Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed the Members and attendees, including representatives from Bristol Holdings and Goram Homes.

None

To note any declarations of interest from the 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.

No declarations were received.

Minutes of the OSMB meeting held 5^th December 2022 to follow.

The minutes were agreed as an accurate record.

Resolved; that the minutes of the meeting dated 5^th December 2022 be approved.

To note any announcements from the Chair

No business was declared. The Chair stated that the meeting would receive the Business Plans related to Goram Homes and Bristol Holding Ltd, but that the Bristol Waste plan would be considered at a future meeting on 27^th February 2023.

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to scrutiny@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on Wednesday 8^th February.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on Monday 13^th February.

Public Forum questions and statements can be viewed here.

David Taylor submitted a Public Forum question regarding Goram Homes. A written response was provided.

Suzanne Audrey submitted two Public Forum questions regarding the Q2 2022-23 Performance Report. Written responses were provided.

Jen Smith submitted a Public Forum statement regarding SEND and Bristol City Council’s use of language. This was noted by OSMB.

David Redgewell submitted a Public Forum statement regarding bus provision across Bristol in relation to the WECA Scrutiny minutes.   This was noted by OSMB.

Cllr Gollop submitted a Public Forum statement regarding concern over the Bristol Waste business plans, due for discussion at an OSMB meeting on 27 February 23.  This was noted by OSMB.

Resolved; That OSMB note the Public Forum.

Company Business Plans for 2023/24, to include

-          Goram Homes

-          Bristol Holding

Company Business Plans for Bristol Waste to be presented to OSMB at a future meeting.

The Shareholder Liaison Manager introduced the attendees from Goram Homes and Bristol Holding, and provided an introduction outlining that the business plans were being presented to Scrutiny as part of the process before submission to Cabinet for approval.

Goram Homes

The Managing Director, Chair of the Board of Directors, and Chief Financial Officer of Goram Homes delivered a presentation on the Goram Homes Business Plan 2022-23. The presentation can be viewed here and included objectives, context around the housing market, and an overview of the 2023 pipeline.

Members were invited to ask questions.

A Member asked about the sites that had been removed from the 2023 pipeline, particularly Blake House and Cameron Centre. The Managing Director responded that following discussion with Bristol City Council it had been agreed that the Bristol City Council Housing Delivery team would be best placed to take those projects forward to market so had been removed.

A Member noted the sustainable building techniques highlighted and queried the approach to the embedded carbon in house construction, which was on average 50 tonnes. The Managing Director agreed that the amount of embedded carbon in housing construction was likely to be the next challenge for the industry. Approaches that were being considered included use of timber, stone and other building materials. It was noted that embedded carbon was likely to become a greater priority closer to the 2030 target.

A Member noted that there was no specific figure included that demonstrated the number of completions per year but it was apparent that there had been no completions, and raised a concern that this was not made transparent. A request was made for greater clarity over the accounts, and assurance from the Finance team that these had been reviewed. The Managing Director noted that further detail could be provided in the exempt session. There had been no intention to deny the number of completions and it was made clear that the One Lockleaze project as the first project in the pipeline had not yet completed, taking longer than forecast. A financial comparison between the annual business plan was available in the exempt item.

The national economic situation and housing market had changed substantially since the production of the previous business plan so the submitted Business Plan for 2023/24 maintained a ‘pessimistic’ forecast for a prudent approach.

A concern over the delivery of the timeline of the pipeline was raised. The Managing Director provided assurance that they were confident in the forecasts as laid out, agreeing that in some cases vagaries existed but that a greater amount of time had been assigned in those cases in order to maintain the ‘pessimistic’ approach.

A Member was pleased to note the creation of an Audit Committee and asked whether the Skills Academy was connected to the Advanced Construction Skills Hub in South Bristol. The Managing Director noted the Skills Academy in Lockleaze would be at a distance from Hengrove which would make close working difficult in the delivery stage, but work had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

That under s.100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of schedule 12A of the Act.

The meeting moved in to closed session in order to discuss exempt information

The information discussed was deemed restricted by virtue of paragraph(s) 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Meeting to return to open session.

The Head of Insight, Performance and Intelligence presented the Q2 2022-23 Performance report. This was the second report to be produced in an amended format which contained the reports, metrics and updates from seven thematic performance clinics.

It was noted that a Member had submitted questions regarding the contents of the performance report prior to the meeting. It was confirmed that where applicable these would be addressed in due course by the Officers attached to the relevant performance clinics while the Head of Insight, Performance and Intelligence would provide responses to the questions related to the production of the report and data provided.

Key points within the Performance Report included:

-          The position of SEND and EHCPs had previously featured in the BCC Corporate Strategy but based on feedback from Members and Officers this had been moved to Children and Young People.

-          3 of the 7 themes were on track, with 67 of the 86 actions on track or better.

-          Only one action was identified as significantly behind (red); maximising transport funding streams. Further context to this was provided in the report. A further 16 actions were identified as behind schedule (amber).

-          Members were reminded that metrics were not necessarily linked to specific actions. 58% of the metrics were on track, an improvement on Q1.

The Head of Insight, Performance and Intelligence noted that a workshop with Scrutiny Members was planned to consider to support the drafting of a performance framework. The arrangements for this would be circulated once available. This would be an appropriate venue to escalate the performance metrics around planning to the DMT level, as raised by a Member.

In response to a question from a Member it was clarified that where ‘data not due’ was indicated in the report’ this was due to the data being made available annually at different points in the year; this data would be available for the Q3 and Q4 reports.

It was agreed that questions related to Service Areas would be directed to relevant officers for a written response.

In relation to a previously raised point a Member noted that the average amount of carbon emitted in the construction of a home is 50 tonnes and queried whether the figures for C02 emissions from the Council included the amount from construction. The Chief Executive stated that this would not be in scope 1 and 2 which were emissions set for the City, however it was felt that the emissions from construction were part of a conversation of wider decarbonisation which had begun internally but was not being measured.

ACTION: That written responses to performance questions related to service areas be provided.

The Mayors Forward Plan as published on 6 February 2023 was noted.

A Member noted that the large number of items discussed at the Budget Cabinet Meeting had made it difficult to cover all issues in an effective way, and suggested that future Budget meetings be divided in to two sessions, one for finance related items and one for all other items. The Chief Executive noted this suggestion.

The WECA Scrutiny minutes as published on 12 December 2022 were noted.

To note the work programme.

The Scrutiny Work Programme was noted. As discussed, a future OSMB meeting was expected to take place on 27^th February 2023 to discuss the Bristol Waste business plans. It was also noted that a Communities Scrutiny Commission had been rescheduled from February and was due to take place in March 2023.

It was agreed that a discussion of arrangements for the development of the 2023/24 Scrutiny Work Programme would be scheduled for the next OSMB Leads meeting.