Felly, dwi'n edrych i gael cerdd, eich cyfnod, yn ni'n byw'r cyfrifiad? Mae'r cyfrifiad nawr, dwi'n edrych i'r cyfrifiad. Yn mynd i, bod hi'r cyfrifiadau a'r cyfrifiadau a'r cyfrifiadau i'r cyfrifiadau. Mae'n eich cerdd, mae ynghylch yn Brwyllgor. Mae'r cyfrifiadau Brwyllgor, mae'r cyfrifiadau. Mae'n mynd i gyfrifiadau a'r cyfrifiadau i'r cyfrifiadau. Those are the many we need to be quarred. We've decided to to be on the side of caution because of the escalating situation in South Camberичiw with covid. Other members of the cabinet are joining us remotely but only those members present in the Chamber will be able to move in second motions and to vote. The members who are present virtually may speak in the debate of course a gweld i gweld i'n gweithio'r cyfrannol yw'r cyfrannol yma, a'i gweld i'r cwrs o'r cyfrannol i'n gweithio'r aws. So rhai iawn i'ch meddwl am gafael gan erbyn o'n leisio ar y gallau cyfrannol, mae'n gweithio wedi gyfer rhai iawn ac mae'n gyfrannol i'r lleifeth olif. Rhaen i'r ffordd honno, mae'n gwahanol yma, rhaen i'r gweithiau hefyd hynny. Felly, byddwch chi'n gweithio'r gweithio'r gwaith? Ynw'n gweithio'r gwaith, mae'n gwneud. Felly, yna'n goll i'n gwneud. Felly, mae'n gweithio'r gweithio. Mae'n gweithio. Jonathan Malton yw online. Jonathan, rydw i'n fwyaf ymddangos eich gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio? Prif Weinidd, rydyn ni i'n fwyaf â'r cyfnod ffordd i'r Defnyddio ymddor i'rolaeth am Yr impedance yma i'r ac yn bach Llywodraeth Pell yn ymddorol i'u phrwrddol yma Ieithradd Llywodraethau yn gweithio ysgwrddol a oedd yn cy bulunodd.知ol Garwn i'w gweithio arall. Yr didntydd Pell yn ddiw i'r gael, ei hetfyrdd yr oedd yn bach Llywodraeth yma i'r gym gyngorol nad oedd yn cyngorol i'r komoedd sawl am ythodau a'r Chairman Yr ridell i'r cyfnodd Who's the Vice-Chair of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee. So moving on to item 3. Declarations of Interests. Do any members have interests to declare in relation to any item or business on this agenda? No? If any interest subsequently becomes apparent later in the meeting, please would you raise it at that point. So moving on to minutes of the previous meeting which are on pages 1 to 4. Members are asked to approve the minutes of the meeting held on the 19th October. I move the approval of those minutes as a correct record. Have I a seconder? Happy to second. Councillor John Williams is seconding those. Do members agree to approve the minutes? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Thank you Cabinet, therefore agrees the approval of the minutes as the correct record by affirmation. Moving on to public questions, we've received two public questions. I believe both questioners are tuning in online. So, just waiting for our technical wizard to come back. The first question is from Mr Daniel Fulton. Are you there Mr Fulton? Yes, I am. Thank you, Chair. Good morning. Would you like to pose your question? Yes, thank you. In the Cambridge Independent on the 15th of September, the lead cabinet member for planning stated, quote, we are committed to work with Longstanton Parish Council and North Stowe Town Council to investigate water levels across the local area. As part of its investigations into the groundwater levels and the effects of the development of North Stowe, has the district council actually obtained any data on groundwater levels in North Stowe or Longstanton after May of this year? For example, from borehole BH144 or from any of the other boreholes being regularly monitored by the developers? If the district council has obtained any such data, why haven't they been made available to planning officers and members of the public? And if the district council has not obtained any such data, why hasn't it done so? Thank you. Thank you, Mr Fulton. I'm going to call on councillor Tumi Hawkins who leads on planning and is available on our connection to respond to your question. Thank you, councillor Hawkins. Councillor Dr Hawkins, I beg your pardon. Thank you very much, leader. Good morning, Mr Fulton. The district council does not have specific borehole data on groundwater levels. However, as part of the application for North Stowe phases 3A and 3B, the applicant has supplied a technical report setting out the assessment of the impact of that development upon groundwater for consideration as part of the planning application. And the planning service is with consulties reviewing that material. Now, early in 2021, the council funded a study on behalf of Longstanton Parish Council investigating the issue of groundwater impacts upon the Kingfisher pond. The final report from HRW Wallingford was submitted to the parish council in May 2021. The council has prepared a draft action plan in consultation with the parish council that seeks to respond to the conclusions in that report. And South Cams District Council continues to engage with Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority on the issue of groundwater conditions at North Stowe. Thank you, leader. Thank you very much, councillor Dr Hawkins. Mr Fulton, would you have a secondary question you'd like to pose? Yes, I do. The cumulative environmental impacts on groundwater of phases 1, 2, 3A and 3B are all material considerations for the upcoming decisions on North Stowe 3A and 3B. We had a very positive meeting. Local residents had a very positive meeting last week with Stephen Kelly, the Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development. And we understand that he will be liaising with the Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority, as councillor Hawkins just said. Can I ask if councillor Hawkins, in her capacity as portfolio holder, can please regularly follow up with Mr Kelly just so we have confidence that the elected leadership of the council is staying on top of this issue as we move towards a decision on 3A and 3B. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr Fulton. councillor Dr Tumi Hawkins. Thank you, leader. I do regularly communicate and meet up with Mr Stephen Kelly. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. So moving on to the next question from the public. Mrs Jane Williams has posed the question but I think is unable to attend so I believe Dr Kate Grant is attending virtually and will be asking the question on her behalf. Dr Grant, are you present please? Yes I am. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thank you. Would you like to pose your question? Yes. In May 2020, the council voted to give all delegation powers for planning decisions to a single unaccountable unelected officer. You may recall this change was quite controversial and attracted for syffrous opposition from councillors and a number of parish councils and local activists. You may also recall that during the debate the leader of the council, the lead cabinet member for planning and other from the majority group, repeatedly promised this change was only temporary and that the delegation scheme would be comprehensively reconsidered in the light of the findings of a report by the Planning Advisory Service. The report has long since been published, appears to have been forgotten and yet the majority's undemocratic delegation scheme which was promised to be temporary remains in place more than a year and a half later. The council's leadership has promised time and time again that this will be a modern and caring council that operates in an open, honest and democratic fashion and yet the council keeps falling short of these goals. What steps will the council's cabinet take to get the council back on track towards open, honest democratic governance and when will a truly democratic planning delegation scheme be put in place for the parishioners of Water Beach and residents of South Cambridge? Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Dr Jimmy Hawkins, would you like to respond to that question? Thank you leader and through you. The council remains committed to ensuring that the scheme of planning delegation provides good value for money to the residents and businesses of South Cambridgeshire whilst at the same time ensuring that local voices are heard and recognised in planning decisions. I will tell you and I think you know this that the minutes of the weekly planning delegation meetings are published on our website so are available to everyone to read. And I note with specific reference to Water Beach, the meeting of 26th October and that the letter from the Water Beach parish council is published together with those minutes. And also at the meeting of the parishes and Area 2 team meeting on Wednesday 1 December last week, the assistant director of planning delivery undertook to meet with Water Beach parish council to discuss specific issues of concern and I intend to attend that meeting, my schedule permitting. The planning advisory service recommended as part of its report that the council keep the scheme of delegation under review. And a combined group of members and officers was therefore formed and have had discussions about what changes, if any, are needed to the current delegation arrangements to ensure the best serve our community. There is a wide range of views within the group about what arrangements might work best and exercise is therefore currently underway to gather information from other planning authorities about the schemes of delegation used elsewhere and their respective merits. This information will inform further discussions within the group, which will allow a recommendation to come forward in the new year. Thank you, leader. Thank you very much indeed, councillor dr Tumi Hawkins. Dr Grant, do you have a supplementary question? Yes, I do. And it is topical as a follow up. We are increasingly concerned, despite assurances by Mr Batchelor and Pippa Haleings on the 29th of January 2021, 7 hours, 21 minutes and 19 seconds into the recording that reserved matters for applications on Water Beach. Strategic site would come back to the planning committee. They are now being handled in delegation meetings. Moreover, as Tumi Hawkins has said, minutes are published, but minutes of these are not being published in a timely manner. So currently, as of Sunday, the 5th of December evening, there is an unsigned, undated officers report on a major application related to urban and civic reference 21 slash 02009 slash full, where it refers to a delegation meeting purportedly held on the 16th of November, but no minutes have been published as of Sunday evening, the 5th of December. Thus a decision has apparently been made where the grounds for a delegated decision have not been published. Surely this is not appropriate. And furthermore, with regard to the one that Tumi Hawkins has identified, Water Beach Newtown East cycleway footway. Yes, the delegation meeting on the 26th of October did discuss this and agreed that comments should be obtained on the amended scheme. If it was found that the ward councillor and cycle group supported the amended scheme, it was agreed it would be a delegated decision due to technical nature of a discharge of a condition application. Were it the case that concerns remained, then the matter would be brought back to a future delegation meeting. Concerns did remain. It did not appear to come back to a further delegation meeting or not one of which any minutes are published. Maybe there is another set of minutes as yet unpublished. But again, we are not seeing the minutes of the delegation meeting in a timely manner. And we are really concerned with things like the cycleway footway where we just get a decision notice and no conditions at all. Thank you Dr Grant. So there's quite a lot there. Dr Tumi Hawkins, I suspect you might like to get a written response because I think there's probably rather too much there to do off the top of your head. Thank you leader. Yes, I will have to go away and look at the concerns that Dr Grant has actually raised. But I will also reiterate that last week at the area to Parish's meeting, we have undertaken to meet with Water Beach Parish Council because of the issues raised and the concerns that they have raised. And no doubt this will take place very soon. And as I said in my earlier response, I intend to attend that meeting because of the concerns that Water Beach have raised. And I can assure Water Beach Parish Council that we are committed to ensuring that we come to a complete understanding of what was said, what can be done, legally or lawfully shall I say. And we will make sure that we do the best that we can for Water Beach. But I will get back to Water Beach Parish Council with an answer. Thank you. Thank you very much, councillor Dr Timmy Hawkins, and thank you Dr Grant for your question. Moving on to item six, which issues arising from the scrutiny and overview committee.  