Agenda and decisions

Members of the public intending to attend the meeting are asked to please note that, in the interests of health, safety and security, bags maybe searched on entry to the building.  Everyone attending this meeting is also asked please to behave with due courtesy and to conduct themselves in a reasonable way.

Please note: if the alarm sounds during the meeting, everyone should please exit the building via the way they came in, via the main entrance lobby area, and then the front ramp. Please then assemble on the paved area in front of the building on College Green by the flag poles.

If the front entrance cannot be used, alternative exits are available via staircases 2 and 3 to the left and right of the Conference Hall. These exit to the rear of the building. The lifts are not to be used. Then please make your way to the assembly point at the front of the building.  Please do not return to the building until instructed to do so by the fire warden(s).

Up to one hour is allowed for this item

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum. Petitions, statements and questions received by the deadlines below will be taken at the start of the agenda item to which they relate to.

Petitions and statements (must be about matters on the agenda):

• Members of the public and members of the council, provided they give notice in writing or by e-mail (and include their name, address, and ‘details of the wording of the petition, and, in the case of a statement, a copy of the submission) by no later than 12 noon on the working day before the meeting, may present a petition or submit a statement to the Cabinet.

• One statement per member of the public and one statement per member of council shall be admissible.

• A maximum of one minute shall be allowed to present each petition and statement.

• The deadline for receipt of petitions and statements for the 21 January 2020 Cabinet is 12 noon on Monday 20 January. These should be sent, in writing or by e-mail to: Democratic Services, City Hall, College Green,Bristol, BS1 5TR

e-mail: democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk

Questions (must be about matters on the agenda):

• A question may be asked by a member of the public or a member of Council, provided they give notice in writing or by e-mail (and include their name and address) no later than 3 clear working days before the day of the meeting.

• Questions must identify the member of the Cabinet to whom they are put.

• A maximum of 2 written questions per person can be asked. At the meeting, a maximum of 2 supplementary questions may be asked. A supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or reply.

• Replies to questions will be given verbally at the meeting. If a reply cannot be given at the meeting (including due to lack of time) or if written confirmation of the verbal reply is requested by the questioner, a written reply will be provided within 10 working days of the meeting.

• The deadline for receipt of questions for the 21 January 2020 Cabinet is 5.00 pm on Wednesday 15 January. These should be sent, in writing or by e-mail to: Democratic Services, City Hall, College Green, Bristol BS1 5TR.

Democratic Services e-mail: democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk

When submitting a question or statement please indicate whether you are planning to attend the meeting to present your statement or receive a verbal reply to your question

To note any declarations of interest from the Mayor and Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

(subject to a maximum of three items)

To note any announcements from the Chair

1. Cabinet approved the transfer of the budget for staff and resources of £1.46m (subject to formal consultation with affected staff) to WECA, and delegated responsibility for related processes (including TUPE, novation of contracts and implementation of an operating agreement that will govern how decisions are made between authorities after the transfer is completed) to the Executive Director for Growth and Regeneration; in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance and the Executive Director for Resources.

2. Cabinet noted that £8.17m is already part of the existing WECA Levy, of which £0.045m relates to potential staffing costs arising as a result of the transfer to WECA. This amount will be subject to inflationary increases of 2% annually, and is subject to annual cost reviews by the UAs

1. Cabinet approved changes to Capital programme budget since P7 (additional £9.5m added in total, please see details listed under Appendix B).

2. Cabinet approved further budget alignment of the Capital Programme to the actual forecast, and re-profile the reported underspend of £22m at P8 from 2019/20 to later years.

3. Cabinet approved the transfer of £0.38m one-off funding from the Mayors savings consultation reserve to the Community budget within Commercialisation and Citizens to offset the impact of savings scheme FP01- Review and reduce spend on service provided by external partners in 2019/20.

4. Cabinet approved the creation of a specific reserve of £2m for Key Line of Business and System / Project Development from the existing Business Transformation reserve detailed under Section 4 Appendix A, with authority delegated to the Deputy Mayor, Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance and Performance in consultation with the Director of Finance for the allocation of the funds below key decision values to the specific propositions.

5. Cabinet noted a risk of overspend on General fund services of £6.5m for 19/20 representing 1.7% of the approved budget (Appendix A), supplementary estimates requests will be expected to balance the 2019/20 in-year position.

6. Cabinet noted the full mitigation of the 2019/20 £0.38m Third Party budget savings impacting on the Community budget within Commercialisation and Citizens will be proposed in the annual 2020/21 budget.

