Havant Borough Council

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25th May 2012

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Budget Report speech by Councillor David Gillett (Leader of the Council) at full Council on 27 February 2008

 

"I  can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give a formula for failure; try to please everybody all the time." 

Herbert Bayard Swope (1882 - 1958)

 

This is my final budget speech, it is not my last will and testament nor is it my eulogy but as this is my last opportunity to address you all without interruption for as long as I like I am going to make the most of it.

 

In past years I have given several pages of narrative of what has been going on in the borough and the council followed by the financial details of the budget. This year I am going to do it in reverse order because the real messages I want to get across I do not want lost under a cloud of financial woes and statistical information.

 

So let me start with some comments on council tax and some of the background leading to decisions around this year’s increases. As Conservatives, we are naturally inclined towards submitting low council tax increases, preferably none at all, It has been immensely frustrating to be constantly harassed by a profligate government who are determined to control everything from the centre whilst constantly banging on about ‘power to the people’ yet every decision they take does exactly the reverse.

 

One cannot help but be moved to see sights like we did the other week as an 80 year old pensioner was sent to prison for withholding part of his council tax. The irony about his situation was his objection to paying for the pensions of local government workers. Of course all civil servants, at whatever level, are paid for by taxpayers and one can understand his particular anger when it is things like his insufficient pension that has put him in such straights.

 

Before anyone reminds me I know it was the Conservatives who removed the link between pensions and inflation but that was a wrong move and we have admitted it. What’s worse is that with an ageing population the pensions crises is going to get worse and it is total dereliction of duty for this government not to address the problem. A society is judged by the way it supports its’ vulnerable citizens and for us councillors at the coal face to have to impose ever increasing burdens on those with low or fixed incomes absolutely stinks as we do the government’s dirty work for them. Council tax has become the ultimate stealth tax, although its not really stealthy, just crass meanness and dishonesty.

 

The IsItFair campaign has consistently bombarded the government to find an alternative way to finance local services. They have met with the leaders of all political parties and have undertaken a considerably well-informed review of the whole process. I am sad to give our Liberal colleagues here the news that IsItFair have strongly come out against local taxation. Their view is that it wouldn’t work so please stop peddling the idea and find another hobbyhorse that’s rideable.

 

I seem to recall that the government are keen on devolution. Devolution for Scotland, almost for Wales but none for local government, although they have said they would give more power to town halls, we have yet to see it. Unless of course, for power, you read money.

 

That being the case the government want the people in the North to have more power than those in the South. Moving up a tier in local government, to Counties and Unitaries, the evidence of this disparity is clear to see.

This year Hampshire County Council are receiving a grant increase of just 2%, whilst Nottinghamshire are getting 8.7% and Derbyshire 9.4%. Now I know that when there was a Conservative government they were less than generous to local authorities but Labour have turned the rate support grant system into an utter joke and they’re so blatantly political. They sit there on TV saying that local government has been given inflation increases, well, possibly when taking it as a national average but the support for all councils in the South and South East are well below inflation.

 

They think that we are wealthy here in the South East so the residents can afford to pay more, how distasteful is that! We have a higher than average number of retired people in this part of the world and more and more of them are struggling to make ends meet, especially as this government has presided over the biggest pensions scandal of them all, the raiding of £5bn a year from the very pension funds people are so reliant upon.

 

Understanding these issues makes it even harder for us to impose any additional cost on those already finding it hard to make ends meet. To say we are stuck between a rock and a hard place seems somehow inadequate. All we can do is to constantly seek ways to deliver our services more efficiently and to look for innovative ways to increase our various income streams.

 

The target we set Executive Management Team (EMT) to save £1.5m over 3 years, starting in 2006/7, has to some extent been overtaken by events, namely the funding of concessionary travel, ANOTHER unfunded burden from our friend in Downing Street. Thankfully, two years ago we saw the financial clouds gathering on the horizon and through the efforts of EMT and our staff we were ahead of the game by conducting the service reviews running parallel to the £1.5m savings work. The service reviews weren’t about saving money, they were about reorganising ourselves to work smarter and to better serve the needs of our residents, but there has been some useful savings coming out of the work.

 

Overall, during the 3-year target period, we have managed to save over £2m, which is a remarkable feat; the big regret is that we have been unable to convert that into any kind of saving on the council tax bills but we have at least maintained service levels across our 200 services and in some areas even managed to further improve them.

