Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Monday 13 October 2025, 6:30pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Overview & Scrutiny Committee
Monday, 13th October 2025 at 6:30pm 

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  1. Webcast Finished

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Good evening everybody welcome to the overview and scrutiny meeting. I'll be your chair council of the wahid
when I welcome you all before we
Proceed just want to remind everyone that we are not scheduled for any fire drill. So if the
FUD
Alarm does sound it's a real one. Yeah, so just reminder. Also this meeting is being
and live streamed on the council website
just to remind everybody.
Moving on, any declaration of interest
from any members on today's meeting?
Thank you very much.
Moving on to minutes for the last meeting.
Any...
Do you agree on it?
I've made some corrections which have been written up on my Chair's report,
which has been submitted to you by email.
So we move on.
Number 4, any action log.
One action reported.
One further action that needs to be added, which is on the Chair's report,
which is a Scrutiny Improvement Plan.
Actions needed on Resolve Point 1, 2 and 4.
Number five, call -ins. There's no call -ins.

2 DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTEREST AND OTHER INTERESTS

3 UNRESTRICTED MINUTES

4 OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE QUERY AND ACTION LOG

5 UNRESTRICTED REPORTS 'CALLED IN'

6 REQUESTS TO SUBMIT PETITIONS

Number six, sorry I forgot to any, Jack any.
Thank you chair, we do have apologies.
We have got pollution Councillor Sabina Khan and Councillor Harambe is substituting.
Apologies, Chair and everyone.
I'm going to leave between 7 .30 and 7 .40 at this meeting.
Thank you.
Apologies for leaving early.
Number 6, petitions.
No petitions.
I believe there's no petitions.
That's good.
Moving on to number 7.
One of our main items, the strategic performance monitoring, year 4, quarter 1, strategic delivery
performance for 2025 -26.
Steve Seers, I think.
John Lloyd, do you want to lead the presentation?
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, so Councillor Saeed Ahmed and John Lloyd, if you can do the briefing.
We're going to take the report as read.
And also just a reminder for officers, when you first speak, can you just introduce yourselves?
So I'm sure we all know you, but just in the interest of people watching on the website.
So if I can hand over to you, Councillor Said, thank you.
Thank you, Chair, and good evening to the committee.
So at the end of year one, quarter one of the four -year strategic plan, the picture
overall is positive.
The Council continues to deliver on the strategic performance and the plans across the borough
while facing unique challenges.
Some just not to the council here, but nationwide.
Focusing on our strategic performances, we have 60 measures that we measure ourselves against.
And 36 are green at the end of quarter one, a decrease of one since quarter four.
Three previous red measures have improved to green, which is very good.

7 UNRESTRICTED REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION

7 a) Strategic Delivery and Performance Report Year Four Quarter 1

To name them, KPI06, KPI21 and KPI26.
Overall, at the end of quarter one, 60 performance measures are reported in seven different categories.
Just to elaborate on that.
36 have either met or exceeded the targets, which are green.
Six are below targets.
Four are between amber and minimum target, which is amber rated.
We don't have any data only for Q1.
Ten are data only and four are reported annually.
Of the challenges that we have faced, we have six measures which are in this report in red
areas, which is KPI03, percentage of homelessness cases prevented or relieved.
The service is working on that area and it has increased the number of officers in the PRS procurement team to alleviate that pressure of the homelessness team.
Ideally move more residents into PRS and incur additional costs and overall relief the homelessness cases.
KPI 10 is less to overcrowded households. There is a series of targeted actions taking place.
close monitoring and proactive engagement is on process.
KPI 11, number of privately rented properties visited
to sort of tackle that recruitment of staff
is almost completed.
So once we have that sort of on full establishment,
that should improve going forward.
KPI 25, the rate of first time entrance
to youth justice system.
The service is providing additional training
and partnership to make those decisions in a timely manner.
Level of, KPI 46 is level of household recycling.
The department have launched a sampling regime
to monitor illegal waste,
so that should then eliminate a lot of household recycling
which isn't being monitored as it should be
because of mainly to do with educational purposes
and how people are recycling.
KPI 55 is percentage of tenants satisfied that their home is safe.
There is a recovery plan in place and it is making good progress and that's all to do
with the continuation work of the regulator to ensure that we improve the safety of our
homes.
And there are four measures which are AMBA, which is KPI 28, percentage of care leavers
age 17 to 21, KPI 32, the number of new jobs training and apprenticeships
option which is enabled for local people, KPI 33, enterprise is supported through
the council's business programme, KPI 52, council tax collection rate in year.
And overall the picture is positive as I say, lead members and corporate
directors continue to lead their services to tackle these challenges
head -on and as a council will continue to work as hard as we can to ensure that
our residents live in a borough that they can be proud of.
I hand over to John if he would like to add anything more than that. Thank you.
Thank you councillor. The only thing I'd add would be in relation to supporting scrutiny
within with this report is we are looking to embed wherever possible
benchmarking metrics so you see the benchmark in line whether that's
statistical neighbours or what we call the CIPFA which is the London
average for some of these kind of key metrics because obviously we're presenting a kind
of a well known context of you know housing crisis and a rise of homelessness in London
which is well documented but it will support yourselves and of course the council to to
understand the context with that with benchmarking metrics and lines which we're looking to embed
in the in quarter two so just wanted to update you on that development as well and any steer
thoughts on that would be welcome in addition to the dive into the metrics.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for the presentation. We're going to now open the floor for
members for any questions. The way for us to have some kind of order in terms of
the questioning and comments. So what we've decided is that we're going to go
as follows, children, if members have any questions or comments on children and education,
followed by housing regen, followed by adult and health, then communities followed by resources.
So any questions from members on the first?
Councillor Amy, please.
Thank you, Chair. My question is on EHCPs. I'm seeing green, which is fantastic. We've been following this for a long time and really questioning this for a long time in this committee.
so seeing progress in front of us is really important so I just want to give
whoever, maybe Steve, the opportunity to talk about it because this is what we want to see.
