Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Nas Asghar, Joshua Ayodele, Clare Burke-McDonald Lade Olugbemi, Sarah Merrill, Maisie Richards Cottell and Jahida Spencer.

Apologies for lateness were received from Calum O’Byrne Mulligan.

Apologies for leaving early were received from Councillors Lauren Dingsdale, Dominic Mbang and Miranda Williams.

The Mayor announced that the Contact Centre team had earned Silver UK Contact Centre Forum (UKCCF) accreditation, which was a national recognition of dedication to top-tier customer service.  Members extended their congratulations and thanks to the Team.

The Mayor informed the Chamber of the recent death of Agnes Forde, President of Irish Community Services and Greenwich Irish Pensioners, who had died at the age of 101.  Councillors Fletcher and Fahy spoke in remembrance of Agnes recalling their meetings with her and the work she undertook within the Irish community in Greenwich.  Council held a minute’s silence in remembrance.

The Mayor congratulated Councillor Roger Tester and his wife on the birth of their son.

In relation to Item 7 Councillors Fletcher, Khaireh and Thomas declared they were council tenants.

Resolved -

That the list of Councillors’ memberships as Council appointed representatives on outside bodies, joint committees and school governing bodies is noted.

Councillors Fletcher, Khaireh and Thomas’ declarations in relation to Item 7 were noted.

No prior requests to exceed the 5 minute rule had been received.

The Mayor agreed the Leader’s verbal request to suspend paragraph A1.71, the 5 minute rule, for Cabinet Members in respect of Items 7 and 8 under Paragraph A1.64(n).

·        Noted the Audit Completion Report (ACR) as follows:

ØAppendix 1a – Royal Borough of Greenwich ACR

ØAppendix 2a – Royal Borough of Greenwich Pension Fund ACR

·        Noted it was considered by the Audit and Risk Management Panel on the 25 February 2025 and they commented that ‘The view of the Audit and Risk Management Panel is that the £19 million in the general reserves is broadly appropriate for the financial needs of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, and that they should not be further eroded’.

·        Approved the Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 at Appendix 1b, incorporating agreed amendments.

·        Agreed to delegate the signing and dating of the 2023/24 Statement of Accounts to the Corporate Director of Resources (Section 151 officer) subject to the final audit opinion being provided after some technical amendments are made.

Councillor Anthony Okereke, Leader of the Council, formally moved the report and invited Tom Greensill from Forvis Mazars to present their report.

Councillor Denise Hyland, Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Social Value firstly introduced the report.  She said that Greenwich were fortunate in being one of only a few councils who had managed to complete the process by the end of February deadline.  The accounts had been drafted and handed to the new auditor in July.  Working with a new auditor had brought about new approaches and the Council were grateful for this and felt the first year had been a positive experience.

Tom Greensill spoke to the report and said that since writing, all the outstanding sections on the status of the audit section had been closed off and all work completed on them.  Six additional errors had been noted since the report was written, in the in the General Fund Property, Plant and Equipment Valuations, which totalled £6.63million.  In the other income and expenditure testing a £13.6milion classification adjustment, should be noted which moved incorrectly classified fees, charges, and other service income to grants and contributions in relation to the better care fund income.  This did not affect the general fund balance and the surplus or deficit.  There were a few outstanding technical queries with the council which should be resolved imminently and then the accounts would be ready.

The whole of government accounts work had not yet been completed because the National Audit Office hadn’t yet issued the sampled components instructions, which were needed to complete the work.  Regarding the value for money work, there were two significant weaknesses proposed, in line with what had been seen in the previous year, one around financial sustainability and the use of reserves and savings targets.  And the other was around housing and fire safety, where there had not been 100 % compliance yet with the regulator for social housing, but improvement was noted.

There was no indication of fraud or management override of controls and so their conclusion was, there was nothing to report to the council.  Tom Greensill explained and clarified the errors they had noted.   With regard to the pension fund report, all work was completed and there were no findings to bring to Members’s attention and no control recommendations to be made.

Councillor David Gardner, Chair of the Audit and Risk Management Panel said that the report had been thoroughly considered by the Panel who noted it’s greater granularity.  Councillor Gardner spoke to the comments of the Panel as published.  The Audit and Risk Management Panel would continue to take an interest in this, particularly on the delivery of the proposed savings.  He thanked finance officers and the Auditors for their work.

