Agenda item

It was noted that at December 2014, the overall oneSource forecast outturn showed a projected underspend of £125k.

It was explained that at Service level there were four significant variances. There had been overspends of £230k and £123k in Asset Management and, Legal and Governance respectively. These had been largely due to delays in completing the transformation reviews, and associated implementation of service improvements and efficiencies. These had however been offset by salary underspends and additional income generation in Finance, and Exchequer and Transactional Services.

Members noted that the variances were not expected to be ongoing and would be removed following the outcome of current and forthcoming service reviews and in meeting future savings targets.

With regards to OneSource Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the report provided details of two KPIs which had a direct financial implication to oneSource and the London Borough of Havering and the London Borough of Newham as they related to the collection of Council Tax (oKPI 3) and Business Rates (oKPI 4).

oKPI 3 – Percentage of Council Tax collected

For the London Borough of Havering council tax collection, Members were informed that the performance indicator had exceeded target every month this year with an outturn for December 2014 of 85.77% which equated to the collection of £106.6m.

For the London Borough of Newham the collection rate for December 2014 council tax was 75.71% (£64.6m collected), which was up by 0.21% on the re-profiled target for the current year.

Members were advised that the lower payment rate for Newham households went some way to explain the difference between the collection rates of the two councils.  Aside from that, Havering had a greater proportion of household paying in 10 instalments than Newham and therefore would effectively finish collection in January. Newham offers 12 monthly instalments to all households entitled to Council Tax Reduction to enable them to spread the repayment of their minimum 20% liability as far as possible and more generally to other households where it would assist them in repaying in full for the year.

oKPI 4 - Percentage of National Non-Domestic Rates (NNDR) collected

It was noted that for the London Borough of Havering NNDR collection there had been a drop from 85% (£65.3m) in December 2013 compared to this year’s 84.17% (£63.4m). This was due to businesses now being able to pay over 12 months as opposed to the previous 10 months. The monthly collectible figure had reduced and targets were yet to be redefined; however collection rates were on course to meet the annual target of 98%.

For the London Borough of Newham NNDR collection indicator had been performing slightly lower compared to same period last year with 87.18% (£115.4m) collected out of a total of £133.8m collectable debit. It was explained however that this could be attributable to there not being a re-profiled target to take into account the changes to legislation allowing ratepayers to pay over 12 months as opposed to the previous 10 months.

Following a query, it was explained that a report would be presented at the next Joint Committee detailing performance of oKPI 5 for customer satisfaction.

The Joint Committee:

1.    Noted the current oneSource forecast outturn position;

2.    Noted the oneSource key performance indicators (KPIs).