Thank you chair, thank you councillor for your question and yeah we have a significant focus on that measure
over the last year or so. We have put additional resources in, not only to focus on the speed
with which we're doing education, health and care plans, but also improving the quality.
So we have seen that and members of the committee may be aware. We obviously had a big send
inspection which reported recently which did recognise that improvement but also, as we
said ourselves in our own self -assessment, recognised there's still work to do. The most
recent data is looking at around about 70%.
So we're really pleased, but we recognise
there's still more work to do there.
Thank you, Councillor Abdu.
Thank you very much, Chair.
I wanted to focus on KPI 28,
which is around the Youth Justice first -time entrance.
So I appreciate the context that's been provided
in the analysis of the KPI.
I wanted to focus on the value added, essentially, that having the Director of Young Town Hamlets
involved in the Youth Justice, and I'll be starting to see that be fruitful in terms
of early intervention and supporting some of our council services before they get there.
And I appreciate it's red because of the system failure, it's more about the severity of cases
which has meant it's gone over the kind of the threshold.
So that makes sense to me, but I suppose that will always yoyo, won't it?
So I think it's how we are, what we can do in early stages to kind of prevent some of that.
Councillor, thank you for your question.
And we have seen a really positive trend on first time entrants.
I think we might have reported previously over the last two years,
we've seen a 41 % reduction which is really positive but it was the quarter of last year we started to see the increase.
The number of children we're talking about is 40 children and so what's happened is that the first part of the year,
because of the numbers we've had in, we are slightly over target but the forecast should be more in line with target.
You'll see in the commentary we refer to an approach called Outcome 22, working with the
police and other partners, as you say, to try and avert as early as possible the child
getting involved in the criminal justice process.
I think the other thing we've done, you mentioned the youth service, is we've engaged more with
the youth service, but also our community safety colleagues in that partnership, to
a much clearer statement around the preventative offer and that's why they're on the board now
and we're getting highlight reports on precisely what they're going to be doing to contribute
and obviously the youth service has had significant investment and it's been stepped up
in the last year and I think we'll now start to see and I'm really hopeful when people look in
on Tower Hamlets and say you know that's quite a big investment in youth service compared to
other areas we'll be in the position to say the return on that investment is what you're seeing in
the impact around children getting involved in criminal justice which I'm very hopeful we'll see less of that in future.
Thank you Steve. Any other questions?
Okay, just before I move to Councillor Asma, Steve, I just wanted to understand in terms
of KPI 6061, in terms of the educational healthcare plan progress and request, I just want to
in terms of how long were the parents in terms of waiting, was it the statutory 20 weeks I believe?
Yes, so that's precisely the current target is 20 weeks from when the assessment has been agreed
that an educational and care plan will be pulled together, it's 20 weeks.
So that's when we're talking about the most up -to -date data is 70%.
That's 70 % of those are done within 20 weeks.
And as you can imagine, the construction of the plan involves consultation with quite a broad range of professionals
and receiving reports from education psychologists or the health professionals.
So that's why that takes quite a bit of time to bring it together.
But we're as as members will recall where our performance previously wasn't good enough
And that's why we had the improvement plan and additional resources, but we are we are committed to further improvement as well
Thank you
Thank you. So Steve my questions are around the KPIs on the free school meals for primary secondary school
I know we've spoken about data collecting from schools can be difficult, but how can
we get to a place now that we've had a few years into this, how can we make sure that
data can be as accurate as possible.
I know it won't be quantitatively exact, but as much as possible.
The other thing is the work that you are aware of, that ONS has done, led by Councillor Manan,
around how young people feel about their free school meals, we need to actually have a KPI
like we do with tenant satisfaction around young people's satisfaction on that free
school meals and hopefully once we're at that place where we know how to collect the
data, we know which schools are doing well, where the issues might be, if it's primary
school, secondary school, that kind of comparison will be helpful.
Thank you, Councillor. I attended a Head Seachers briefing where the consultants who are doing
the assessment of the free school meals offer presented some information that showed which
schools were picking up and delivering meals effectively and I think that has had an impact
in terms of presenting it and you can see who's performing in a better way than maybe
some of the other schools so that has had an impact and I was, when you started your
question I was thinking exactly as you were the scrutiny work, the recommendations from
and about how we have standards and ask schools to sign up to them, including how we get the data and information.
That will make a big difference and that piece of scrutiny work will be coming to Cabinet
and we'll be implementing those actions in due course.
So I think that has been a really helpful piece of work and will help with the data as well.
And I'm, like yourselves, massively committed to a child's voice here and having a child's voice influence everything we do.
So for the next year's set of KPIs be happy to look at that as a quality measure
Sorry for the lateness you heard my strong news
Thanks Steve for the face
It was a very good question asked to give update on the on the holiday police saying when it first started
That some of the school had 44 percent intake computer sounds the 192 percent on the KPI
So the report has got variations saying why is Samford School doing really bad and Samford School doing extremely well and that bedding into the recommendation.
Am I right Steve on this?
Yeah that's absolutely right because I think some of the, for some of the heads it was the first time they were seeing that information and seeing the variation between schools and as you, because you did a lot of visits to schools you saw that some of it is about how they're organised as well not just about how children feel about the food.
So I think the scrutiny review itself has had a positive impact and then will have even more impact once the report has been to cabinet and we implement the actions as well.
Okay, thank you. Any other comments?
Okay. Let's cancel.
I was in the prayer break and I hope we do it late.
I say apology for that one.
It's about the homelessness increase locally and nationally.
Homeless is increased nationally and locally.
I'm going to go on to that section.
This is children and education.
I don't know if you missed it, so we're taking it in order.
So if you've got any questions on children's education, we're taking it now.
Any other comments or questions on that?
So we're happy to move on to number two.
Okay, all right, we are fast.
Yeah, so we're going to take Housing and Review -Gen next.
Next so I've got councillor asked much to start us
Okay, so my questions around
With with the renters bill in place
And we know we can slowly start feeling more comfortable to be advocating for PRS schemes
Can you I know the KPIs KPIs aren't looking great. How are we doing with acquiring other properties?
for that and I'd like to have the KPI broken down.
