Agenda and minutes

None received.

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.

None received.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the last meeting held on 25 September 2024 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Director of Corporate Services (DoCS) advised that this report set out the current budget position in respect of the 2024/25 revenue and capital budgets.

Revenue Budget

In February 2024 the Combined Fire Authority (CFA) agreed the Service’s 2024/25 revenue budget at £75.155m. This Financial Monitoring report was for the six-month period to the end of September 2024. The forecast outturn was £75.051m, which was a small underspend of (£0.103m). Of the forecast underspend, (£0.135m) related to non-pay costs, and £0.032m to pay costs.

The year-to-date and forecast positions within all departmental budgets were set out in Appendix 1, with the major variances of note shown separately in the table below.

The Director of Corporate Services (DoCS) advised that the report set out the Authority's borrowing and lending activities during 2024/25. In accordance with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Treasury Management Code of Practice and to strengthen Members’ oversight of the Authority’s treasury management activities, the Resources Committee received a treasury management 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 DoCS and the content of these reports were used as a basis for this report to the Committee.

Economic Overview

Treasury management activity was taken within the context of prevailing and forecasted economic conditions. UK headline consumer price inflation remained around the Bank of England (BoE) target later in the period, falling from an annual rate of 3.2% in March to 2.0% in May and then rebounding marginally to June to 2.2% in July and August, as was expected, due to base effects from energy prices.

The UK economy continued to expand over the period, albeit slowing from the 0.7% gain in the first calendar quarter to 0.5% (downwardly revised from 0.6%) in the second. Of the monthly figures, the economy was estimated to have registered no growth in July.

Over the period, the 10-year UK benchmark gilt yield started at 3.94% and ended at 4.00% but hit a high of 4.41% in May and a low of 3.76% in mid-September. While the 20-year gilt started at 4.40% and ended at 4.51% but hit a high of 4.82% in May and a low of 4.27% in mid-September. The Sterling Overnight Rate (SONIA) averaged 5.12% over the period to 30th September.

The latest BoE Monetary Policy Report, published in August, showed policymakers expected GDP growth to continue expanding during 2024 before falling back and moderating from 2025 to 2027. Unemployment was forecast to stay around 4.5% while inflation was shown picking up in the latter part of 2024 as the previous years’ energy price declines fell out of the figures before slipping below the 2% target in 2025 and remaining there until early 2027.

Arlingclose, the authority’s treasury adviser, maintained its central view that Bank Rates would steadily fall from the 5.25% peak, with the first cut in August being followed by a series of further cuts, with November 2024 the likely next one, taking Bank Rate down to around 3% by the end of 2025. A table in the report showed the latest forecast for interest rates from Arlingclose.

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 year is summarised in the Table below:

The DoCS presented the productivity and efficiency plan 2024/25 – midyear update to members.

As part of the Spending Review 2021, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and the Local Government Association (LGA) agreed that between 2022/23-2024/25, fire and rescue services in England would increase wholetime firefighter productivity by 3% and create 2% of non-pay efficiency savings. Linked to these targets, the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire asked that all standalone Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRAs) draft and publish Productivity and Efficiency Plans. A plan was produced for 2023/24, the information provided a strong evidence base for the next Spending Review and demonstrated positive leadership from the sector to engage with the productivity and efficiency agenda.

For 2024/25, the Minister had again requested that all FRAs, publish a Productivity and Efficiency Plan for 2024/25 to help the Home Office, NFCC and LGA to build a more comprehensive picture on the sector’s progress against the agreed targets and savings achieved.

Guidance was provided by the Home Office setting out the information that must be contained in the statements; providing primary information about the Authority, details of efficiencies and productivity measures achieved to date and planned. The guidance provided three examples from FRAs of well written plans from 2023/24 of which Lancashire was one of the good practice examples.

The 2024/25 plan follows the same format as the previous year. It showed that compared to the Government Spending Review non-pay efficiency savings target for fire authorities of 2%, the LCFA achieved 5.6% on average over the period.

The mid-year update of the Productivity and Efficiency Statement for 2024/25 was set out in Appendix B within the agenda pack and showed excellent progress against the agreed actions, with many of them achieved already.

To date the service had completed 12,138 Home Fire Safety Checks (HFSCs), which was greater than the 11,737 completed at the end of Q2 2023/24. Built environment training had been provided to all community safety advisors for them to identify areas of non-compliance with the fire safety order. This training provided community safety staff with the knowledge to support residents living in multiple occupation homes along with when onward referral was appropriate to the services protection department. The Service had completed 1,867 Business Fire Safety Checks (BFSCs) year to date, which was greater than the 1,719 completed at the end of Q2 2023/24.

The On-Call Improvement Programme (OCIP) was driving transformation across the service with several workstreams to improve productivity and efficiency. Incident Command trainers had reviewed the process for On-Call Incident Command Courses, which had resulted in 10 Courses and 58 staff being trained as Incident Commanders in 2024. This was a significant increase in course delivery from previous years.

On-Call Performance Management training for Station Managers and Unit Managers was completed in Q2, which included the roll-out of sector-leading innovative software for On-Call Availability, Recruitment and Skills (OARS). The software had improved the efficiency and effectiveness of workforce planning, development, and performance. OARS is the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30/24

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee has been agreed for 10:00 hours on 26 March 2025 in the Main Conference Room, at Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meetings are:          scheduled for 2 July 2025

                                                proposed for 24 September 2025

The next meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday 26 March 2025 at 1000 hours in the Main Conference Room at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters, Fulwood.

Further meeting dates were noted for 2 July 2025 and 24 September 2025.

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.

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The DoCS presented the proceedings of the Capital Projects Working Group held on 9 September 2024.

Resolved: That the proceedings of the Capital Projects Working Group be noted.

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Members considered a report that provided an update on the various issues which had arisen in respect of the changes to the pension schemes applying to the uniformed members of the Fire Sector.

Resolved: That the committee:

1. Noted the ongoing situation;
2. Approved renaming the Injury Pensions Sub-Committee to the Pensions Sub-Committee, and
3. Delegated authority to the HR Lead to manage Pension cases to ensure scheme compliance.

(Paragraph 3)

(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 and endorsed the report.

(Paragraph 1)

Members received an update from the Clerk to the Authority on the succession arrangements for the Assistant Chief Fire Officer (ACFO), with a recommendation on the arrangements, in accordance with convention.

Resolved: That the Committee approved the recommendation outlined in the report.

Verbal update.

(Paragraph 1)

The Clerk and Monitoring Officer provided a verbal update on the membership of the Injury Pensions Sub-Committee and reiterated that the Sub-Committee would be renamed to the Pensions Sub-Committee.

Resolved: That the Committee noted the verbal report.