Jackson Ng at Finance & Resources Select Committee, 16 July 2026

Good afternoon, members, cabinet members and officers and those watching this webcast. Welcome to the first full meeting of the Finance and Resource Select Committee in this council year. Firstly, may I remind members to switch on their microphones every time they speak so that their contributions can be properly captured for the webcasts. Members would have received and read the papers and whilst answering questions, I would ask that it would assist the committee if contributors can identify where possible themselves and their positions in the council. Agenda item number one, I'd like to move on to the appointment of the vice chairman. I'm pleased to announce that I have appointed Councillor Deb Dillon as vice chairman of the committee for the council year. Councillor Deb Dillon is a long -standing committee member and councillor who I hold in high regard. Thank you, Councillor Deb Dillon, for taking on this role.

We now move on to agenda item number two. May I ask the clerk to report the apologies for absence, substitutions and any changes in membership? Yes, thank you, Chairman. We've had apologies from Councillor Metta and we have Councillor Schaefer attending in her place.

We now move on to agenda item number three, declarations of interest. Do members have any interests that they need to declare in connection with any item on today's agenda that includes any relevant interests concerning council property, land leases, tenancies, contractors, professional advisors referred to in the papers, etc.? I'll kick off. I'm a member of Beaconsfield Town Council and a member of its Finance and Resources Select Committee. I'm a member of Beaconsfield Town Council as well.

I'm a member of Little Marlow Parish Council, but I don't believe that has any direct bearing on today's agenda. Thank you. I'm a member of Aylesbury Town Council.

Again, I'm not sure this has any direct bearing on the agenda today, but I'm a member of Buckingham Town Council. Thank you.

I'm not a member of any town council or parish council. Thank you. Councilor, are you? I'm a member of Highwaycum Town Committee. Thank you. Townsend? I'm a member of Chipping -Wiccan Parish Council. Thank you. We now move on to agenda item number four, which are the minutes held on the 16th of April and the 20th of April.

Any comments on the accuracy from councillors who were sitting on the committee then? Are we agreed? Thank you. Thank you.

There was also another agenda on the 20th of May, which was held in full council, following full council. It's just a little typo in the election of chairman, which I've asked the clerk to amend. Thank you. Agenda item number five. I have been informed there are no public questions. Thank you. Now we move on to agenda item number six, which is relating to property and assets. I invite Councillor Kerrington to introduce the report. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Pleasure to be here. And we're going to see you here. We're going to see you here.

We now move on to members' questions. Please. Very popular, Robert, Councillor Carington. Let me just make a note.

Okay. Can we start with Councillor Mourmina? Thank you. Thank you. I do have a bunch of questions, actually, but since you talked about...

Thank you, Councillor. So I was interested in the portfolio overview and just thinking about a couple of things that are going to help us understand this a bit better. I'm very pleased to hear that the Strategic Asset Management Plan...

There are more assets out there in the public. But when will the draft SAMs be available for member scrutiny? Thank you. So, like all normal processes, it would be one week for the Cabinet.

Thank you. Councillor Daley. Thank you, Chair. The reason why I declared that I'm Beaconsfield Town Council is because the question is specific for Beaconsfield. The Beaconsfield Town Council have been trying to engage with Bucs for over four years.

Thank you, Chairman. So I read with interest.

It says that the local ward members are consulted where required. What's the policy on this? Who determines when local ward members are consulted and are the consent required, etc., etc.? Thank you. I think that refers to, I think, the officer...

I do have a follow -up quick one, please.

Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.

No? Okay, well, thank you. If not, we'll move on to agenda item number seven, I believe. Right, this is the item number seven, the budget outrun for 2526. I'll invite the leader, Councillor Cramington, to introduce the report. I'll let Robert do it, given it's got his name on it. And as I said to you earlier, Chairman, I'm afraid I will have to leave.

I think we should acknowledge the favourable outcome that we've achieved, but I'm very concerned about the DSG. Just to clarify, we are relying on the government for about 90%, but that's subject to the High Needs Stability Grant, which is then conditional on the local SEND reform plan. And that 90 % is guaranteed, or it could go down to 70%, it could go down to 60%. I know you set aside 10 % from reserves, but what happens if we have to dip further into that 10 % for the first year, and in subsequent years, what happens then? So, Fiona, correct me if I go wrong here. So, in year one, i .e. this year, the government have committed...

