Issue - meetings

The Joint Committee had been notified at previous meetings that the request by Newham Council to transfer its element of the Council Tax and Benefits service from oneSource back into Newham Council’s responsibility had been agreed by both Havering and Bexley Councils.

Subsequent to the previous meeting, a deed of variation had been drafted to reflect the change and preparations were underway to implement the transfer of service.

The Joint Committee noted the report.

The report before Members detailed the call-in of a Non-Key Executive Decision relating to the transfer of Newham’s Council Tax and Benefits Service back to the council

A requisition signed by Councillors David Durant & Phil Martin had called-in the Non-Key Executive Decision (17/36) dated 15 May 2017.

The reason for the requisition was as follows:

“The decision indicated problems with the oneSource merger with newham and a fuller explanation of the implications of this decision would be useful”

During the debate Members asked for and received several points of clarification which were provided by the Council’s Chief Executive and the Managing Director of oneSource. Members also received a short briefing from the Cabinet Member for Housing Company Development and oneSource Management.

Members were advised that the Mayor of Newham had requested Havering and Bexley Councils to transfer the Newham element of Council Tax and Benefits service from oneSource back into Newham Council’s responsibility.

A chart in the report detailed the efficincies that Havering could deliver on its own and also showed the shortfall in savings that Havering could not deliver on its own.

The compensation offered by Newham Council covered the first, second and part of the way into the third year to enable Havering to identify additional savings.

Since the proposal had been put forward officers had been identifying alternative proposals to make up the shortfall in possible savings to ensure there was no ongoing impact to the service.

Officers confirmed that the Council Tax and Benefits service was a separate service but had been identified for future savings further down the line.

Members noted that Newham Council had had to formally request, to the other two councils to remove the service from the shared service.

Officers advised that Newham Council had identified several services that they wished to create small business models for and this was one of them.

The vote for the decision as to whether to uphold or dismiss the call-in was carried by 15 votes to 0 with 1 abstention.

Councillors Morgon abstained from voting.

It was RESOLVED that the call-in of the Non-Key Executive Decision (17/36) dated 10 May 2017 be dismissed.