Agenda and draft minutes

It was proposed by Councillor Swainston and seconded by Councillor Nicholls, that Councillor Horner be appointed Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2025/26 civic year. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that Councillor Horner be appointed Vice-Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2025/26 civic year.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were submitted from Councillors Andrews, Boylan and Cox. It was noted that Councillor Holt was substituting for Councillor Andrews.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2025.

Councillor Nicholls proposed and Councillor Swainston seconded, a motion that the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2025 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2025, be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed Members to the first meeting of the new civic year, and he welcomed anyone watching on the webcast. The Chair welcomed Councillor Smith to his first meeting of the committee. He also welcomed back Councillor Wyllie.

Members were reminded to use their microphones as the meeting was being webcast.

To receive any Members’ Declarations of Interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

Councillor Crystall, Leader of the Council, submitted a report that provided Members with an update in respect of performance against LEAF priorities over the 2024/25 year, and the proposed amended LEAF priorities for the 2025/26 year onwards.

Councillor Crystall said that the first corporate plan was presented to council in February 2024. He said that this document had been refreshed with some amendments. He welcomed comments, suggestions and questions from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor E Buckmaster asked for clarification to the changes in the Annual Report, and he asked for some of the important examples. Councillor Crystall said that there was an addition in the first section of the corporate plan which was to strive to achieve excellent customer service.

Members were advised about a further addition which was to engage the community in local government reorganisation. The Leader said that under the environmentally focussed section, there was an addition which was maximising the positive environmental impacts of the delivery of the new waste contract.

The Leader explained that there was a modified section marked as new, which was encouraging residents to play their part in supporting local wildlife and improving our natural environmental and supporting the delivery of the Hertfordshire Nature Recovery Strategy. Lastly, he said that there was a new item under the heading acting with the community, entitled creating a new long asset management plan based on community values.

Councillor Crystall advised that there were modifications to wording where policies were originally being developed and now being implemented. Councillor Wyllie asked what the council would be doing differently to achieve excellent customer service.

Councillor Crystall said that a council would always strive to achieve excellent customer service. He said that the corporate plan provided a focus for how Officers behaved, and the kind of things that they treated as the most important.

Councillor Dumont said that the council was seeking to achieve a nationally recognised accreditation or award known as customer service excellence. He said that Officers had recently engaged with an assessment body, and an internal audit and assessment which involved collating information about systems and processes, and this was due to be completed by the end of June.

Members were advised that this information would be reviewed by the accreditation body for review and audit. The Council would be informed after this whether the accreditation standard had been met.

Councillor Nicholls expressed a concern regarding inclusivity in customer services. She cited an example of a resident who did not have access a computer and had struggled to get answers to a council tax support query by telephone. She asked if there was a drive to making the digital service more comprehensive to free up telephone capacity for people who struggled online.

The Director for Regeneration, Customer and Commercial Services said that the general direction of travel was to address more queries digitally to free up more time for the complex queries to be handled face to face in the reception with customer services.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

The Director for Finance, Risk and Performance submitted a report that updated members on the work undertaken so far in respect of the Council Tax Support Scheme, and in respect of consultation with both the public and the Major Precepting Authorities in respect of proposed changes to the Council’s Council Tax Support Scheme with effect from 1 April 2026.

The Director of Finance, Risk and Performance said that the current scheme commenced in 2013, when it moved from a government scheme to a local scheme. He said that at that time, central government passported 90% of the cost in the form of funding to the council to administer the new council tax support scheme.

Members were reminded that the scheme had to be approved by the Council each year as part of the budget process. The Director of Finance, Risk and Performance said the scheme had not changed much since it was introduced in 2013, and pensioners could get up to 100% support, and working aged people could get up to 91.5% support.

The Director of Finance, Risk and Performance said that new scheme for 2026/27 would involve a move to a banded scheme. He said that the main benefit of the banded scheme for an individual was that their income could fluctuate up and down within the band without a reassessment.

Members were advised that this process would mean that the council would not have to carry out regular reassessment activity and gave assurance to individuals in avoiding weekly or monthly reassessments. The Director of Finance, Risk and Performance said that the scheme that would be brought forward later in the year for approval would aim to be a cost neutral scheme and there would be public consultation later this year once this process was completed.

The Director of Finance, Risk and Performance said that the scheme was still being finalised and might fluctuate slightly, and one of the recommendations that went to Executive on 3 June 2025 had changed to reflect that. Members were advised that the final proposed scheme would be signed off by the Director of Finance, Risk and Performance and the Executive Member for Financial Sustainability for consultation.

The Director of Finance, Risk and Performance said that the matter would come back to Full Council for final approval around November 2025, with a proposal for a new council tax support scheme for 2026/27 following consultation.

Councillor Nicholls said that there was only one option for changing the system and she asked if this was based upon examples from councils that had already adopted a similar scheme and had this been a success and had there been any issues encountered.

The Shared Service Manager (Benefits) said that he had been extensively in contact with the other Hertfordshire Benefits Teams in respect of council tax support and the scheme had been very successful. He said the current scheme needed to be simplified and a lot of the working age recipients of council tax received universal credit and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

The Committee Support Officer submitted the work programme report and Members were invited to consider and determine the work programme going forward. The Committee Support Officer mentioned the workshops that had been held in June 2024 and March 2025, and various topics had been added to the work programme.

The Committee Support Officer reiterated that there should be discussions or emails between Members and the chair to define those topics via scrutiny proposal forms to avoid these matters slipping further during the civic year.

The Director for Legal, Policy and Governance said that some of these topics had been on the work programme from the previous civic year. He reiterated that Officers needed to know which aspects of affordable housing and sustainable transport Members wanted to explore.

The Director for Legal, Policy and Governance said that Officers needed to pull information together and take this through Leadership Team before final amendments were made for reports to Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He said that scrutiny proposals forms should be submitted by the end of June for the meeting of the Committee in September.

Councillor Carter said that she had suggested the topic of sustainable transport following a report submitted back in 2017. She referred to recommendations made then and whether there had been progress since then.

Councillor Carter asked if there was a way for members to see a list of which topics the committee had consider over the last 5 years or so. Councillor Jacobs said that he would talk to the Committee Support Officer about this outside of the meeting.

Councillor Wyllie asked about the position of the Scrutiny Officer that had supported Members when he was previously on the committee. The Committee Support Officer explained that there was no Scrutiny Officer and he and a colleague shared the workload of supporting the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Nicholls said that she would do a scrutiny proposal form in respect of affordable housing or housing associations and accountability. Councillor Swainston said that some helpful documents had been circulated about the function of the scrutiny committee and some training information. She asked if this could be sent out again for the benefit of the new members of the committee.

Councillor Swainston proposed, and Councillor Carter seconded a motion that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme be agreed. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme in Appendix 1 be agreed.

To consider such other business as, in the opinion of the Chairman of the meeting, is of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration and is not likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information.

There was no urgent business.