No apologies for absence were received.

The minutes of Cabinet held on Monday 16 December 2024 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

No declarations of interest were made.

No decisions other than those already circulated had been made.

It was agreed that the draft Member Training and Development Plan for 2025/26 and 2026- 27 be approved, taking into account the comments and suggestions made by the Cabinet as well as the Overview Scrutiny Committee.

The Director (Corporate Services) presented Cabinet with a report that detailed the feedback received on the Member Training Plan 2024/25 and presented the draft training plans for 2025/26 and 2026/27. The following was explained:

• Ten training sessions had been held this year so far, with four remaining.
• The attendance details for each session could be found in section 3.2 and in appendix one.
• The overall percentage of attendance was 47%.
• Feedback from Members was outlined in appendix two and three, and overall, it showed that the training feedback had been positive.
• Appendix four outlined the draft training plans for 2025/27 and the proposal was to develop a two-year plan so the necessary arrangements could be put in place.
• It was suggested that the 10-member requirement to proceed was continued – it was worth noting that to date, no sessions had been cancelled.
• This report was taken to the Overview Scrutiny Committee in January, and they endorsed the training plan – section six outlined the recommendations they put forward for consideration by Cabinet.

The Chair expressed his thanks to the Officers for holding the training but conveyed his disappointment with the attendance statistics.

Following questions and comments from Members, the Director (Corporate Services) advised that:

• It was likely that the format of the sessions and the experienced knowledge from Members was a contributing factor to the low attendance figures.
• Moving forward, the Council would be looking at making sessions more accessible by not purely relying on live face-to-face sessions, but making use of webinars, briefings, and pre-recorded sessions for members to access at any time.

Cabinet went through the recommendations from Overview Scrutiny one by one and advised the following:

6.1 – Noted.

6.2 – The Chair felt that this was a good point that needed to be taken onboard. It was               important that the training remained current and was worthwhile for Members. Cabinet was happy to take this recommendation forward.

6.3 – Training for Members who sit on outside bodies was particularly relevant due to some Members being directors or observers on sub-bodies representing the authority. This carried different legal risks to Members and their duties change – more training in respect of that was worthwhile. Cabinet agreed to take this recommendation forward.

6.4 – The Chair advised this was a good idea, however the recording needed to be of the training only and sessions including Members should not be recorded. The Director (Corporate Services) informed Cabinet that this could be accommodated, through pre-recording information sessions/the editing of briefings. It was felt that training sessions should be a safe space, where Members felt comfortable and were encouraged to ask questions and upskill their knowledge. Cabinet agreed to take this recommendation forward.

6.5 – Cabinet agreed this recommendation but requested that this session would not be recorded.

6.6 – Subject to the type of video format uploaded to the portal, Cabinet agreed this recommendation. Member facing training should not be uploaded – However, if general questions were asked, the responses could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

It was agreed:

1. That Cabinet approves the content and the adoption of the draft Tenancy Management Policy

2. The Director (Housing) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing be given delegated authority to make any minor amendments to this policy to ensure compliance with legislation and guidance.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) presented Cabinet with a report that detailed the types of tenancies the council offer, and how they will be managed, ensuring compliance with the Regulator of Social Housing’s Tenancy Consumer Standards. The Assistant Director (Social Housing) explained the following:

• The purpose of the report was to seek cabinet approval to adopt an updated tenancy management policy and to provide delegated authority to the Director (Housing) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing to make any minor amendments to the policy and to ensure compliance with legislation and guidance.
• The regulator of Social Housing requires social housing providers to evidence compliance with the tenancy consumer standards.
• This policy sets out the types of tenancies that the Council will offer, granting a secure tenancies mutual exchange and management of successions and demotions.
• The revised tenancy management policy in appendix two was one of a series of policies that would be coming to Cabinet to ensure that Gravesham Borough Council complied with the consumer standards and to ensure that these documents were more visible to all.

Following questions and comments from Members, the Director (Housing) and the Assistant Director (Social Housing) advised that:

• Anti-social behaviour could be challenging, and it was important that the Council were proactive. The Social Housing team work closely with the Community Safety team and Kent Police to gather as much evidence as possible to take action towards tenants. If they were unable to support the tenants to improve their behaviour, then this would lead to an eviction.
• It was difficult for families that had children who were engaging in anti-social behaviour – this was where ‘multiagency’ comes into play to support the family to improve their behaviour. If there was any criminality, then it would be for Kent Police to take action.
• The Senior Leadership team visited Rochdale Borough Council following the death of Awaab Ishak, to understand their learning. It was important for them to transform the way they delivered housing.
• It was decided by Gravesham Borough Council that having a patch size of over 800 per Neighbourhood Officer was difficult to manage. A paper was pulled together, and workloads were analysed to give a more personal service so that Officers could be on the estates and support tenants to sustain their tenancies. This required double the workforce of Neighbourhood Officers so they could maintain a more manageable patch size of around 400 homes each.
• There was also a big push around tenant engagement. Officers wanted to be talking to tenants to find out if there’s problems so that they can be supported.