7. Cabinet noted forecast £2.1m underspend position with regard to the Housing Revenue Account and any underspend at year-end will be carried forward and built into the future programme.

8. Cabinet noted a forecasted £1.0m overspend for the Dedicated Schools Grant against approved budget.

9. Cabinet noted a risk of overspend of £0.1m for Public health, which if materialises will be funded from a drawdown from the PH reserve.

10. Cabinet noted the Sundry Debt position of £20.5m over 90 days as at Period 8, slightly reduced from £20.9m since P7. Individual directorate detail included under Appendix A1-6.

Cabinet noted:

a)     The report from the Budget Scrutiny will follow after the meeting on 24 January and 6 February

b)     The categorisation of earmarked reserves and provisions set out in Section 16.

c)      The advice given by the Chief Finance Officer with respect to the robustness of the budget estimates and the adequacy of the Council’s reserves as set out in Section 15.

d)     The results of consultation as set out in Section 17 and detailed in Appendix 4.

Cabinet agreed to recommend to Full Council:

e)     An overall 3.99% increase in the Council’s element of council tax for 2020/21 with 2% as a precept for Social Care and a 1.99% general increase.

f)      The General Fund revenue budget for 2020/21, as summarised in Section 6, the detailed budget summary by Directorate as outlined in Appendix 1.

g)     The Capital Programme as set out in Appendix 2.

h)     The Treasury Management Strategy, including the Prudential Indicators measuring affordability, capital spending, external debt and treasury management, as set out in Appendix 4.

i)       That they note the results of consultation as detailed in Appendix 6.

Delegation of authority

j)       Cabinet delegated authority to the Director, Finance after consultation with the Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Finance, Governance & Performance and the Mayor, to make any necessary adjustments following receipt of the final settlement information, West of England Combined Authority budget or other technical adjustments to the figures to be submitted to Full Council on 25th February 2020.

Cabinet Recommended to Full Council for approval:

1. Approve the 2020/21 HRA budget for revenue which includes the following:

·       No increase in housing rents for 2020/21

·       Increase of 2.7% (CPI +1%) with effect from April 2020 for garage rents

·       £119.1m revenue expenditure, of which £33.0m is detailed in Appendix A2, the Housing Investment Programme (HIP)

·       £33.0m capital expenditure on existing stock as per the HIP

·       £40.8m on the Development Programme as per Appendices A3 and A4

·       £5.0m on improvements to Sandy Park site subject to Business Case being brought back to Cabinet for approval

·       £0.9m for other capital projects including the ICT project.

2. Authorise the Director of Housing and Landlord Services, in consultation with the Councillor for Housing and Councillor for Finance, Performance and Governance, to approve the use of flexibility in the rent standard with effect from April 2020, for new tenants only for:

·       up to 5% for housing

·       up to 10% for supported housing

3. Authorise the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration to set service charge budgets in line with the anticipated cost of delivery. The main inflationary increase will be staff salary costs, pay award pending.

1. Cabinet authorised the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing, section 151 officer and the monitoring officer to take all steps necessary to procure and award contracts during 2020/21 to deliver both the capital and revenue investment plans, plus the acquisition plans as set out in detail in Appendices A2 and A3 notwithstanding that individual contracts may exceed the key decision threshold.

2. Cabinet noted that the development schemes as per Appendix A4 will be brought back to Cabinet during the year for approval when detailed spending plans are available.

3. Cabinet approved the movement of previously earmarked HRA reserves into one general HRA reserve as detailed in Appendix A1.

Equalities Impact Assessment - to follow

Cabinet Approved:

1.         Schools Block (detail in Appendix A.3)

a.         the Schools Block budget be set at £272.492m for 2020/21, as per Table 1 above, after £1.3m of the overall Schools Block DSG has been transferred to the High Needs Block subject to Schools Forum agreement;

b.         the basis for distributing the funding to mainstream schools be the basis as preferred by Schools Forum, from the options set out in the Schools Block report to Schools Forum (Appendix A.3)

c.         the Growth Fund for established schools expanding in September 2020 be set at £2.0m ( a component of the total Schools Block budget);

2.         Central School Services Block (detail in Appendix A.2)

a.         Subject to Schools Forum agreement, the Central School Services Block budget is set at £2.386m for 2020/2021, after £0.333m is transferred to the High Needs Block.

3.         High Needs Block (detail in Appendix A2)

a.         The High Needs Block budget be set at £62.376m  for 2020/2021 as per Appendix A2, after receiving transfers of £1.702m from other blocks;

b.         Members noted that this level of budget is estimated to lead to a cumulative deficit in the High Needs Block in the region of £3.3m by the end of March 2021.

