To receive any apologies for absence.

None.

Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest, identified in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine; whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are also reminded to declare the nature of the interest at the earliest opportunity and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it is the Members’ responsibility to identify any interests and also update their register of interests form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of an interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services.

None.

The Chief Executive announced:

·         Launch of the Idea Store learning lab.

·         Wapping Youth Centre had formally opened this week.

·         The Police were appealing in relation to an incident in Bow and had released an artists impression of a person of interest and were still looking for them. The Council was working with the police to help find the individual.

The Mayor announced the 2025/26 and MTFS report as set out in Item 5.1. He explained some of the highlights of the report, including 

·         A balanced budget, which continued his ambitious investment into the community.

·         All earmarked savings from 2024/25 delivered.

·         Increase of General Fund reserve to £25m to meet CIPFA best practice guidance.

·         Continuing to deliver Education Maintenance Allowance awards.

·         Continuing to deliver University Bursaries.

·         Continuing to invest nearly £14million per year into the youth service.  

·         Continuing to deliver Free School Meals for all primary and secondary school children.

·         Continuing to invest in and enhance our insourced leisure services.

·         Keeping all swimming pools open, and are increasing the number by at least one in St George’s leisure centre, with more to follow.  

·         Continuing to provide free swimming for all women and girls aged 16 and above, and all men aged 55 and over, allowing for an increase in health and wellbeing.  

·         Provision of winter fuel payments for residents who lost eligibility to the national scheme.

·         Investment in waste services to keep streets clean.

·         Freezing Council tax for the next three years, for those earning £50,350 or less.

·         Providing free home care for all residents – to be launched in April of this year.

·         Additional £3,000,000 investment in CCTV across the borough, and recruitment of 44 additional new Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers.

·         Reopening a culturally sensitive women’s centreand a culturally sensitive drug rehabilitation facility.

·         Continuing to provide services from 5 one stop shops across the borough, and will be introducing a strengthened offer so that residents can resolve more of their issues nearer to their homes.  

·         Continuing to provide 1-hour free parking for customers stopping to shop at our markets. 

·         Continuing to invest into the delivery of thousands of affordable homes to tackle the overcrowding crisis in our borough. 

The Mayor further announced new education investment

·         Free School Uniform grant for every child entering reception, and every child entering year 7, whose parents earn less than £50,350. 

·         Educational and professional support through the youth service, Young Tower Hamlets, providing support for children into college and sixth form, and hopefully to university, through the payment of EMA and University Bursaries.

The Mayor further announced new investment in health and social care including reintroducing Meals on Wheels; new environmental investment such as investment into the waste service;  community safety investments including dedicated Drugs Unit of THEOs to tackle drug related issues in the borough; and  additional investment into SEND support (including free swimming sessions, psychologist support and respite support for families). 

The Mayor explained that the new MTFS would also see the delivery of £77million in savings.  

Finally the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) to report on any issues  raised by the OSC in relation to unrestricted business to be considered.

None.

The Chief Executive informed the Mayor and Cabinet that the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny was not in attendance, but had expressed a desire to address the Mayor and Cabinet once the Committee had considered the Budget and MTFS report, at its meeting on 14 January 2025.  

(Under provisions of Section 30, Rule 59 of the Constitution).

None.

None.

DECISION

1.      Propose a draft General Fund Revenue Funding Requirement of £484.136m for 2025-26 subject to any remaining changes arising from the final Local Government Finance Settlement and any other necessary adjustments.

2.      Propose to levy a 2% Adult Social Care precept and an increase of 2.99% on the general Council Tax element for 2025-26. The council continues to shield those most in need from the burden of increased council tax by continuing the Council Tax Support Relief Fund and increasing the qualifying household income ceiling to £50,350.