I think there's a few things which actually aren't relevant to the agenda, so over to you. Good morning leader, good morning cabinet. With your permission leader, if I may, I will take each of the items as we come to them on the agenda. I think they will follow up quite nicely, so I'll take it that way if I may please. Thank you very much indeed, and it's nice to see if it seems to be enough for a long time. Okay, so moving on to the rest of the agenda, item seven is the quarter two performance report. And councillor Neil Gough is going to introduce it, but because he's not present in the Chamber, he can't recommend it. So I will recommend it as the leader of council, and I think councillor Williams, you're going to second it, aren't you? Yes, I second it, leader, and reserve my right to speak. Thank you. So over to councillor Neil Gough, please, who leads on this. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, leader. I'll keep my commentary short on this. I think again, against the back ground of the ongoing difficulties with COVID, this is a really good set of performance indicators on ongoing activities. I think there's a couple of areas I would just point out. One of which is the progress which has been made on the call centre. We'll see that for a long time we've been struggling with some of the performance indicators there, but they are actually improving in that arena. And also the initiatives which have been taken place with respect to the new telephony system, with the introduction of the golden number, the interactive voice routing, and the callback provisions hopefully will continue that progress and result in a much better level of service to those residents who call in. And I also note the potential for in the first quarter of the introduction of the chat system, which will help those who prefer to deal with that particular means of interaction. The other area I'll just point out, which I think needs to be mentioned, is on the complaints. We still have areas of underperformance in terms of responsiveness on complaints. That is being addressed through looking at the procedures and the processes we have, the particular areas in planning and housing where those numbers have not met the target, and we have activities in place there to support that. That's the four to two performance indicators. There's also the progress against the business plan targets. We're trying to remember the colour coding there is that purple is completed, green is on track, purple is sort of moving forward, but delayed in red is where the targets will not be achieved. Again, against the background of the challenges last year, it's gratified to see quite a few of these areas now turning purple, and many of them sticking with the green designation. So thanks to everyone involved in keeping that on track. Thank you. I'm happy to take it on. Thank you for that, Councillor Goff. We've given quite a lot of interference your end. I'm not quite sure why, but I think we did hear most that clearly. Thank you. Councillor Chamberlain, do you want to contribute anything at this point on behalf of Scoot me an Overview? No, we didn't consider this particular report. Thank you very much indeed. Right, I'll take questions and comments from Cabinet Members and Councillor Brian Mills. Thank you, Chair. I was just going to suggest to Councillor Goff that he lifts his papers rather than rest the Molly's laptop or the device, because that was causing the interference and made his... Too late, I'm afraid. Thank you for your technical input there. Are there any more comments from any Members of Cabinet? If you wave, I think I can see you all. I shall thank you. I'm going to go to other Members present. I'm going to take initially Councillor Heather Williams, and then I will take Councillor Anna Bradman. So Councillor Heather Williams, welcome. Nice to...very kind of you to attend. Thank you. Sorry, it's a bit of an interference on the microphone. I'm just looking at page 13. I think it is. It's hard when it's over printed. It's about the attendance satisfied with the response. I noted in the comments column, it says about a text message of a survey link is sent as soon as a job is completed. Now, I don't know about other Members, but quite a few of the correspondence that I have over the phone are from tenants in our council houses, quite often not having access to internet or not being of an age where IT was in the curriculum and indeed don't have a mobile phone. So I'm just wondering whether it does refer to the fact that we have quite a low response rate, whether really we haven't got the suitable format for them responding and whether that could be looked into. And the other issue that I wish to raise was about the response on page 20, the formal complaints result within timescale because it seems to be an ongoing issue really. It's not sort of dipping in and out. We've been below intervention for a while now. So just wondering if there's any way of accelerating and adding some additional resource into that area to bring things up. We don't like it when, for people to feel they need to complain anyway, let alone if we're starting to get complaints about the complaint. Thank you, leader. Thank you very much, Councillor Williams. I'm going to ask Peter Campbell to respond regarding your first point and Geoff Member on the second one. My understanding with the sort of feedback from tenants is that we're looking at a sort of multimodal approach and that the feeling was that asking tenants on the doorstep, after a piece of work had been done, their level of satisfaction actually often garnered a more optimistic response than if they weren't having to talk to a person who had just done the work. But I'll bring in Peter Campbell on that initial point. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, leader. What you say is absolutely correct. That our returns have been low. Some of this has been people have been looking to pass things over as well during COVID and take things off people. We recognise that what we need to do is offer a range of options of people to give feedback. Eddie Spicer has been recently appointed as our new service manager of housing assets is leading on this. We're going to look at introducing a range of options within the current contract and certainly with a new contract start later in the year. We'll have a whole range of options embedded within that contract. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Campbell. I think what we want is an honest and realistic feedback from tenants, not them feeling that they're having to be kind to the people who've just done the work. So by having this multimodal approach, hopefully we'll get a more realistic feedback. On customer complaints, I know Geoff Member has been doing a vast amount of work and we're really pleased that we now have the golden number and also the additional phone back facility. So I think a lot of work has been completed very recently, which we probably aren't yet seeing the benefits of, but you can probably add to that. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much, leader. As you suggested, Councillor Williams, there was a need for additional resource to get the complaints, particularly in the planning service up to date. That resource has been put in. I had an update from that person at the end of November and the vast majority of the backlog of complaints have been cleared. I'm expecting all of the backlog to be cleared over the next couple of weeks. Obviously we'll be into the next quarter's performance period whilst that work's being undertaken. So I doubt we'll hit target for next quarter, but it's looking very promising for the quarter after that. Thank you very much indeed, Geoff. That's really encouraging. Thank you. Councillor Anna Bradnam, you had a question. Thank you, leader. Yes, actually Councillor Heather Williams has asked the question I was going to ask about tenets satisfied with responsive repairs and I'm very encouraged to hear that Peter Campbell has appointed somebody to that post because of this need to give people time to think and not just respond on the doorstep. But I do wonder whether something on paper might actually be a useful way of contacting some of our residents who maybe don't feel so confident on social media. Having said that, lots of them are very good at using electronic means quite a lot of the time, but I just suspect there might be some who would find that harder to respond to. Thank you. Peter Campbell, do you want to come back on that? I agree. What we want is to recognise that we've got five and a half thousand tenants each with their own different needs. Some will prefer to do things immediately. Some may prefer questionnaires through the post. Others prefer a telephone conversation afterwards with some losing independence. As leaders said, what we want to do is to offer a range of options to best capture the feedback from our customers. Thank you. I'm certainly getting very positive feedback from residents living in Gamlingay as well. Thank you very much. Councillor Williams, do you want to summarise as the seconder? I will ask Councillor Neil Goff if he wants to add anything. No, I'm okay. Thank you. Councillor Goff, is there anything you wish to add? Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. The recommendation is set out in paragraph three of the report. That's to review the KPI results and comments at Appendix A and progress against the business plan actions at Appendix B, recommending where appropriate any actions required to address further issues. So, do members agree with the proposal? Anyone wish to vote against? Anyone wish to abstain? Nope. Okay, thank you. Cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation. Moving swiftly on to number eight, which is the empty home strategy. Councillor Batchelor is not present. So, I will propose this, and I think Councillor Bill Hanley is going to go to second it. Yes, I'll agree to that. And I think that Julie Fletcher is going to talk to report for us. Thank you very much, Julie. Thank you, Leader. Yes, so today I bring you the empty home strategy with the recommendation that this now goes out to wider public consultation and that Cabinet gives delegation authority to the lead member for housing to approve the final strategy subject to any minor amendments. So, the strategy really sets the scene as to the current picture of empty properties within the district and how the council aims to tackle these in the future. There was recognition that, whilst there are no particular real hotspots of empty homes causing significant problems within the district, nonetheless, any empty home is a wasted resource and can be detrimental to the neighbouring area. So, this has really been recognised in developing the strategy with the establishment of the Challenge in Buildings Forum and also the Enforcement Working Group, which will provide a consistent and much more joined-up approach in dealing with issues relating to empty properties. We're also looking for additional resources for 2022 to fund a dedicated officer to lead on empty homes, which was supported by the Scrutiny and Overview Committee. That committee also asked Cabinet to consider further options for the council to buy empty properties with the owner's agreement under the terms of the council's investment strategy. I just wanted to note that there are already options for homes to be bought or rented out through either Ermond Street or Schierholm Lettons, but these options do have to be financially viable to make them work for the housing companies. I would assume that this would be the same for any sort of council investment through the investment strategy. There was also reference particularly to shared ownership and equity share properties that the council has a stake in and potentially being able to buy these back. I understand that Ermond Street has actually done this in the past, but again it has to be at the right price and it has to be financially viable. Scrutiny and Overview Committee also made a suggestion that perhaps we should consider raising the premium charge for the council tax, but I understand that these are set out by regulation and the council currently charges the maximum that it can. From listening to all the comments received during the development of the strategy, I do think that the council does need to be more proactive in working with owners to bring property bats into use and I think by having a dedicated officer and the working group set up, this should help to facilitate this. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed and I congratulate you on a really clearly written report and a copious amount of work that's gone into this. We're very grateful for it. Councillor Chamberlain has obviously been significant input from Scrutiny and Overview in this work, which seems to have been highly beneficial. Would you like to comment at this stage? Thank you very much, Lady. Yes, we were very complimentary of Julia's report as well and I'm most grateful to her for delivering most of my report, so I thank you very much for that. We believe that we should be more proactive in trying to recover these empty properties back into use and provide families with homes and we were really surprised to hear or I was surprised to hear one particular example of a property where this council has a 25% share of the ownership and yet we have put in place a covenant which prevents it being let and I think there are opportunities for us both in terms of seeking to acquire properties by agreement with the owners and either refurbish them and re-letting them or selling them and that can form part of our investment strategy. And certainly where we have a shared ownership, putting a covenant in place which prevents them being re-let and therefore leaving people who desperately need a home without one, that seems to be an area in which we could take a more flexible approach. So other than that, Chair, I believe I have to say we very much support Julia's report and are very grateful to her. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. Julia, when does this go out for consultation? How long is that level? Consultation will go out in January now, I think it's not worth sending out before Christmas and we usually have a six week consultation period. Jolly good. Thank you very much indeed. So any comment from any members? Are Councillor Williams. Thank you, Leader. First of all, I'd like my congratulations and thanks to the officer for such a comprehensive report. As you can see, the number of homes that are empty for more than two years is very small compared with the total housing stock in the district. However, empty properties not only mean homes, not being available for use but can also cause a nuisance to neighbours if left in a poor state. We want to minimise the number of homes left empty and this strategy helps us to do just that. Why homes are left empty is varied and in many cases complex and Councillor Grenfrew highlighted a particular case which was just that. And as a result, they need to be dealt with on a case by case basis. So for this reason, I agree with the proposal that a dedicated post is created within housing to take this forward to help to ensure that the housing stock is fully used at this time of great need. So I should certainly be supporting this. Thank you, Leader. Thank you very much indeed. Councillor Goff. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Leader. I'm very happy to support this. I particularly want to welcome the challenging buildings forum and the focus on problematic properties because while as the Julie has pointed out, we don't have a widespread problem of buildings which are unoccupied, we do have a few very difficult situations which do give rise to where the property is derelict, potentially intrusion with the risk of safety for people who are actually entering those buildings and antisocial behaviour. So this is something which I know residents in my ward will welcome as a way of sort of coordinating activity across the council and other bodies to try and improve the situation of these buildings which recognise a few in number but they do cause a lot of concern to local residents. So I welcome this and welcome the initiation of that aspect of this report. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Goff. Pop points well made. A Councillor Brian Milnes. Yes, I'm rather going to echo previous comments as just made the ASB aspect of empty properties can quickly escalate local cases where we've had to try and get police action but we've got our own ASB housing enforcement officers who can pick up this action. So that is important that we actually as a membership of the council are aware of that. So I definitely welcome this report in that respect. And the other thing that I'd like to pick up on is Councillor Chamberlain's comments from the Scrutiny Committee and I think we do need to look at that strange situation where basically you've got tenants in a bind in regard to that covenants that we impose where it's a very frustrating situation for those tenants and we need some flexibility in order to be able to sort those situations out sensibly. Thank you. So thank you, Councillor Milnes. Councillor Dr Tumi Hawkins. Thank you, leader. I know the problem is not widespread but I happen to have two in two of my wards out of five villages in the ward. So that's 40% for me. I therefore welcome this strategy because I have been asking about it for quite a while. One of those actually we have as a council done some work on the property to strengthen it and I think we have a restriction of some sort on it. So we do need something to help us move forward and I particularly will be looking forward to seeing the outcome of the consultation so we can get this thing in place and moving quickly. So thank you. Thank you, yes. We look forward to seeing positive results from this. I think that's all cabinet members wishing to speak. Councillor Anna Bradlam. Thank you, leader. I am just mindful that one of the options that is offered to owners is that the council purchases the property through, I believe, through Shire Homes or Irmin Street and I just wanted to check and maybe ask the question who would do the valuation because we need to be very clear that a reasonable value is being put on a property and I wondered whether we would probably use our own values but also would we use a commercial value to assess the value of a property. I wanted to check out how that might happen. It would be very unfortunate, for example, if we acquired a home and rented it out for rental and it was found that the original value that was paid to the owner was very low. Thank you. I can see that Peter Campbell is offering to answer this question. Yes, of course. Irmin Street, of course, has got a good record of buying properties and the process is that it would be valued by a risk-qualified surveyor and to make sure it's stacked up financially. Leader, may I... Yep, you can, please do. Sorry, but the argument would be if that was a qualified surveyor but working for the council. I just wondered, would, as it were, the owner be able to get a valuation and have that put into consideration as well? Of course. Okay, thank you. Of course, but if we got... So it wouldn't be like a right to buy where they've been in negotiation. It would still have to financially viable for the council at the end of the day. So the balance of power will probably be more with the council than the vendor in that case. Yes, okay, thank you. Thank you. Councillor Flair Dawnton. Thank you, Leader. Could I ask a question about the scope of the consultation? Who will be consulted and when? Julie, would you like to answer that? Yep. So we have a consultation web page on the web pages. So it will go up on there. And we can send out to those that we know have an empty property. So all the owners of empty properties, we can let them know that the consultation is live as well. Might I come back, Leader? Yes, please do. Thank you, Julie. And I assume then that we as members should let parish councils know that this consultation is going on. Julie, I'm sure we are, aren't we? Yes, I think it's a standard practice of the way of the consultations on our web page, but I can definitely let them know just to sort of highlight it to them more than happy to do that. Thank you, Julie, because I guess I'm other, myself and others will have questions from parish councils when empty homes become an issue in our ward. So it would be really good to include parish councils. Thank you. Thank you. And there's obviously a role for all of us to raise the consultation with our residents and with our parish councils as well. I know from personal experience that just one empty home can cause a huge annoyance to people living in a village, as well as frustration that there's a home that somebody could be living in. So I welcome this. It's a really good piece of work and it'll be very interesting to hear back in a few months' time about how effective it's proven to be. Councillor Handley, as a seconder, do you want to add anything to this before we go to the vote? I don't think I need to add anything. Thank you. That's lovely. Thank you very much indeed. So the recommendation is set out at paragraph 4 of the report. A, approve the draft empty home strategy 2021-25 as set out at Appendix A and go out to wider public consultation. B, delegate authority to the lead member for housing, Councillor John Batchelor, to approve the final strategy subject to minor amendments, if any, arising from the consultation. Do you members agree with the proposal? That's unanimous. So Cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation. Moving on to item 9, which is at page 65 to 110. This is the investment strategy and Councillor John Batchelor is going to be presenting this and I am very happy to second it. So over to you, Councillor John Williams. Too many, John's, my apologies. Councillor John Williams, over to you. Thank you, leader. Well, as we all know by now, changes to the public works loan board rules last, but this time last year actually, almost a year ago now, have made this necessary because those rules have ruled out 21 investments, which are investments