Minutes of the meeting of the Elected Officers

Minutes of the meeting of the Executive
Monday 30 October 2006

Cllr Merrick Cockell was in the chair

Present

Member	Position	Portfolio
Cllr Merrick Cockell	Chairman	Local Government Finance
Mayor Steve Bullock	Vice Chair
Mr Michael Snyder	Vice Chair	Economic Development and Planning
Cllr Daniel Moylan	Chair of TEC	Transport and Environment
Cllr James Carswell		Housing
Cllr Ian Clement		Crime and Public Protection
Cllr Michael White		Improvement
Cllr Chris Roberts		Culture, Tourism and London 2012
Cllr Derek Osbourne	substituting for Cllr Sean Brennan (Vice Chair)	Sustainability
Cllr Martin Elengorn	substituting for Cllr James Kempton	Children and Young People

ALG Officers were in attendance including the Party Group Advisers, Barry Macleod-Cullinane (Conservative), Stephen Knight (Liberal Democrat) Joe Caluori (Labour)

Declarations of interest

No interests were declared

Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Cllr Stephen Carr (Conservative, Deputy Chairman), Cllr Sean Brennan (Liberal Democrat Vice Chair) and Cllr James Kempton (Liberal Democrat, Children and Young People).

Minutes of the meeting of 29 September 2006

The minutes of the meeting of 29 September 2006 were agreed.

London Councils Revenue Budget 2007/08 to 2010/11 - Level of Borough Subscriptions

Cllr Derek Osbourne expressed his dissatisfaction with the way the agenda was organised. He argued that there was a false division between Finance and Policy reports and that reports in the `policy' section had financial implications and that it would have been better to decide on workstreams first and then a budget. He favoured Option 1, a cash standstill.

Mayor Steve Bullock echoed Cllr Osbourne's point about process saying that an awayday session immediately after the meeting should indicate the future direction of the organisation and the budget would have ideally come out of that.

Cllr James Carswell said that he was conscious that some of the budget pressure was coming from his portfolio, Housing, although he did not feel they were of his making and that he would be interested in seeking to increase income and funding existing services more cheaply.

Cllr Daniel Moylan argued that members should be confident in the organisation and should put in place in the first year, at least, a financial settlement that reflects inflation.

The Chairman replied by saying that, in the cases of LASS and NOTIFY the pressures were not of London Councils making. He felt London Councils was increasingly being seen as an organisation that can deliver for London and was becoming the default position for projects such as LASS and NOTIFY. He argued London Councils should adhere to the principle that once the budget was set further requests for funds should not be made of the boroughs as it would damage credibility with the boroughs.

Mr Michael Snyder moved a motion proposing a 2.7% increase in subscription for 2007/08, it was seconded by Cllr Ian Clement and agreed by the Executive.

Month 6 Revenue Forecast 2006/07

The Executive agreed to note:

the overall forecast underspend as at 30 September 2006 (Month 6) of £910,000, as illustrated in the summary table in the report, which was broadly split between underspends of £183,000 on overall salary costs and £771,000 on grant payments to funded bodies, offset by a marginal overspend on running costs of £35,000
the indicative position on the overall level of uncommitted balances of £4.228 million, inclusive of the projected underspend of £910,000, as detailed in the report and
the commentary on the updated financial position of each of the London Council's four funding streams, as also detailed in the report.

Grants Commissioning Priorities

The Chairman introduced the item by thanking the Grants Committee for its further work on priorities. He asked whether the Executive would concur with the priorities set after the input from portfolio holders or would it wish for a more fundamental re-examination.

Mayor Steve Bullock argued for the budget to remain the same in cash terms as last year.

The Executive heard how efforts had been made to obtain the views of the Grants executive and relevant portfolio holder and if they had concurred the service had been included in Table 1 Services that are recommended. There had, however, been difficulties in obtaining the views of the portfolio holder for Culture Tourism and London 2012, Cllr Chris Roberts. It was agreed that he would consider the information about services in his area prior to the meeting of Leaders' Committee on 14 November.

The Executive agreed

to recommend to Leaders' Committee the services set out in Table 1 totaling £19.332m, but, at the behest of Cllr Chris Roberts, the Executive agreed to revisit the proposed £420k reduction under category 7.
that political groupings were to seek to find as much consensus as possible on those categories in Table 3, Services for discussion before the meeting of Leaders' Committee on 14 November
that the total of grants expenditure for 2007/08 should remain at the level for 2006/07, £26.4m.

Merger of London Housing Unit (LHU) and London Councils

The Executive agreed to adjust the borough subscriptions to mainstream the LHU services by the use of Option 2b whereby 45% of the costs were allocated according to housing stock bands.

NOTIFY Handover to London Councils and the results from the evaluation study

Mayor Steve Bullock argued that London Councils needs to do a trawl, like a Risk Analysis, of all projects that are likely to come to London Councils over the next four years.

Cllr Derek Osbourne suggested that, if the Budget envelope was not set, that portfolio-holders should come to the Leaders' Committee meeting after next with recommendations on how it could be stretched.