I think we spoke about this last time as well
in order to be able to relay both together.
And then secondly on downsizing,
the KPI I can see has slightly dipped from last quarter,
but we really aren't going to be able to pull the numbers
out unless we put incentives in place for people to downsize
Is there anything in place right now that I'm not aware of and what communications are?
Happening in the background in order to get those numbers up
And thank you councillor so in terms of the renters rights bill
So it hasn't got more dissent yet
We're hoping to get more dissent in the next couple of weeks and we don't know when the implementation date will be
But we're planning, it's already on the risk register, it's the biggest reform in 40 years.
It's a private rented sector, tenants will have rights to stay, which the second biggest
reason for presenting to our homeless service is because they've received a no fault eviction.
That will be outlawed.
So bidding wars will be outlawed for rents, the advertised rent will be the rent that
has to be paid.
There's rent stabilisation in the renters reform bill, the renters rights bill, in that
rents can only go up by inflation during the year and they can't be increased after that.
There's a whole raft of measures in the bill and the local authority will get lots more
offences to prosecute landlords with CPNs up to £40 ,000 if they breach any of this.
There will be a national landlords database. Landlords will have to register annually,
have to pay a fee, have to upload their gas safety certificates, tenancy agreements. Local
authority will be responsible for monitoring that. So there's a huge amount
of work coming to the local authority so we've done some impact assessment of
that looking at growth bids expecting the government to announce some new
burdens money because if the bill is going to land well it will need more
enforcement more resources. So that that is being monitored from track for the
last year. Landlords who don't want to operate in that environment we think of
already left the sector. I mean this has had cross -party support. It was brought into Parliament
by the previous government called the Renters Reform Bill. It's now the Renters Rights Bill.
So it has cross -party support. So landlords have known about it for a long time. So some
of the impact on how we're tackling homelessness is because those landlords have moved away
from the market and those properties have gone back into owner occupation. They haven't
gone back into renting. So that has impacted on some of our ability to manage homelessness.
I'm not necessarily sure that it's going to impact as we go forward because most landlords
have left the sector or sold to other landlords who want to operate in that new sort of regulatory
sort of environment.
So we will have KPIs I would imagine when the renters reform bill, renters rights bill
goes live because we will, the government expects us to enforce the legislation and
And obviously there's a capacity for us to be able to generate some income from offences
that may be committed.
Not that we want landlords to commit offences, we want landlords to comply with the legislation.
But the new burden's money plus the ability to use CPNs will be something that we'll be
working towards in terms of KPIs.
Once the bill, with its clauses, is all known.
I would like to hear from the
I would like to hear from the
It is supplementary. There was one more question
on the incentives of downsizing.
Can I just quickly add KPI055, which is the tenant satisfaction
in how safe they feel. That's dipped.
I know the comments actually talk about things we are going
to do. I wondered if you could explain why the case is.
Just had a meeting today about reviewing all of the incentives of downsizing. And there
are 272 council tenants who we know want to downsize. So it's about sort of more clearly
understanding what their motives are and what drives them to sort of what will be the trigger
So we have an underoccupation officer. She over the last couple of years has managed to achieve 22 moves.
And when you talk to her, the reason why people make that move is because, often because of mobility issues
in that they've got stairs or it's because they're inventories or they can't afford the rent.
Those are the two main drivers.
So we're hoping to meet with some of the 272 in a focus group to be able to understand
if some of the incentives we've got in place are the right ones.
Feedback we've had so far is that the incentives probably should be close and matched to the
amounts that we give for home loss payments.
So looking at what the difference is for that obviously help to move.
but also we do have ability through our new let,
through the new build schemes to maybe target more
and market more to the immediate vicinity
when we've got new build properties
that might be suitable for down sizes.
So I was talking to the supply team today
about how we can be more proactive
in marketing those properties, you know,
off plan to people who may then put their name down
in order to move.
So there's lots of things happening in this space.
So I would imagine that we'll be bringing something that brings all of it together at
some point.
And on the tenants satisfied with their home, whether their home is safe.
So these are perception surveys.
So we do these every quarter.
So we do them, we interview, an external company interviews about a thousand residents every
quarter.
So it's a perception.
We...
There are a number of factors that might influence people's answer to the question.
So whenever we have a downturn in this, we contact the people who have responded negatively to the survey by the external contractor.
So we did that previously with the overall satisfaction, general overall satisfaction.
We've run about 70 people, so we're about to ring the people who were dissatisfied with this TSM.
So, wanting to understand when they say they feel their home is not safe, is that related to signage, graffiti, ASB, rubbish?
Is it because they've had a recent experience of an outage, whether that's a lift or a sort of electrical outage?
So trying to understand what drives people to give a sort of negative response to that question,
and the only way to do that is go back to the people who reported negatively.
So that's a standard pattern for us at the moment.
When we get these surveys, we will go back and talk to people.
So I can tell you what happened as a result of that whilst we've done the interviews.
Thank you.
And we will go to Haile Halima.
Thanks, Jay.
My question has been asked by the Councillor Islam around the less overcrowded households.
I guess I can add, are you able to kind of explain how this messaging is getting out
to residents in terms of there is an incentive out there, this is what is possible because
I don't really see it anywhere for residents to know that that's available?
There's a leaflet that was agreed by the common house and register partners.
As you know, we're in this partnership with register providers.
I reviewed it recently and although it was done a long time ago, it actually was very relevant because it was very generic.
It didn't give amounts of money. It listed things that we could help with and it talked about heating costs and it talked about stairs.
So we're just refreshing that leaflet and the idea would be that we would then put it into a sort of mailbox drop to people or to residents.
So it's not just about targeting the 272 because obviously we could go and talk to them directly now,
but it's about making people aware who haven't made that move to register that that offer still remains.
So we'll be leaflet dropping people and obviously using our standard comms material.
So as soon as that's ready, I can share it with you.
Thank you.
I've got Councillor James.
