Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Rebecca Filer, apologies lateness were received from Councillor Jenny Mulholland.

No declarations were made.

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair to announce the following: ‘In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.’

Any other announcements

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair announced that the meeting was being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and could be viewed on the website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts were archived and could be made available upon request. Those who had asked to address the meeting were deemed to be consenting to having their contributions recorded and broadcast and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.

Order of items on the agenda

The Chair announced a change to the running order of item on the agenda. She proposed to take Item 9: Improving Citizen Experience and Item 10: Camden Council: Data Strategy 2023-2025 as the first discussion items. This was to maximise attendance from officers. The change of order was agreed by the Committee.

Requests to speak at the Committee on a matter within its terms of reference must be made in writing to the clerk named on the front of this agenda by 5pm two working days before the meeting.

There were no deputations.

There was no such business.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living.

The Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) agreed by Cabinet in January 2023 not only took steps to ensure that the Council could continue to operate on a sound financial footing over the medium term, but also to align the Council’s limited resources to achieving the ambition for our borough, residents and communities.

The recommendations in this report build on the Council’s new Medium Term Financial Strategy and will support the vision of We Make Camden to make Camden a place where everyone has a chance to succeed, where nobody gets left behind, and where everybody has a voice.

In summary this report:

• Presents budget and funding proposals that will enable the Council to balance its budget in 2024/25 and utilise available resources towards the achievement of We Make Camden outcomes, including investment in key areas of support for residents across the borough.

• Provides an update on the overall medium-term financial position for the Council, including detail from the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2024/25, and updates on other government announcements and the main areas of financial risk.

• Recommends a council tax increase of 4.99%, made up of:

A rise of 2.99% in the 2024/25 core council tax level to support council funding at large, and;

 A rise of 2% from the levying of an Adult Social Care Precept to support the Council in its response to the unprecedented demographic and demand pressures facing adult social care.

• Sets out the required level of council tax income to balance the budget as: o £141,130,750 which equates to a proposed Camden element of council tax of £1,539.17 at the Band D level for residents not in garden squares.

• Sets out the Garden Squares Levies for 2024/25.

• Sets out the proposed Greater London Authority precept at £471.40, for Band D properties, an increase of 8.58% on last year (subject to Greater London Authority approval of the budget), making the total council tax charge at Band D £2,010.57.

• Includes the Executive Director Corporate Services’ assessment of the adequacy of general balances available to manage financial risk and the robustness of the budget.

• Recommends fees and charges for approval by Cabinet and by Council where required. • Recommends that the Council implement the 100% Council Tax premium for second homes.

Consideration was given to the report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living, who along with the Head of Finance, introduced the report.

The Committee were interested in the second home council tax premium in Camden and noted that this was a progressive measure. Members asked for a breakdown of where in the borough second homes were and whether there were any patterns. The Head of Finance agreed to provide a breakdown of second home council tax band properties including a breakdown by ward.

Action by: the Head of Finance.

Members asked about how Camden decided boroughs that it should use in comparison exercises. The Head of Finance said that the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) used certain authorities when comparing against others, he agreed to share the authorities that CIPFA used to compare against Camden.

Action by: the Head of Finance.

A Member of the Committee asked about the council tax being identified as a risk area. The Head of Finance said this was based on how much of an overall budget came from council tax. CIPFA viewed council tax as a stable form of funding and Camden was seen to be at risk because it formed a lower percentage of its budget. The risk was being managed long term through the medium term strategy.

In response to questions from the Committee about what the Head of Finance would find helpful in the future, he said that having longer funding settlements as this would help create more certainty with budgets.

RESOLVED –

THAT The report be noted.

Report of the Director of Development.

Camden’s Community Investment Programme (CIP) is one of the largest and most successful municipal housebuilding programmes in the UK. Since it’s inception CIP has completed nearly 1,500 homes and is continuing to deliver more affordable housing in the borough as quickly as possible to better support the needs of local communities. The 2023 CIP Annual report contains an update on progress on CIP schemes and an overview of the market.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Development. The report was introduced by the Cabinet Member for New Homes, Jobs and Community Investments, the Director of Development and the Head of CIP Programme Office.

In their discussion of the report, the Committee made the following comments:

·       Members asked about the impact the economic climate had had on the delivery of projects. The Cabinet Member said that Camden had not pulled back on any committed projects, though more work was carried out a project design stage to make sure the project could be delivered.

·       When asked by Members about Camley Street, the Director of Development explained that they were currently in a bidding process.

·       There was not a definitive timetable for delivering the housing goals but any delivery would include the estate regeneration programme.

·       A member of the Committee commented that, in previous iterations of the report, figures for expenditure and receipts had been included, which they had found helpful. The Cabinet Member said that these could be included in the report next year.

·       In response to a member question, the Director of Development agreed to provide more financial data around future programmes, including figures for expenditure and receipts.

Action by: the Director of Development

·       The Committee commented that it was useful to have resident feedback included in the report, the Cabinet Member agreed to circulate the full report on resident feedback.