that have purely for yield. So the opportunity has been taken to not only amend the investment strategy, but also to review it in entirety and to not just take into account the wall changes, but also to adjust the figures so that they are in accordance with the MTFS, the midterm financial strategy that this cabinet adopted very recently. The main changes to the strategy involve stream 2. These are investments which are done not just for commercial gain, but include things like regeneration. What we've done is we've split that stream 2 into, divided it into those investments that are made to support local services and those that are undertaken to deliver commercial regeneration and housing. For both of those, the current minimum yield of 2.5% is being retained. I'd just like to say that there are some changes that need to be made to the report. First of all, in paragraph 7.3.2, the yield should be 2.5% and 2 has been missed off and there are figures to be updated in the tables in paragraphs 8.4.1 and 8.4.2 and I think we were going to have these amendments shown. Here we are. You can see there that the figures that have been changed to those that are in yellow have been highlighted in yellow. It's not a great change on this particular one but there are some slight amendments that have been made to bring it in line with the new MTFS. Obviously, as we go forward and we consolidate the budget and complete the budget for next year, in all probability these figures will change again before the report is presented to council. That's 8.4.1 and 8.4.2 can we see that? That's 8.4.2. Again, those figures that have been changed have been highlighted. I'm quite happy to answer any questions, leader. Thank you very much indeed. If you could take the slide down please so that we can see people again. OK. I hope that was all comprehensive. Councillor Chamberlain, is there anything you want to add at this stage? You're muted Councillor Chamberlain. My apologies. It seems to be the most popular term we hear today. If I may just say a few words on this and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Thank you. I really did recommend that the cabinet considers the adoption of the principles of disclosure, particularly where those investments might be impacted by climate change. We wonder whether it ought to be the investment strategy in view of the changing circumstances in which we find ourselves. A review perhaps more often than 12 months could be appropriate. We did indeed have a significant discussion clarifying the new rules relating to the Public Work Sloan Board. Whilst there are risks for the council, there are also opportunities, particularly in borrowing money to promote green to our core objective of the business plan. We were grateful that we were able to clarify that the new rules would not preclude us from borrowing money to maintain properties outside the district, those particularly that have been bought through Ehrman Street Housing. I would like also to invite the cabinet to highlight the idea of bringing the empty property acquisition into this investment strategy. We clearly have to be by agreement with the owners, but we feel that there is a significant opportunity to create some income as a result either of letting or reselling property at a profit. Finally, we members expressed concern about the potential for conversion of offices to residential use. Usually the design and structure of offices is not particularly suited to residential use, and there has been a lot of criticism in other areas where this has been done. Thank you, leader. Thank you very much indeed, Councillor Chamberlain. Councillor Williams, do you want to comment on scrutiny's suggestion about the empty home strategy forming part of the investment strategy? I suspect some work needs to go on to actually identify what the opportunities are. Thank you, leader. There's no reason not to treat that as part of the investment strategy, although clearly the numbers involved, as we know, are extremely small, and it's certainly something we will look at, but the current, that is really the current policy if we can, we will not purchase if it's financially beneficial to do so, but it certainly can be done within the investment strategy, and it's something we can look at. Picking up on the other two points that Councillor Grenfell made, yes, reviewing this every six months, I think that given the present very changeable financial circumstances, we find ourselves in a relief with regard to Covid and Brexit, and I think that it's very sensible, and we certainly will look again and review the strategy every six months. And the last point you made, which was to do with, I can't think what it was now. Conversion is offered. Oh, that's right, converting offices to homes. We have no intention at the moment to do that. It's not our policy to do that, but clearly we cannot rule anything out. But certainly at the moment there is not a necessity to look at that. And also there have been no commercial properties anyway that have come forward. Given the situation we find ourselves in Greater Cambridge, where demand for office space is very strong, I doubt actually it would be financially viable anyway to convert office accommodation into homes because of the premium value that is put on office accommodation in the Greater Cambridge area. Thank you very much, I'm grateful. Thank you very much indeed. I'd like to add anything to that as well. I think what was said earlier, I think Julie mentioned it, that any property that we purchase, as John said, would need to be financially viable. But it also needs to be the right property in the right place as well. Thank you very much indeed. Are there any questions from Members of Cabinet? Are there any other Councillors? I'm stuck with Councillor Anna Bradlam. Thank you, Leader. Certainly I'm reassured to see and I think I was concerned about this potential for investing in commercial properties for conversion to residential dwellings. And I'm trying to compare the papers that we received on this draft and it looks to me as if the section which referred to that has actually been amended, I'm not sure. The phrase was projects where the intention is to inject further investment, for example purchasing an office building with the intention of converting it to say into residential or other uses. I can't see that now but the papers have been amended quite extensively and I just wanted to check is that still in the policy or has that been removed? It was. It was a section 2, something, something C. I was intending to remove that reference. I'm just having a look to see if I could see. Sorry, 2.2C. Yes, there were several sets of ABC in the original section 2. There was it went through commercial regeneration then preventative category then housing and it was in that third section of text which had ABC and that was where it referred to converting office buildings. 2.2C looks shorter now and I just wanted to see if that wording had been removed or if that was still in there. Certainly, if members would like me to make sure that wording is removed everywhere within the Del Cymru. Thank you, Mr Maddox. Certainly at the combined authority I voted against every application to convert office space into housing for the reasons that Councillor Chamberlain expressed. So I think the answer to that is yes please, Mr Maddox. Certainly. I'm very grateful, Llyda. Thank you. Councillor Heather Williams. Thank you, Llyda. This is a referral obviously to council so I'm sure more comments will be made when it mergers into its final submission. I'm just wondering the tables that were displayed if it's possible to have those circulated because it was quite difficult to really see the details on the screen so I would appreciate if that could be sent round. I'm just looking at page 109 one point sort of picks up on the actual comments from scrutiny about the waiting for EPC and sustainability. So I'm potentially making the assumption is when we look at this we're looking at it in its current form and not its potential form and whether, because for example if it's a listed building, I know those are the leaders favourites, they're very difficult to make enhancements to or there might be other some limiting factors. So how are we intending to wait that and whether there is potential there to look at its current form and its sustainability potential because actually that's something that we might want to wait higher what it could be in its final entity given that that would then help us actually in reducing the district's carbon footprint. So that's just one thing we could have clarification really meant for finance on and the other was the tenancy strength just something around the rationale of changing the waiting factor in the current current climate. Thank you leader. Sorry because just repeat that last one for me please. So page 109, the tenancy strength there's a reduction in waiting factor from 10 to 8. Got you, thank you very much indeed. I'm going to, so you're speaking my language I'm going to talk about waiting for carbon reduction so that's good news but I'm going to bring in Mr Maddox just to talk about the detail of your questions. Yeah so we felt that we needed to change some of the tenancy strength equally I mean this can be reviewed again as time goes by but that was what we felt that that was the right approach if members have got any comments on any of those before the final version then that again but based on conversations we've had we felt that that was the right the right ratios to include sorry the right weightings to include there I would add that the strategy itself will need the figures updating for the final version for full council so I mean though those are the figures that we feel are correct is there a particular problem you feel with the tenancy? You're welcome to come back Councillor Williams I was just thinking the current climate obviously we want the tenancy strength I would say is probably one of the most important things we want to make sure to that public this is public money tax payers money but it's insecure as a form as possible so that's why I was just wondering why the change really I can understand the location change given the changes to PWLB particular because obviously if it's going to be in a district it's going to be prime and I just wanted to make sure that we are looking for the most secure tenants possible to give some security for that money being invested and then obviously I'm pleased to hear on the same page doesn't always happen leader on sustainability thank you so I mean I think my response to that would be that you know location is the highest has the highest waiting factor and it was 12 and it's now 10 and tenancy is the second highest and it was 10 so it's now 8 so you know in comparative terms actually nothing's changed it's exactly the same so I mean I'm satisfied that a considerable amount of work has gone into this but I'm you know we will of course keep it under review but I thank you for your input there Councillor Williams is there anything you want to add on that? Just to say leader that this has been based on our experience to date I mean when we drew up this table two years ago we had no experience of dealing with investments commercial investments the only investment this council had made was in its own housing company and it didn't have any other investments to talk of and it needed a set of criteria for us to be able to judge schemes coming forward and it was very much done on looking around at what other councils are doing well now we've had two years of our own experience we are better able to judge what better suits our circumstances