And just before you go, I've got Councillor Nattini.
But in between, I've had a request from Councillor
Abdullu.
He's got a clarification or interest to declare.
Are you both happy for him to then ask a question?
Sorry, it's not a question.
I forgot to declare I'm a trustee of Generation Rent,
which had a big part to play in the legislation
with government, so I feel it's appropriate
to just declare it, apologies, I forgot.
Okay, thank you.
All right, we're gonna move on to Councillor James.
Thank you, my question is sort of a follow up
to both of those really on KPI3.
Councillor, can you just speak up, please?
Sorry, my question's a follow up really,
primarily on KPI3, presented with homelessness cases
prevented or being relieved.
Down 5 % this quarter.
Now obviously this is the new year,
there are new targets being put in place. The target for this KPI3 has increased quite
significantly so Karen Swift, if you were able to comment on whether you think we will
be able to hit these targets and perhaps explain or illuminate why the target went up and then
Councillor Saeed Ahmed, if you could explain what resources have been going in in the past
few quarters already to help tackle this percentage of homelessness cases being prevented or relieved.
Yeah because actually the trend over several quarters is up, obviously it's gone down quite
significantly, quite markedly but away from the target.
So if the target's going up we want to see the, yeah we want to know what resources are
being done on that.
So, sort of two related questions to different people.
I can come in first.
I mean, if you look at quarter four last year,
there was a big hike.
We went up 9%.
So then when we've dropped, it's actually,
when you drop from that 9%, it actually looks really severe.
But we're actually above what we would
have been in quarter three.
So there was obviously huge amounts of work
that went in in quarter four.
I mean the success of this indicator sort of depends on the flow of accommodation.
We just touched on that a little bit earlier.
And also on the success of being able to encourage families to keep, host families to keep families who present as homelessness.
Because the first reason for homelessness is family and friend eviction.
So I think we're starting to see the impact of the cost of living grant.
So that was agreed by cabinet I think last September, in order to pay host families an
amount of money each week in order to retain a family in their home because obviously there
are costs associated with that sort of electricity, washing machine costs, that sort of thing.
So I think we're starting to see that starting to pick up.
I would just say that of the units that we did procure this quarter, we had to use some
of those because a provider was taking away some of their units. So rather than give them
to new applicants coming in to prevent homelessness or relieve homelessness, we had to decant
a temporary accommodation unit and those bonds that we did get on the books had to go to
to those decanted tenants.
We also were moving people out of expensive,
nightly paid accommodation,
and that also was a priority for us as well.
So there's been a number of impacts
on our ability to meet the target.
As Councillor Said said,
the team have got additional resources
through a procurement team,
so we've got additional procurement offices.
We're also doing lots of work around occupancy levels,
So going and checking that people are actually occupying the temporary accommodation may
have moved back to accommodation or moved on, but just maybe forgot to tell us.
So we're just going out and doing lots more occupancy cheques.
I mean, I think it would be fair to say that the indicator will probably be challenging
throughout the year, but in terms of procurement, I think we've got additional resources going
into that area that hopefully will help us.
I should just point out that the KPI 004, which is the next indicator, is in green.
And that's accommodation that we secured for people not wanting TA, but moving out of TA.
And that also is private rented.
So we did really well on moving people out of TA into private rented, less well of providing
people with temporary accommodation when they became homeless.
So with PRS, we're trying to deliver for two markets, really.
Thank you, Karen. Just to remind everyone, Karen, I know you've given some really comprehensive
answers, which is really, I'm sure councillors will agree with me, just in the interest of
time. So if you can just keep the answers a bit shorter, please. Also, before I move
If there are any other questions on this actual item, we will take two questions.
So, Natalie?
Well, chair, actually, Councillor King has already asked the question I wanted to ask
and it has already been answered comprehensively, so, yeah, can save time there.
Okay.
Just go.
Okay.
I will just very briefly note another KPI that is no longer targeted.
I can understand why it's not targeted which is the amount of sorry it's
basically the amount of council and affordable houses that are delivered in
the borough which has gone down to 28 we used to target this in the hundreds
appreciate how there is a you know particularly London wide and country you
know nationwide issue with housing completions so if someone could just
reflect on that obviously being able to deliver and build our own council homes and have providers
build affordable homes as well.
If someone would just comment on that what we are doing obviously with the programme
when we expect to see those numbers pick up how they might be resilient against those
nationwide trends and are you looking at other things outside of how you know home building
particularly council trying to buy back council homes as well again a reflection
I know shared and to me through casework is that it's very difficult for people
want to sell their ex council homes back to the council it's very like the
bureaucratic so any you know things any reflections on that would be just before
you any other questions sorry it's just it's just super brief I just wondered if
someone could address it.
It's just KPI 55, percentage of tenants satisfied
that their home is safe.
It's been a bit of a short decline.
So I just wonder if anyone can just briefly elaborate
on why that is.
So on that particular one, I addressed that
when I, Councillor Osman, I asked that question, did you?
About, yeah, so I think I've addressed that
because I was talking about it being a perception survey
and getting into the detail of why people gave that as a negative response.
So there's three, I'm conscious of time, there are three pages,
there are three slides on the number of affordable homes delivered.
So there's three lots of narrative.
And on the third page there's lots of information about the acquisition programme.
So 655 inquiries, 47 bought back to date, all three beds, larger properties.
And obviously not only are we looking at individual buybacks but looking at some of the stall sites,
although the bed mixes maybe don't really fit what we need, but trying to work on a block basis
with private developers who may have stall sites that may meet some of our CHAP's targets.
So, yeah, I think the council is making a big contribution to the affordable homes completion
and certainly buying properties is a lot quicker than building them.
So I would the target is for us to buy 200 homes, permanent homes.
So following up on all of those inquiries and targeting the three and four beds.
It is about homelessness increasing locally and nationally.
Is it very demanding as well?
Officers are really working very hard to, even to, like, what do you say?
It is a very challenging time, so they are working very hard to help people who are homeless
and finding them accommodation is very rare because the property is declined.
So what is the value? Is rating them red?
