Agenda item

The purpose of the report is to provide the Scrutiny & Overview Committee with sufficient information to decide whether it is reassured by decision making behind the creation of the Community Fund and the decision to use Community Infrastructure Levy (Local Meaningful Proportion) funds to help meet the associated budget challenge

The Committee considered a report set out on pages 5 to 10 of the agenda, which following a request made at the previous Committee meeting held on 7 December 2021, provided further information on the use of funds from the local meaningful proportion (LMP) of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for the Community Fund.

An introduction to the report was provided by the Council’s Head of Spatial Planning and Interim Head of Growth Zone & Regeneration, Steve Dennington and Community & Voluntary Sector Manager, Simon Bashford. During the introduction the following was noted:-

·         The Council had been collecting CIL income since 2013. 15% of the income raised through CIL was allocated as the LMP, which could be used for anything that addressed the demand development places on an area.

·         Government guidance advised that in an area where there were no parish or town councils, the borough needed to demonstrate that it had engaged with the community on the use of LMP.

·         A bid was submitted by the Communities team to allocate £400,000 from the LMP for the Community Fund, which was considered as part of the budget setting process. Following consideration it was decided that this use of funds would reflected the demand new development places upon an area, and as such was considered an appropriate use.

·         The Council was required to produce an annual statement on the use of CIL funding.

·         The next commissioning cycle of the Community Fund would begin in the summer, with engagement starting in the spring. The outcome from the bidding process would be reported to Cabinet in November for final determination.

Following the introduction, the Chair commended the full response provided by officers to the questions raised by the Committee, noting that reassurance could be taken from the information given.

Further explanation was requested to explain how applications from community groups were submitted. It was confirmed that the Council created a prospectus to set out what it wanted to commission.  This was then disseminated to local groups, with workshops held with the community and voluntary sector across the borough to spread the message. The four local community and voluntary sector coordination groups in the borough helped to raise awareness of the Community Fund.

It was agreed that sufficient assurance had been provided on the legality of using the LMP for the Community Fund. However it was questioned whether consideration had been given to the small grants fund. It was confirmed that the grants element for funding under £15,000 did not feature in the request for £400,000 as it was outside the timescale for this fund. It was highlighted that many small groups had still been able to access the larger sums, with groups encouraged to use the London Tender Portal as this would provide access to other funding sources.

Following discussion of this item, the Chair thanked the officers for the extensive information that had been provided to the Committee.

Conclusions

Following discussion of this item the Scrutiny & Overview Committee reached the following conclusions:-

1.    From the information provided the Committee was reassured that the used of the local meaningful proportion of the Community Infrastructure Levy for the Community Fund was within the context of the regulations.

2.    The commitment to promoting the availability of the Community Fund to local community groups was welcomed and it was requested that all Members be kept informed when the next round of commissioning was launched.

Recommendation

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee recommends that the Cabinet Member for Communities, Safety & Business Recovery ensures the dissemination of information about the Community Fund is circulated to all Members.