Action by: the Director of Development

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Equalities and Community Strength and the Director of Finance

As part of the Council’s update to the Committee in July 2023, there was a commitment to report back on the operation of programmes receiving Family Crisis Fund support. This report updates and further outlines the work of the Council to tackle the cost-of-living crisis over the winter, demonstrating how we have allocated funds and resources to support both our ongoing emergency response and long-term approach, aligned with our strategic work.

The update covers the following topics:

•                  Tackling poverty: winter cost of living update

•                  Voluntary Community Sector’s partnership initiatives

•                  Debt Transformation Project – long-term ambitions

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Equalities and Community Strength and the Director of Finance who both introduced the report.

In response to a question from the Committee the Director of Equalities and Community Strength said that signposting for support around the cost of living was being targeted at those not already accessing support.

Members were interested in work with the digital and customer experience teams to make the cost of living support advice pages and communications clear. The Director of Equalities and Community Strength said that they wanted to work with the digital teams to achieve this, for example looking at communications for those whose first language is not English. The Director of Finance assured members that there was crossover with digital work and customer experience. The Focus was on being compassionate and consistent with joining things up.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Experience & Information Officer.

This report sets out the Council’s ambitious vision to become a more relational organisation, our progress to date and the steps being undertaken to achieve this from a lens of citizen experience. It shows some of the challenges currently being faced in our Customer Service delivery and lays out our road map to addressing these through the development of our digital and analogue customer journeys and through the development of tools to standardise experience across the council.

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Experience and Information Officer who, along with the Head of Customer and Registration Services, introduced the report.

In their discussion of the report, the Committee made the following comments:

·       Members were impressed with how quickly changes were being made to the citizen experience, they noted that benefits were being seen.

·       The Committee asked whether work was being done to make it easier for officers to access data sets that showed what topics were coming through contact Camden and to better understand the citizen experience. The Head of Customer and Registration Services said that core data sets were shared with officers. The Chief Experience and Information Officer commented that the data strategy needed to underpin the citizen experience and that residents should only have to raise an issue once to get a resolution.

·       A Member spoke about housing repairs and some of the themes that had emerged through casework of residents experiences when raising issues. They said that sometimes issues were not being resolved until multiple contacts and that residents should not have to complain to get a resolution. The Head of Customer and Registration Services explained that Housing Repairs was undergoing changes separate to this strategy. Eventually, technology would sit across all departments, allowing for customer journeys to be mapped and for a better view of the repairs process to be built.

·       The Committee were interested in those that had been engaged with to test the website. The Chief Experience and Information Officer said that accessibility needed to be incorporated into any website redesign. They explained that there had been focus groups around key demographics that Camden had wanted to interact with, for example those with a lower reading age. The Chief Experience and Information Officer agreed to provide more details on the testing of the website pages.

Action by: the Chief Experience and Information Officer

·       Members commented on the importance of sharing good practice across the organisation, The Chief Experience and Information Officer assured members that citizen experience principles would form a foundation by which all interactions would be built out from.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Chief Experience and Information Officer.

Our vision for data in Camden is “to be the pioneering leader in the use of data that measurably improves citizens’ lives”. This ambitious vision is based on pragmatic approach to the management of our resource and capability. We will strive to partner with external collaborators to test new methods and tools utilising external expertise and skill and combining it with Council’s subject matter expertise.

To achieve this vision, we will need “to fix foundations, manage data capability, foster data excellence, embed research and innovation to empower frontline services and provide novel insights”.

The new data strategy sets out 6 key objectives to achieving our vision. These are:

·       Objective 1: Build Solid Foundations and fix key problems.

·       Objective 2: Unlock the power of data by maximising data use and accessibility.

·       Objective 3: Empower Camden’s Frontline Service Delivery

·       Objective 4. Be bold and innovative in data use.

·       Objective 5: Foster data professions, leadership, and capability

·       Objective 6: Transparency and accountability to residents.

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Experience and Information Officer, the report was introduced by the Chief data Officer.

The Committee began the discussion of the report with noting the work of former councillor Leo Cassarani around Camden’s Data Charter.

Members were interested in how the use of technology could help identify the causes of issues that residents experienced and not only the identification of the issues themselves. The Chief Data Officer the data needed to be accessible and tools should be available to assist with this. The Chief Experience and Information Officer said that the intention was to become more proactive with data, running check and balances when there was a problem and addressing it before it went to a resident.

The Committee commented that it would be important to avoid data sets degrading and, consequently, information becoming irrelevant. The Chief Data Officer said that, within the strategy, data ownership sat at a service level. The implementation of standards and processes within services should continue to work for many years. Work was also being carried out to ensure that suppliers and partners were sticking to Camden’s data policies and standards.

In response to a question form the Committee, the Chief Data Officer said that options were being looked into to allow Camden to have safe, controlled data sharing with partners.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Executive Director Corporate Service.

This paper provides an outline of the 2023/24 work programme and provides an update on actions requested at previous meetings of the Committee in the Action Tracker.

RESOLVED –

THAT the work programme be noted.

There was no such business.