Beyond making office, I feel they are failing. How will this help us house people in need?
Thank you.
I think I answered that in the previous, I answered the previous question on the KPI.
So the homelessness is increasing because of the cost of living crisis and lots of other
reasons. But when somebody approaches us, if they meet all of the statutory criteria,
we have to house them. That's a statutory duty that the Parliament has given us through
primary legislation, so we have a duty to do that. The challenge is finding that accommodation.
But some of the work that we're doing in terms of the cost of living grant, there's not only
that grant, which is about helping people to stay where they are. We have a PRS do it
yourself grant, which is people are coming from the private rented sector because they've
had a section 21 notice. They've got experience of the private rented sector, so they may
therefore choose to want to go back to the private rented sector, so using the grant
that we've got in order to facilitate a move back, so very much them finding the property
and supporting them with the grant. So there's lots of work happening at the front end, but
sometimes you can't prevent somebody's homelessness because it's not safe for
them to return to the property that they've come from and in those situations
obviously we try to procure as much in borough as we can but that's not always
the case. There is criteria for people who need to be in the borough so we
apply that, that's in our policy but unfortunately the way the market is we
can't always access accommodation here.
is it?
It is related to that.
Then what is the council doing to work with the private sector, not to let people awake
from their home, keep them a little bit longer so the council can provide them home, then
they can move from the private sector.
What is the council doing about it?
The way the legislation is framed at the moment, if a landlord wants somebody to leave, they
don't need a reason to ask that person to leave.
And this is what the renters rights bill is going to stop.
The renters rights bill is going to stop.
the Renters' Rights Bill will, you'll only be able to evict somebody if they're not paying
their rent or antisocial behaviour, so breach of tenancy, or you want to move in, or you
want to sell the property. And even then you have to provide sufficient evidence that that
is the case. So the Renters' Reform Bill is going to be transformational, I would imagine,
in the homelessness space but also some of the other clauses in the bill will also improve
the standards for residents, for tenants in the private rented sector. But at the moment
if a landlord wants a tenant to leave there's very little we can do. If their mind is set
there's very little that we can do but that's soon going to change.
Thank you.
Yes.
Homelessness is a big issue.
Lot of time we received.
People come to us with Section 21 notice.
But before they get 21 notice, do you have any option to negotiate with PRS?
Councillors, I think that's all.
So could you speak into the mic?
Yeah, so yeah, of course if somebody comes with a section 21 notice, we don't just accept that at face value,
we will talk to the landlord and find out the reasons why the person is being asked to leave,
are there any sort of rent to raise issues or are there other issues that we could resolve with.
So we try to do that, but if the landlord is determined,
there's not much more than we can do.
We can always try to find extensions as well.
But no, we'd always try to negotiate,
pick the phone up to the landlord and have a conversation
and find out what's underlying the reason
why they want the person to leave.
Any other questions or comments?
Thank you for that, sorry, I wanted to follow up and I appreciate your answers to a lot of it, but I suppose, are we starting to anticipate what some of the landlords might be doing because of this new legislation?
So, only yesterday I was talking to a resident who's been given a rolling contract now rather
than a fixed term.
So getting around to section 21 where you've got a two year contract or a one year contract,
they'll roll on every four months, every three months, rather than offer them the security
of a longer term contract.
So as a council we're starting to anticipate what landlords might do as a result of this.
I think in the legislation there's no fixed terms allowed.
it's all open contracts.
So your contract will only come to an end if you end it,
or if the landlord ends it through one of the permitted
grounds for possession.
So that would, to me, that sounds like a sham agreement
to me.
Wouldn't be in the spirit of the legislation.
So perhaps maybe you could tell me a little bit more about,
offline about what that particular case was.
but it doesn't feel to me that that's in the spirit of the legislation.
So I'm happy to follow up, sorry Chai.
So I think the point I'm trying to get to is how are we thinking ahead of this?
I think you're perfectly articulating the need for a big comms piece
about making sure residents are aware of their rights and understand what they do.
So how are we as a council anticipating some of this and thinking ahead of it is my point.
So on the comms, comms to landlords is as relevant as it is for tenants.
So we want tenants to know their rights, but we also want landlords to actually comply with the legislation.
There's been a huge amount done with the, if you're part of a, we have 500 letting agencies in the borough.
They're pushing stuff out to their landlords.
So our comms will be wide ranging and making sure that landlords, you know, understand that the council now has powers.
And we would like to prefer it if they were compliant with the new legislation.
So landlords and tenant coms go hand in hand.
Thank you.
We're going to move on to the next direct trick, which is adult and health.
Is there anyone here?
Apologies, Chair.
This is the week when the Care Quality Commission inspection is on site.
So all the senior leaders are tied up responding to their inspection.
But I'm happy to take away any questions and speak to Georgia on your behalf
Thank you Steve understood I don't think that was community I totally understand
The reasoning but I wasn't communicating with us. We were expecting
But that's fine. And do members have any questions?
So that's okay. So we
We're happy to move on to communities
Please.
Okay.
We're going to move on to Kabir.
You
Cancel the letter
Thanks, so my question is about KPI 46
predictively, the household recycling rate is inching up.
Really good to see.
But I think, I'm sure I speak for the rest of the committee
when we're really keen to see how the team is
measuring the success of individual interventions
that you've been doing.
So there's been some com stuff,
there's been some stuff around enforcement.
But it would be really good to know
What do you think the single biggest impact has come from?
And are we going to put more resources behind that?
Or how are we kind of evaluating what we're doing?
Thank you, Councillor Landau, for the question.
Just to echo, we are moving in the right direction
in terms of our recycling rate, which is really pleasing to see.
By no means are we quite there, but we are seeing
sort of steady increments.
One of our biggest challenges, which I've probably mentioned
a number of times coming here, is the contamination
and behavioural change.
So I guess the biggest impact we've seen through the
We have seen people using the single -sax bags within the states itself.
That has increased our recycling rate in those particular areas.
In terms of how we can scale the actual recycling rate,
piloted is going to be our biggest improvement to see across the borough.
