Agenda item

Incidents

The Leader referred to the appalling events of the Manchester bombing, the attacks on London Bridge and surrounding area and at Finsbury mosque and then the Grenfell Tower fire, each of which had ended innocent lives, wrecked families and individuals and left affected communities in shock.  He advised that in respect of the terrorist attacks, the Chief Executive ensured that the Council took part in Kent wide strategic briefings led by the Police and was guided by them in reviewing the safety of events, the Council’s own service delivery and community issues within the Borough area.

Turning to the awful fire at Grenfell Tower, the Leader wanted to assure Members that the Director of Planning, Housing and Environmental Health had also ensured that the Council worked with partners across Kent, both in the social rented sector and also with private landlords.  He had advised there were no similar tower blocks to Grenfell within the Borough.  Whilst the Borough Council was not a housing stock-holding authority and had no direct responsibility in that regard, contact had been made with all Housing Association (HA) partners to ensure they were following due diligence in their role as ‘responsible person’ in ensuring that fire safety duties under the relevant regulations were fulfilled. The Leader was pleased to report that the feedback received from the Housing Associations thus far was that they were undertaking various reviews of their buildings and fire risk assessments and most were carrying out direct contact with their tenants.  Liaison with each HA would be maintained and practical assistance offered where appropriate and possible.

Members were also informed that the Council was working in liaison with Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS).  In particular, an exercise had been undertaken to identify all residential buildings in the Borough of four storeys and over to assist with the overall assessment of risk by KFRS and also by landlords.  Most of these buildings were in private ownership although there were some owned or managed by the Housing Associations.

The Council Private Sector Housing team was also working with KFRS to undertake joint visits where necessary as part of their high rise reassurance campaign.  Whilst the Council’s focus had been primarily on buildings in residential use, other key buildings had also featured in the consideration, such as West Kent College where there was contact with the College’s property department.  The next task was to identify any use of insulated cladding systems on those buildings although the Leader pointed out that it was not entirely straight forward because the Borough Council may not have been the Building Control Authority for all the buildings under consideration.  Members were advised that staff were fielding multiple requests for information from a number of agencies which was keeping the Building Control team busy.

In addition the Council was reviewing its own fire risk measures and would formally review the strategic fire risk assessments in buildings which it occupied or those which were used by partners, such as the Leisure Trust, once further findings from the Grenfell enquiry were available.  The Leader indicated that this might lead to some changes to practice and in some cases some small works.  If anything more significant emerged it would be considered very carefully for attention.

Elections

Since the last full Council, the Kent County Council elections took place and then there was the General Election.  The Leader commented on the challenge that both had presented to staff across the whole Borough Council and he thanked the Chief Executive and the staff for the smooth running of both elections.

Savings and Transformation Strategy

The Leader referred to the recognition that there was no one simple solution to addressing the very significant financial challenges faced by the Council. The Savings and Transformation Strategy, adopted by the full Council, provided a structure, a clear focus and a direction in addressing the significant challenges ahead.  Members were aware that there was an identified target to deliver savings and/or generate new income streams within a relatively short timetable.  When the budget was  set by the Council in February 2017 the projected funding gap was £1.6M and the initial savings target set at £650,000 to be achieved and delivered by 1 April 2018.   

The Finance, Innovation and Property Advisory Board had recently learnt that progress continued to be made towards meeting the savings target for this year, for example by  the renegotiation of the services fee to Tonbridge and Malling Leisure Trust.  However, the Leader highlighted the stark reality that there was still some way to go in identifying further savings that would contribute to meeting this year’s target– let alone the remainder of the funding gap of £950,000.  He said that the risk was that failure to identify and deliver those savings would put the Council on the edge of a financial precipice; somewhere it had never been and would not wish to go.

The Leader stated that it was important to recognise that the funding gap and thus the savings targets now faced were despite the fact that the Council had delivered over £3M in savings over the last four to five years.  That in itself was an enormous achievement by for example:  the creation of the Leisure Trust; review of the summer playscheme; the introduction of Special Expenses and the associated cessation of grants to parish councils; plus a wide scale reduction in the Council’s establishments.   However, it was not possible to stop there.  The Leader was sure that Members did not need reminding that the Council was now totally reliant on council tax, its share of business rates, new homes bonus, fees and charges and investment income for delivering local services.

The future of funding for Local Government Services was unclear, the Council’s financial arrangements with Government for the next three year were predicated on the future move to the full business rates retention scheme and the absence of any commitment to this in the recent Queen’s Speech had created a void of uncertainty.