 

Thankfully, according to surveys, most people seem to understand that the financial problems we face are primarily down to lack of government funding, 80% according to one MORI poll. However, I believe we still have some communication challenges, especially around the subject of various charges we impose, such as for parking. We should also spend more time explaining the many ways that we have saved money and improved efficiency, if residents had a greater understanding of the fine balancing act we have to undergo it might make the bitter pill of council tax slightly easier to swallow, or at the very least introduce a degree of empathy.

 

So, understanding that at this stage there is unlikely to be ANY empathy, I have to propose a council tax increase for Havant Borough Council of 4.9%. This equates to an actual budget increase of 2.8%. The two percentages do not directly correlate because the additional 2.1% is entirely due to the reduced government grant compared to inflation.

 

The council tax increases for the other precepting authorities are as follows: Hampshire County Council 4.5%, Hampshire Police 8.1% and Hampshire Fire and Rescue 3.9%. This means that a Band D property will pay a total of £1,378.35 per year, an increase of £64.39 or £1.24 per week. The total increase for Havant residents equates to 4.9%. HBC’s increase is £8.68 per year or 17 pence per week. It has often been said that for £3.57 per week our residents get extremely good value for the services we provide. The following chart shows how the council tax has been calculated.

 

Council Tax Calculation

	Council Tax calculation	Total	Band D	Total	Band D	% change
		2007/2008	Council	2008/2009	Council	of Band
			Tax		Tax	D tax
			2007/2008		2008/2009	over
		£ 000's		£ 000's		2007/2008
	Net expenditure	17,117	£403.06	17,603	£414.35	2.8%
	National Non-Domestic Rate Government Grant	-8,236	-£193.94	-8,583	-£202.03	4.2%
	Revenue Support Grant	-1,382	-£32.55	-1,195	-£28.13	-13.6%
	Total Formula Grant	-9,618	-£226.49	-9,778	-£230.16	1.6%
	Sub-total	7,499	£176.57	7,825	£184.19	4.3%
	Deficit on Council Tax Collection Fund	11	£0.26	59	£1.39	N/A
	Deficit on Community Charge Collection Fund	3	£0.07	0	£0.00	N/A
	NET EXPENDITURE	7,513	£176.90	7,884	£185.58	4.9%
	County Council Tax		£955.62		£999.00	4.5%
	Fire Authority Tax		£56.07		£58.23	3.9%
	Police Authority Tax		£125.37		£135.54	8.1%
	Total Band D Tax		£1,313.96		£1,378.35	4.9%
	Taxbase (Band D equivalents)	42,468		42,483

 

I have mentioned previously the impact that reducing government grant has on our bottom line. In the following table it is worth noting the lower tax increases we were able to introduce in the nineties. These were primarily due to the large windfall we received from the sale of our housing stock, fewer costly impositions from the government, contracting out grounds maintenance and the revenues and benefits services.

 

I am sure members, at that time, were pleased with themselves but the way things were set up it did create a negative legacy that we have had to pick up. For example, the grounds maintenance contract was poorly constructed based on it being given to the lowest tender, under Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). This governmental directive was flawed in that it only looked at cost and took little into account regarding overall value. The result for us was that once the service came back ‘in house’ we inherited a pile of junk that was officially described as plant and machinery (we had to invest heavily to replace this over the following years). In 1999 I set up the Asset Acquisition Fund in order to build up revenue generating assets but we had to use around £900,000 of that just to re-equip the depot.

 

 

Budget, Government Grant and Council Tax

	Budget £ million	% budget increase	Govt. grant/ NNDR £ million	% grant increase	% Council Tax increase
1993/94	12.370		8.466
1994/95	12.586	1.7%	8.925	5.4%	-19.3%
1995/96	12.649	0.5%	8.689	- 2.6%	0.4%
1996/97	12.736	0.7%	8.533	- 1.8%	6.3%
1997/98	12.806	0.5%	8.255	- 3.3%	- 3.4%
1998/99	12.806	0	8.214	- 0.5%	- 2.3%
1999/2000	13.064	2.0%	8.288	0.2%	4.5%
2000/2001	13.407	2.6%	8.362	1.6%	4.5%
2001/2002	14.116	5.3%	8.830	5.6%	5.7%
2002/2003	14.751	4.5%	9.081	2.8%	6.9%
2003/2004	15.343	4.0%	9.193	1.2%	9.0%
2004/2005	14.690	-4.3%	8.249	-10.2%	5.8%
2005/2006	15.291	4.1%	8.487	2.9%	6.5%
2006/2007	16.624	8.7%	9.464	11.5%	4.7%
2007/2008	17.117	3.0%	9.618	1.6%	4.4%
2008/2009	17.603	2.8%	9.778	1.6%	4.9%

 

The levels of our reserves (see chart below) have sometimes prompted heated debate, primarily because people misunderstand them. For example, the revenue reserve has to be kept at a certain level because it is from this that we forward the council tax to the other precepting authorities. We have to send this money to the Police Authority, Fire Service and County Council irrespective of how much we have actually collected so it is very much in our interests to reduce council tax evasion and fraud as much as possible.