So I think there are a lot of good works done in terms of educating within those pilots
areas.
People have understood more about recycling.
They're seeing the actual things that they need to actually recycle.
So education that's been worked, a lot of hard work has gone into educate people in
terms of the recycling rate.
The biggest impact would be to roll that out across the borough in other areas and that's going to be our biggest
I would say the impact will make significant
territory in terms of our recycling rate
Okay council Abdu
Thank you. I
Appreciate this isn't in your world, but I mean dollar Simon on here and
Kpi 42 so number of hours uniform patrols delivered by the safer neighbourhood
So first, just to commend the service, they've absolutely blown out of the water up by 34%,
so I think that's really welcome.
One time I got so nice to say to the service that Simon's not here.
But delving a bit deeper into this, it's a vanity metric, isn't it?
So the number of hours, and I want to get a bit deeper into the impact of this
and how are we seeing a direct correlation with the reduction in terms of some of the anti -social behaviour.
it remains an issue. Our residents continue to tell us it's an important issue in a resident survey,
I think it's number one or number two, in terms of antisocial behaviour being a real, remaining a real concern.
So I wonder if you or one of your officers could speak a bit more about this and what we're doing to,
because there is very little analysis in the document, I think it's one sentence, which isn't helpful,
in being able to understand the correlations of bringing down antisocial behaviour and the like.
Thank you, Councillor, for the question. Unfortunately, I have to take that back away if that's OK
and give you a written response. It is my world of expertise in the area and I'm not
going to actually say it and make up the number. Is that right? If I take that away, the question
will provide you a written response. That's fine. I'm happy for it to be written
as a response. Can I suggest a sentence in terms of analysis to any KPI, is it necessarily
sufficient? So if you could feed that back to Diana and Simon. It's fantastic. We should
I'm not talking about this, but we need to get a bit underneath the bonnet in terms of
this, because this is volume, this is an impact, and I'd really be keen to delve a bit deeper
into it, so thank you.
Thank you.
Any more questions or comments?
Councillor Asma.
My question is around, like, with the waste service, there's been some real improvements,
and there's also been places where there is still consistently being missed, and we still
So there's some context around why that's happening.
But my question is around for you is how can we get our KPIs to capture that
and also capture it in a way where it actually talks about how many residents are affected
because if we talk about reporting a block, maybe one or two residents might be reporting it
but actually it affects 30 people or 30 households, whatever it might be.
Thank you for the question, Councillor.
We're actually doing a next month's deep dive on waste and we've got a whole presentation
Looking at the miss collection and further detail if that's okay, so we can take yeah
Thank you any more questions, okay, we're gonna we're gonna everyone happy to move on to resources
Okay
Anyone
Any questions?
I have a question about KPI.
What number is it?
53, council tax collection rate.
I think this has previously been a data only
and it is now being so.
And now it is Amber.
But I am just really curious to know
alarmed that it's so low and I've not really ever realised that we've had such a low collection
mix.
I think last time we looked at this there was no data available.
Why is it so low?
What are we doing about it?
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Natalie.
So I think it's just the profiling, so you're looking at 20 % per quarter, so we are aiming
for about 94 % collection rate over the year, but the way we've profiled is about 25 % each
quarter, so it's not 20 % overall.
It's just the profiling.
So how are we able to compare how we're doing?
So it's really difficult to segregate. So we've got historic deaths we need to collect,
that's one. And then we also need to collect the in -year amounts. So in the budget we set
a 97 % collection rate overall, and that number has been divided by a quarter.
So we're looking at, you know, if you were to do it as a straight line, you should be
collecting 25 % each quarter, and you get 100%, and that's what the profile looks like.
Any other questions?
Councillor Abdui.
Thank you, Chair.
KPI 49, so another one I think we should be really proud of, is the top 5 % of earners from black Asian multi -ethnic communities.
It's a pretty broad group so I would really welcome a bit more of a breakdown on this.
I think the council should be commended that it's up 21 % and that's really great.
But I think again it's only a very top line bit of information and black Asian multi -ethnic communities make up a very vast amount.
especially in time which is absolutely the pride of our barbed wire diversity.
But if we're going to keep building on this success,
I think it's important to understand a bit more.
So I wonder if you can speak a bit more to this and break down maybe by ethnicity.
Council, I don't have the details of the breakdown,
but I'll send you a written response showing you the breakdown.
Thank you.
Any other questions, comments?
Councillor Asma.
Just a, I'll be really quick and it's just a positive thing.
So we've got paper going in into cabinet about maximisation of housing benefit and I think
like Jennifer Winter who's the director, like this is her professional record, she's done
an amazing job in happening, this is really well welcomed and she talked about this in
her interview as well.
So this is a positive step.
It will be really good, there's other parts of this that isn't just for temporary accommodation,
I just want to bring up that I'm thinking about how we can KPI this because it's really
worth recording on how well we do with this.
So revenue and benefits does sit under me, so hopefully we can bring you the data in
for other benefits across the piece.
Any other questions?
Councillor Ahmad Khan, please.
Thank you, Chair.
The explanation for green to amber was given by the fixer
that have been due to cost of living financial hardships.
That's why it's called green to ambers.
But according to all the informations,
I would like to ask the
question to the council.
People who call
the council text helpline
service,
for their queries,
it takes them 50 minutes to answer
the questions.
Sometimes the answer is not
satisfactory.
Also, if people email
to the council text service,
they never get a reply.
If they do, it is after a long, long
time.
I'm just asking the officer, is that
deterring people to pay the council
and what you are doing about it.
Thank you,
Councillor.
We are conscious of that as
well.
We have done a few things now.
We have got the contact centre, the customer
services, working with the benefits and the
revenue teams.
We are taking payments over the phone and
utilising the scale of the customer services.
That has been implemented since July.
July today we collected
additional £1 million.
There are more people who are being trained to
answer and collect income.
We are also proactively engaging with residents to enable them to basically not fall into debt as early as possible.
So that work stream is happening. We also work with the cabinet office to really do an ethical way of collecting debt in terms of attachment and earnings.