Yeah, I think particularly when we hear about the send element, obviously that will report.

Yes. Any questions? Councillor Pol. Thank you. I'm not sure whether it's for the Leader or for the Cabinet Member, but I would like...

Thank you, Chairman. Chairman, you asked part of my question and I think it was answered by Leader Rayu. Well, that's fine.

Thank you. Just a overarching comment. Of course, anything that the government...

I completely understand because I mean I've dealt with these historically I completely understand.

Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. I wanted to ask about the effects of big...

Satisfying? I think so. I suppose it's just, it's very difficult to...

Thank you. I would like to add my...

The increase of birth budget, how much of it came from increased volume of children or is it an increase in unit price? Is it because the number of children we're helping have increased or is it just cost that's gone up? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Schafer. So I'll try and take each of your questions in turn. I think your first question was around sort of the transparency for committee in terms of the sort of...

Thank you, Chair. I've got a couple of questions. On page 23, where the reserves are listed, the one of income from the...

Thank you. So there are several things that I welcome within this. I found Appendix 1 to be very helpful.

Page 28. I just want clarification about Silliman. Is there?

I picked up that we spent or underspent £18 million in relation to capital funding. What projects, what important projects were delayed and what effect would these projects have on residents? So this is from a number of factors because bear in mind these projects, a lot of them are particularly sealer.

Given it's delayed, are we going to see increased cost because of that? And how does that impact next round of budgeting? No, we will not because it's a shame Amy isn't here, but through the property construction team, they...

One final question, Councillor Polle, and I'm conscious that Sarah has to leave at four in trying to get on to the next agenda. Following up to what you said, just so we have no cost plus contracts.

I think that nicely wraps up item seven, basically. I think the committee, I think we all welcome the favourable outcome here. But I think the one thing to take away is that I think we're quite concerned about the DSG exposure and what happens to that. I think I noted it earlier and I think members are content that we ask the officers and cabins to come back to us on what the exposure or what the updates are in relation to the DSG and the local SEM program reform is. So can we have that minuted? If there's nothing else, we'll move on to item eight, performance monitoring. I'm conscious that Sarah said she's got to leave at four o 'clock. I think conscious of that fact, I will save my opening blurb and hand straight over to Sarah if there's anything.

Questions for the officers and Cabinet Member. Councillor Townsend. Thank you. On the green performance indicators, quite a lot of...

Yes, thank you. With regards to the voluntary...

Councillor Bumui. Just one more question. It's not a very well -formed question. One thing that jumped out at me by reading the report…

If there are no other questions from councillors, we can close item 8. Thank you.

Moving swiftly on to agenda item number 9. This is the work programme that I have put together with officers, which is on page 69, 70 and 71 of your agenda pack. Thank you. We've put this together really to ensure that the committee directs its limited time that we have in the next 12 months to matters that we think, while looking at what the previous committee did, is important to this council, involving material financial exposure, delivery risks, or a genuine need for us to challenge the Cabinet and officers on. Are there any views or comments from councillors in relation to this? Councillor Townsend? Thanks. Are we expecting to see the SAMP that we referred to earlier come onto our work plan? As said during the session, that absolutely, and I was actually...

As soon as possible, I guess. Is there an urgency to it? Well, as I said, Cabinet's going to be looking at it on the...

Councillor Paul. Yeah, I think, thank you Chairman. I think we either have an initial look at the 8th of October meeting or...

I wasn't going to give one on this, but I have to say I've been slightly persuaded about the budget argument because what I'm...

I'm always pleased to agree with the wisdom of the Vice Chairman. Thank you. Can we have that? I just want to add the caveat. Obviously it's called a past cabinet first. Of course. Just have that cabinet.

Thank you Councillor Townsend for that. Any other comments on this? Oh Councillor Momino. It's a small one. I thought we had discussed at some point having something around procurement in the program.

Wow. That really takes us on to agenda number 10, which is the next date of this, next meeting of this committee will be 8th October at 2pm. Right? Well, therefore this concludes formal business. Thank you everyone here for attending, your input and for residents watching on the webcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.