Agenda and minutes

Minute of meeting held on 12 September 2023 to be noted for signature by the Chairman. (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of the Minute of the meeting held on 12 September 2023.

DECISION

APPROVED for signature by the Chairman.

Consider report by Director – Infrastructure and Environment. (Copy attached.)

2.1       With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of the meeting held on 4 October 2022, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Director – Infrastructure and Environment which sought approval of the Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) 2024-2029 so that it could be submitted to Scottish Government by 27th October 2023 deadline. The report explained that Local Authorities were required to submit a SHIP to the Scottish Government on an annual basis. Scottish Borders Council, with the involvement of its key partners via the SHIP Working Group, had prepared this SHIP submission.  The SHIP articulated how the Council and its Registered Social Landlord (RSL) partners would seek to deliver the Border’s affordable housing investment needs and outcomes, identified in the Council’s Proposed Local Housing Strategy (LHS) 2023-2028, over a rolling 5-year planning horizon.  Based on available Resource Planning Allocations from Scottish Government and resource planning assumptions, RSL partner, private sector borrowing and commitment from the Council’s Affordable Housing Budget, approximately 201 new homes could be delivered during 2023/24 and potentially up to 1,122 new affordable homes over the five-year SHIP 2024- 2029 period.  The latter figure assumed that all identified challenges and infrastructure issues were resolved in a timely manner, funding was available, and that agreement was reached between all interested parties and the construction sector had capacity to deliver the identified projects. 

2.2       The Lead Officer, Housing Strategy and Development, Ms Donna Bogdanovic presented the report and responded to questions.  In response to a question regarding emergency housing for homeless people, Ms Bogdanovic explained that funding for that category of homes was not eligible to be included in the affordable housing supply programme.  Work was ongoing with RSL partners to ensure that emergency accommodation was provided to people in need, with a desire to provide people with permanent tenancies rather than temporary accommodation.  Regarding the appropriateness of reference in the report to the slow-down in house sales and low level of building in the region following the financial crash of 2008, Ms Bogdanovic explained that the crisis in 2008 had a catastrophic impact on the number of houses being built.  Whilst Covid-19 had negatively impacted upon the number of houses being built, the 2008 crisis had a much greater degree of negative impact.  Building levels had not returned to pre-2008 volumes.  Regarding the potential financial benefits in council tax revenue referred to in the report, Ms Bogdanovic outlined that the figure in the report was a basic calculation using the number of units.  There were no allowances made in the figure for council tax exemptions.  It was confirmed that officers held regular discussions with Scottish Power Energy Networks regarding plans for the number of houses being built to allow them to plan accordingly.  The importance of ensuring that there was an appropriate number of heat-pump trained engineers in the region was acknowledged, and Ms Bogdanovic undertook to provide additional detail on decarbonisation work outside of the meeting.   Members agreed that a briefing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

Consider report by Director – People, Performance and Change. (To follow)

3.1       With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of the meeting held on 16 May 2023, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Director – People, Performance and Change which sought out the Council’s approach to agile working and the positive effect on standards of service deliverability.  The report also set out the background in relation to agile working and the benefits to the adoption of that way of working for the Council, employees, and prospective employees.  Scottish Borders Council’s agile working approach had been developed over the past 15 years and had evolved over that period. Whilst the report discussed some options in relation to our policy and approach to this, with the technology now in place, moving away from agile working was not considered a viable option given the challenges the Council faced in an increasingly competitive employment market.   The Director – People, Performance and Change, Mrs Clair Hepburn, presented the report and responded to Members questions.  Mrs Hepburn outlined that SBC’s current productivity compared to pre-Covid levels was 88% positive or unchanged.  Of the 153 outputs reported, 53 showed a positive change, 82 remained unchanged and 9 had a lower rate.  8 outputs could not be compared and 1 had no data available.  It was highlighted that flexible working represented a key strand in the context of employee benefit packages, as well as attracting and retaining staff.  There had been benefits to SBC from agile working in the form of increased staff wellbeing and a reduced carbon footprint associated with fewer staff driving to work.  Conversely, there had been challenges associated with reduced mental wellbeing and difficulties in interaction, collaboration, and engagement.   Members welcomed the report, expressed their thanks to Mrs Hepburn for the extensive data provided on the impact of agile working on service delivery, and acknowledged that whilst the figures were overall positive there were still some areas of concern.  In response to a question Mrs Hepburn acknowledged that there were challenges associated with the public perception of home working and suggested that communications and engagement with the public could be undertaken to demonstrate that Council staff continued to deliver effective services.  The Director – Infrastructure and Environment highlighted that business mileage was one of the two key areas in the context of the Council’s reduction of its carbon emissions, and that a report would be brought back at a future date.  In response to a question regarding teams which had been identified as having low rates of interaction, Mrs Hepburn explained that some teams also inherently had less interaction with their teams due to the nature of their work and highlighted that work was ongoing to create office spaces that would encourage staff back to the office.  Mrs Hepburn undertook to share information regarding in-person team induction and team building information with Members.  It was confirmed that a policy on hybrid working was already in place and that there was no prescription regarding the number of days that home-working staff  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Before proceeding with the private business, the following motion should be approved: -

“That under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 7A to the aforementioned Act.”

AGREED under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to exclude the public from the meeting during consideration of the business detailed in Appendix 1 to this Minute on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 9 of Part I of Schedule 7A to the Act.

SUMMARY OF PRIVATE BUSINESS

Private section of Minute of the meeting held on 12 September 2023 to be noted for signature by the Chairman. (Copy attached.)

The Private Section of the Minute of the meeting held on 12 September 2023 was approved.