There were no announcements from the Chairman or Head of Paid Service.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are required to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

No declarations of interest were received.

To confirm the Record of Decisions made at the meeting of the Cabinet held on 17 January 2017.

The Record of Decisions made by the Cabinet on 17 January 2017, copies of which had been previously circulated were confirmed by Cabinet.

To receive items raised by members of scrutiny which have been submitted to the Leader (copied to Chief Executive and Democratic Services Officer) by 4.30 pm on Friday 10 February 2017.

The Chairman had not been formally notified of any items raised by Scrutiny.

(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 44/2017

(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 44/2017 from the Director for Resources was received.

Mr Mathias, Leader of the Council, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to recommend to Council the final budget for 2017/18 and the Medium Term Financial Plan.

Mr Mathias confirmed that this report had been looked at in draft format by Cabinet on 10 January 2017, it had also been presented to all Scrutiny Panels at joint meetings held on 18 January 2017as well as being the subject of public consultation.  A presentation had also been delivered to the Parish Council Forum and the Rutland Annual Business Summit.  Scrutiny had asked for areas of clarification, but had not put forward any changes.  Questions had also been asked by members of the public and the main theme coming forward from the public was that there is an understanding of the current financial position, but the perception is that Rutland County Council is not low cost. It had been confirmed that Rutland was, however, the third lowest cost Authority out of all Unitary Authorities in the United Kingdom and this should be publicised.

During discussion the following points were raised:

       i.          Members of the public did not see Rutland as low cost based on consultation feedback. Rutland is low cost per head of population across the services it provides and it was acknowledged that more could be done to publicise this.  It was also noted that Rutland does have high Council Tax and low levels of funding from Government.  Members thought it would be useful if all of these factors could be presented in a way to get across some key messages;

      ii.          The Leader explained that some changes had been made to the budget and these were detailed in Appendix 11 of Report 44/2017– most were the result of additional funding being received;;

    iii.          The Cabinet recommendation would be to raise Council Tax by 3.99%, including a 2% precept for Adult Social Care rather than the 3% allowed. Whilst the Council is experiencing cost pressures in adult social care, the 2% was deemed sufficient to cover the associated costs.  Members acknowledged that it was important not to raise a precept for any more than would be necessary to meet demand and at present there was no evidence of a surge in demand for Adult Social Care.  Should an increased in demand occur in year, reserves could be used to supplement the budget for Adult Social Care;

    iv.          It was noted that those working in Adult Social Care are doing well to manage demand and keep costs low, whilst maintaining high standards.  In particular,  delays in hospital discharges had been significantly reduced, 91% of people receiving reablement care after being discharged from hospital were staying at home and not being re-admitted; and less people were going in to permanent residential care;

     v.          The actual impact of the Council Tax increase on a Band D property would be just under £60 but this would clearly still have an impact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 581.

(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 41/2017

(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 41/2017 from the Director for Resources was received.

The Leader of the Council, Mr Mathias, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to sets out the expected treasury operations for 2017/18 to 2019/20 in accordance with the legislative requirements detailed in the report.

DECISION

Cabinet RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that it approve the Treasury Management Strategy in Appendix 1 (Report No. 41/2017), including the Investment Strategy, Borrowing strategy, Minimum Revenue Provision statement and Capital Expenditure Prudential indicators.

Reason for the Decision

The Council is required to approve a Treasury Management Strategy.

The Investment interest rates remain constantly low in the short term and in order to maximise the returns available, various changes have been recommended.

The Council is not planning to take on new borrowing or repay existing borrowing.

Cabinet is recommended to determine whether the public and press be excluded from the meeting in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and in accordance with the Access to Information provisions of Procedure Rule 239, as the following item of business is likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Paragraph 2:  Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Cabinet is recommended to determine whether the public and press be excluded from the meeting in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and in accordance with the Access to Information provisions of Procedure Rule 239, as the following item of business is likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Paragraph 2:  Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Cabinet AGREED to remain in public session unless detailed discussion was held on the exempt information at which point the meeting would move into exempt session.

Report No. 14/2017

Report No. 14/2017 from the Director for Resources was received.

The Leader of the Council, Mr Mathias, introduced the report, the purpose of which was to seek approval to write off debts, over the value of £2,500, where officers believe that there is little or no prospect of recovering them.

During discussion the following points were raised:

      i.        Write-off on both Council Tax and Business rates was the lowest it had been for some years, which was a very positive position;

    ii.        New Management system for Revenue and Benefits would reduce the occurrences of overpayment of housing benefit; and

   iii.        The Portfolio Holder for Safeguarding Children and Young People, Mr Foster, requested that the Director for People and the Director for Resources look to review the circumstances of a family that found themselves in prolonged and severe financial difficulty to see if any resolution and/or assistance could be provided.

DECISION

Cabinet:

1)    NOTED the action taken by the Resources Directorate to recover outstanding debts; and

2)    APPROVED the write off of the debts shown in Exempt Appendix A (Report No. 14/2017).

Reason for the Decisions

There is no prospect of collecting the debts detailed in Appendix A; it is therefore prudent to write off the debts.

To receive items of urgent business which have previously been notified to the person presiding.

No items of urgent business had previously been notified to the Chairman.