Agenda item

This report sets out the projected 2023/24 financial position and the performance position for the period covering 1 April 2023 to 31 December 2023. This is the third report of the financial year and assesses performance against budgets, including progress in delivering the Council’s savings programme.

Officers introduced a report outlining finance and performance information for quarter 3, covering the Place Directorate service areas. Although the Council faced a challenging financial situation overall, there was a forecast underspend of over £1m across these service areas due to strong income performance from parking and waste disposal and collection.

The committee discussed the finance and performance information relating to waste and recycling. It was noted that there was a forecast underspend of £1.2m across waste disposal and collection, due in part to lower residual waste tonnages across York and North Yorkshire resulting in greater capacity for Yorwaste to collect commercial waste and pay the Council for disposal at Allerton Park, although it could not be assumed that this would be ongoing. Around 1500 properties currently paid for a second green waste bin, bringing a revenue of around £65,000, and that green waste was processed into compost by Yorwaste. It was anticipated that around 90,000 properties would pay for green bins under the changes introduced in the recent budget and confirmed that a digital self-service solution was being looked at to manage the increased scale of payments, with a human interface for those unable to use the digital system.

Members enquired about parking services. It was confirmed that the post-pandemic recovery in car park revenue had been stronger than initially anticipated. The figures in the report pre-dated the increase in parking fees agreed in the recent Council budget, and while flooding events had caused closures at the Esplanade and St George’s Field car parks, officers were confident that demand would remain high. The forecast assumed that the Castle car park would remain open, as any decision on its future would need to be taken by the Executive. It was noted that the Respark scheme, which was a small net income generator for the Council, would be considered by the committee at its April meeting.

The committee also discussed vacant shops in the city centre. It was noted that council-owned properties were generally full, and while there had been an increase in the number of vacant shops since late 2022, at 9.1% this was still below the national average of 13.8%. There were complexities around what the Council could do in relation to commercial landlords but Make it York was working hard to arrange usage of vacant units for temporary shops or exhibitions.

Members raised several questions about the presentation of the data in the report, including the direction of travel for the housing indicators, whether income earned by York residents outside York was included in gross value added (GVA) data, the number of EV charging facilities, and national and regional benchmarking information for the key performance indicators. Officers agreed to circulate responses to these questions by email to committee members.

In relation to the general financial situation, it was confirmed that officers were confident a large number of the savings identified in the recent budget would be successfully delivered, although mitigations would be needed where this was not the case. Significant due diligence work was being done by officers across service areas to ensure savings would be deliverable.

Resolved:

i.                To note the finance and performance information.

ii.               To recommend that as far as possible national and regional benchmarks be included for comparison in future finance and performance indicators.

Reason:     To ensure expenditure is kept within the approved budget.