The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Tuesday 19 September 2023.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests of Non-Registerable Interests, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

Subject to providing two working days' notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

The Leader, Councillor Mark Stephenson, has been invited to provide a short introduction to the Committee on his focus in respect of his portfolio.

[Note: At each meeting of the Committee a different Portfolio Holder will be invited to address it on the focus for the separate Portfolios]

This Committee has an important role in the monitoring and considering the Council's strategic financial position.  To facilitate a discussion around the appropriateness of key financial policies of the Council, this meeting is provided with the following reports as submitted to the meetings of Cabinet identified:

1) Treasury Management Report to Cabinet 21 July 2023 (pages 5 to 20)

2) Outturn Report to Cabinet 21 July 2023 (pages 21 to 30)

3) Q1 Update Report to Cabinet 6 October 2023 (pages 31 to 74)

The Leader of the Council and the Assistant Director of Finance and IT have been invited to assist the Committee with its consideration of the above.  The Committee is invited to determine whether it has any comments or recommendations it wishes to put forward to the Leader or to Cabinet in respect of the matters covered in the three reports now submitted.

The Committee will also be requested to confirm arrangements for a development session to be held on local government finance, including the Housing Revenue Account, prior to the Christmas break and arrangements for the budget scrutiny meetings in early January 2024.

The purpose of this report is to provide the Committee with the interim Report from its Council Enforcement Arrangements Task and Finish Group.  This interim report is being submitted as the Task and Finish Group has concluded the element of its enquiry concerning Planning Enforcement.  The interim report is set out in the Appendix to this report.  The intention of the whole enquiry was recorded as:

“To identify the extent to which here are further steps that can be taken to further achieve a fair and equitable use of enforcement powers, taking account of relevant information and that the resources made available for enforcement are used to best effect.”

The report provides the Committee with an update on its approved Work Programme for 2023/24 (including progress with enquiries set out in its Work Programme), feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which notice has been given since publication of the agenda for the Committee’s last meeting.