Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

There were no disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

None.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record.

Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed.

Questions can be submitted in writing to Scrutiny scrutiny@swansea.gov.uk up until noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Written questions take precedence. Public may attend and ask questions in person if time allows. Questions must relate to items on the open part of the agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

There were no public questions received.

Cllr Rob Stewart - Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy

Ben Smith – Director of Finance / S.151 Officer

Cllr Rob Stewart Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy and Ben Smith the Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer attended to give an overview.

·       This report gives the capital outturn position as at 31 March 2023 reporting a net underspend of £28.8m. Cabinet approved the underspend be carried over into 2023/24 at their September meeting.

·       Since March several large-scale schemes have added to the programme due to material overspending or reprofiling. The first quarter budget report of 2023/24 due to Cabinet in October will reference a capital programme for the current year in excess of £150 million. This has been complicated by some significant cost overruns, which has affected many Councils.

·       The carried over underspend has been earning the Council over 5% interest in the short term but will eventually be spent where allocated.

·       Where possible fixed price contracts with developers are secured and the Council are confident the capital programme remains afforded and affordable within the overall policy.

Cllr David Hopkins – Cabinet Member for Corporate Services & Performance

Richard Rowlands – Strategic Delivery & Performance Manager

Cllr David Hopkins Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Performance and Richard Rowlands Corporate Performance Manager presented the report.

·       At the end of the first quarter there were 19 Indicators that met or bettered their targets, 3 indicators were within 5% of the target and 6 indicators that missed their targets. An additional 5 indicators had no target in this quarter.

·       Sickness levels have improved however are still high in some departments which is still being closely monitored.

·       This year a new suite of measures relating to Nature Recovery and Climate Change have been added. Work is still ongoing in this area to identify measures that are robust, clearly defined and can be confidently reported.

The work plan was discussed including potential development sites to review during the year.