Councillor Matt Hartley, Leader of the Opposition rose to thank finance officers and the Auditors for their work on behalf of the Opposition.  He said that they endorsed the comments from ARM which were a stark reminder of the work that needed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

·        Agreed the Treasury Management Strategy for 2025/26 as set out in appendix A; and noted there were no comments from the Audit & Risk Management Panel.

·        Agreed the £6.504m of Flexible Use of Capital Receipts proposals as set out in section 5 and Appendix E of the report.

·        Agreed the Capital Strategy for 2025/26 (including increased pothole funding of £0.8m) as set out in appendix B of the report.

·        Agreed the Prudential Indicators for the period 2023/24-2027/28 as set out in appendix C of the report.

·        Agreed the arrangements for determining the Minimum Revenue Provision for 2025/26 as set out in appendix D of the report.

Councillor Denise Hyland, Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Social Value moved the report.  She said that the report requested the use of £6.5million of capital resources to support activities that would produce revenue savings.  These resources were capital receipts which would be realised from the Council's Strategic Asset Review, which had been approved by Cabinet.  The Capital Programme for 2025-26 amounted to £362 million and included £2.4 million of capital bids to support the delivery of services and savings within the Medium Term Financial Strategy.  Borrowing remained affordable and enabled the Council to deliver on its corporate missions however recent economic events and geopolitical uncertainties would continue to impact financial markets around the world.  There was no increase in the risk profile and the Council continued to maintain a prudent investment strategy. The Director of Resources had confirmed that the authority had complied with the prudential indicators in the current year and did not foresee any difficulties in the next few years.

Councillor Pat Slattery, Cabinet Member for Housing Management, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness rose to speak in support of the recommendations.  She said she wished to draw attention to the large capital programme that showed over £569million would be spent over the next three years on improving existing stock, the Greenwich Builds programme and acquiring new properties, and that was in addition to the £226million that would be spent this year.  This would make the majority of council homes and leasehold homes safer, warmer, more watertight and well insulated in the years to come.

Councillor Averil Lekau, Cabinet Member for Climate Action, Sustainability and Transport rose to support the recommendations.  She said that there would be new capital funding which would be spent on the creation of new school streets and the conversion of the existing ones to ANPR operated closure.  There was a £1.5million investment in the programme of sustainable streets to help make cleaner and safer streets, reduce car journeys and make getting around the borough easier.  The Council had invested in reducing car dependency by improvements to streets including cycle parking, cycle lanes, creating new car clubs and the installation of electric vehicle charging points.  Investment had also been made in strategic infrastructure upgrade, such as Creekside Bridge Road and Pettman Crescent Flyover.  These were just some of the measures which would improve air quality by reducing emissions.

Councillor Majid Rahman, Cabinet Member for Planning, Estate Renewal and Development rose to speak on the report.  He said that around £97.4million had been secured for housing development stock and £27.5million of that went towards purchasing apartment blocks of affordable housing.  Around £13.9million was secured for the decarbonisation of estates.  Some of the capital projects were the new Woolwich Leisure Centre due to open this year and the major repair works to the Town Hall.  Investment had been made in local community centres such as Clockhouse and Shrewsbury House in order to ensure they were brought up to standards in terms of safety.  In terms of the asset  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

1.1        Noted that the forecast 2024/25 closing balance position of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is to reduce to £4.7m as a result of the Q3 2024/25 projected overspend of £3.1m, which would take the HRA very close to its minimum working balance of £4.0m (section 4.1)

1.2     Noted that decisions 1.3 - 1.8 below still leave a forecast Minimum Working Balance deficit for 2025/26 and therefore in order to ensure that balances are deemed adequate, no HRA voluntary Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) will again be provided in 2025/26, resulting in both a balanced budget and adequate Minimum Working Balance. The Treasury Management and Capital Strategy report refers to this in more detail (Cabinet 17 February 2025).

1.3     Agreed to follow the national rent policy, as set out in the Rent Standard, and to approve an increase in rents for social homes by 2.7% (September's CPI + 1%), the maximum allowed by government. This will increase the average weekly rental charge by £2.97 to an average rent per week of £112.93.

1.4     Agreed to increase Tenant Service Charges for council homes by 2.7%, resulting in an increase of 47p per week. This will increase the average service charge to £17.72.

1.5     Agreed to increase garage rents by £1 a week, equivalent to between 7% and 9% depending on garage tier (section 4.6.2)

1.6     Noted that even with these proposed increases, the HRA will still be under significant financial pressure.

1.7     Agreed the following proposals, which address the financial pressure on the HRA (section 4.7).

1.7.1 To rephase the last 10% of spending (£40m of £400m) on the Capital Programme so it finishes in 2030/31 rather than in 2028/29.

