Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Chris Kane and Lisa Powell.

To note any urgent items of business which the Chairman has consented to being considered under the provisions of Section 100(B) 4(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business to be considered at the meeting.

Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:

a)  any business on the agenda

b)  any urgent additional items to be considered

c)  any matters arising out of those items

and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.

There were no declarations made at the meeting.

To consider the minutes of the Finance and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 7^th May 2025.

Moved by Councillor Steve Fritchley and seconded by Councillor Rowan Clarke

RESOLVED that the minutes of a meeting of the Finance and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 7^th May 2025 be approved as a true and correct record.

Moved by Councillor David Bennett and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor

RESOLVED that the minutes of a meeting of the Finance and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 24^th July 2025 be approved as a true and correct record.

(Members should contact the officer whose name appears on the List

of Key Decisions for any further information. NB: If Members wish to

discuss an exempt report under this item, the meeting will need to

move into exempt business and exclude the public in accordance with

the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 and Local

Government Act 1972, Part 1, Schedule 12a for that part of the

meeting only).

Committee considered the updated List of Key Decisions and Items to be Considered in Private in the document provided at the meeting.

Moved by Councillor David Bennett and seconded by Councillor Duncan Mcgregor

RESOLVED that the List of Key Decisions and Items to be considered in the Private document be noted.

The Deputy Section 151 Officer presented the report to the Committee.

The main sources of income for the Council’s General Fund (GF) were Business Rates, Council Tax, a small number of government grants, and service-related income.  The main source of income for the Council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was dwelling rent, often referred to as ‘housing rents’.

Examples of types of income included housing benefit overpayment, trade refuse, industrial unit rent, garage site rent, wardens service and alarms, and leisure hire of facilities.

This  income was reported in two amounts with housing benefit overpayments identified separately from the rest.

Table 1 of the report detailed the sources of income for the Council at 31^st March for the two financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25 for comparison:

The figures in Table 1 showed an increase in income billed in the year for most sources.  The reduction in income from housing benefit overpayments was good news – less claimants had received too much benefit, resulting in the Council having less income to reclaim.

The decrease in the sundry debtor’s income was almost certainly due to the Dragonfly Companies’ invoices raised being less in 2024/25 now that the arrangements with both companies were established.

Debt management was how the Council managed its arrears and debtors.  Table 2 of the report detailed the level of arrears for the Council at 31^st March for the two financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25:

The figures in Table 2 showed arrears had increased in 2024/25 for National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR), Council Tax and sundry debtors.  Individuals and businesses were still struggling to pay, depending on their individual circumstances – payment plans had been agreed to help debtors not get into arrears if possible.

The current levels of arrears for NNDR and Council Tax were the highest they had been in recent years, and sundry debtor arrears fluctuated depending on if large invoices were raised close to the 31^st of March of the financial year but not paid until the April of the following financial year.

For the last 4 years when the impairment allowance levels had been assessed at year’s end, the Council had increased them by over £3m in total (as a result of the financial effect of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic (the ‘Pandemic’) and Cost of Living Crisis  ...  view the full minutes text for item FCO8-25/26

The Deputy Section 151 Officer presented the report to the Committee.  A Microsoft PowerPoint was also shown to the Committee that provided additional details.

It was stated the report had been provided to the previous inquorate meeting and had been submitted and approved by Executive on 28^th July 2025.

The report detailed the 2024/25 outturn position with regard to the General Fund (GF), the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), the Capital Programme (CP), the Treasury Management (TM) activities, and the earmarked reserves position.

Summarised at the attached Appendix 1 was the GF outturn position – this showed the Current Budget compared to the final Outturn position.  Attached at Appendix 2 were the variances at service level.

The main variances against the current budget were shown in Table 1 of the report:

The use of earmarked reserves in 2024/25 was £2.119m.  This reflected the expenditure incurred on projects at 31^st March 2025, which had approval to use earmarked reserves.

At the end of the financial year, it had been necessary to agree transfers into reserves in preparation for future expenditure commitments, some from income received 2024/25.

Transfers to reserves totalled £5.773m – £1.575m higher than originally forecast (reflecting the outturn in Table 1).  These consisted of:

• £0.200m contribution to the IT Reserve to fund future expenditure requirements;
• £0.200m contribution to the Legal Costs Reserve in preparation to fund future specialist legal advice, on matters such as the APSE case or planning  applications;
• £0.100m contribution to the 3G Pitch Carpet Replacement Reserve, as a requirement of the grant conditions from an external funder;
• £0.350m contribution to the Building, Repair and Renewal Reserve to fund future unexpected works on the Council’s buildings, for repairs such as at Pleasley Vale Business Park or security such as the post room changes – this was included within the General Reserve;
• £0.300m transfer to the Vehicle Replacement Reserve to finance new vehicles instead of borrowing and incurring interest costs;
• £0.170m transfer to the National Non-Domestic Rates Growth Protection Reserve to mitigate  against future changes to the funding of the Council and help balance the final year of the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP);
• £0.200m contribution to the General Reserve in anticipation of any Local Government Reorganisation costs incurred by the Council; and,
• £0.055m transfer to the Transformation Reserve as the remainder of the in-year surplus.