So if you can afford it, then we will collect it in an ethical way.
Thank you. We're going to draw a conclusion here with this. If members do have any further questions or comments, you can directly approach the officers or contact me and I will on your behalf raise those questions.
Okay, just the next item on the agenda was supposed to be strategic revision.
So what we're going to do is on the request of Councillor Baju Husain,
we're going to move his item forward because he needs to go somewhere urgently.
So if that's okay with the members and officers, if we can move that item up as the next.
Okay.
All right.
Change of plans.
Change of plans.
Change of plans.
We're going to follow the agenda.
So the next item is the strategic vision.
Yeah.
So we're going to stick to that.
Sorry.
I was advised to do that.
But yep, we're going to follow the agenda.
The next is strategic vision.
Just before I hand over to officers,
we're going to take this as read.
So if you want to just highlight anything before we go into any comments or questions.
Thank you.
Thank you, chair.
We do have some slides, but I'm conscious of time.
We're only going to speak to a couple of them.
Does that work?
Is that okay for you, chair?
Just leave enough time for questions.
They were part of the pack.
So I'm just checking that the slides were part of the pack and yeah.
Oh great, thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
So remember that we came really, really early with almost a kind of, almost with intent
and the approach of how we're going to get to this draught.
I'd say we're still early, so we're coming in the spirit
of sharing a draught which has areas that needs to develop
and obviously that's part of the process to share with that.
But that's saying a lot of people have put
a significant amount of work into it,
particularly residents and partners
when they've come together to start to shape it.
So we're in a space where we want to kind of refine it
and improve it through obviously conversations and steer from yourselves.
But we are looking to start to kind of perfect that draught over the next few weeks.
As you know, I stated previously that the intent is to develop a long term vision.
So that's a 10 year, over a 10 year period.
Obviously, the 10 years is quite a kind of long period of time.
If you look back at the last 10 years, quite a lot happened.
would probably be an understatement with uncertainty and quite a lot of seismic events from pandemics
to cost of living crisis, some of which we've seen in the data we've just explored.
But I wanted to kind of share where we are in terms of the level of ambitions, but how
some of the things we're putting in practise to ensure that actually there are measures
in place to understand the impact of which scrutiny can kind of oversee, but also we
can work within our strategic partnerships over.
But we want the strategic vision to really shape decision making, to support and steer
and influence the strategies and plans of which the council creates.
And also to strengthen partnership work in both in prioritisation but also that there
is more we instead of you will do and you will do this because a lot of those challenges
contained within the vision are shared challenges and require a unison of effort.
I wanted to go to slide six to speak most to what we've done since the previous STEER
and the conversations we've had here.
And that was the kind of previous discussions on STEER.
Just before I do that, just give a sense of scale of the conversations.
You might have seen banners, there's been open surveys, there's been workshops,
there's been a task and finish with partnerships,
there's been deeper ethnographic research with residents,
which is still ongoing.
And of course, we shaped the resident survey,
which is representative of over 1100 residents
in terms of what's prioritising,
what are their priorities and what are their chief concerns
and hopes and fears and indeed their experiences within the borough.
So all those things have come together to help shape that.
But primarily, we've had quite a lot of deeper work
in terms of shaping the vision statements
and the priorities and actions.
some strengths in that but there's also some work to do to refine them and make
the outcomes for example a little bit stronger but we're sharing again we're
sharing where you are. From the past conversation we that we had and the
steer that we had here was trajectory was obviously a focus on inequality
and we inequality and we have heard that back loud and clear just how important
that is. So indeed it wasn't hard because residents and partners were
incredibly explicit of just how upfront that needs to be.
And of course, some of the threats that people feel
and experience within the borough,
particularly around the rise of extremism
and the threats to kind of cohesion, neighbourliness,
and indeed individual safety within the borough,
we hope that you see loud and clear within the document.
The second was to extend the length of the feedback.
our original plan, let's say, was a lot shorter and we did reflect on your steer
and I've made a significantly longer engagement exercise with a three -month
consultation period so if you've seen that steer in the process as well.
There was a strong steer on the emphasis of climate which wasn't coming through
within the early engagement so there's a few things we put into place from
anything to speaking to a broader set of partners just to ensure in that the way
we're having conversations you know made sure that the climate was at the
forefront that's still ongoing work but we hope you see just how implicit and
explicit the commitments to to respond to the climate crisis is and there was a
I mean thinking of the last item but also in terms of one of the challenges
of the vision and many of you have seen other poor revisions as well is how do
know that you're having an impact is often the question because it has to be high level
such as the length of time and we're proposing and it would be fantastic to kind of share
the development of that with you a whole range of metrics which will be shared metrics not
necessarily council performance metrics but metrics from anything from feeling of safety
within our communities to healthy life expectancy that would be part of this vision so we can
to see how impact looks over 10 years,
but not just over 10 years in the kind of broadest sense,
in terms of geography of the borough.
So where is that inequality experienced most,
and also in terms of demography.
So who is experiencing that most of,
where's the disproportionality for one of a better term.
So those things have been put in place based,
obviously based on residents and partners,
but particularly your kind of explicit steer as well,
although we recognise there's work to go.
I won't, I'll talk a little bit just about the vision statement
because I think it's important and so many people have come together to shape it.
So these are the words of partners and residents that have played an important part in that co -production,
particularly those kind of deeper workshops.
And you'll see some of the kind of key words there around standing together,
around kindness and creativity and determination being important parts of how we should work together.
And of course people have talked very, very strongly and explicitly about how a core part
of this vision should be people reaching the potential which is prevented either by prejudice
or lack of opportunity.
Those are sentiments that you'll recognise but that is residents and partners coming
together in the overriding vision statement which should shape the rest of the document.
The last thing I would say, because I'm conscious to give, the most important thing is to get
additional steer here, is the draught ambitions reflect that engagement and the conversations
and the steer that we've had.