in South Cairns and that's why we've taken the opportunity to have a look at the weightings and adjust them accordingly however as has been said and as I've said earlier we are now going to review this every six months so there will be opportunity going forward for us to revise these weightings if we feel that there needs to be an adjustment Thank you very much indeed Councillor Williams so you know I congratulate Peter Maddox for the transparency of this report with the track changes which makes it very very easy to follow for all of us so that's excellent and the fact that it's written in plain English which is a thing of joy for papers that are basically financial papers and as Councillor John Williams has said you know we have learned an awful lot last few years on investments and you know the council has been extremely successful and the financial stability and strength of this council is in part due to its investment strategy and the investments it's made which allows us to keep on giving grants out to communities as well as employing people to do the work that so badly needs to be done so my thanks to all of Peter Maddox's team for all the work that's gone into this so the recommendations are set out in paragraph 3 and the cabinet's recommended to subject to the amendments we've talked about today recommend to full council the updated investment strategy attached to Appendix A which includes a range of investment indicators to comply with the statutory guidance on local government investments and the governance arrangements to enable the council to seek approval for priority investments in a timely manner in response to market conditions do members agree with the proposals? Okay that's unanimous so cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation and item number 10 is more money stuff the capital programme update and new bids Lady sorry to interrupt I just wanted to check whether that report will go to full council in its current form in other words showing the amendments or will it be in its consolidated form I'd actually think I'd prefer with the amendments but I just wanted to ask Mr Maddox Yeah that was the intention councillor So that was the intention for it to go with the track changes Great that's lovely thank you Yeah it's really useful having track changes it's quite irritating when you don't help them actually Thank you okay so back to the capital programme update and new bids at 10 page 111 to 134 John Williams is presenting this and I believe that councillor Handley is going to second it Yes I am Thank you very much indeed so councillor John Williams Thank you leader Changes to the capital programme and the new bids are outlined in paragraphs 2.3 and 2.5 for the revised programmes in those tables I'm happy to take any questions on that There is one amendment to be had and that is under human resources system it's shown against Susan Gardner Craig Actually that should be Jeff memory Okay that's it John Good thank you very much indeed Any cabinet members like to comment on item 10 the capital programme update and new bids councillor Chamberlain have you anything to contribute to this My bold sorry leader No we did not consider this report Okay thank you very much indeed and any questions or comments from other councillors Thank you leader I'm just looking at page 132 on the external funding There's quite a few variances I'm assuming that's Cambridge City Council There seems to be quite a few variances between the budget and the revised figures so just wondering if we've got any explanation around that Right I haven't got my page numbers on this online That's in one of the appendices is it I'm on the online version It's page 132 on the line The bookmarks if you actually go to number 11 and go up a couple of pages that helps Okay fine, Mr Caputimadex Is there a particular one you're looking at councillor Williams The external funding from CTC for waste vehicle, external funding for waste IT system and CCC for electric charging infrastructure The budget and the revised All three of them are quite varied So I'm just wondering if there's a reason for that this year I mean other than the fact that we will have reprofiled the cabinet programme significantly So on the table for example we don't actually show the original for 20 it doesn't doesn't compare on appendix C Are you looking at specifically appendix C Doesn't tell us on the online version does it Yeah appendix C page 132 Yeah so all it is it will be a delay in purchasing vehicles or does any changes within the cabinet programme So when we change the cabinet programme I'm just to make sure it's in line with what the new expenditure profile is Please come back, yes Thank you, so to confirm it's not a case of the expense has been made and we're waiting for funds to come in Oh no, no it's just it would just be me profiling So it's just in relation to the profiling, yep, okay jolly good Alright, thank you very much councillor Claire Daunton I saw your name pop up there Well if I might just then if it would be possible for Peter Maddock to move the microphone closer it was difficult to hear him that's what I put in the chat, thank you That's alright Councillor Bradman Thank you leader, I just wanted to make the observation on the same place that Councillor Heather Williams has referred to in Appendix C on page 132 CCC is a very ambiguous statement particularly with regard to waste because of course Cambridge County Council is the disposal authority So can I just ask for those of us who work across both city and south Cams and county could you just use city and county so city CC and county CC rather than just CCC, otherwise it's not clear Thank you Thank you very much Councillor Bradman Moving to the recommendations set out at three of the report, I'm not going to read it all out because it's quite long So do members agree with the proposal Great, so that's unanimous Cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation So item 11 now is the revenue and capital budget monitoring for quarter two and that's going to be presented by Councillor John Williams and I will second it So over to you again Councillor John Williams Thank you leader, I've got nothing to add on this actually it's very little difference from the quarter one and it shows that we are on track to achieve the out turn, the revised out turn of the revised budget that we introduced following Covid Thank you, so that's a good result if we're all on track, marvellous Any Councillor Chamberlain, do you want to contribute to this? Thank you for the opportunity leader but no we scotally did not consider this report I'll keep on asking you, thank you It's very kind, thank you You're welcome Members of the Cabinet, anybody wish to contribute? No, and any members wish to discuss this? Nope Okay fine, so moving on to the Cabinet's recommended to A note the forecast 2021-22 revenue position against the approved revenue budget shown in Appendix B, project a major variances with reasons for these variances, Appendix C1 and C2 and the action being taken to address the underlying issues and B note the latest capital programme 2021-22 position and variances if any as shown at Appendix D So, catch up catch up with myself So, do members agree with the proposal? That's unanimous, so Cabinet approve the agree the proposals by affirmation and on the last leg, two to go item 12 is bids and savings page 161-180 and Councillor John Williams is going to present this and Councillor Bill Handley, you're going to second it thank you and over to you again Councillor Williams Thank you leader, well this is the the start of the putting our budget together for next year for 22-23 and it's very exciting because as you can see we are proposing a number of increases in services to our residents, we're also intending to make the council more robust and can I first of all thank the leadership team and in particular the finance team for all the work that they've done in sifting through the various bids and putting this together in front of us today the extra costs in doing this are more than offset by savings and particularly things like the transformation of the council such as the introduction of the golden telephone number and additional investment income which as you said earlier is enabling us to improve our services employ more staff and increase the quality of the offer to our tenants and to our residents for example if you look you'll see that there are new posts some of these new posts are permanent some are for a specific period of time to enable us to see whether or not they should be made permanent or to meet a particular need at this moment in time for example we are proposing an empty homes officer which we discussed earlier we're looking at three money advice posts for housing we're looking at another fraud prevention officer for our highly successful fraud team we're looking at external funding officer in finance another contract management officer and IT support for members and in addition to that we are also looking at introducing a post to help with antisocial behaviour which is not actually in this proposal but will be in the budget that's put to full counselling in February also we're making some temporary posts permanent the business support officer for waste the housing advice and the accommodation officer for shy homes the HMO post in housing and the facilities and compliance officer all these temporary posts we intend to make permanent apart from staff we're going to provide more funding for the commercial development and investments team where the housing visiting support scheme to make up for the county council cutting its contribution to this service a new staff engagement and development budget more money for apprenticeships and a grow our own talent project in planning and a supplement for our HDV drivers and we're also intending to bring back in-house the cleaning of our offices and vehicles which we'll actually make a saving so as you can see this is quite an exciting budget for next year one which we can well afford because of the transformation of the council together with the additional income that we're getting from our investments enables us to do this and I think I say this many many times despite mischief made by others we are in a very very strong financial situation we are very you know we are extremely healthy financially and I look forward to us further developing this council to meet the needs of our residents going forward Thank you very much indeed councillor William so it is indeed a good new story and you know as it gives me huge pleasure that we are investing in people there's nothing better to spend money on and I think the confidence we have in our executive management team means that we absolutely know that these investments are going to deliver huge benefits for our residents so my thanks to all of our executive management team as well as to the finance team who have already referenced who again put massive effort into this work along with everybody else of course it is a team of the whole council so councillor Handley do you want to speak at this point? Just to say what a great report I think we're one of the few councils aren't we that are in a particularly good financial position I gather Yeah can I say that I think we've all seen a unison report on which councils are going to be cutting their budgets next year and we are one of the very few councils in the country that will not be cutting our budget next year That's great news, thank you Thank you, right any questions or comments from Members of Cabinet? Councillor Chamberlain have you anything to contribute on this? No thank you leader but we will be looking of