Venue: Ground Floor Committee Room - Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham, NG2 3NG
Contact: Laura Wilson Senior Governance Officer
No. | Item |
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Councillor Nicola Heaton – work commitments Councillor Gul Nawaz Khan - personal Councillor Cate Woodward – personal |
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: None. |
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Minutes of the meeting held 9 January 2019, for confirmation Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. |
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Report of the Head of Legal and Governance Minutes: Councillor Graham Chapman, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance, Resources and Commercial Services, delivered a presentation outlining progress within his portfolio against the Council Plan priorities, highlighting the following:
(a)
the council encourages the use of Credit
Unions for bank accounts and ethical credit, and refers financially
vulnerable people to money advice services. It may bid for European
Social Fund funding to resource employment advisors co-located with
Benefits and Debt Advisors; (b)
despite heavy cuts from central
government since 2010/11, the council has continued to balance
its budget
whilst retaining most services to citizens. Joint Service Centres
have been set up and have been popular and effective, and many
services have been commercialised, generating over £32
million of new external income; (c)
development is planned by the end of 2019 with the help of the
private sector at the Glaisdale Drive
Industrial Estate to provide 60 local jobs; (d)
regeneration has taken place at Bulwell
and Clifton town centres, with improvements to shopping facilities,
enhancements to the outdoor markets, and better pavements, street
furniture, signage and shop fronts. This has resulted in an
increased level of growth and footfall in these areas; (e)
Catering Services have won the ‘Soil Association Food for
Life’ award for providing top
quality school meals, locally prepared using local producers and
meeting animal welfare standards; (f)
the council shares its HR and finance
functions with Leicestershire through East Midlands Shared
Services. This was originally intended to roll out to additional
authorities but this has not yet been achieved; (g)
Southglade Food Park has been expanded providing 150 jobs. A third
phase is planned but not yet confirmed; (h) there remains an ambition to pursue the development of the Blenheim site as an energy park in order to provide 270 local jobs in the energy sector, but it is unclear if the developer still intends to proceed.
(i) development sites are selected in order of their ease of development. Some long-standing empty sites are subject to flooding or are owned by the private sector and therefore more difficult to develop;
(j)
the council continues to invest in Robin
Hood Energy, to maintain it as a going concern and keep it from
saving residents money on their energy bills. Enviroenergy has ongoing debt but this is
reducing. RESOLVED to thank Councillor Chapman for the information provided. |
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Report of the Head of Legal and Governance Additional documents: Minutes: Lynn Griffin-Pearce, HR Consultant-Reward, and Jason Eaves, Manager of Nottingham Credit Union (NCU), delivered a presentation focussing on how the council interacts with credit unions, the benefits of using them and whether they are an effective way of addressing the increased use of payday lenders. The following information was highlighted:
(a)
banks have become less willing to lend
to vulnerable people , and payday lenders have filled the vacuum. A
rising proportion of working adults have no or little savings
available to them meaning that they are not financially
resilient; (b)
financial worries can lead to stress, anxiety and depression, as
well as having an impact on relationships, sleep and work
performance; (c)
a number of Nottingham City Council (NCC) employees use payday
lenders, and a number also use the Credit Union for savings and
loans; (d)
NCC has a commitment in its Council Plan to support the Credit
Union. It provides financial support and councillors sit on the NCU
Board. Pop up shops and money management workshops have been held
at Loxley House; (e)
the partnership between NCC and the NCU is due to continue, in
order to encourage better money management, break cycles of debt,
improve financial health and ultimately increase employees’
disposable income; (f)
new benefits that complement the NCU offering are planned, and
‘soft’ market testing is currently underway in order to
gain an understanding of external suppliers of financial wellbeing
education; (g) NCU also offers low interest debt consolidation loans, with payments made directly from salaries.
The following points were raised during the discussion which followed:
(h)
the NCU is not for profit and owned by
members, and it can be difficult to compete with commercial
providers. The financial regulator insists on increasing reserves,
so finding people who need loans is important; (i)
some people are reluctant to use Credit Unions or seek debt advice
as they associate them with deprived people; (j)
the basic service of the NCU needs
improvement and can involve a lot of paperwork. It is seeking
additional volunteers to improve the website, social media presence
and service; (k)
NCU membership is higher in some areas of the city such as Bulwell
which has a history of its own Credit Union; (l) the average loan amount from the NCU is £1,000. The minimum available is £100, and the maximum available is £15,000.
RESOLVED to thank Lynn and Jason for the information provided. |
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Work Programme 2017/18 PDF 110 KB Report of the Head of Legal and Governance Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED to note the Committee’s work programme for the remainder of the municipal year. |