Attached at Appendix 7 was a table showing the Council’s earmarked reserves position for both the GF and HRA.  After the transfers to reserves  ...  view the full minutes text for item FCO9-25/26

The Deputy Section 151 Officer presented the report to the Committee on the financial position of the Council following Quarter 1 2025/26’s budget monitoring exercise for the General Fund (GF), the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), Capital Programme (CP) and Treasury Management (TM) activity.

The GF Revenue Account summary was attached at Appendix 1.  The original budget for 2025/26 showed a contribution from the National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) Growth Protection Reserve of £0.049m, a deficit in effect.  The current budget showed this to be a transfer to the reserve after adjustments had been made to the business rates figures for the actual 2025/26 NNDR1 return, and the estimated business rates surplus of £2.454m.

After the Council Tax increase, and after other small movements were included, the current budget overall showed a surplus of £0.139m.  As savings were identified and secured, they were moved into the relevant cost centres within the main GF Directorates.  Details of the net cost of each cost centre within the Directorates Attached was attached at Appendix 2.

Table 1 of the report showed the latest position of all years in the current Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP):

The Council had made the strategy to save extra income earnt in years when more than estimated was received (to use these savings in future years’ when income was reduced).

Once work that began in August 2025 on the revised budgets had been completed, the revised position would be presented to Committee in late 2025.  The work on the MTFP update and the new year would begin in Quarter 3 2025/26 and would be presented to Members January 2026.

The estimate of the reserve position was as follows:

*This related to 2 live claims and leaves an estimated balance of £848,185.

The HRA summary for Quarter 1 2025/26 was attached at Appendix 3.

Details of the net cost of each cost centre within the HRA and some details for the larger variances was attached at Appendix 4.

The CP summary for Quarter 1 2025/26 was attached at Appendix 5.

The undertaken activity of the TM undertaken during Quarter 1 2025/26 was attached at Appendix 6.

A Member requested the work by Dragonfly Development Ltd., the profits it had generated, and the £0.300m profit brought in by Leisure Services be noted.

A Member requested the work by Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Ltd. and the income lost from  ...  view the full minutes text for item FCO10-25/26

The Corporate Policy and Programme Officer presented the report to the Committee.

For Quarter 1 2025/26, out of the 33 targets:

·       25 (76%) targets were on track;

·       1 (3%) extended;

·       3 (9%) not on track;

·       3 (9%) achieved; and

·       1 (3%) Quarter 1 2025/26 Update had yet to be received.

Out of the 58 key performance indicators:

·       37 (64%) indicators had a positive outturn;

·       10 (17%) indicators had a negative outturn;

·       7 (12%) indicators were within target; and,

·       4 ( 7%) were to be withdrawn / were no longer valid.

The Performance Summary for the Council’s Customers was attached at Appendix 1.

The Committee was informed for CUS.05, the March 2025 target date was extended to March 2028 to match other existing target dates.

CSP.08 and CSP.09 had been agreed by Committee in April 2025 to remove from the data – they had been retained in the report to confirm this.

The average wait time for calls to be answered not exceeding 30 seconds was not met for Quarter 1 2025/26 (35 seconds).  The Chair noted this had been an improvement on Quarter 1 2024/25 (43 seconds) – improvements were being made.

Stage 2 Complaints being answered within 20 working days was not met for Quarter 1 2025/26, with 2 Complaints received in June 2025 having little to no time to handle before the quarter had ended.  A Member noted that while these 2 Complaints could have been removed from the figures, they remained accurate and the situation easy to explain.

Sundry Debtors arrears collected (quarterly) performed consistently off target.  The Deputy Section 151 Officer reiterated from the previous items on the agenda that the Council continued to pursue all Council Tax and Business Rates arrears.  It was also important to move as many customers as possible onto payments by Direct Debit top prevent forgotten / missed payments.

To a question on days of sickness per full-time employee not meeting set targets, and if any available details on long-term sickness could be provided, it was recommended Members review the agendas and minutes of the Safety Committee where such information was reported to.

The Head of Business growth left the meeting at 10:55 hours.

Current and former tenants’ arrears as a percentage of rent due in the financial year were not met for Quarter 1 2025/26.

The Chair noted, for the Dragonfly Companies’ key performance indicators, these targets had been negatively affected by external contractor performance, not the Companies.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor David Bennett

RESOLVED that the quarterly outturns against the Council Plan 2024-2028 targets be noted.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the Work Programme 2025/26 to the Committee, which was attached at Appendix 1.

It was noted the 2 items for the 24^th July 2025 meeting were crossed out due to those items being presented at the meeting.

The Chief Executive would be contacted on, if possible, providing an update on the implications of Local Government Reorganisation on the District to the Committee’s meeting in November 2025.

Moved by Councillor Sally Renshaw and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor

RESOLVED that Members review this report and the Programme attached at Appendix 1 for approval and amendment as required.  All Members are advised to contact the Scrutiny Officer should they have any queries regarding future meetings.