 

I am always saddened to see how much we have to put into the insurance reserve. This is to cover increasing insurance premiums and small claims that are not worth insuring for. Small petty claims are constantly increasing which sadly reflects the growing litigious society we find ourselves in. The capital reserves and receipts hold the money we received for Potash Terrace and are funding the capital programme for the next couple of years. This also contains the asset acquisition fund I introduced in 1999.

 

The funding of Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) has been an issue concerning us for some time. The Environment and Community Board asked the Executive to pursue this with the DCLG and I am hesitant to say I welcome a report just published on the future of funding for DGFs. I quote from this new report “From 2008-09 the DFG funding split of 60-40 no longer applies. Local authorities will receive a DFG allocation without a specified requirement to match this funding. This increased flexibility will allow local authorities to design services which fit with local delivery arrangements and the needs of individuals.”

 

The big question, of course, is how much will we get? As long as we have a statutory obligation to provide DFGs we could still be out of pocket if the new grant is insufficient to meet the local demand.

 

 

 

 

I will now move away from the finances and look at some of the other major issues facing us. Sometimes we get so immersed in what’s’ happening in our wards that we forget the wider picture. The responsibilities placed on members of this council are considerable. We are responsible for taking decisions that will have a far reaching effect on those who live, work and visit here. At the county level, due to the authority owning children’s homes, the members have a corporate parental responsibility to ensure the youngsters in our care receive proper education and nurturing to enable them to attain their full potential. In many ways, members of this authority have a similar responsibility in caring for this borough – ensuring that its’ potential can be realised and that where necessary we protect it.

 

The obvious parallel here is the challenge surrounding regeneration. Only this authority, only you members have the power to create the right environment to enable this borough to become more prosperous, to help create new opportunities for employment, to help nurture the skills that will be needed in the years to come. NOT to provide employment for people living 30 miles away, but for our people, our children.

 

Providing the opportunities for inward investment is one thing, building the confidence within our commercial community is another thing but building the skills and confidence in our young people and instilling aspiration has to be the key for the long term wellbeing of this borough. I am proud that this authority has taken this specific responsibility very seriously. In bringing together the Havant Skills and Employability Partnership there is now a dialogue where there was silence, a partnership where there was a separation and an understanding where there was ignorance. We were one of the very first to bring together such an alliance, yet again proving that not only do we understand the problems but we are prepared to come up with solutions. We are looking forward to seeing work start on the £6m Skills Centre in Leigh Park.

 

In tandem with addressing the skills issue is the matter of the physical regeneration of the borough. This, for some, is the hardest of all our responsibilities. It is about the fine balance between keeping what is good, helping that which has potential and losing that which needs to be replaced. There is much talk about the character of the borough. Under our leadership there have now been Urban Design Frameworks for Havant Town Centre and Waterlooville, Leigh Park’s is being produced as I speak in addition there is the work for the Master Plan for Hayling seafront and the ongoing plans for Dunsbury Hill. These are crucial pieces of work that help us to understand the existing urban environment and give us the confidence to introduce change sympathetically. Let us not be afraid of change, nor do it for its’ own sake but because without it we will be dead in the water.

 

Change on a significant scale causes considerable unrest amongst our communities. That is totally understandable and our job is to make sure firstly that such change is necessary and if we judge it is, then our duty is to engage with our residents to put our case fully and with confidence, not arrogance, but with the knowledge that we are planning for the future of the borough. We are planning and delivering a vision in a similar way to that of our Victorian forefathers when they built civic pride with every red brick that was laid in the late 19^th century with the same optimism and hope that we have today.

 

I ignited that vision of renewal nine years ago and it is a torch that I confidently hand to my successor. Whatever the considerable challenges facing this authority, whether they are Governmental interference or insufficient finance we must remain committed to regeneration. The growth agenda under the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) lays down a gauntlet of considerable challenge to the South Hampshire authorities. It is not just about houses, it is primarily about economic growth and raising the performance of this sub region. The latest performance figures show that Havant has an economic growth of 2.75% among the highest of the PUSH (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire) authorities. This is a tremendous achievement but to maintain this performance will need a steady nerve and constant focus on regeneration issues.

