Agenda item

That the contents of the attached report and appendices be noted and the Council’s service and financial performance for this period be continually monitored and challenged.

The Service Director – Finance/Section 151 Officer presented the financial aspect of the report which provided figures for  the fourth quarter of 2025/26.

The Council ended 2025/26 an a stable financial position, achieving £115,000 revenue surplus against a £19.7m balanced budget. Strong planning income, investment interest and reduced borrowing costs had helped to offset income pressures in leisure, parking and bereavement services.

Capital investment had remained a major focus, with over £27m spent on regeneration, town deals and community projects.  Whilst capital expenditure was below the planned £36m most of the variance reflected projects being reprofiled into 2026/27.

The Audit and Standards Committee would be presented with the Council’s draft Statement of Accounts at its next meeting on 29 June for review and publication approval.

Overall, sound financial management was demonstrated and there had been compliance with all statutory deadlines and there was continued momentum on key regeneration priorities.

The Service Director  - Strategy, People and Performance presented the performance figures for the fourth quarter.  Forty nine indicators had been measured and 70% of those were on target.  For the 30% that were not on target the report contained narrative as to the reasons for that.

There was consistently good performance across the services and the purpose of the report was to see where improvements could be made.

The Cabinet Member for Legal, Governance and Organisational Performance stated that he would rather see actual figures rather than percentages for the performance figures. 

Referring back to the finance figures, the Leader asked for clarification that there were changes to pension contributions and also interest secured from Town Deal investment which had aided  the Council’s finances.

The Service Director – Finance/Section 151 Officer confirmed that pension contributions would have help to bridge the gap in 2026/27 and the receipt of Town Deal monies in advance of spend had generated interest which had also helped to offset some income shortfalls throughout the year.

The Leader ask what the plan with the finances where Town Deal money was starting to be spent and would therefore no longer be in the accounts – how would potential shortfalls be dealt with, going forward.

The Service Director advised that the Council had not relied on any of the interest for the budgets, so for 2026/27 the budget for interest receivable would be nil.  In terms of income areas where losses had been experienced going back to Covid, in each year of the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), the Council had had a reduction in terms of income levels.  By the end of the current financial year it was hoped that the Council would be in a much better position in terms of income.

The Leader referred back to fly tipping, the Council had averaged 4.77 days which was within target but enforcement was not.

The Service Director - Neighbourhood Delivery advised that enforcement had previously been measured in such a way that it looked like action was not being taken in relation to every single fly-tip.  Going forward, every fly-tip incident would be investigated in such a way that the Streetscene team would go out and look through the rubbish for evidence of the offender.  Evidence would then be passed to the Neighbourhood Delivery team to pursue any enforcement action that could be taken.   The actual investigation was an enforcement action and therefore almost 100% of incidents had some kind of enforcement action associated with them. 

Fixed Penalty Notices or prosecution can only be proceeded if evidence  was found at the fly-tip and, at present that level of evidence was not being acquired.  However, there was currently funding to employ some mobile re-deployable CCTV cameras  to place at hotspots.  These could act as a deterrent and also gain evidence.

The Leader referred to planning enforcement and stated that the year to date figures for informing complainants within the required timescale was 68.1%   and below the 75% target – although the Quarter Four figure was 82.4%.  The Leader asked why the annual target was missed.

The Chief Executive stated that the planning enforcement team had been working on actions to improve the figures.  It was an evidence-led process and  reporting-led process.  There were limited resources in the enforcement area which the Council was keen to look at going forward to ensure that there was the right balance in place.

The Leader stated that he was keen to ensure that the Council was using its enforcement officers to be proactive and aggressive in enforcement in terms of issuing fines or seeking legal action against landlords or land owners  who were not maintaining or looking after their property.  He referred to some work that the Service Director – Regulatory Services was undertaking regarding vape shops and barber shops that the Council had concerns about.

The Leader asked what the Council Tax increase would be for the years going forward. 

The Service Director -Finance/Section 151 Officer stated that, in the currently approved MTFS, there was an assumption that it would remain at 1.99%. The figure would be refined during the budget setting process in September.

Resolved:    That the contents of the attached report and appendices be noted

and the Council’s service and financial performance for this period be continually monitored and challenged.

Watch the debate here