The Executive agreed:

to fund the administration of the NOTIFY project from April 2007 at an annual cost of £201,000 including the method of funding as outlined in the report and in the context of agenda item 4 London Councils Budget 2007-10.

an additional one-off system development and borough technical support resource for 2007/08 at a cost of £80,000 as outlined in an appendix to the report

the measures for taking forward the NOTIFY project as outlined in the report.

London Analysts Support Site (LASS)

Cllr Ian Clement argued that LASS was a well-established service and that he understood that the Mayor of London had expressed an interest in it.

The Chief Executive reported that no formal contact had been received from the Greater London Authority.

The Executive agreed that expenditure of up to £210,000 per annum be included within the core London Councils budget as a contribution to the funding of the London Analysts Support Site in 2007/08 and that officers were to explore other potential sources of funding.

Concessionary fares - update on 2007/08 negotiations

The executive agreed to note the report.

GLA Powers - Update

The Chief Executive reported that London Councils position on planning had developed from one of simple opposition to proposing amendments that might be acceptable should the Government insist on giving the Mayor a strategic role.

Mr Snyder requested that he be included in discussions which may have only involved the party groups in the past and the Executive agreed that communications with party group advisers should also include portfolio holders.

Future of London's Improvement Bodies

Cllr Michael White argued in favour of the merger and the Executive agreed:

to proceed with the merger
to establish a Planning Group comprising representatives from each body to examine and report back on the transition issues including -

the legal issues relating to the legal and governance arrangements for the three bodies
financial implications and future funding options
contractual issues relating to current services and projects
impact on current service delivery
staffing issues

Conferences and events

The Executive agreed:

to adopt Option 2: delegate fees could be charged for all London Councils events held at external venues. This would allow all internal events, which were primarily for borough members and officers, to remain free (if a shortage of room at 59½ forces an event to be moved to an external venue, then fees could be waived). There could be one `flagship' free event a year at an external venue, to ensure the London Summit remained free to delegates
where delegate fees were charged:

for a full day conference, fees would be £299 for private sector delegates, £199 for voluntary and other public sector, and £149 for London Councils member boroughs
for a half-day event, fees would be £199, £149 and £99.

Local Government White Paper: Strong and Prosperous Communities

The Executive agreed that London Councils would work with the LGA to respond to the White Paper in general and would focus its activity on three elements with a particular London dimension:

parishes
relations between the Mayor of London and the boroughs that may be affected by the proposed requirement for the compliance of strategies
Multi-Area Agreements

The Chairman pointed out that he had a meeting arranged with Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, the chair of the LGA, when the White Paper would be discussed.

Clr Derek Osbourne mentioned that his borough, Kingston, had hosted a debate with the National Association of Local Councillors (NALC) when it emerged that there may be a problem in his borough where parishes could create a complication with the already highly localised arrangements.

Remuneration for Borough Members

The Chairman asked that the provisions in the Local Government White Paper: Strong and Prosperous Communities which proposed placing executive power in a borough leader should be drawn to the attention of the Independent Panel on the Remuneration of Councillors for consideration in relation to a leader's remuneration.

The Executive agreed to commend the Independent Panel's report to the boroughs and to indicate this commendation in a letter to borough leaders signed by all three party group leaders.

Member remuneration for London Councils activity

The Executive received details of the new scheme proposed by the Independent Panel on the Remuneration of Councillors and agreed to remit consideration of it to Leaders' Committee

Forward Plan

The Executive agreed to note the report

Future Speakers at Leaders' Committee

Questions to the Rt. Hon Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

The Executive agreed that there would be three questions to the Secretary of State on the review of GLA Powers when she attended Leaders' Committee on 14 November, each asked by the relevant portfolio-holder on:

Planning
Waste and
Housing

Speakers at Leaders Committee

The Executive agreed to invite:

Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis
Sir Michael Lyons, after the publication of his inquiry into local government
Michael O'Higgins, chair of the Audit Commission.

London Councils performance monitoring report for quarter 1 2006/07

The Executive agreed to:

note the report and
the new quarterly performance reporting format.

Progress with meetings of London Council's forums

Cllr James Carswell pointed out that he had been unable to call a meeting of the officers of the Housing Forum because of an absence of Conservative and Liberal Democrat nominees.

The Executive agreed to note the report

Cost of Administering Pension Funds in London

The Executive agreed:

to note the project supported by the London Centre of Excellence
to receive a further report setting out in detail proposals for how individual London boroughs and London Councils can best respond to the challenge from the Audit Commission to “move towards a more efficient system for the benefit of all their members and taxpayers”.

Leaders' Committee 14 November 2006 agenda

The Chairman said that a balance needed to be struck between the discussion of items at the Executive and at Leaders' Committee.

Mr Snyder pointed out, and other members of the executive agreed, that the papers were dispatched too late.

Cllr Daniel Moylan suggested that the method used by the Transport and Environment Committee for its papers, whereby individual reports are stapled together and gathered together in a bundle, rather than an attempt being made to bind all the reports together should be considered for Executive papers.

