Agenda item

To receive and consider a written report from the Leader on the work of the Cabinet, and the Cabinet recommendations for approval, as set out below:

 

Meeting	Date	Recommendations
Cabinet	3 September 2013	Minute 40: Capital Programme - Monitor One 2013/14

http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=733&MId=7640&Ver=4

 

A written report was received from the Cabinet Leader, Cllr James Alexander, on the work of the Cabinet.

 

A       Questions

 

Notice had been received of ten questions on the written report, submitted by Members in accordance with Standing Orders. The first five questions were put and answered as follows and Cllr Alexander undertook to provide Members with written answers to the remaining questions:

 

(i)           From Cllr Warters

 

 “The Council Leader’s report refers to the growing problem of in-work poverty, does the Council Leader agree that employing low earners on zero hours contracts contributes to in-work poverty and if so why does the Labour run City of York Council employee significant numbers of agency staff on zero hours contracts?”

 

The Leader replied:

“I do agree that it does and I am pleased that City of York does not employ people on zero hour contracts. Also we have reduced the use of agency staff significantly and set up instead our own agency company that pays the living wage.  It is important to distinguish between this and zero hour contracted employment, the former of which there will always be some need for in an organisation employing thousands of people.”

 

(ii)          From Cllr Warters

 

“The Council Leader’s report refers to the cost of living challenge and addressing the wage gap in this city, can the Council Leader indicate how the wage gap will be narrowed within the Council when senior officers pay is boosted by market supplement payments in excess of £10,000?”

 

The Leader replied:

 “I would like to appeal to Councillor Warters' better nature and ask him, if  the council pays less than most other councils in key posts such as in the area of child protection and we have nationally recognised staff being approached for jobs in other authorities for significantly larger amounts of pay, what would he do? Would he maintain the status quo? Let good staff leave? Spend money on recruitment? Struggle to recruit at current pay levels? And then pay someone else more money whom isn’t as good? As much as we all might find a market rate supplement difficult I do appeal for Members on all sides of the council to see the bigger picture.”

 

(iii)        From Cllr Reid

 

“Could the Cabinet Leader provide the figures to support the claim that there has been a reduction of 40% in the number of children living in workless households?”

 

The Leader replied:

 “Yes. When Labour won control of the council in May 2011 the number of children in workless households was 3,300. Latest figures show this has reduced to 2,000. These figures were released by the ONS in early September.”

 

(iv)        From Cllr Ayre

 

“Has the council made compliance with the living wage a requirement of all services currently being outsourced?”

 

The Leader replied:

 “The Living Wage will be included in our procurement process by April next year. We will be one of the first councils in the country to comply with this. It is a great Labour achievement that would not have happened if we had not won control of the council in May 2011.”

 

(v)         From Cllr Aspden

 

“Will the council continue the work of the previous administration to seek JESSICA European funding for enhanced sustainability on the British Sugar Site?”

 

The Leader replied:

 “Considering no progress on this site had been made throughout the entire time of the previous administration, forgive me if I have a sense of healthy scepticism that this is the correct route to pursue. With all development sites we will seek ways of financing the de-risking of sites. Our first preference will always be to partner with the private sector. Progress being made on brownfield sites speak for itself.”

 

(vi)        From Cllr Reid

 

“The report confirms that 1300 new homes will be built on the British Sugar site, but the Draft Local Plan published in the spring showed only 998 homes being built on this site. Other planning applications for sites such as The Press offices in Walmgate, the Burnholme Club site, Our Lady’s School plus around 12 other locations have also produced build numbers greatly in excess of the estimates included in the draft Local Plan. Will the Cabinet Leader now accept that he has grossly underestimated the number of homes that can be provided on brownfield land in the City and will he agree that, when the responses to the Local Plan are discussed later in the year, officials will provide a more realistic estimate of both demand and supply forecasts for housing building needs in the city?”

 

Reply:

“The estimates in the draft Local Plan have not been over or under estimated by me, they are based on proper analysis by officers of what can be delivered within a given footprint.  The important thing to remember is an estimate is exactly that and where this changes in numbers of housing units built, this shouldn’t be any great surprise.

