Havant Borough Council Five Councils Partnership Corporate Joint Committee Meeting

Apologies were received from Cllr S Cooper.

There were no Chairman’s Announcements.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 October 2019 were agreed and signed as an accurate record.

There were no declarations of interest.

The committee noted the performance report and was advised that payroll had remained on target during the busy period of the Hart, Havant and East Hampshire pay awards, which had coincided with the onboarding and payments in respect of the parliamentary election.

Performance of the physical cash collection service had been a challenge due to problems with the third-party supplier and the committee was advised that Capita had procured a new contractor for this service.

Committee members felt that it would be useful for regular performance updates to be circulated between meetings of the joint committee and for exception reports on individual elements of the contract.  In response, the Client Relationship Director confirmed that a Joint Tactical Board of officers met each month and that this information could be shared with councillors.

The committee received a presentation from Capita.

In response to questions the committee was advised that:

·         The number of new homes built in the Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire areas had realised an increase in the amounts received, however the collection percentage rate had decreased.  In part this had been due to the delays in new property valuations for tax purposes following first occupation being received from the Valuations Office Agency;

·         NNDR Business Rates were tracking higher than the previous year and above the national average. No issues were being experienced with collection and Brexit had not appeared to have had an effect; and

·         Variances in collection rates between the Councils was believed to be in part due to the differing demographics, however further analysis was required, and Capita would be happy to share these results.

The committee was assured that staff turnover and training was not a major issue and was advised of the following upcoming service improvements:

·           An extension to the telephone-based service solutions;

·           Completion of the harmonisation of processes;

·           Continuing to monitor the effects of new builds;

·           Work with the wider transformation team within Capita to implement any new initiatives to enhance the customer experience.

In respect of Universal Credit, the committee highlighted an issue where Council Tax repayments had been incorrectly classed as income and therefore stopped Universal Credit from being paid.  The committee suggested that the councils investigate ways to make it clear that the Council Tax repayments are not income.