 

Going hand in hand with regeneration has to be protection of the environment. There will undoubtedly be anxiety over possible intrusions into the strategic gaps as we respond to the Regional Spatial Strategy and the housing targets within it. Our aim is to build as much on brownfield sites as possible and to allow infilling within existing built up areas but Greenfield development will be inevitable. In delivering the latter we will have to be acutely aware of the environmental and nature issues, preserving and protecting habitats wherever possible.

 

Portsmouth Water’s plans for Havant Thicket reservoir will be a good test of how sustainable development can take place. Some environment will be lost but a new and different environmental opportunity will present itself. Broadmarsh presents significant challenges and I have consistently denied that we have ambitions to concrete over the nature area, especially the parts to the South of Harts Farm Way. Hampshire Wildlife Trust were consulted over how work could be undertaken there but as usual it all relied on additional funding, let’s see what we can do.

 

Earlier, we discussed the Nottingham Declaration. My personal view is that we should sign it irrespective of some members concerns because the principles will be guiding the emerging corporate strategy and much of it will become mandatory, compliments of the government. Whatever your view on climate change, surely it is our responsibility to ensure we take a responsible attitude to the environment and take every opportunity to minimise emissions and other pollutants that damage both the air, water and the ground.

 

The Local Government Association (LGA) set up a Climate Change Commission, which reported back in December. They have produced a set of interesting parameters that illustrated the extent to which local authorities could influence this debate and give a lead to our communities. I am pleased to say that already HBC have adopted sensible policies regarding our built estate by undertaking various energy saving initiatives at community centres such as reducing heat loss by replacing doors and windows and replacing boiler plants which reduce gas and electricity consumption. We also, wherever possible, install movement operated lighting, which obviously saves wasted electricity when the location is not in use.

 

The successful introduction of alternate weekly collections has increased recycling to beyond the target set by government. I am saddened that some local authorities are reverting to weekly collections in the face of public concerns; one questions whether they are genuinely public or hyped media concerns. There are still some issues surrounding the range of materials suitable for recycling and work is going on behind the scenes exploring commercial opportunities to address this.

 

Community safety has always been high on our agenda. We were the first local authority in Hampshire to undertake a ward community safety audit and won an award from the Police Authority for our work on crime prevention. Perhaps more than any other area of our operations, we are dependant on equal effort by all our partners involved to deliver improvements in this service. It has to be said that at times this input is not always forthcoming, however, now we have a new and stronger community safety team and we chair the CDRP (Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership) I am confident that we will see an improvement in this area.

 

Perhaps the biggest single challenge for us is deciding on the future of CCTV. We have an ageing system that needs replacing with a digital one and we still have some areas such as Hayling that have no cover at all. Due to the considerable projected costs of replacing both the system and reviewing the control room arrangements we can only move forward by exploring partnership arrangements with other local authorities.

 

After banging my head against a brick wall for the last 3 years I am delighted to confirm that the borough-wide drinking control order will be in place by the summer. Other councils who have introduced such an order have all reported reduced nuisance as a result of the police being able to take direct action against those drinking in public places either causing or likely to cause problems.

 

The Leigh Park Task Force (LPTF) is grinding slowly forward. I use these words deliberately as it has taken much longer than we had planned to get all of the partners signed up to the work programme. It has also taken a while for the Consultative Forum to pull together its’ priorities in order to feed in to the LPTF.

 

I must admit to a degree of frustration and anger at those few who still unfairly criticise the Task Force. In spite of what I have said over the last year or so the Task Force is not just there to deal with community safety or deal with trolleys in streams. It is about streamlining the planning processes, regeneration, the environment, changing the way grounds maintenance work is undertaken, community safety and how all local services are accessed by residents.

 

A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to establish new protocols with partner organisations and this culture shift I am seeking cannot be done overnight.

 

I cannot miss this final opportunity to comment on a worrying development at Hayling. No, its’ not about another block of flats, it’s the possibility of Hayling obtaining its own parish council. I have been following the debate with interest and cannot help comparing it to what happened in Emsworth a few years ago.

