council up to a report being produced by Suffolk Council, which promoted council house building. Reference was made to the funding that was available to boost the programme and that the Council had a coherent long-term plan including retrofitting which would mean that the Council would not drift into areas of unaffordability like other councils.

James Barrah, Director for Assets, provided the Committee with a presentation on the HRA 30-year Business Plan, HRA Budget and Rent setting. The presentation covered, but was not limited to the following points:

• It was noted that last year’s report focused mainly on rent setting with inflation however this year’s report had a focus on the Business Plan with a priority to set a rent, revenue and capital budget for the coming year.
• Detail was provided in relation to assumptions and changes to the current Business Plan, which covered areas including rents, right to buy, management and maintenance costs, depreciation and the move from a repayment model to greater refinancing in earlier years.
• Detail was provided of the debt profile in comparison to the previous base in December 2023. With it noted that the level of debt and peak borrowing had increased however, reduced depreciation would mean that more revenue balances were available to support higher borrowing throughout the plan.
• An explanation of the repayment of debt over a 30-year period was provided, with it noted that the Council had a commitment to assessing how the financing could be reduced.
• Conclusions of the current Business Plan were outlined as well as next steps.

The following comments were received by Committee Members with clarity sought on where delivery would stop and whether there was an aspiration for over a thousand homes, to which it was noted that the plan would change in an effective and intelligence manner over time. It was also stated that 1,000 homes would be a challenging target given local site availability, the potential acquisition of additional sites which could require additional costs and grant funding. Clarity was also provided that council house building had started before the 1,000 target, with circa 200 homes build outside of the target with more either having been built or in the pipeline, therefore suggesting that positive progress was being made.

A discussion took place regarding the funding for housing associations and local government authorities with it noted that there had been some shifts in government to acknowledge local experiences however the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

To review the Quarterly report to Cabinet on the scorecard and the strategic risk summary. This report was considered by Cabinet on 4 February 2025.

The Chairman noted that within the agenda pack was a report providing a quarter three update on performance against the stated missions in the Council’s Business Plan 2023-24. A Strategic Risk Summary was also included. The report had been considered by Cabinet on 4 February.

Leader of the Council, Richard Clewer introduced the report with its importance stressed in order to understand whether the Council was meeting the strategic objectives set out in the Business Plan and spending money wisely. It was suggested that following the local elections it might be a good time to consider whether the data included within the report was right or whether improvements could be made, Reference was also made to the how Wiltshire Council was perceived to be doing well with performance and risk monitoring, however the sector as a whole still had improvements to be made.

The following comments were received by Committee Members with it questioned whether there was an upward trend related to Library and Leisure services, to which it was confirmed that there had been an upward trend for these services, with reference made to how 10 leisure centres had been insourced enabling the Council to operate in a commercial way alongside what had been mandated within the Business Plan. Praise was also placed on the staff working in Leisure Centres. Regarding Libraries, though there wasn’t a commercial aspect to this area, the Council was successfully innovating and broadening what Libraries offered in order to support the business plan with contributions towards adult care and children’s services which was ultimately increasing footfall.

A question was raised regarding the recycling of incorrect items and how this was impacting metrics as well as whether there was any plans to educate the public. Detail was provided from officers that a “Recycling – Let’s Sort It!” campaign had been launched in 2023 in order to educate residents as to what could be placed into bins as well as a “dos and don’ts” campaign in the run up to Christmas 2024. In addition, clarity was provided regarding the process of how the Council was attempting to prevent recycling from being contaminated with Hills Waste now tagging and recording bins depending on the level of contamination and potentially contacting homeowners directly to discuss issues. It was noted that for 2023/24 (e.g. last full year of data), if all the target materials within the sorting facility rejects had been recycled instead, the Council recycling rate would have improved by 1.9% (increasing from 43.7% to 45.6%); equating to 4,294 tonnes as data suggested that up to 56% of sorting facility rejects included target materials that could potentially have been recycled.

A discussion took place regarding potholes with it suggested that the system used by the Council aimed to create value for money with repairs able to be made within specified times and able to last until resurfacing was planned to take place. It was also clarified that the system used did not vary for different road classifications. Metrics  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

To confirm the date of the next meeting as 13 March 2025.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 13 March 2025.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.