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There is no summary of this meeting yet. Summaries are written once the council publishes the minutes, which are its official record of what a meeting decided. They usually appear a few weeks after the meeting.
There were no disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.
None.
There were no public questions received.
Cllr Rob Stewart and Ben Smith attended to give an overview. · This report contains four recommendations which were all agreed by Cabinet on 19 September. These include the use of the contingency fund to cover overspends in Social Services and Homelessness as emergency triage action and use of the inflation provision for home to school transport as a virement from Education to Place. · There remain several financial uncertainties including the local government pay award, teachers’ pay and teachers’ pension costs. Contingency funding has been allocated towards these and it’s use is dependent on receipt of grant funding from UK and Welsh Governments. · It is estimated that £12m less than budgeted will be drawn from reserves this year. There is still a planned draw of £11m excluding schools, which are likely to make a significant draw from schools reserves. · The Panel asked questions about the forecast overspends, Minimum Revenue Provision, timelines for decisions on outstanding pay awards, grants for teachers pensions and the use of the Capital Equalisation Fund. The Panel requested additional information on Education capital spending. · Overall, the Officer and Leader felt the first quarter demonstrated no areas for concern currently, however there are some challenging and uncertain times ahead.
Part of an issue followed across 2 meetings
Cllr David Hopkins and Rhian Millar attended to present the report and answer questions. · This is a draft report seeking the Panels views before going to Governance and Audit Committee and then onto Council in December. · The Panel felt the report layout was an improvement on previous iterations but is still a lengthy document which may hinder public engagement. · The Panel provided some suggested changes to the wording of the areas for improvement.
Cllr David Hopkins and Suzy Richards attended to present the report and answer questions. · The Panel commented that overall, the report read well and noted the easy read of the landscape layout. · The Panel felt the report provided a good balance of performance progress, challenges, risks and future development. · If the Panel have any specific questions relating to the performance of an individual service, those questions would be sent to the relevant service for a response.
Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Lee Richards and Liz Morris attended with an update on this development. · The Panel received an update on building work hearing that the site is at 99% completion. The site will offer grade A office accommodation. · Regarding tenants, there has been a good response to the site with Swansea outperforming several UK cities in this area. · There have been pressures to the original budget figure of £41m in 2021 due to an increase in energy costs, Brexit and inflation. · The site has achieved a platinum Wi-Fi score. The Panel asked further questions regarding city Wi-Fi speeds and connectivity. · Tenants are predominantly from outside the city, tenants currently in the city are upscaling so both will create new jobs. Resolved that the Panel conduct further questioning in private session at the conclusion of the main agenda items. Exclusion of the Public. The Panel was requested to exclude the public from the meeting during the consideration of the items of the report on 71-72 The Kingsway on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as set out in paragraph 14 of 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information)(Variation)(Wales) Order 2007. The Panel considered the Public Interest Test in deciding to exclude the public from the meeting. Resolved that the public be excluded for the following items of business. (Closed Session) 71-72 The Kingsway Additional questions were asked to Cllr Robert Francis-Davies, Lee Richards and Liz Morris regarding this item.
The work plan was noted in the closed session.
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