 

There will undoubtedly be some strong opinions for and against but let’s look at what it will actually mean. Strip out the fact that some will look at it as building a personal power base, some power. Their real beef, as I understand it, is to stop excessive house building on the island. Well, I have news for those supporting this view. It won’t make one iota of a difference. A parish council would be consulted, as indeed would a Community Board or Resident’s Association, over planning applications but they would have no veto over HBC’s statutory planning role nor housing numbers arising from the RSS.

 

A parish council can charge whatever it wishes as a precept, no capping. There would be no reduction from HBC to Hayling council tax payers. We could, if we chose to, transfer some minor duties to a parish council but what on earth is the point. Parish councils are a good thing in the right circumstances, like villages being 50 miles away from their district council. All it would do is create an uncontrollable additional layer of bureaucracy that you cannot remove and would be forced on a majority of residents who if asked and given the proper facts would run away from the idea.

 

In Emsworth we had a referendum in which ballot papers were sent to every household. The result was nearly a 75% response with 260 odd voting in favour and over 2,500 against. A dead issue now in Emsworth and it should be the same for Hayling. The island is well served by 6 dedicated borough councillors who never miss an opportunity to support, promote and protect Hayling, lets leave it at that.

 

As this is my last budget speech I cannot help but look back at what we have achieved since 1999. Indeed, it is useful for some who have not been around here long to understand just how different things are since I took over as leader in May 99 and the Conservatives took proper control in May 2002. It is easy to be critical about how things are, this council is not a perfect organisation but the changes to the structure, the way we work, our customer focussed attitude and the changed culture have put us firmly on the local authority map and helped to create an improving authority that is at ease with itself.

 

We have given a strong political and businesslike leadership that has been prepared to take difficult decisions; this is in direct contrast to the atmosphere that prevailed during much of the nineties with a hung authority. There was a relatively mature relationship amongst the political groups during that time but a distinct lack of vision and courage to address the most difficult of issues left the borough and this council rudderless.

 

Nine years ago I said to colleagues “We have 10 years to put this Borough on an irreversible path to success, such a success that no matter who followed us they couldn’t cock it up”. I believe we have almost achieved that target and I would like to personally, and sincerely, thank all those members and officers who have contributed to bringing this authority and the Borough so far in a relatively short time scale.

 

We always recognised the potential for this borough and its’ residents and we have always had high ambitions for the future but the first challenge was to create an organisation that was capable of delivering our vision and aspirations. From 2000 onwards we needed to re-equip our front line teams, which led to the building of our new depot. Our depot is very much the envy of our local government colleagues; indeed many private organisations lust for the facility too. As I’ve mentioned earlier, many frontline services were contracted out during the nineties and as they were starved of investment the kit was wearing out and in many cases embarrassingly rusty. Our vehicle fleet is now something we can be proud of and our thanks go to the senior depot staff for having acquired good vehicles without breaking the bank.

 

Having come from a background of customer services I recognised the need to change the way we handled incoming calls and dealt with the public. I recall early on saying that our aspiration would be that whenever someone contacted Havant Borough Council it would be a positive experience for them. I am delighted that through the hard work and commitment of our managers and staff that we have for the most part achieved that aim through the introduction of one of the first proper call centres in local government, certainly the first in this area.

 

Improved communications was only part of the process of change. The organisation itself had to undergo a considerable overhaul and when Gwen joined us we stripped back the size of the Management Team then through the service reviews we streamlined the way we work and I know that all elected members have admired and appreciated the commitment of our many staff members who have gone through these processes. As a result some officers are doing different jobs, some have been disappointed at not ending up where they wanted, some have disappointingly stayed still and sadly some have lost their jobs but it is to the credit of all of those remaining the way they have got stuck in to meet the many difficult challenges we still face.

 

Work is now well under way to examine our own civic offices site to provide accommodation fit for modern use, it may enable some exciting regeneration of this campus. There are difficult but rewarding challenges ahead for this authority.

 

It has been an immense privilege leading Havant Borough Council for 9 years, and it has been thoroughly enjoyable. I have never felt burdened by having ultimate responsibility for this organisation. It has been about doing what is right, often I’ve been asked to make a decision about something and my response has been immediate because its an instinctive reaction, and very occasionally I’ve said I’ll give my reasons later when I’ve worked out what they are.

 

I’ve made a few mistakes along the way but I have never deliberately misled or misinformed. Whoever leads this organisation in the years to come - my hope, is above all, that they are honest, down to earth and in all dealings – straight, because that is what I have always strived to be. And that is what this council deserves.

 

Members I commend this budget to you.

 

 

Cllr David Gillett

 

Leader Havant Borough Council

27^th February 2008