1.7.2 To extend the current policy of allowing relets at formula rent +5% for five further years from 2026/7.

1.7.3 To review funding the two tenant management organisations (Walpole and River Heights), noting their high costs compared to other social homes.

1.7.4   To convert some of the planned council home building under the Greenwich Builds programme to acquisitions of high quality new-build homes, resulting in a cost saving and an increase in new housing delivery. To note that we will continue to deliver a programme of new Council housing supply through a combination of direct delivery (Greenwich Builds) and bulk acquisitions

1.7.5 Where possible, to use GLA grant instead of Right To Buy Receipts (RtB), and where GLA grant is earmarked for construction to flip this to acquisitions.

1.7.6 To convert an additional 100 homes which become void for use as temporary accommodation, in order to reduce the use of unsuitable hotel accommodation for residents in temporary accommodation.

1.7.7 To agree the rent changes from 7 April 2025 for TA properties, as set out in 4.7.2.  This decision will impact both HRA and General Fund TA properties.

1.8     Agreed to funding of £200,000 for the Hardship Fund in 2025/26, to support tenants in financial difficulty (section 4.8)

1.9     Noted the financial risks and mitigations in section 4, including the deficits highlighted in  ...  view the full decision text for item 7.

Councillor Pat Slattery, Cabinet Member for Housing Management, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness moved the recommendations.  She said as the report indicated, the HRA was under pressure, and it would be a challenge to balance it over the next three years.  Due to this there would be a 2.7% increase in rents and service charges alongside the continued hardship fund to help those who were financially struggling.  Cllr Slattery outlined some of the achievements arising from the HRA including the significant progress made towards safety in that 100% of the 67 Council high rise blocks, had now had their fire risk assessment and arising from that 6300 actions had been completed.  The temporary damp and mould team that was set up had become permanent and it meant that the average wait time for a mould was 3 days for a vulnerable person and 7 days otherwise, with a diagnostic survey of the cause of mould now 9 days wait.  Negotiations with the Trade Unions to remove a historic bonus pay scheme had been successful and would now move to a salary scheme, which would save, in time, £2.5million.  With regard to temporary accommodation, at its peak in Autumn 2023, the Council were accommodating 258 households in hotels at a cost of £28,000 per night, as of that week that figure had reduced to 55 households in hotels and the intention was to bring that down to zero in the next year.  The work of the Repairs Transformation Programme would continue, and they would be investing in AI technology to get better data regarding tenants who fall into arrears.  The work to bring void properties back into use would also continue and these had reduced from a peak of 425 to 170 that week.

Councillor Charlie Davies, Deputy Leader of the Opposition proposed an amendment as published.  He said that the Opposition group had acted as a critical friend to the Council and had expressed concerns regarding rent rises and encouraged the council at times to go bolder and bigger with Greenwich Builds.  They were proposing that the principle of enhanced consultation should be extended to Leaseholders who were impacted by escalating ground rents, administration fees and charges imposed on them with little or no consultation.  A review was required to ensure that the council was getting proper value for money before passing costs onto tenants and leaseholders and there needed to be transparency around how these costs were identified in a way that everyone could understand.

The amendment was seconded by Councillor Matt Hartley, Leader of the Opposition who reserved his right to speak.

Councillor Pat Slattery, Cabinet Member for Housing Management, Neighbourhoods and Homelessness did not accept the amendment.  She said that it was unnecessary.  She had previously acknowledged that with regard to communication with leaseholders and tenants they were learning lessons as they rolled out the capital programme about sequencing and timing and the use of jargon.  It did not require a review as indicated in the amendment.  With regard  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

1.1         Approved the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2025/26 to 2028/29 as set out in this report:

·        that the borough element of council tax is raised by:

o   2.00% adult social care precept

o   2.99% main council tax rate

·        that a balanced budget is set for 2025/26

1.2         Noted the £46.7m of investment agreed by Cabinet (almost 70% of which is social care related), to include at least (Section 9):

·        £20m for Health and Adults Services

·        £12m for Children’s Services

·        £1m for Universal Credit migration pressure

·        £200k on-going new investment decision to provide a further Emotional Wellbeing Hub, in support of Our Greenwich (Section 9.13).

1.3         Noted the £1.0m one-off funding of Carbon Offset Section 106 for eligible expenditure from the “Together for Greenwich: Co-operation for the Future” agreed by Cabinet (Section 9.14).