Reports of ministerial etc. meetings

The Executive agreed to note the notes of meetings:

George Greener (Chair) and Ruth Carnall (Acting Chief Executive) of NHS London, 16 October 2006
James Purnell MP, Minister for Pensions Reform, 17 October 2006
Parmjit Dhanda MP, DfES Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families 19 October 2006.

Asylum Seeker funding

The Executive heard that DfES had consulted London Councils on their proposal to increase the weekly rate of support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children leaving care but with higher thresholds.

Cllr Derek Osbourne pointed out that this proposal would mean that some boroughs would receive more grant and others less leaving London Councils in an untenable position when asked to comment.

The Executive agreed to

take no position on the DfES proposal of higher weekly rates but with higher thresholds.

the proposed Home Office settlement of special circumstances in 2005/06, providing an additional £11.6 million for London

Action Points

	Item	*Action*	Progress
1	London Councils Revenue Budget 2007/08 to 2010/11 - Level of Borough Subscriptions (item 4) Subscription to be increased by 2.7% for 2007/08	CSS
2	Grants Commissioning Priorities (item 6) Executive to recommend to Leaders' Committee: the services set out in Table 1 totalling £19.332m, and to revisit the proposed £420k reduction under category 7 the total of grants expenditure for 2007/08 should remain at the level for 2006/07, £26.4m. Political groupings to seek to find as much consensus as possible on those categories in Table 3, Services for discussion before the meeting of Leaders' Committee on 14 November	SPG/CSS
3	Merger of London Housing Unit (LHU) and London Councils (item 7) Adjust the borough subscriptions to mainstream the LHU services by the use of Option 2b whereby 45% of the costs were allocated according to housing stock bands.	Housing/CSS
4	NOTIFY Handover to London Councils and the results from the evaluation study (item 8) Carry out a trawl, like a Risk Analysis, of all projects that are likely to come to London Councils over the next four years Fund the administration of the NOTIFY project from April 2007 at an annual cost of £201,000 including the method of funding as outlined in the report and in the context of agenda item 4 London Councils Budget 2007-10. Fund an additional one-off system development and borough technical support resource for 2007/08 at a cost of £80,000	CS&P/I&E Housing/CSS Housing/CSS
5	--> Future of London's Improvement Bodies (item 12) proceed with the merger establish a Planning Group comprising representatives from each body to examine and report back on the transition issues including - the legal issues relating to the legal and governance arrangements for the three bodies financial implications and future funding options contractual issues relating to current services and projects impact on current service delivery staffing issues	I&E	Dates being sought for first Planning Group meeting.[Author:AOLG]
6	Conferences and events (item 13) Option 2: delegate fees could be charged for all London Councils events held at external venues. This would allow all internal events, which are primarily for borough members and officers, to remain free (if a shortage of room at 59½ forces an event to be moved to an external venue, then fees could be waived). There could be one `flagship' free event a year at an external venue, to ensure the London Summit remained free to delegates where delegate fees are charged: for a full day conference, fees would be £299 for private sector delegates, £199 for voluntary and other public sector, and £149 for London Councils member boroughs for a half-day event, fees would be £199, £149 and £99.	CPA
7	Local Government White Paper: Strong and Prosperous Communities (item 14) London Councils to work with the LGA to respond to the White Paper in general and would focus its activity on three elements with a particular London dimension: parishes relations between the Mayor of London and the boroughs that may be affected by the proposed requirement for the compliance of strategies Multi-Area Agreements	CS&P	London Councils/LGA Officer meeting taking place on 13 November 2006
	Remuneration for Borough Members (item 15) the provisions in the Local Government White Paper: Strong and Prosperous Communities which proposed placing executive power in a borough leader to be drawn to the attention of the Independent Panel on the Remuneration of Councillors for consideration in relation to a leader's remuneration --> a letter to be sent to borough leaders signed by all three party group leaders commend the Independent Panel's report to the boroughs[Author:AOLG]	I&E	Done In hand
	Member remuneration for London Councils activity (item 16) remit the scheme to Leaders' Committee for decision.	CS&P	Report on Leaders' Committee agenda for 14 November 2006
	Future Speakers at Leaders' Committee (item 18) Questions to the Rt. Hon Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government there would be three questions to the Secretary of State on the review of GLA Powers when she attended Leaders' Committee on 14 November, each asked by the relevant portfolio-holder on: Planning Waste and Housing Speakers at Leaders Committee invite: Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis Sir Michael Lyons, after the publication of his inquiry into local government Michael O'Higgins, chair of the Audit Commission.	CS&P	Done In hand
	--> Cost of Administering Pension Funds in London The Executive to receive a further report setting out in detail proposals for how individual London boroughs and London Councils can best respond to the challenge from the Audit Commission to “move towards a more efficient system for the benefit of all their members and taxpayers”.	I&E	Meeting of London stakeholders arranged for 27 November. A meeting will be held with DCLG and Audit Commission after the London meeting.[Author:AOLG]
	Asylum Seeker funding (item 24) take no position on the the DfES proposal of higher weekly rates but with higher thresholds.	SPG

JV ask again is this the meeting on the 21^st or is this a Derek Gadd question

Kris

Aramide