course at the budget in due course Thank you very much indeed any questions from councillors, councillor Heather Williams Thank you leader I've just got one thing that I think could do with a bit of further explanation in the chart on page 171 about the countywide partnership project and then the description is the countywide partnership project I'm just thinking for transparency reasons it may help to have a little bit more than just the repeated sentence So stress somebody that sits on the Audit and Corporate Governance committee about please do take very seriously the needs of the finance department in the budget process going forward along with as a member of the staff employment committee we know that we have a high dependency in planning on agencies and I imagine that's got something to do with the overspends there so if that can be looked at in great detail while the budget is being prepared and I hope that doesn't get the accusation of mischief making although Councillor John Williams and his former role was I think Loki himself when it come to mischief and so yes and I do hope given that comment chair that the leader does agree that it is important about holding the cabinet to account and that that can actually be genuinely motivated I'm interested in your views on that later Well thank you Councillor Williams The welcome that I've given Councillor Chamberlain on every item I hope affirms that we do welcome that scrutiny and we are all better the very fact that Councillor Chamberlain chairs scrutiny for us shows that we do welcome that external review of everything we're doing and it does add value there are new jobs identified in this paper which have come about because of the scrutiny that you and your colleagues have been heavily involved with and we've listened to because you like me represent your residents and we all want what's best for our residents and little bits of mischief creeping every now and then as long as we're fair that everybody's allowed a bit of mischief at times we shall move on but I'm going to ask our chief executive Liz Watts to respond to you on your two points there Thank you and I was going to respond on the first point if I may chair so on the county wide partnership project you're right it does sound a bit vague at the moment Councillor Williams the leaders of all of the public sector organisations got together in October and in the process of drafting a vision and a strategy for county wide working so that's not the county council that's working across across the county and so we have put in a sort of fits a hold really just so that at the point when we come to the leaders all agreeing a single project that they want to deliver together the idea being that there are some things that we do well on our own there are some things that we do better together we will have a funding stream from next April for that project so I hope by the time of council we may have some more information on that Thank you and I couldn't I couldn't tell you what it looks like at the moment because I don't know we had a workshop and we shall see I think the point is that actually Covid has really shown how working together delivers huge fantastic results really we couldn't have done what we did without the support of the county council public health, police, fire everybody else so I think you know it will be a shape what we don't want to do is lose all that lose the good partnership working which wasn't there before so you know there are opportunities particularly as we remove hopefully one of these days into proper recovery from Covid I'm going to ask Geoff memory to comment on how reliant we are on agency staff and whether some of these new posts will actually reduce our reliance on having agency staff in to fill gaps Thank you leader certainly the service review that's currently under being undertaken of the planning service is very conscious of the fact that we're very reliant on agency staff at various times what we're looking to do is to change the processes and the way that we work to reduce that reliance I don't know whether it directly relates specifically to any of the posts mentioned in this report but it's certainly an area that we're focusing on very carefully So sorting out the system so that the people we have are able to do the jobs do the jobs differently better and hopefully less stressfully for them stressfully, not sure that's a word Moving on to other members Anna Bradman Thank you leader I am looking at Appendix B the general fund revenue bids one off and I was really pleased to hear that list that Councillor John Williams gave us of the new initiatives and I'm particularly pleased to see reference on page 172 under housing advice and the title is money advice service three advisors will be employed to advise on money management income maximisation and advice on heating and insulation because I know that in one of my parishes a request to provide such a service was requested of me so I'm really pleased to hear that that is being put in place and I just wanted to check whether this would be a service not only for our own tenants but also tenants in private housing and you know I just wondered whether it would offer a service to them as well rather than just our own tenants Thank you very much indeed Peter Campbell would you like to respond to that? Yes the idea is very much this is for available to everybody particularly for people who are in all sorts of financial difficulties living in their own homes so we can sort them out by either increasing their income to their home or reducing their expenditure they have more chance of avoiding homelessness and that's what we're aiming for so yes it will be available If I may come back, Canida? Thank you very much that's so good I really really want to thank you for putting that in place because we have so many vulnerable people in housing and it would be so easy for them to slip into homelessness if we didn't give them this sort of support so thank you very much indeed and I know the particular parish will be absolutely delighted to hear that this is in place so thank you Thank you so I think that's a call to make sure that we publicise this really really well so that we have a very good uptake of it it's good to hear that there's an identified demand Councillor Bradlin and your own wards welcome this report so the recommendations set out at paragraph 3 A, note the growth bids forward both one off and ongoing and detailed dependencies A and B and consider whether those for 2022 to 2023 should be included in the budget to be proposed in February 22 B, note the proposed range of service efficiencies saving stroke policy options detailed in appendix 6 C sorry that these will undergo further refinement and consultation with stakeholders prior to forming part of the budget setting report in February 22 so do members agree with proposal agreed that's unanimous so the so the cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation and on to the last one now which is fees and charges and that's Councillor John Williams again seconded by me thank you leader I'm not going to dwell on this I think we all want to finish the meeting and I'll just take any questions and charges okay thank you very much indeed are there any questions from anybody on it thank you so are there any questions from any member of cabinet any questions from any other members that's a nice that's a nice quickie really good so let me just find where I am oh sorry I should I should just have asked prior to this I do apologise I should have asked if anybody wanted to discuss information which was commercially sensitive in the in the pink appendices but I'm taking everyone's silences that they don't so we can continue on so the recommendation is at paragraph 3 on page 181 recommended that cabinet consider the report and if satisfied to A approve the fees and charges as detailed in appendix A of the report to take effect from the 1st of April 22 unless otherwise stated all the earliest feasible date thereafter and be proposed variations to fees and charges in comparison to the prevailing inflation rate detailed in the report so do members agree with proposal agree thank you very much the cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation so we've now reached the end of the agenda thank you very much everyone for joining us today both in person and remotely and thank you to our officer colleagues I note the next meeting of the cabinet scheduled to take place on Monday 10th January at 10 o'clock and I do hope that you all have a very good break at the end of this month and come back refreshed in the new year so if we could stop


Hi everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebreaks.com here doing 2020 prison multi one-pack break football random team number 118 where we're giving away six spots in the 265 dollar football mixer. So 32 spots in the break everyone gets a random team in the NFL and no vet common ship. At the end of the break we'll take all 32 customers names randomizing top six names each win a spot in the football mixer. Here is our list of customers from Jose Rodriguez down to Sean Maddock with last spot mojo and the teams from the Cardinals down to the Washington football team dice roll to randomize both lists and pair them up five and three eight times separate dice roll separate randomizer at the end of the break to give away the spots eighth and final time Sean Maddock Sean Maddock Rex you you make that happen and I'm pretty sure we'll all give you orders separately because you get us that tax tax eighth and final time Dallas Cowboys down to the Colts eight times so eight times on the on the teams eight times on the customers eight times on the dice so we're not going to read through the full list no trade window either since this is a filler but we'll go through some of the potential highlights here Aaron Whittington Chargers Justin Herbert Cincinnati Bengals and Kobe Chan Joe Burrow Dolphins Tua Tagavello Adrienne Lopez Vikings Justin Jefferson Aaron Whittington Eagles Jalen Hertz Brian Glee and Packers Jordan Love Kobe Chan there you go cool let me print this out rip and what are we doing there nope Rex you make it fun though you're a nice guy you're pleasant you're a pleasant young fellow Ross Blacklock for the Texans Kobe Chan Stefan Gilmore Patriots Kobe Chan Dexter Lawrence Giants Steve Birch and Bradley and I Cowboys Sean Maddock now what we're looking for okay now let's go away those six spots so top six names each win spots here's that original customer list from Jose Rodriguez down to Sean Maddock again dice roll top six after four and two six times top six after six one two three four five and six in final time so from spot seven down to 32 thank you guys very much for getting in on the break and hopefully I can do better for you on our future filler special congratulations and thanks Steve Birch sorry first first now special thanks congratulations to Steve Birch Mark Rao Steven George Steve Birch Brian Kling Kobe Chan there you go so Steve you might have been the first person out but you also were the only one to get two spots so congrats there you go guys six times on the randomizer six times on the dice top six and that was 2020 prison a multi-pack one pack break random team number 118 from jaspiescasebreaks.com I'm Sean jaspiescasebreaks.com thanks for hanging out and we'll see you next time


Instead of having church models built around seekers, what if we built it around him? Instead of church movements around celebrities, what if we built it around his presence? Instead of striving to be culturally relevant and without knowing it becoming irrelevant, what if we became kingdom relevant?