 

The important distinction between the positions of the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives it has to be said, is that the other parties believe those living in central wards should have housing built on any spare piece of land anywhere near them and outer wards should continue to enjoy protection against any development anywhere near them.

 

The truth is housing should be built in both central and outer areas where it can be shown to contribute to tackling the city’s housing crisis at the same time as protecting residents’ local amenity.  That requires some willingness on the part of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives to show some concern about the desperate housing plight many of our residents find themselves in.”

 

(vii)      From Cllr Reid

 

“Would the Cabinet Leader confirm that he is happy that return tickets are no longer sold on First buses – equating to a 10% increase in most passenger's costs - and does he support the increase in the number of single fare stages from 5 to 9?”

 

Reply:

“As Councillor Reid is aware my colleagues and I have campaigned for many years for reductions in bus fares, whether that’s through the Yo-Zone card or for ordinary fare-paying passengers travelling to work. Rather than congratulating she is finding ways to criticise.

 

For the attention of those Members newly elected to the council, Councillor Reid was once Executive Member for Transport and during this time all we saw was successive increases in bus fares. She used to express concern about increases but did nothing about it. In January 2007 she said "We work with all the bus operators and we do provide a lot of the infrastructure to allow them to run their services. But of course all the bus companies are commercial operations that have to return a profit. The council put in a lot of infrastructure and a lot of hard work to encourage people to use the bus. We are concerned that these increases in bus fares will deter people from using the bus. Our concern is that everybody's hard work will be undone by fares that are well above the rate of inflation.

 

The new pricing system is not perfect but I feel on balance offers more incentives than not to get on the bus, which is what we want more people to do.”

 

(viii)     From Cllr Healey

 

“Regarding the Lendal Bridge Trial, council notes that we finally have evaluation criteria for this trial.  When can we expect success criteria to be published?”

 

Reply:

“The criteria were published some time ago and are on the council website.”

 

 

(ix)        From Cllr Aspden

 

“Is the Chief Executive of Visit York right to be “very concerned” over the closure of Lendal Bridge?”

 

Reply:

“Everybody is entitled to their view.”

 

(x)         From Cllr Healey

 

“Regarding the Apprenticeship Living Wage, can the Leader confirm the number of CYC apprentices in years 2010/2011, 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/14 and the forecast number for next financial year 2014/2015?”

 

Reply:

“I am happy to provide the numbers he asked for but first of all I would like to point out that our apprentices used to be paid £2.45 an hour. I know apprenticeships take into account a training element to their pay but I don't think this level of pay is justified. From April they are now paid £4.98 an hour - which is the minimum wage.

 

The number of apprenticeships before Labour took control in 2010/11 was negligible, in 2011/12 it was boosted to 37 soon after Labour was elected to run the council and increased the budget for apprentices, in 2012/13 it was 30 and so far this financial we have recruited 17. I think it is too soon to say what the figure for 2014/15 will be but you can see this administration is serious about creating apprenticeships and providing an important contribution in the form of in-work training at the beginning of people’s careers.”

 

B       Cabinet Recommendations

 

Capital Programme – Monitor One 2013/14

 

Cllr Alexander moved, and Cllr Simpson-Laing seconded the following recommendation contained in Minute 40 of the Cabinet meeting held on 3 September 2013:

 

[That Council]agree to:

·                The adjustments in the Capital programme of an increase of £1.473m in 2013/14 as detailed in the report and contained in Annex A.

·                Approval the following Housing & Public Protection schemes:

 

(i)    The allocation of £385k of external grants  for Housing Grants & Associated investments programme;

 

(ii)   The use of £255k of housing balances to fund the HRA Property Buy Back scheme;

 

(iii)   Note the removal of £153k of grant

resulting in a reduction of the Disabled Facilities Grant programme of works.

 

Reason:              To enable the effective management and monitoring of the Council’s capital programme.

 

On being put to the vote, the recommendation was declared CARRIED and it was

 

Resolved:                     That the above recommendation in respect of the Capital Programme – Monitor One be approved. ^1.