The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 24 February 2025 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

Cllr Lenny Rolles declared an interest during the consideration of agenda item 8 (Local Government Restructure Draft Submission) as he worked within the education sector which was referred to within the debate.

No decisions other than those already circulated had been made.

The Chair advised that he would deal with agenda item 8 - Local Government Restructure Draft Submission as the next item of business.

The Leader advised that, due to the importance of the item, it had been agreed that all Members would be invited to the Cabinet meeting to provide an opportunity for a breadth of questioning to take place. Those Members that were in attendance (listed above) were invited to the table to take part in the discussion.

Members were informed that, on 16 December 2024, the Government published the ‘English Devolution White Paper - Power and partnerships: Foundations for growth’ which made clear the Government’s intention to deliver both devolution and local government reorganisation. Following the publication, Kent and Medway Councils submitted a bid to be included in the Devolution Priority Programme (DPP) to deliver mayoral devolution at pace. On 5 February 2025, the Councils received notification that Kent had not been selected to be part of the DPP, however, they were invited to submit a bid for Local Government Reorganisation. The Government stated that it expected local Leaders to work collaboratively and proactively to produce robust and sustainable unitary proposals that were in the best interests of the whole area.

Since the announcements, officers and Leaders across Kent had been working to pull together the initial submission for 21 March 2025; the current draft was attached at appendix two to the report.  The Leader advised that the draft submission was a live document and was therefore subject to ongoing discussions/change up to the date of submission.

The Leader advised that the intention was not to include specific proposals for the geographic make-up of unitaries in Kent as part of the initial submission as work was ongoing but, as the response made clear, there was a consensus amongst Kent Council Leaders that there should be either three or four unitaries within the county. A number of Councils had commissioned additional analytical work to be completed, based on the four proposed unitary models set out. GBC was not part of that exercise however the outcomes had been shared and were attached at appendix three for information; the Leader stated that his view was that appendix 3 should not be included in the initial submission. 

Following the interim submission, the intention will be for Kent Councils to procure one or more external partners to support them in the process and to ensure that options and the submission are independently evaluated. The full proposals will need to be submitted by 28 November 2025.

The Leader advised that, following the full submission on 28 November 2025, the final decision will rest with the Secretary of State who will either accept, refuse or amend. Therefore, it was important for all Members to provide any views they may have to the Leader as the Leader would be signing off the submissions on behalf of GBC.

The Leader welcomed views from Members particularly in relation to the following areas: -

·        Authority size - the White Paper initially indicated that the population size must be 500k. This had been taken as a cast iron number therefore the current proposals  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.

The Cabinet was informed that the Risk Management Strategy sets out the approach adopted by the Council for identifying, evaluating, managing and recording risks to which it is exposed. A review of the strategy is carried out annually and, where necessary, presented to the Cabinet for approval if it is subject to any updates and amendments.

The Cabinet was informed that there had been no updates or amendments made to the Risk Management Strategy.

In preparing the draft Corporate Risk Register for 2025-26, Management Team, Senior Officers and Members were contacted and requested to identify and evaluate new risks and analyse existing risks currently recorded in the 2024-25 Corporate Risk Register.

During the mid-year review of the 2024-2025 Corporate Risk Register, the Council’s Finance and Audit Committee requested for the following areas to be considered during development of the 2025-2026 Register; the Council’s response to those suggestions were detailed below: -

·         Local Government Devolution.

The Council identified Devolution as a risk which had been incorporated under Risk 2. The title of Risk 2 had also been amended to ‘Changes in national and regional priorities and legislative change’ to further support this risk.

·         Financial stability and lack of Government funding support.

Further details relating to the Government’s autumn statement was subsequently released on 18 December 2024 with a final settlement announced on 3 February 2025. This risk was already covered under Risk 1: ‘Ongoing financial viability of the Council’. However, a trigger on ‘decisions being made by external bodies having a direct financial impact on the Council’ had been expanded to include local authorities and local organisations.

Mitigations/Control had also been expanded to state that whilst there was a single year (2025/26) settlement for the sixth year in succession, the Government had indicated that it was looking towards having a multi-year settlement from 2026/27. 

·         The increased public use of AI, including by the Council’s external partners such as KCC. It was advised that in 2023 the Government added AI to their National Risk Register.

The Council had already identified AI as a risk which was reflected in the draft Corporate Risk Register as being much wider than increased public use via external partners such as KCC. The title of Risk 4 had been amended from ‘Cyberattack resulting in data breach or corruption of data’ to ‘Cyber security threats resulting in loss of system access, data breach or corruption of data’. It had also been made clearer in the triggers, consequences and mitigation/control.

·         Incorporating the risk from the Council’s Capital Programme and several large upcoming projects into the Register.

This had been incorporated into Risk 1: ‘On-going financial viability of the Council’.

The Cabinet was informed that a risk evaluation and analysis exercise was undertaken which had not identified any new high residual risks. The risk concerning implementation of the Elections Act 2022 had been removed as it was no longer deemed to be a high residual risk. 

The risks to be included in the 2025-26 Register were as follows: -

1.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

Resolved that pursuant to Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 that the public be excluded during the following item of business because it was likely in view of the nature of business to be transacted that, if members of the public were present during the item, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

to approve the write off as detailed in the report.

The Cabinet was presented with sums owed to the Council and was asked to write off those sums as irrecoverable.

The Assistant Director (Corporate Services) confirmed that all possible attempts to recover the sums had been explored with no chance of settlement.

Resolved that the write off, as detailed in the report, be approved.

-       the Business Plan for Rosherville Limited be approved;

-       the formation of a new, non-teckal Rosherville Repairs & Maintenance Limited (RRML) company be approved;

-       the new Articles of Association, specifically for the Rosherville Repairs and Maintenance non-teckal company, be approved;

-       the revised structure for Rosherville Property Development Limited (RPDL) and Rosherville Servicing Limited (RSL) be approved; and

-       that delegated authority be given to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, as Shareholder representative, to make any changes deemed necessary to current Board Member appointments to the Rosherville Group of companies.

The Cabinet was presented with the business plan for Rosherville Limited for the period 2025-28 which provided an overview of the company and its three subsidiary companies, a detailed summary of the outcomes of those companies, their future plans and an overview of the current financial position.

The Chair of Rosherville Limited confirmed that, although it had not yet been referenced within the Plan, two of the future growth areas will be alleyway clearance and house clearance.

It was queried whether those who have a role within Rosherville Limited and its subsidiary companies (i.e. Chairs/Directors of the Board etc) should remain within the Chamber when the Cabinet are considering/determining items relating to Rosherville. The Leader stated that, as it was the Cabinet considering/determining those items, the Directors of the Board etc were able to remain within the Chamber as they were not taking the decision(s). The Head of Legal Services supported this approach.    

Resolved that: -

1. the business plan for Rosherville Limited, at appendix one, for the period 2025-28 be approved;
2. the formation of a new, non-teckal, Rosherville Repairs & Maintenance company be approved;
3. the new Articles of Association, specifically for the Rosherville Repairs and Maintenance non-teckal company, set out at appendix two, be approved;
4. the amendments, set out in section four of the report (and at appendix three), regarding Rosherville Property Development Limited and Rosherville Servicing Limited be approved; and
5. delegated powers be given to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, as Shareholder representative, to make any changes deemed necessary to current Board Member appointments to the Rosherville Group of companies (Appointments of new Directors will still remain the responsibility of the Cabinet).