1.4     Noted the use the one-off surplus distribution of £0.7m from the national Business Rates Levy to support operation of the Greenwich Supports Discretionary Council Tax Hardship Fund and revenues collection agreed by Cabinet (Section 10.10).

1.5     Noted £1.2m of new savings / income proposals for 2025/26 increasing to £2.1m in 2028/29 (Section 10) agreed by Cabinet.

1.6     Noted the changes to the Local Council Tax Support scheme, considered by Cabinet and Council on 29 January 2025 and the impact upon the MTFS (Section 10.8).

1.7     Noted the new fees and charges for 2025/26 (Appendix C) agreed by Cabinet.

1.8     Noted that the impact of over a decade of government austerity has led to the council facing around £150m of pressures over that period, when combined with huge demographic demands and price inflation it is challenging to set a balanced budget for each financial year. (Section 4).

1.9     Noted the number of properties rated for council tax has grown by less than 1% year on year for the fourth consecutive year. (Section 8.22).

1.10   Noted the impact of the Government’s Financial Settlement and related developments around the MTFS (Section 8):

·        the Chancellor announced a one-year Settlement only for 2025/26, which allows certainty for a one-year period

·        a continuation of the break from the London wide Business Rates pooling arrangement for 2025/26

·        the Schools funding position

1.11   Noted the schedule of fees and charges rates for 2025/26 (Appendix D) being agreed under delegated authority.

1.12   Noted budgetary impact of reprofiling previously agreed income / savings proposals of £2.4m in 2025/26. (Section 9.10).

1.13   Noted a forecasted overall resourcing gap for 2026/27 in excess of £40m, rising to almost £100m by 2028/29 (Section 15), before future government grant and council tax decisions.

1.14   Noted the potentially significant financial risks to the MTFS going forward due to the uncertainty from proposed funding reform from 2026/27 onwards (Section 14).

1.15   Noted the outcome of the results of the public consultation which closed on 24 December 2024 (Section 17).

1.16   Noted that the MTFS is a continuous process and will be updated in Summer 2025.

1.17   Noted that it shall have regard to the s151 / Chief Finance Officer’s statement in Section 16,  ...  view the full decision text for item 8.

Councillor Denise Hyland, Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Social Value moved the recommendations.  She verbally gave an erratum to the report in that section 1.19 should read “Cabinet on 17 February 2025 in recommending the budget to Council have noted some and agreed others of the Overview and Scrutiny recommendations set out in Appendix E”. 

She said she was pleased to present the budget which placed residents at its heart and thanked Cabinet members and Officers for their work in preparing it.  The Council continued to champion those less fortunate and counter inequalities.  70% of the budget would be spent in investment into social care areas such as Health and Adult Services and Children’s Services.  They were a listening Council which is why the planned closure of Maryon Wilson Animal Park was reversed, and they would be spending £1.6m repairing and resurfacing streets.  Investment would be made in the Council’s digital transformation which would bring about savings in the long term.  More money would be put aside for the Greenwich Supports Council Tax Hardship Fund.  The Council had lost 53% of its funding since 2010 but had maintained a robust position with reduced reliance upon planned use of reserves in setting the budget, unlike other councils.  They remained committed to improving performance and council tax and business rate collections remained high and those sums were used to top up the risk reserves.

Councillor Matt Hartley, Leader of the Opposition proposed an amendment as published.  He thanked Officers for their work in preparing the budget which was a significant undertaking.  The Opposition’s amendment reflected what residents had said were their priorities through the budget consultation, namely tackling antisocial behaviour, cleaner streets and help with bills and other costs.  Residents were clear that they wanted to see the Council do more to tackle antisocial behaviour and under the plans it was likely that the number of community safety enforcement officers would go down.  Their proposals would provide £230k to fund additional enforcement officers.  Fly tipping was getting worse and the council needed to be more pro-active in dealing with it and should use CCTV as a back up in hotspots.  Their proposals would provide for the procurement of 15 additional cameras which could be deployed more fairly across the borough.  Their amendment identified a further £0.9m over the next four years for the Greenwich Supports Council Tax Discretionary Hardship Fund.  Taken together the proposals represented a £2.3 million package of investment in residents' priorities.  The proposals had all been fully costed and independently verified by council officers as feasible and with no net impact on the MTFS position.

The amendment was seconded by Councillor Charlie Davis who reserved his right to speak.