The patient service conundrum. How far do we go? By Sharon Lee Parker, Director of Patient Advocacy and Hospitality Training. What is a conundrum? Well, a conundrum is a puzzle or a dilemma that can be difficult to figure out in which direction should we turn? With advanced technology pulling us in one direction and human service pulling us in another, is there a happy medium we can all live with together? How far should we go when it comes to patience and the need for kindness, caring, direction, compassion, and personal follow-through? My theory of positivity is that passion is not quantifiable, but you can feel it in the pulse of the John Thurrock Cancer Center and our hospital, just like a heartbeat. Everything is moving in a positive direction. It is somehow pleasant to be there, even though a cancer or some sickness abound. Patients reach out to us for help in the hope that we will have the right answers, which will lead to the best possible outcomes. It is their sole mission and our challenge and why patients seek us out. It is a well-established fact that we have among the best clinical staffs and support teams working to cure these cancers every day here at the John Thurrock Cancer Center, also known as the JTCC. Are we at risk, however, of becoming depersonalized? Because it is often hard to justify the costs and involved areas that are hard to quantify. The intangibles, including passion for the job, caring, concern, dedication, and going that extra mile. How do we educate the decision makers and policy formulators to really comprehend that the total patient experience absolutely does matter? Personally, I can see it in the patient's faces when we share a few moments, hearing their concerns and making a difference in their lives. A smile and a friendly hello can add warmth and comfort to a patient and their families, and that's whether or not you're wearing a mask or not. This may not be measurable statistically, but you all know what you said or did to improve the situation. And always remember to give yourself some praise if you know you did a good job after you leave the area. It's the feeling of success that brings a smile to your face and adds an inch of confidence to your very being. Everyone who works at the JTCC and HUMC and Hackensack Meridian Health needs to practice a friendly hello, a good morning, or have a nice day. It is becoming apparent to people involved in cancer care that patient experience is a leading indicator of how we measure up to others in the field. What can we do to improve our skills on behalf of everyone involved? The patient, the caregiver, and family members is open for discussion and your input, of course, is paramount to our greater success. As most of us are already aware, wait times in both exam rooms and waiting rooms need to be reevaluated and improved for the patient. Their time is valuable too, and we need to be able to justify why the waits can sometimes be more than an hour in different sleeves and for chemo. It is realistic to assume that there are times that no one foresees and the oncologist becomes tied up with the previous patient or the blood for some reason is held up. Maybe there's a previous patient, an important call or meeting, but how we react and what we can do to ease the wait for the patient is of paramount importance and can make all the difference. Wait times. Can I offer you a drink of water or something to eat while you wait? Can I help you? Are you lost? Can I offer you a chair? All things up for discussion. Things that can make a patient feel that we do really care. Here's a sampling of patient comments. I love all the nurses. Overall, this has been a very positive experience. Oh, I love Dr. McNamara. Dr. Viesel and Dr. Siegel are extraordinary. Dr. Gua and Dr. Richter as well. I'm very happy with Dr. Alter and Diane and Phyllis. Well, they are saints. It's been months since I received my first treatment. And there were so many that were so helpful, knowledgeable and considerate that it's impossible for me to remember all of their names. All of the nurses and chemo are wonderful and caring. Dr. Weintraub and his team makes a horrible situation tolerable, as Dr. Gutierrez does too. They have often taken the time to answer all of my questions and concerns. I often wonder if the staff takes happy pills. Tara and Colleen are the sweetest girls ever. They help you any way they can. And thank you, Claritza, for the hats. Additional patient comments are always welcome, whether they're positive or negative, because that's what helps us grow. A wonderful experience and facility only complained is sometimes it takes over an hour for the medicine to arrive from the pharmacy. Will that ever change? I'm not sure, but we can certainly work on it. When I do have blood drawn on the ground floor, they are as the rest of H-U-M-C exceptional from Dr. Lewis, from the people in radiation oncology, Dr. Ingenito, extraordinary. Becky and Anastasia are the finest nurses ever. It's very hard to find staff as wonderful as yours. In fact, it was better than Holy Name Med. They are superb. The process works well. I wish my workplace was as well organized and proficient, but it isn't. Thank you very much. Very good service, very good facility. All of the doctors and their staff members are wonderful. My scheduler always tries to accommodate my time and how important is that? Additional patient comments. JTCC is perfectly organized from the time you enter to the time you leave. Isn't that great when people can say, even though I have cancer, I love coming to the JTCC. The care and concern from the staff, from the main lobby to the different floors, I might have to go for some treatment or follow up. I just hope one day the center like this one can be located closer to where I live. A wonderful comment from a patient. I had stem cell recovery performed by Dr. Rowley at the hospital. Everything went exactly as he told me and Dr. Donato extraordinary. Scheduling very good. Registration. Excellent. Facility. Superb place. Tests very organized. Overall assessment. Superb place. And fine staff. If you have negative, yes, that's how we learn to improve what patients are feeling that are not quite right. I want to speak to a human that can and is willing to help me. Many patients have my cell phone number and now others as well so that they know that they can call the nurse on call, or someone in the sleep if they're having difficulty. It's more uncomfortable enough for family members in the infusion area. Well, that's up for debate. Some people love them. Some people don't waiting times and billing questions and registration are still areas that need more work. Wait times need to be managed better as they can be extremely long, which can be tough to manage when patients do not feel well. It can also cause the doctors to be rushed, which can offset the patient experience. It's not perfect, but we're trying very hard to make it better. If wait time and exam rooms could be reduced, it would be great. The ID badges are so important to have your name in the front so people can read them. You don't want patients to say, I can't read it. The appointment time is 1030am, but I wasn't seen until 1.30pm. The wait time was too long. Some of the staff could care less about life outside that office. I feel that when I leave, I'm forgot. When I call with a problem, it's about like I'm bothering that. Hopefully we don't have that anymore. Every patient is important, whether they're in the cancer center or they're home, and any way we can help them is what we need to do. Comment from someone else billing a constant problem. Yesterday I had a billing issue with the patient and I was able to hear about it and call up the right people and fix the problem. How great I felt and how wonderful the patient felt. Patients often say, I'm not sure why I owe what I owe, and discussing that and clarifying it is very important. How we say it in what tone of voice is very important. Negatives continue as to an overall comment. The food provided in the infusion room needs to be improved. They often cannot find my file was another. Well, the food has improved. And I can tell you that I had the tuna salad today from our food service and it was absolutely delicious. They didn't want unwrapped food because people touch everything and everything is sealed for our patients. Voice mails are sometimes full and they couldn't leave a message. That always needs to improve and we need to answer the phones in a more responsive quicker way often. Wait times too long as another person said and of course if you're waiting for an hour or two and somebody else gets in. In 15 minutes, you know that the wait times are too long. Not enough time not enough time with the doctors emergency room has much too long wait for an inpatient bed and you bet we need to improve the inpatient emergency rooms for our patients. We should really have a not only a separate area but maybe an entirely separate wing for patients a different area totally. We would love to have one at the J2CC. And if someone donates a lot of money, maybe one day we will anything to make the patient experience better. And if someone's having an emergency that we can try to help them. When human services rewarded we have a lovely picture here with parameters Catholic students giving back, and this was with Dr Stanley wine trout giving back, thanking us for a wonderful job for patients that they are aware of. Thank you parameters Catholic for your caring and your support. Always have an angel by your side by Sharon Lee Parker. It may be your mom, your dad or your friend, someone who's there from beginning to end the person who cares and goes all the way standing beside you to brighten your day. Who is this someone so special so true. It may be an angel just there for you. Each one is different and that we're aware. It's a feeling we get someone special is there. It may be a best friend a woman or man, someone who cares and says yes you can. Sometimes we see them in spirit and love. Sometimes they're flying in clouds high above. Someone that loves you and will be your guide. May you always have angels right by your side. Thank you so much. Enjoy your day and make it better for the next person.


Hey, welcome back to theCUBE's coverage from Miami of IFS on Leash 2022. Lisa Martin here with you. We've had great conversations today with IFS execs, customers, partners, their ecosystem is quite robust and quite strong. And we've had some alumni on. I've got another alumni who's back with me, Michael Weesey, the group's COO of IFS. Michael, welcome back to theCUBE. Thanks for having us, my pleasure. It's great to be back in person. It was great to walk into the keynote this morning and see a full room. I was talking with Darren Ruse, your CEO earlier this morning and I said it must have felt great to walk out on stage and actually see a sea of people and customers and partners who want to engage and get that relationship with IFS just turbocharged. Absolutely, I mean it's been three years we haven't had this buzz, this energy and the opportunity to actually see all our customers and also show our customers who we are, how we're evolving and how we're becoming a different company over the past four years. And that's, it's impressive what IFS has done in that timeframe. All the conversations I've had today really reflect the strategy, the strong strategy and vision that this company has. But I was looking at some of the financials and saw that your first half of 2022 which ended in June, there was tremendous growth. ARR up 33%. I think they're recurring revenue is in the 70% now. Lot of new customers, a lot of trust that existing customers are showing to the company. Yeah, absolutely, look and I think the secret source is that we have focused on where our strengths are. We haven't gone astray, we haven't tried to actually capture growth in any other vertical. We are really very religious about where we're going and where we are going, we are going deep and we really are trying to be the best version of ourselves for our customers and for those customers business transformation needs. Talk a little bit about that vertical specialization. It's something that we don't see very often but throughout all of my conversations today with your executives, IFS executives, with customers, with partners, that domain expertise, really that granular, the granularity of the domain expertise is really resonant that IFS has achieved that in those five key verticals in which you have such specialization. Yeah, look, I mean, I would love to take credit for having been the person who has done that but IFS has over the past 35 years really had this very strong focus but what actually was important when you try to double a business in the space of four years, not to be tempted to go away from that but actually double down on exactly that and see the opportunity in those verticals and make sure that our customers actually are getting the attention and the functionality they deserve. Let's talk about customers. Over 10,000 customers right now. I was also in the keynote this morning where Christian Peterson was sharing that in its first 18 months, IFS Cloud has over 400,000 users. So the growth is tremendous. The customer loyalty is ostensible in those verticals. Talk about customers and their influence on the company, the direction, the