3.      Note that the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme will remain unchanged for 2025-26.

4.      Note the Council Taxbase calculations in Appendix 4.

5.      Approve that the Corporate Director Resources, in consultation with the mayor and Cabinet Member for Resources & Cost of living, be authorised to make any changes required to the draft budget following receipt of the Final Local Government Finance Settlement (LGFS) for further consideration at Cabinet on 29 January 2025.

6.      Note the General Fund Reserve increase to £25m to meet the Chartered Institute of Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) best practice guidance.

7.      Note the latest draft position of the Council’s reserves.

8.      Approve the HRA housing rent and service charge increases as outlined in section 3.12.  This includes increasing housing rents for all properties by 2.7% for 2024-25 (CPI +1%) and service charges by 1.7% (CPI).

9.      Agree that the National Schools Funding Formula (NSFF) adopted by Tower Hamlets originally in 2019-20 continues for 2025-26. The only changes included are increases to the factor values in line with the NSFF.

10.   Agree that the Minimum Funding Guarantee (the mechanism that guarantees schools a minimum uplift in per-pupil funding) is set as close to 0.5% as affordable, the maximum allowed after consideration for growth and factor changes in School allocations.

11.   Note the School funding position set out at Section 3.11, in particular the overall Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit.

12.   Note the Equalities Implications as set out in Section 5.

13.   Approve the proposed discretionary fees and charges as detailed in Appendix 7A.

14.   Approve the proposed statutory fees and charges as detailed in Appendix 7B.

15.   Approve the charges relating to the Housing Revenue Account in Appendix 8.

16.   Approve the continued delegation for amendments to fees and charges, including those to take account of the result of any Equality Impact Assessment that may be identified, to the relevant Corporate Director following consultation with the Lead Member and the Mayor, and that they will be reviewed throughout the year as part of the budget monitoring process.

17.   Agree that all increases and new fees are implemented from 1^st April 2025 where possible or as soon as practical thereafter.

Action by

Corporate Director Resources (J. Lorraine)

Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit (A. Kassim)

Councillor Saied Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Cabinet Member for Resources and the Cost of Living introduced the report that proposed a 2025/26 budget and new 3-year MTFS for the Council. Councillor Ahmed reiterated the highlights of the report as set out by the Mayor under Item 3 (Announcements from the Mayor) including new investment in waste, social care, community safety, education and efforts to tackle the cost of living.

He explained how the proposals would offer protections to vulnerable residents, including council tax support. He explained how a prudent approach had been taken to setting the budget, including increasing reserves to £25million. He expressed his pride in the proposals which he indicated were prudent and sustainable, whilst securing and investing in the future of the borough.

Julie Lorraine, Corporate Director Resources, added detail and provided an overview of the approach to risk-management and mitigation in the proposals. She highlighted some of the key risks identified, in particular business rates reform, and explained how the budget and MTFS provided protection against both identified and unidentified risks. Julie explained the proposals placed no reliance on reserves to fund recurring costs. Julie also explained that, whilst income generation targets were delivered in 2024/25, only 2% of new savings were to be funded by income generation.

Councillor Kabir Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Inclusive Development and Housebuilding provided an overview of the proposals as relating to the proposed Housing Revenue Account budget including investment to fund new acquisitions and headroom for new pipeline programmes; repairs and improvements; investment in housing options services; and improvements to governance and controls.

Cabinet lead members provided details of how proposed investment in their portfolio areas were expected to deliver improvements in the lives of residents.

The Chief Executive and several Cabinet lead members reported interest from their counterparts in other local authorities who had expressed admiration at how the Council had continued to invest and improve services whilst many in the sector were making cuts and reducing services. It was reported there was an appetite in the local government sector to learn best practice from LBTH and its innovative approach to financial planning.

The Mayor welcomed the report and the support and buy-in from all members and officers for the proposals. He expressed his ambition to continue the same innovation, momentum and accomplishments in future years.

RESOLVED that the Mayor in Cabinet:

1.      Propose a draft General Fund Revenue Funding Requirement of £484.136m for 2025-26 subject to any remaining changes arising from the final Local Government Finance Settlement and any other necessary adjustments.