Councillor Denise Hyland, as mover of the report did not accept the amendment and commented that the proposals were three small items concerned with work which was already engaged in.

Councillor Patricia Greenwell spoke in favour of the amendment, saying that their proposals reflected what was important to residents.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

1.1     Approved the Council budget for 2025/26 as set out in the report

1.2     Agreed a 2.99% increase in the borough element of council tax in support of service delivery pressures

1.3     Agreed an Adult Social Care precept of 2%

1.4     Agreed the addition to the council tax in 2025/26 on the taxpayers in premises surrounding the garden in Gloucester Circus SE10 (Section 4)

1.5     Approved the overall council tax level and the relevant statutory calculations and resolutions (Section 4 and Appendix B)

1.6     Agreed the schools funding formula for use in 2025/26 as presented to Schools Forum on 15 January 2025 (Section 5)

1.7     Noted the overall additional cost of 139p per week at Band D

(Section 4) of decisions 1.2 and 1.3.

1.8     Noted that the GLA precept for 2025/26 is due to increase by 4.0% (36p per week at Band D) (Section 4)

1.9     Noted the level of Dedicated Schools Grant for Education purposes and that the budget proposals for 2025/26 were agreed by the Schools Forum on 15 January 2025 (Section 5)

1.10   Noted the comments on financial standing, future risk and robustness of the budget process (Section 6)

1.11   Noted that it shall have regard to the s151 / Chief Finance Officer’s statement in Section 6, as required under s25(2) of the Local Government Act 2003, when making decisions in this report

Councillor Denise Hyland, Cabinet member for Finance, Resources and Social Value moved the recommendations as published.

Councillor Sandra Bauer, Cabinet Member for Equality, Culture and Communities spoke in support of the recommendations.  She said that in relation to Adventure Play Centres, she understood how talk of cuts could alarm residents and that was regretful, but the proposals were about investing capital funds to make things better and more efficient.  They would take a fresh look at the centres in liaison with colleagues and residents with the aim of future proofing the centres and protecting services.

Councillor Matt Hartley, Leader of the Opposition thanked the Cabinet Member for her response and the offer to meet with the petitioners and residents.  As a point of order he said that the Council meeting today had been converted to a Special Meeting for the Budget which meant residents had not had the chance to ask questions and present petitions.  He would request in future they remained ordinary Council meetings to allow residents to participate. 

Councillor Anthony Okereke, Leader of the Council said, in relation to Councillor Hartley’s point of order, it should be noted that the meeting was turned into a Special meeting in recognition of how long budget meetings usually took and that it would be unfair to keep residents waiting in the Chamber as a result of that.  Residents could engage with the democratic process in other ways.  In terms of residents who wished to speak at the meeting tonight, himself and other members were arranging to make themselves available to meet and discuss their concerns.

Councillor Denise Hyland, Cabinet member for Finance, Resources and Social Value formally closed the debate.

In line with legal requirement for the Council to conduct a recorded vote on this item and any amendment the Chief Executive called on each Member to cast their vote on the main report:

In favour, Councillors Majella Anning, Olu Babatola, Sandra Bauer, Linda Bird, Jo van den Broek, Issy Cooke, Ann-Marie Cousins, Gary Dillon, John Fahy, Leo Fletcher, David Gardner, Rowshan Hannan, Denise Hyland, Elizabeth Ige, Adel Khaireh, Averil Lekau, Sam Littlewood, Mariam Lolavar, Christine May, Odette McGahey, Asli Mohammed, Matthew Morrow, Calum O’Byrne Mulligan, Anthony Okereke, Simon Peirce, Majid Rahman, Jit Ranabhat, Pat Slattery, Aidan Smith, Jackie Smith, Christine St Matthew-Daniel, Rachel Taggart-Ryan, Ivis Williams, Nick Williams and Raja Zeeshan

In abstention, Councillors Charlie Davis, Pat Greenwell, Matt Hartley and Roger Tester.

No members voted against.

Resolved -

1.1     Approved the Council budget for 2025/26 as set out in the report

1.2     Agreed a 2.99% increase in the borough element of council tax in support of service delivery pressures

1.3     Agreed an Adult Social Care precept of 2%

1.4     Agreed the addition to the council tax in 2025/26 on the taxpayers in premises surrounding the garden in Gloucester Circus SE10 (Section 4)

1.5     Approved the overall council tax level and the relevant statutory calculations and resolutions (Section 4 and Appendix B)

1.6     Agreed the schools funding formula for use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.