technology goes, the evolution, that kind of stuff. I mean, look, we are all about, as I said, we are all about the depth of the functionality and that means that we need to listen to our customers, we need to listen what's going on in the industries. We also need to not just listen but we need to think forward. We need to have some thought leadership on what we think is going to emerge and then test that with our customers again. So customers are at the core of everything we do. We start with, when we engage with a customer, we start with trying to understand their business in depth. We've got our own methodology around that and we don't just try to push technology onto them, but we are trying to understand what are their business drivers and then actually try to apply technology to what enables them to deliver on those business transformation objectives they've got. What are some of the changes of the waves that you've seen, especially the last couple of years during the pandemic when we saw so many customers pivot, we need to transform digitally to stay alive and then those that did that well enough to be competitive and to thrive. Talk to me about some of the changes as the group COO that you've seen. Yeah, so when you go back, I mean, there's two types of transformation, business and digital transformation but they are the same thing, they're just a different side of the coin. And when I talk about business transformation, what we're seeing a lot is, and there's this big buzzword, servitization out there, but customers going service and customers trying to build an enter in business that is more viable, more sustainable, more successful in how they develop great moments of service for their customers, that is something we're seeing a lot and during this business transformation, digital transformation has become a means to that end and that is something where customers have matured a lot, where in the past you have seen a lot of the IoT, AI, machine learning, cloud, everything was a means or a purpose in itself and that has changed, it's now become actually a means to an end, it's become a means to actually deliver a business transformation and a business outcome that is meaningful for their customers. Has to be meaningful for their customers. I love how IFS talks about enabling your customers to deliver those moments of service and when we think of in our consumer lives, we all, many of us flew here and think about what's the moment of service for an airline? Well, it's being able to get on that plan on time, have it leave on time and meet my expectations as a demanding consumer, but regardless if we're talking about aerospace, energy, manufacturing, engineering, the customers on the other end expect to have an integrated and seamless experience that's not fragmented, that is able to deliver moments of service that then help drive up their revenue. So what IFS is doing is so embedded in what your customers are able to deliver to their customers. Yeah, absolutely and if you look at what all has, all the things that have to come together to actually have a plane taken off at the right point in time or if you take any other examples, but there's so many things that need to go right, crew scheduling, you need to have the right crew at the right point in time, you need to have them actually with the right experience to fly the right plane, you need to have airplane maintenance going right to have the plane available at the right point in time and no technical failures and so on and so forth. And there's, we look at that as between customers, the people and the assets that an organization has, you need to coordinate between all those dimensions in everything you do to make sure that this one moment of service where your plane takes off on time, you actually catch your connecting flight at the other end that this actually is being delivered. So, and that's what drives us, that's what customers are driving into our product development, into how we embed AI, machine learning and so on in our technology to make it relevant to exactly that moment of service. That's what we as those consumers want, we want relevance, we want personalization, we want that relationship to know who we are and how to serve us best. Let's dig into the Yotan case study. He was going to join us, our CEO was going to join us, couldn't make it. Talk to me a little bit about Yotan, what type of business is it and then let's kind of start unpacking how they're leveraging IFS technology. So, Yotan is the seventh largest paints and coatings manufacturer in the world and they've got a obviously home decoration part of the business, but they've got an industrial part of the business where one large part of the business is also a marine's part. So, they actually provide paints, coating for all sorts of large ships and it's quite astonishing what you learn about that customer. I mean, we are now partnering with them for more than 20 years so we are very intimate with that customer, obviously, but when you see all of a sudden three, four years ago, they started going on to a journey where they looked at, apart from paint and coating, what actually can I provide to my customer in the marine industry to actually make their business more efficient, to actually make it easier for them to get a ship from A to B in an efficient way, in a timely way and so on and they developed something called hull skating solutions and those hull skating solutions are integrating all sorts of weather data, all sorts of other data and provide them to the marine companies that actually then help them drive this, well, actually get this ship in a more efficient way from A to B and at the same time also where there's predictions as to when you need to clean that ship and they've got hull skating solutions which then actually clean the ship automatically as well. So, it's quite an astonishing thing for a paints and coating manufacturer to then think about what do I need to know about my customer's business to provide that additional service to my customer. Great solution and great way of dealing with or delivering that great moment of service to their customers. Absolutely, the evolution of that business from paint manufacturing into the marine industry is not a stretch based on how you described it but it's very innovative. How is IFS enabling them to do that and do it well? Well, there's one they went on a modernization program for all their factories, for all these kinds of things that they need to integrate then deliver to their customers. And we are an essential part in being that agile partner that actually delivers those technology solutions that enable them to, well, first of all, think about that service, provide that service to their customers and make sure that they run a very efficient, very integrated version of IFS and can actually harmonize globally to make sure that wherever the customer is they can deliver on that promise. Fantastic. Tell me, let's talk a little bit about from your team's perspective, the go to market. We talked about the five verticals in which IFS specializes energy, aerospace and defense, engineering, manufacturing, and there's one I'm missing, utilities, of course. Are there sales teams in terms of the domain expertise? Are there like vertical teams that are focused? I imagine that there are. Talk to me a little bit about that specialization from that lens. Obviously, we are, I mean, there are so many dimensions. There's our sales teams, there's our pre-sales teams, there's our industry teams, which actually are working with the customers on receiving their feedback, on actually providing thought leadership and then organizing the feedback loop into our development teams who are providing these solutions then that hopefully our customers will cherish. So we are very specialized in that respect. We are driving the industry specialization. We've got a complete aerospace and defense business unit. We are in the market unit specializing in the industries where we work in the various different territories with just those industry teams. We've got specialization in the pre-sales teams. So we take that really deep down and very seriously to make sure that whenever we talk to a customer, we also have the understanding and we have also got the curiosity to understand more of the customer's business and that is something that is part of the IFS DNA. It's a differentiating part of IFS's DNA that not only having the domain expertise and a lot of people talk about, well, we got to meet the customer where they are. Wherever they are digitally, wherever they are in business transformation, but you're actually talking the customer's language by industry, which I would imagine really helps to not only solidify that relationship, but you actually get to really do a double click and get much more tightly connected with the customers and the outcomes that they're wanting to achieve so that those moments of service happen. Well, and that's so true. And actually, this is not just while we are selling to the customers, but it's actually throughout the whole life cycle of this application and the technology. In Jotun's case, more than two decades and we've got a lot of customers who are actually that long with us because we don't run away once we've implemented a solution, but we actually stay close to it because first of all, we want to learn from our customers continuously. We want to actually give to our customers also what we are learning outside of the conversations we have with these customers. And we make sure that these customers continuously evolve how they think about their business, how they think about the application of our technology and then in turn, we can actually develop technology again for their use cases. So. It's a flywheel. It's a complete flywheel and that creates loyalty. That actually creates the long standing relationships we have with many, many of our customers. I was speaking with a number of your executives. Marnie Martin was here and she was talking about, we were talking about brand recognition and the loyalty but that intimate customer knowledge that IFS really works hard to gain with its customers because as consumers, we bleed into our business lives and we have very little tolerance, very little patience. I think that was one of the things in COVID that went away. People were just not tolerating this rapid change and we had no choice, but I don't know that patience is going to come back at the level at which we experienced it before COVID. So customers expect businesses and brands to know them and help anticipate what's next for me. How do I get there? And it sounds to me like IFS has really nailed that from a customer relationship perspective. As I said, I mean, it's really part of our DNA and we try to preserve that culture while we're doubling our business and hopefully doubling our business in the next three years again because that is really the secret source to being that successful and not only with our existing customers but also with the net new customers and we're driving almost 50% of our revenue which is very much a benchmark in the industry from net new customers that we're winning while we're actually keeping close or staying close to our existing customers and try to apply that knowledge to our net new customers. But it's something that we absolutely have to preserve to be as successful as we've been in the past four years, also in the next four years. So coming off a great first half last in the summer when I teased Darren, any nuggets you want to say that financials for Q3 are coming out in the next couple of weeks? And I said, I imagine the trajectory is up and to the right. What are some of the things, Michael, that excite you for where you've seen this company go in your time there and the rocket ship that it seems to be on today? Look, I mean what's amazing to me is and if I look back, I joined four and a half years ago and only the first one and a half years were under normal circumstances. The other three years were a major pandemic, now a major war and recession and we've got all sorts of economic and macroeconomic headwinds. And what impresses me about the company, about our customers, about our employees is the resilience we've got to just carry on with what we're doing. And I mean, I don't give too much away when I say we had a pretty good Q3 as well and we're looking forward to a really good 2022 as a full year. And there are no excuses that actually the organization makes. It is just taken along and we are facing the economic headwinds and we are going through that time hugely successful and I'm very optimistic about the year and about 2023 as much. Fantastic. It's kind of hard to believe that calendar year 2023 is literally around the corner but Michael it's been great having you on theCUBE. Thank you for coming back, talking about what's going on at IFS from the overall COO's perspective, the customer synergies that IFS has, the work that you do to really get granular in those industries. It's impressive and congratulations on the success. We'll have to have you back next year to talk about what else is new. Thank you very much Lisa. All right, my pleasure. Thank you. For Michael, we see I'm Lisa Martin, you're watching theCUBE's coverage live from Miami on the show floor of IFS Unleashed. We'll be back with our final guest in just a minute.