2.      Propose to levy a 2% Adult Social Care precept and an increase of 2.99% on the general Council Tax element for 2025-26. The council continues to shield those most in need from the burden of increased council tax by continuing the Council Tax Support Relief Fund and increasing the qualifying household income ceiling to £50,350.

3.      Note that the Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme will remain unchanged for 2025-26.

4.      Note the Council Taxbase  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.1

DECISION

1.    Note the progress and achievements made in respect of the Youth Justice Strategic Plan 2024-2025 and to endorse the plan going forward.

Action by

Corporate Director Childrens Services (S. Reddy)

Director of Children’s Social Care (Supporting Families) (S. Beasley-Murray)

Councillor Maium Talukdar, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning (Statutory Deputy Mayor) introduced the report that set out the priorities, strategic goals and progress that the Youth Justice Executive Board and operational frontline service delivery have made over the last 12 months.

Susannah Beasley-Murray, (Divisional Director of Supporting Families) and Kelly Duggan, HOS Youth Justice & Young People's Service provided a brief presentation on the Strategic Plan which explained

·         Top offence categories in the borough.

·         Governance arrangements.

·         Strategic priorities of the strategy and the key achievements in the past year for each: Child First; consistently good practice; health; education

·         KPIs and performance against them, including

o   A significant reduction in first time entrants

o   Re-offending rates had increased and Kelly explained the statistical challenges behind this, noting that the significant reduction in first time entrants created a misleading picture of re-offending rates.

o   Children in custody.

·         Finally, Kelly and Susannah indicated an external inspection was expected this year and provided information on inspection preparation year. Inspection awaited shortly.

Further to questions from Cabinet members, Susannah and Kelly provided more information on

·         speech and language therapies

·         Links between the youth justice service and the Council’s Be Well leisure service.

·         Comparison of performance with other local authorities. Kelly stressed the significant reduction in first time entrants which had drawn interest from others in the sector as an outstanding achievement.

The Mayor and Cabinet members welcomed the report.

RESOLVED that the Mayor in Cabinet:

1.    Noted the progress and achievements made in respect of the Youth Justice Strategic Plan 2024-2025 and to endorse the plan going forward.

DECISION

1.    To note the report.

Action by

Corporate Director Communities (S. Baxter)

Interim Director, Public Realm (A. Ali)

Councillor Shafi Ahmed, Cabinet member for Lead Member Environment and Climate Change introduced the report that set out the collaborative approach undertaken by the Highways service resulting in the delivery of multiple projects across the council.

Ashraf Ali, Interim Director of Public Realm and Vincent Valerio, (Group Manager Transportation) added further detail including an overview of the Council’s highways service and how the service acts to maintain and improvement footways, highways and the general street scene.

Further to questions from the Mayor and Cabinet members,  Ashraf and Vincent provided further details on

·         delivery of the Mayor’s manifesto pledge for 1000 new car spaces. Approximately 800 were delivered and the service was aiming for completion by summer 2025

·         trees planting and the process to select locations explained. The Mayor asked that an appropriate communications strategy be developed for this.

The Cabinet members welcomed the report and reported feedback from residents about how tree planting in the borough had helped them remember loved-ones lost in the Covic pandemic. 

At the invitation of the Mayor, Councillor Peter Golds addressed the Cabinet. Councillor Golds welcomed the proposals for road improvement on the Isle of Dogs.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the report.

Nil items.

Should the Mayor in Cabinet consider it necessary, it is recommended that the following motion be adopted to allow consideration of any exempt/restricted documents.

“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act, 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act, 1985, the Press and Public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contains information defined as Exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government, Act 1972”.

A motion to exclude press and public was not required.

Nil items.

Nil items.

Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) to report on any issues  raised by the OSC in relation to exempt/confidential business to be considered.

Nil items.

(Under provisions of Section 30, Rule 59 of the Constitution).

Nil items.

Nil items.