Resolved that: -

1. Cabinet approved the content and the adoption of the draft Tenancy Management Policy.
2. The Director (Housing) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing be given delegated authority to make any minor amendments to this policy to ensure compliance with legislation and guidance.

It was agreed:

1. That Cabinet members endorse the Social Housing Consumer Standards Action Plan.

The Assistant Director (Social Housing) presented Cabinet with a report that detailed the new Consumer Standards which came into force on 01 April 2024. The following was explained:

• The purpose of the report was to seek Cabinets approval to endorse a Social Housing Consumer Standards action plan set out in appendix one.
• The revised consumer standards for social housing came into force on 01 April 2024 and the new standards intend to protect tenants and to drive improvement in the services that the Council provide as a social landlord.
• Officers had been working towards reaching compliance. Linking back to the previous report, the Council wants to ensure that the service operates with visibility and with a transparent plan on how the housing service proposes to meet those standards.
• The Plan had four standard consumer headings and sets out the current position and details the areas that require further work from the housing team to improve compliance within the specific standard.
• The Cabinet Member, as the Member responsible for housing, will Chair a working group to oversee the progress of the action plan.
• The working group progress, and subsequent reporting, will get presented to the Housing Services Cabinet Committee.
• The Housing Hubs were very useful – it was the second hub to be held and residents from outside of the Ward were coming over to speak to Housing/Senior Officers. It allowed Officers to share important information around keeping safe in their homes and signing up to Portal and Go Vocal.
• Where Hubs were held in Wards, the Assistant Director (Social Housing) had been emailing Ward Councillors to get their input. Kent Police had also committed to attending to talk to communities to provide a joint approach.

Resolved that: -

1. Members endorsed the Social Housing Consumer Standards Action Plan

It was agreed:

Director (Housing) in consultation with the S151 Officer and Lead Member be given delegated authority to conduct the procurement process and award a contract for the remediation of brownfield land at Milton Place, funded by grant funding.

The Director (Housing) presented Cabinet with a report that sought approval to procure and award a contract for remediation of Brownfield Land at Milton Place in preparation for future development. The Director (Housing) explained the following:

• Since 2018, the principle of development on the Milton Place site had been discussed and supported by Cabinet.
• The Director’s (Housing) predecessor set out a number of ways that the site could be brought forward, one of which was to work with the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation who owned a part of land adjacent to the Council’s. For various reasons, the EDC were unable to commit to developing jointly with the Council. Therefore, to ensure development did come forward, the Council purchased the land.
• Following the purchase of the site, an investment partnership with the Hill Group was formed and in agreeing the partnership, Cabinet agreed to use Milton Place as a pilot project.
• A significant amount of due diligence was undertaken and that demonstrated how challenging it would be to develop the site without external funding. Therefore, a bid to the Brownfield Land Release Fund was submitted.
• The Council secured £1.6m to remediate the land ready for development.
• This report sought delegated authority for the Director (Housing) in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Cabinet Member, to conduct the procurement process and to award contracts.

Following questions and comments from Members, the Director (Housing) advised that:

• The Council would have a valuation of the land done prior to the land going into the partnership. Any works carried out would hopefully improve the value.

Resolved that: -

1. Director (Housing) in consultation with the S151 Officer and Lead Member be given delegated authority to conduct the procurement process and award a contract for the remediation of brownfield land at Milton Place, funded by grant funding.

It was agreed:

1.    For a resolution to be placed before the meeting of the Council on 25 February 2025, specifying the council tax to be levied in the Borough of Gravesham for the year 2025-26.

