Decisions Made

The Council’s homelessness services continue to experience significant pressures, resulting in elevated use of and longer stays in nightly paid temporary accommodation. This continues to put the Council’s financial position at risk and is a corporate priority to address. Section 5.1.2 of the Housing Allocations Scheme is the temporary sub-quota that can be enacted for up to six-months at a time. A number of options for amending and enacting the temporary sub-quota were evaluated (including the risks and impacts) prior to this decision.

The Head of Strategic Housing, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing in accordance with delegation 7.e of the Head of Strategic Housing’s Sub-Delegation Scheme approved Option B, to amend and enact the temporary sub quota from 01/01/2025 for a period of up to six months.

The Briefing Paper, on which the decision was taken, was published in Councillors’ Information Bulletin IB/1263 on 10 December 2024.

Approve the calendar of meetings as set out in report LDS/225 which was published in Councillors’ Information Bulletin IB/1260.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)             approves and adopts the updated Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) structure as set out in Appendix A of report PES/473, whilst noting the implications set out in section 9 of report PES/473.

b)             agrees that the Council applies to be a member of the UK100 organisation, and that this be included in the updated Climate Emergency Declaration, and should the application be successful:

i.               That the Leader of the Council signs the UK100 membership pledge,

ii.              That the Cabinet Member for Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change be nominated as the Council’s representative to the UK100 organisation, and 

iii.            That the above Portfolio Holder Responsibilities be amended to include this appointment within the Constitution.

That Full Council be recommended to approve and adopt the updated Climate Emergency Declaration, which is accompanied by a new declaration of a Nature Emergency (Appendix B of report PES/473) and the ambition to join UK100. 

Reasons for the Recommendations

The Council is currently committed to reduce all its carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, and to net zero by 2040 at the latest. The proposed updated Declaration would accelerate the reduction of emissions that are under the Council’s direct control, whilst  allowing more time for reducing the Council’s indirect emissions (procured goods and services, and emissions from social housing and commercial leased assets).

Declaring both a ‘climate and nature emergency’ acknowledges the strong links between climate change, biodiversity loss and air quality, and the Council’s responsibility for halting biodiversity loss as defined in the Environment Act 2021. It also acknowledges the recently arisen opportunity for the Council to raise funding through the planning process to invest in Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) within the borough.

Halting climate change cannot be achieved in isolation, and joining the UK100 organisation will provide opportunities to collaborate with other local authorities in responding to climate change, strengthening the Council’s voice in advocating to government for action on climate, and improving its ability to access the funding needed for decarbonisation.

The updated declaration acknowledges the influence that the Council has over emissions and biodiversity across the borough and will help to coordinate action, whilst also acknowledging the dependencies outside of our control.

The updated Climate Emergency Action Plan is more delivery orientated with a clearer pathway for the Council to reduce its own direct carbon emissions to net zero.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)         endorses the procurement forward programme January – June 2025 (appendix A of report FIN/670).

b)         delegates authority to the Leader of the Council in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member, relevant Head of Service, and Head of Governance, People & Performance to approve the award of the contract following an appropriate procurement process.

c)         delegates the negotiation, approval and completion of all relevant legal documentation, following the awarding of the contracts to the relevant Head of Service, Head of Governance, People & Performance, Head of Corporate Finance, in consultation with the appropriate Cabinet Member.

(Generic Delegations 2 & 3 will be used to enact this recommendation)

Reasons for the Recommendations

By approving the procurement forward programme there is greater transparency of future procurement processes allowing more scope for internal stakeholders to input into how future contracts are delivered.

The approval of the forward programme provides a key decision that will enable the individual procurement processes to be awarded under delegated authority once the tender process has concluded giving the Council the ability to reduce the time required to complete a procurement process.

RESOLVED

That Full Council be recommended to approve and adopt of the Tenancy Strategy 2025 to 2029 (Appendix A of report SHAP/091) to commence from 1 January 2025, subject to that within 3.0 Council approach, that the final line in the penultimate paragraph be changed to read:

‘There are now over 2,500 households on the housing register, and due to the increased demand for housing and reduced supply, households may wait several years for an offer of social housing (dependent on their priority and the availability of properties they are eligible for).’.

Reasons for the Recommendations

To fulfil the Council’s legal duty to publish a Tenancy Strategy to set out matters to which registered providers are to have regard to when formulating their own tenancy policies.

RESOLVED

That Full Council be recommended to approve and adopt of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2025 to 2029 (Appendix A of report SHAP/092) to commence from 1 January 2025.

Reasons for the Recommendations

To fulfil the Council’s legal duty to publish a homelessness strategy upon expiry of the previous strategy.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet accepts and notes the recommendations from Waste and Recycling Scrutiny Panel as detailed below within the context of the Waste and Recycling: Changes to Collection Regime and Extension of Waste and Recycling Contract exempt report (HPS/045) and:

a)             approves the rename the current Council’s website link to ‘Recycling and Waste’.

b)             requests that the Cabinet Member for Environment, Sustainability and Climate Change investigate the Junior Citizen event which covers ‘waste and the environment’ to consider expanding this further to cover ‘recycling and waste’.

c)             recognises that, from other authorities’ experience, implementing a separate food waste collection service at flats presents logistical challenges and careful consideration will need to be given to support take up and participation at these properties; and authorise officers to explore the use of different collection methods for flats, including the use of reusable bags and/or “smart clear sacks”.

d)             for the majority of households, supports the continued use of a 140ltr residual waste bin and existing exceptions policy as a means of encouraging use of the separate food waste bin and recycling bins.

e)             recognises that a rollout of two or more phases may be required to take into account varying requirements of different property types, as well as balancing available resource and the lead-in time for delivery of food waste vehicles and food waste bins.

