Agenda item - Member Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by councillors:

(a)      Petitions: to receive any petitions submitted to the full Council or at the meeting itself;

(b)      Written Questions: to consider any written questions;

(c)      Letters: to consider any letters;

(d)      Notices of Motion: to consider any Notices of Motion referred from Council or submitted directly to the Committee.

i)       Banning of Single Use Plastics

ii)     Unnecessary Single Use Plastics

iii)    Mitigating the Adverse Impact of Universal Credit

(D)     NOTICES OF MOTION

(i)            Banning of single use plastics

(ii)          Unnecessary single-use plastics

60.1      As per minute item 59.1

(iii)         Mitigating the adverse impact of Universal Credit

60.2      The Committee considered a Notice of Motion referred from the meeting of Full Council held on 2 November request the committee receive a report outlining how the Council could be as effective as possible on the matter, taking into account a number of considerations.

60.3      The Chair provided the following response:

“The committee has been referred a Notice of Motion from Council requesting a report be received to a future meeting with consideration of a number of actions.

As the Notice of Motion states, the Neighbourhoods, Inclusion, Communities & Equality Committee received a report to its meeting in October 2017 that updated the committee on the activities across council services to prepare for the introduction of Universal Credit. That report was also referred to Full Council for information.

Furthermore, the Housing & New Homes Committee endorsed a report detailing the actions in place and underway to minimise the risk of eviction of local residents as a result of impact of welfare reforms to its meeting in earlier this month. That meeting heard that eviction action is always the last resort with a range of support action coming first and the council has complete discretion, exercised in each and every case.

The council has worked with a multitude of agencies in preparation of, and roll out of Universal Credit  including: Moneyworks, Citizens Advice, Money Advice Plus, the community and voluntary sector, registered social landlords, private landlords and the DWP.

The council has a Discretionary Housing Payment budget of £1.3million, a Discretionary Council Tax Reduction budget of £150k and a Local Discretionary Social Fund of £180k and this committee agreed in October to release the 2018/19 contingency of £79,000 within the Welfare Reform Reserve to support the Local Discretionary Social Fund in 2017/18 if required.

Members will continue to be updated on the roll out of Universal Credit through officer briefings and updates and the Welfare Rights team have a series of training sessions for Members to attend.

On the basis of the information outlined and the huge amount of work underway and planned, I am minded to agree to receive a report in six months’ time providing this committee with an update of the effectiveness of that work and any actions that might be necessary”.

60.4      RESOLVED- That the Notice of Motion be noted.