2.    That delegated authority is given to the Director (Corporate Services), in consultation with the Leader of the Executive, to make any amendment required to the proposed budget resulting from final decisions taken by Kent County Council (KCC) on council tax incentive payments for 2025-26.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) presented Cabinet with the draft revenue and capital estimates for general fund services in 2025/26. The purpose of the report was to seek a recommendation to Council on the level of council tax to be levied for 2025/26. The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) explained the following:

• Provisional settlement was made on 18 December and overall, the reviews resulted in a 3% increase in core spending power when including both the settlement funding and the extended producer responsibility for packaging payments.
• The provisional settlement provided an £800,000 betterment to government funding than what was previously anticipated.
• Other announcements released at the same times as the provisional settlement confirmed the continuation of the Kent Pool for business rates to be retained locally in Kent rather than being passed over to central government.
• The proposed balanced budget has been prepared on the basis of the provisional settlements and income/expenditure projections from service areas.
• For significant and/or volatile areas of spend, assumptions have been tested with service experts, the Council’s management team and the Leader of the Executive to provide increased scrutiny.
• Prior to the meeting, Officers had received notification of the final settlements and were working their way through it in detail. However, it appeared that there was an extra £47,000 in respect of the employers national insurance contributions, but it remained unclear whether any element of that was in respect of the housing revenue account.
• In relation to council tax, the report referenced the outcome of the critical review of the council tax base instigated as part of the balance the budget activity.
• Kent County Council has indicated that it’s looking to withdraw council tax collection incentive payments to district councils for 2025/26 as part of its budget setting considerations for the forthcoming financial year. In view of this, Cabinet endorsed, on 16 December 2024, that an additional reduction of up to 1% should be reflected when calculating the council tax base for 2025/26 to reflect the likely impact or changes that the Council would wish to consider should KCC proceed with this proposal.
• The budget had been prepared on the basis of an increase in the council’s element of the charge of £6.93 per week.
• Appendix five outlined the view of the Section 151 Officer, that the estimates presented were robust and that the level of working balances and reserves was sufficient for the authority.
• The proposed budget did show a balanced budget, but this had been achieved using £2.8m worth of working balances.
• The Council has a demonstrable track record in responding to similar challenging financial positions. In setting the budget for 2025/26, some £1.6m of base budget savings had been delivered.
• The Council continues to experience pressures on its budget from economic factors and decisions taken by other organisations such as KCC.
• The capital programme for 2025/26 was largely a continuation of the schemes that had been approved in 2024/25. The Council will continue to bring forward a new sustainable leisure centre facility for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) presented Cabinet with a report that detailed the draft revenue and capital estimates for Housing Revenue Account Services in 2025/26 to inform them of the determination of the levels of rents and service charges for 2025/26. The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) explained the following:

• The budget showed a balanced position with income meeting the planned expenditure of £37.2m for the year with no need to draw funds from the HRA general reserves.
• The budget includes an increase in social and affordable rent levels and service charges of 2.7%, inline with the government policy expectations. Average weekly social rents will be £112.10, with the average affordable rent being £198.92 per week – average weekly rent levels remain well below the local housing allowance rates used to assess housing benefit entitlements.
• There was the provision to support up to a 3% increase in employee pay for 2025/26 but was subject to negotiations between the unions and the national joint Council.
• The Capital Programme value was just over £27.3m and continued to focus on maintenance of existing housing stock activity to improve efficiency and sustainability. It also accommodates to delivering on the Council’s Housing Development strategy.

Following questions and comments from Members, the Chief Executive advised that from statistics obtained by KCC, the average annual salary for those earning within the borough was approximately £36,000.

Due to the national issues surrounding temporary accommodation, driven by factors such as increased rents and people being unable to afford properties within the private sector, the Director (Housing) advised that a short-term strategy was agreed. There were five main objectives within the work; the first was to look at the Council stock to see where void properties could be used as temporary accommodation. There had been on-going work with registered providers where the Assistant Director (Social Housing) had managed to secure 22 units of accommodation. The Council was also buying from the open market and looking for opportunities to buy stock. The Council had also been working with organisations such as Henry Pinnocks and Elizabeth Huggins, who were allowing them to place residents into their stock.

A Social Letting Agency had also been created which involved working with landlords, guaranteeing their rent and managing their properties for them on their behalf. This had been very successful – it was estimated around 20 properties would be obtained within the first year, however 38 had been agreed.

Resolved that:

The Cabinet recommends to Full Council that:

1. The draft Revenue estimates for 2025-26 together with the revised estimates for

            2024-25 to be approved.

2. The draft capital estimates, together with the revised estimates for 2024-25 be

            approved, subject to detailed reports coming forward for new schemes, where

            applicable.

3. The average social rent of £112.10 for 2025-26 be noted.
4. Due consideration was given to the view of the Director (Corporate Services) (as S151 Officer) on the robustness of estimates for the coming year, the medium-term financial strategy and the adequacy of proposed reserves and balances, as required  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.