4.         Early Years Block (detail in Appendix A2)

a.         the Early Years Block budget be set at £36.936m for 2020/2021), noting that spend and DSG income will vary up or down, according to participation levels in each of the three terms;

b.         Funding for Early Years should be distributed in line with the arrangements explained in report to Schools Forum (Appendix A2)

Cabinet Noted:

5.         Overall position

a.         Members noted that school balances are expected to be in the region of £4.9m at the end of 2019/2020, with 12 of 70 maintained schools in deficit, and the DSG position is currently expected to overspend by £1.4m for 2019/2020

1. Cabinet approved the recommendations for the allocation of Imagination grant funding for 2020-22 to the organisations as specified in Appendix A1.

2. Cabinet authorised the Executive Director Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member Deputy Mayor – Finance, Governance and Performance to award the funding as approved.

1.     Cabinet approved the procurement of a suitable organisation as a long-term strategic partner providing the breadth of services detailed in Appendix A.

2.     Cabinet adopted a governance model in respect of the operation of the proposed partnership in accordance with the structure set out in Appendix A.

3.     Cabinet approved the use of existing G&R resource as necessary to; set up the partnership, carryout a full ‘baseline assessment’ and execute risk focussed consultant advisory activities necessary to deliver:

a. Project / Strategy Initiation; Outline Business Case preparation and Approvals;

b. Best-in class Programme Planning; Value led Procurement and Programme Execution (e.g. Monitoring/Control and Project Closure);

c. All sub-advisor / contractor professional services necessary to deliver the SP Service;

d. Take all actions necessary to implement a robust training process in order to enhance the professional skills necessary to enable Council colleagues to fully benefit from, and effectively plug-in to, the strategic partnering initiative opportunity.

4. Cabinet authorised the Executive Director of Growth and Regeneration (in consultation with the Deputy Mayor with responsibility for Finance, Governance and Performance and the Director Finance) to take all necessary steps to procure the Strategic Partner and conclude the appropriate agreements.

Cabinet approved the procurement of replacement Storage Area Network server and a 5 year support and maintenance contract at a cost of £1.3m and authorised the Director – Digital Transformation in consultation with the Deputy Mayor – Finance, Governance and Performance to take all steps necessary to procure and award the contract(s).

1.     Cabinet approved the procurement of a compliant IT Hardware and Consumables Contract for a period of 2 years plus 1 year extension at a cost of up to £750k.

2.     Cabinet authorised the Director – Digital Transformation in consultation with the Deputy Mayor – Finance, Governance & Performance to take all steps necessary to procure and award the contract.

1.     Cabinet approved the variation to the existing contract to 21CBS to conclude the remaining works for Phase 1 estimated a cost of £750,000 (which includes a contingency); and,

2.     Cabinet delegated authority to the Executive Director of Resources, (in consultation with the Deputy Mayor with responsibility for finance, governance and performance), to take all necessary steps to appoint 21CBS to complete the remaining works to rebuild the SBSC.

1.     Cabinet approved the 2020/2021 Business Plan of Bristol Holding Limited (company number 9302408).

2.     Cabinet approved the 2020/2021 Business Plan of the Bristol Waste Company Limited (company number 09472624).

3.     Cabinet approved the 2019/2020 – 2024/2025 rolling Business Plan of the Bristol Energy Limited (company number 09135084).

4.     Cabinet noted that, pursuant to the Bristol Energy Business Plan approved in April 2019 for the period 2019/20-2023/2024, the following approvals remain in place in respect of the revised Business plan period (2020/2021 2024/2025):

a) a cash funding envelope of £37.7m, to support the core energy supply Business (this total cash funding includes any funding provided to BE to date); and

b) a limit of £17.6m on the parent guarantees and collateral support.

5.     Cabinet approved the 2019/2020 – 2024/2025 rolling Business Plan of Goram Homes Limited (company number 11597204).

Report to follow

1.     Cabinet approved the retender of the Run Bristol contract for the period 2021 – 2026.

2.     Cabinet authorised the Executive Director for Growth and Regeneration in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Communities to procure and award the contract.

1.     Cabinet noted the outcome of the consultation process.

2.     Cabinet approved the adoption of the Sports and Physical Activity Strategy (2020-2025) and authorised the Executive Director People in consultation with the Mayor to implement the strategy.

Cabinet noted the report and measures underway to improve performance.

Cabinet noted the report and progress on embedding Risk Management arrangements within the Council.