The questions which have been received from Councillors to be put at this Council meeting are set out in the attached report.  A maximum period of 30 minutes is allocated to this agenda item.

The following questions and in each case supplementary questions were put (except where indicated) and were responded to by the Mayor or relevant Executive Member:

11.1 Question from Councillor Amin Rahman:

Can the lead member update the chamber on where we are with the council’s accounts? These accounts have been left unsigned for the past 6 years thanks to the previous administration.

Response of Councillor Saied Ahmed, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Cost of Living

Councillor Saied Ahmed stated that for the 2016/17 and 2017/18 KPMG had issued draft certificates and these would be signed once Deloitte had completed their audits for subsequent years.

The 2018/19 and 2019/20 audits were ongoing by Deloitte but were nearing completion. The 2020/21 audit had not yet commenced. Deloitte would be commencing this once their 2018/19 and 2019/20 accounts are signed. The 2021/22 accounts will be audited once the 2020/21 audit is completed.

11.2 Question from Councillor Shubo Hussain.

It was Small Business Saturday last month. The previous Labour administration invested a huge amount of money into our local small businesses when they were negatively impacted by the pandemic.

Given the uncertainty surrounding Government support for small businesses, will the Mayor commit to the Labour Group’s proposals of a Small Business Hardship Fund and much-needed Business Rates relief in these times of crisis?

Councillor Sabina Akhtar asked the question on behalf of Councillor Shubo Hussain as Councillor Hussain had left the meeting unwell.

Response of Councillor Abu Talha Chowdhury, Cabinet Member of Jobs, Skills and Growth

For Small Business Saturday 2023, the Council encouraged residents and visitors to ‘shop local’ and showcased local businesses via channels including social media and Our East End.  Shopping local is something we can all do more; it doesn’t require sustained public investment and creates an important economic multiplier effect that generates wealth for our residents.  The initiative has been well-received by local businesses and is something that this administration will grow and develop over the coming year.

The money that Councillor Hussain refers to in his question was principally provided by central government as part of HM Treasury’s COVID recovery financial package of support for small businesses; rather than funds generated by the previous administration.  Whilst that package of financial support ended in 2022; we are working on a new range of support for small businesses that will support them with rising energy costs and the ‘cost-of-doing-business’ crisis.  We look forward to announcing more about this package of support within the coming month.

This administration has already supported small businesses via the CARF (COVID additional relief fund) grant, which supported a great number of small businesses (859) in the borough to reduce their business rates liability in 2022.  This administration will continue to provide Small Business Rate Relief (zero business rates bill for businesses with a rateable value of £12,000 or less) to support small TH businesses to survive during these challenging times.

We’ll continue to explore opportunities to support local businesses to trade in the borough, including helping businesses to cope with rising energy costs and the costs of doing business.

Due to the lack of time, Questions 11.3 -11.25 were not put by members. The written responses are attached at Appendix A.