Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from County Councillors N Hennessy, T Martin and G Wilkins.

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the agenda.

As the leader of Hyndburn Council, County Councillor Parkinson and as Leader of Blackpool Council, Councillor Simon Blackburn both declared a non-pecuniary interest in the Urgent Business Item “Lancashire Business Rates Pilot Pool – Memorandum of Understanding”.

RESOLVED: - That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 26 September 2018 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The report set out the current budget position in respect of the 2018/19 revenue and capital budgets and performance against savings targets. 

Revenue Budget

The overall position as at the end of September showed an overspend of £0.3m.  Trends were being monitored to ensure that they were reflected in future years budgets as well as being reported to the Resources Committee.  In terms of the year end forecast, it was still early in the year however, the latest forecast showed an overall underspend of approximately £0.1m, reflecting anticipated vacancies in the second half of the year, the lack of an apprentice FF programme and the timing of some non-pay expenditure.  It was noted that the budget allowed for a 2% July 2017 pay award for grey book personnel, this was actually agreed at 1% hence the budget was overstated by £300k, which was reflected in the position outlined.

The Committee was provided with detailed information regarding the position within individual departments, with major variances relating to non-pay spends and variances on the pay budget being shown below:-

The report set out the Authority's borrowing and lending activities during 2018/19, which were in line with decisions taken in accordance with the Treasury Management Strategy and were based on anticipated spending and interest rates prevailing at the time.

In accordance with the updated CIPFA Treasury Management Code of Practice and to strengthen Members’ oversight of the Authority’s treasury management activities, the Resources Committee received regular updates on treasury management issues including a mid-year report and a final outturn report. Reports on treasury activity were discussed on a quarterly basis with Lancashire County Council Treasury Management Team and the Authority's Director of Corporate Services and the content of these reports was used as a basis for this report to the Committee.

Economic Overview

During the period, economic growth had continued to be positive, albeit at historically low levels and unemployment was low with the Bank of England projecting that it would fall a little further.  At the same time inflation had remained above the Bank of England’s 2% target rate.  In august the Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) index rose to 2.7%.  As a consequence of these economic factors, in August the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to increase Bank Rate by 0.25% from 0.5% to 0.75%.

Internationally, the US economy had continued to grow and at their meeting in September the central bank increased interest rates for the third time in 2018. In Europe the level of growth had moderated after a period of strong growth. 

There was still a lot of uncertainty over the economy much of it arising from political factors. Domestically, the progress and unknown impact of the UK's withdrawal from the European Union continued to dampen investment. On the world economy the period had seen an increase in the potential for a trade war between the USA and China.

Outlook for Interest Rates

The Bank of England had raised expectations of gradual increases in interest rates and the increase in August was part of this. It was expected that this trend would continue. This was reflected in the County Council's Treasury advisers Arlingclose forecast for interest rates. Their central forecast saw a further 0.25% increase in March and September 2019 which would take the bank rate to 1.25%. They anticipated the rate would then stay constant up to September 2021 which was the end of the forecast period. However, with the current economic data and the risks in the economy they considered there were also downside risks to the forecast.  Key rates were forecast for the period Q4 2018 – Q4 2021 as now considered by Members.

Treasury Management position and Policy

The underlying need to borrow for capital purposes was measured by the Capital Financing Requirement (CFR), while usable reserves and working capital were the underlying resources available for investment. The treasury management activity was influenced both by the position at the beginning of the year and the plans in year. The position at the start of the financial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/18

Report to follow.

The Director of Corporate Services presented the report which set out capital works required at Service Training Centre (STC) in order to address some of the concerns about the current facilities.

It recommended investment in:-

·        A refurbishment of the Fire House;

·        An extension to the existing Fleet Workshop to provide a number of enhanced  facilities;

·        A refurbishment of Astley House to provide improved Incident Command Training facilities;

·        An enhanced conferencing facilities and disabled access at Lancaster House, subject to agreement on the long term future of this facility.

Members considered the current facilities in terms of the dedicated buildings on site and the practical training facilities.  It was noted that given a lack of historical investment, a number of the facilities either had or were reaching the end of their economic life and either needed replacing or refurbishing. 

The investment required was broken down into the 4 distinct areas of i) Fire House; ii) Fleet Garage Extension; iii) Astley House Refurbishment; and iv) Lancaster House. 

It was noted that no allowance had been made for the potential relocation of Service Headquarters (SHQ) to the site. This project had been previously approved in 2012/13 at a capital cost of £10m; however; this was put on hold in 2013 and remained so, pending the outcome of discussions with the Police about shared estates strategy.  It was noted that even if the relocation of SHQ project was live it would have minimal impact on these proposals as the only facilities’ included in these proposals which also featured in the SHQ project were the relocation of the Incident Command Training facility and the development of conferencing facilities replacing those in Lancaster House. It was also noted that the type of buildings referred to in the options presented would not be suitable for a SHQ or main training facility, as they were a simpler more cost effective portal construction, similar to the existing Fleet garage facility.  Furthermore in the five years that had elapsed the cost of relocating SHQ would have changed significantly  due to inflationary impacts and changing requirements.

i) Fire House

The Fire House had been in situ for almost 30 years.  The Condition Survey of the Fire House undertaken in November 2017, confirmed the following “The Fire House was constructed in the 1980’s and has been well used, with only minimum maintenance undertaken and this was reflected in its overall condition.“

Overall it was in good condition with some repairs being necessary to prevent further deterioration. The repairs if undertaken in the next 12 months would prevent further deterioration of the structure and the building should, if correctly maintained remain in good condition without requiring major expenditure on the fabric for a further 20 years.

The Building Services systems were in a much poorer condition and were well beyond their replacement cycle. Failure to replace these, whilst not affecting the fabric of the building would hinder and slow a safe evacuation of the building in an emergency, therefore replacement of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16/18

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 27 March 2019 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:           scheduled for 29 May 2019 and 25 September 2019

                                                proposed for  27 November 2019

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday, 27 March 2019 at 1000 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 29 May 2019 and 25 September 2019 and agreed for 27 November 2019.

An item of business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Clerk should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

The Director of Corporate Services had circulated this item before the meeting.  The Authority had previously agreed to be part of the Lancashire Business Rates Pilot Pool, and on that basis a joint bid had been submitted the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government. 

To support the application to be a Pilot Pool, the Ministry had asked for all parties to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) based on the principles of the application already submitted.  A draft MOU was considered by Members.  This needed signing by the relevant Section 151 Officers and submitting to the Ministry by 30 November 2018.

RESOLVED: - That the Committee approve the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding by the Treasurer.

The Committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, they consider that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

RESOLVED: - That the press and members of the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, indicated under the heading to the item.

(Paragraphs 1, 3 and 4)

Further to discussion at the previous Resources Committee meeting the Director of People and Development updated Members on the position regarding the Internal Dispute Resolution Process. 

RESOLVED: - That the Committee endorsed the recommendation as set out in the report.

(Paragraph 3)

Members considered a report that provided an update on all contracts for one-off purchases valued in excess of £100,000 and high value procurement projects in excess of £100,000 including: new contract awards, progress of ongoing projects and details of new projects.

RESOLVED:  That the Committee noted the report.