Issue - meetings

An opportunity for the Committee to question the Cabinet Member, Councillor Joe Goldberg, on the Finance and Carbon Reduction portfolio.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Carbon Reduction, Cllr Joe Goldberg, gave an overview of his portfolio highlighting that Haringey’s efficiency programme was being monitored and a  further £20 million would need to be cut over the next two years in addition to the £20 million agreed in the Council’s medium term financial plan in February 2011.  A review of the Council’s property portfolio was being scoped and this would include community and housing buildings, schools and office building left vacant as a result of the cuts.  The Haringey 40/20 initiative to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 was being launched and other sustainability programmes were being considered.

In response to questions from the Committee the following was noted:

• Community buildings would be considered as part of the review.
• The increased demand in the Wood Green and Tottenham call-centres as a result of the previous closure of two call-centres was causing unacceptable waiting times.  This was due to one or two specific services that had not yet made the transition to online services and other new processes. The Council was also looking at the role the community hubs could play in customer services.                                  
• The Cabinet Member stated that he was confident that the overspend in Children’s Services, caused by the increased demand for child protection services in the borough, was manageable and was being monitored.
• Meetings with other boroughs about sharing services including communications, development and learning, legal services and IT systems were continuing.  The Council already shared much of its procurement including London energy, saving a substantial amount for London Councils.
• In response to comments that cuts could be made in the IT service rather than from frontline services the Cabinet Member explained that the IT service had seen some reductions, including the deletion of 22 positions but there was a limit to what could be stopped as IT systems ran critical services such as Framework-I for safeguarding.
• The Council was in discussions with Islington Council about a project to look at linking different IT systems to enable the sharing of information of customers.
• The Council had a council tax collection rate of 94%, which was 2% higher than last year.  Overdue council tax payments were written off after 8 years.
• In response to questions the Committee noted that the Council made no provision in its budget for compensation payouts to a particular previous employee.
• The Council’s total estimated level of reserves amounted to £59 million.
• A Committee Member suggested that carbon reduction was a luxury during such times of austerity.  It was reported that the Council spent as little as £140k on carbon reduction and this would help avoid future costs. The Cabinet Member explained how carbon reduction was measured and monitored.