f)               approves that the waste and recycling service engages with residents as part of any changes to the service roll out including agreeing where bins will be sited where different options may exist for their placement.

g)              confirms it will investigation of the options, of separate weekly food waste collection and fortnightly residual waste collection, as supported by the Scrutiny Panel, and noting the changes proposed in the National Waste Strategy and the potential for changes to the collection regime to significantly impact upon recycling performance.

h)             approves that a clear and consistent communications campaign supports the role out of the separate food waste collection and any subsequent changes in the collection regime. As part of this messaging highlight the waste hierarchy of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ whilst ensuring that communications are easy to understand and include the message about the cost, importance of recycling to incentivise and engage residents along with contact details for bulky waste collection and fly tipping; and confirms it will consider utilising the following mediums to promote communications:

·                Wrap around signs on vehicles (as per standard approach)

·                Standard information bins (“bin hangers” as per standard approach)

·                myCrawley

·                Crawley Live

·                Early promotion in Christmas 2025 collection.

·                Council Tax billing in advance in April 2026.

·                All social media to feature notification of changes.

Reasons for the Recommendations

To investigate how household waste recycling rates in Crawley could be improved and in particular to ensure the implementation of revised collection arrangements under Simpler Recycling will help to provide a step change in recycling performance across the town.

To seek approval to analyse options of the waste and recycling service and to introduce the Simpler Recycling Policy mandated by Government determining waste stream to be collected and frequency of collection

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)             approves the introduction of a separate weekly food waste collection service and to transfer the residual waste collection from a weekly to a fortnightly service from 2026 to meet the requirement of the National Resources and Waste Strategy and implement the changes to the collection regime on a phased basis with the initial roll out from April 2026.

b)             approves a contract extension with Biffa Municipal for a period of three years from April 2026 with the option to extend for a further two years thereafter.

c)             approves a virement for £890k for food waste vehicles and caddies funded from the DEFRA grant award of £848k and the earmarked reserve of £42k.

d)             requests that the Head of Corporate Finance include additional revenue funding of up to £150k in the 2025-26 Budget and Council Tax report to support the transitional and project management costs associated with implementing the food waste collection.

e)             notes that DEFRA has indicated new burdens funding will be allocated to support the additional revenue costs associated with food waste collection and to support the one-off transitional costs however the amount to be allocated and the basis upon which this will be calculated have yet to be confirmed. 

f)               requests that the Head of Major Project and Commercial Services arranges for an All Members’ Seminar prior to the introduction of the revised collection arrangements, to enable Councillors to understand the rationale, logistics and roll out programme for the proposed service changes. 

Reasons for the Recommendations

The recommendations will ensure compliance with the Environment Act (2021) requirement to introduce a separate weekly food waste collection while ensuring efficient use is made of available resource with the change to a fortnightly residual waste collection.

The recommendations will support the Council’s net zero ambition with a projected 35% reduction in carbon emissions from the collection and disposal of household waste and recycling and a projected 10.4% increase in the Council’s recycling rate.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet notes the report FIN/674 and the treasury activity for the first two quarters of 2024/2025.

Reasons for the Recommendations

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) Code of Practice for Treasury Management (the TM Code) recommends that members be updated on treasury management activities regularly (Treasury Management Strategy, annual and mid-year reports).  This report, therefore, ensures this Council is implementing best practice in accordance with the Code.

RESOLVED

That the Cabinet:

a)             notes the projected outturn for the financial year 2024/2025 as summarised in report FIN/672.

b)             approves the capital virement of £204k from the ICT Replacement Reserve to the People Systems Programme (PSP) project.

c)             approves the capital virement of £550k from the Green Tech Business Grants project to the Innovation Centre Project within the Towns Fund programme.

d)             approves the delegation to the Head of Corporate Finance, in consultation with the Leader to approve a capital virement from the property reserve to cover the costs of fit out and related work at Ashdown House, up to the limit of £1.3m (as detailed in paragraph 8.8 of report FIN/672).

Reasons for the Recommendations

To report to Members on the projected outturn for the year compared to the approved budget.

RESOLVED

The Full Council be recommended to:

a)             agrees the overall approach to the Budget Strategy 2025/26 to 2027/28 as set out in section 8 of report FIN/673.

b)             approves the minimum recommended General Fund Balance remains at £3m.

c)             notes the following highlights of the Budget Strategy:

i.                    That the Budget is aligned to the Council’s Corporate Priorities.

ii.                  The outline 3 year forecast as shown in table 2 paragraph 6.1 of report FIN/673., this is likely to be subject to significant change depending on the outcome of the Local Government Finance Settlement for 2025/26 and the Spending Review Phase two reforms for the period 2026/27 and beyond.

iii.                The current budget deficit of £2.452m for 2025/26 (section 6.2 of report FIN/673.) is based on a Council tax increase of 2.99% which is £6.94 per band D dwelling.  Table 2 (section 6.6.10 of report FIN/673.) highlights the budget gap modelling different assumptions.

iv.                 The forecast does not include any fundamental changes in service delivery as these would be too speculative in nature at this stage.

v.                  That there are significant uncertainties around Government funding prior to the settlement in December 2024 and that this uncertainty increases from 2026/27 due to Spending Review Phase 2 including the anticipated reset of the business rates.

Reasons for the Recommendations

To agree the Council’s Budget Strategy for 2025/26 to 2027/28 including the assumptions made which will set the budget parameters for 2025/26.

The 2025/26 General Fund and Housing Revenue Account Budgets and the revised capital programme will be set by the Full Council in February 2025.  The Treasury Management Strategy and Capital Strategy will be considered at the same meeting. 

To note that until the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement is published in December 2024 these projections are highly likely to change.