But there is one ambition which is relatively unique for borough plans of its type, and
that is a really explicit ambition that sits along the ambitions that we would expect to
have, that is of working together more purposefully and differently and that's where more we's
instead of you's, more focusing on what matters most, a real importance of seeing what's working
and then changing course if that's what's required, both in our partnerships but also
with residents as well. And then lastly, just to give you a sense of, just to help understand
and the timeframe in terms of the steer.
So on the last slide, just give a sense of where we are
in the development of that.
It is an advanced draught, but what's great about coming today
is real opportunity to steer and refine,
but we do want to go through the formal governance process
throughout December with a launch around January.
but this is a 10 year vision so we anticipate that there would be additional work to do,
we anticipate there would be a delivery plan in the spring of next year where we've worked
more, we continue to work deeper with partners and the council itself and thinking how are
we going to show the core actions that put this into practise and how are we going to
show that we strengthen the partnerships to make the very, very strong ambitions within
this given the best chance to be a success. So end there and really welcome kind of questions
and steer. Thank you councillors.
Thank you David. Before, I'm going to kick start this one. Thank you for that David.
Just on the vision, it correctly states opportunities are not basically, some of the opportunities
is not for everyone and it indicates that we can share these opportunities more equally.
I just want to understand how would working with kindness, creativity and determination
change the inequalities of opportunity.
And also the draught ends by stating that we want to make sure everyone of us can live
a good life and reach our full potential. In your, in terms of the works that you have
done, what is good and how can we actually deliver this for each and every residence?
Thank you, Chair. I mean, I think there's two important things to say on that. It is
It's a statement of the vision and aspirations and ambitions for the borough and does not
contain all the answers within that document.
What we would expect to have would be a response from partners, from the council, that would
be displayed within a delivery plan in response of this, of which there is significant work
to do.
The second point I would make would be there's going to be a whole range of learning and
adapting to deliver these ambitions which are,
they are kind of grand ambitions and they should be,
they should be an aspiration.
Some of those ambitions are generations,
if not longer than that, old in terms of like
social challenges that we've been fighting
and I suppose the key is you don't give up
in fighting for those ambitions.
But the second element of that is it's really important
that those ambitions don't hang in the air,
that we understand how they felt
and how they are impacted upon within the borough,
and that is where the development of the bundle of metrics
that would sit under each ambition sits.
And we can see that both geographically,
but also in different, how different groups
are experiencing that.
We want to put that data at the forefront
of decision making, both within partnerships
and within the council, and within rooms like this.
So that insight and that openness
and around how we're doing against that
That will be just as important as the actions that come out of the delivery plans.
But I recognise the challenge that it would be such as the breadth of the document, such
as the length of time, there isn't a desire to put every single action of how we achieve
in that.
That will be in working together to identify what makes the biggest impact over the next
six months after its publication.
Just in terms of that, because there is disparity, we know, there is inequality, there is certain part of the community, certain areas,
it's not a level playing field, so we've got to be very careful and I think this is what we mentioned when you first came and did your presentation,
that basically this has to be a comprehensive that we need to reach all parts, different communities.
Because for certain community what is good, it's not going to be same for another community.
So how are we going to be managing that? How are we going to be...
Because what we don't want to do is basically set, you know, false hopes.
And then basically people thinking like that's the barometer and that's what we need to
go and achieve.
And I think that's really important that basically we get that correct.
And this is a vision I know, it's a long term vision that we want to reach.
So just, you know, it's my fault.
And I think that's something that we need to be really, really, you know,
hold on to going forward in terms of delivering this.
Asma.
Thank you, and I completely agree with the chair, that was one of the strong points that
came out from the committee about we wasn't convinced then and we're not convinced now
of the timeframe.
And I just want to point a few things out, which is there's statistics for infograph
that's been added, and it's basically the baseline.
and this is for me, for a ten year programme, this is the difference between having policy
done with people and done to people. When you put down £37 .4 billion, Tower Hammers
has added to the UK economy. It's larger than Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds. What you
should have done is broken that up and have two figures, one with Canary Wharf, one without
The same goes for the employees in the borough.
You've really got to make statistics and the understanding of the nuance in there
because the people that live in Taheemlats, they're real people
and you've got to make statistics actually be useful for something.
47 % of children live growing up in poverty
and then we go into 74 .1 % of people live in social housing or private.
I would like that split up because all the policies are going to be working towards making
sure, for instance, how poverty rate goes down.
How do we know the policies and the actions and the initiatives actually making that happen?
And that's why I would like the baseline to be accurate and I find that there's problems
there.
I absolutely strongly, really, really strongly urge that you push this back.
This cannot be part of an election cycle.
this has to be a genuine meaningful piece of document.
I'm very excited that we're doing this.
There's other councils that have done this and I think it really works well.
But right now, even the 500 residents that you said,
last time around we did talk about engaging more people,
having the ability to be able to really capture different parts of the borough
and different themes.
In order to do that, the time frame we have now is just not going to do it.
And lastly, so you know in the presentation there's a slide about our comments and all the feedback,
not just from us, from everyone else and the changes, but where do I see those changes for instance?
Like the bit about the environment that you pointed out, I raised that last time,
but then I'm not seeing the environment picked up anyway.
Is there another piece that's coming where I get to see all of the changes incorporated?
the data and infographics, there's time to change that.
I think we're going broad and I can see and hear your point in
terms of actually the breaking down might be more impactful, so
we'll look at that and putting that in within the vision.
There was a hold in infographics, but that's really
useful.
Sorry to interrupt. With the statistics, like you put down
39 ,000 people, that's a lot of people.
9 .9 % of proportion of residents are Bangladeshi origin. What about everyone else? It would
be nice to have figures of other communities. Do you know what, there are things in there
that someone who's born and brought up in this borough, I feel like it's not doing justice
to this borough and the people of this borough. Your baseline is wrong, how can I expect everything
else to come together? And if people see that, that you've only pointed out Bangladeshi
community, which is a large community, but what about all the other people that belong
in the sector, that's not fair on them.
Disability is another thing that's not been picked up here.
No, they are a series of big kind of important standout metrics, but like I said, I heard
you and I think there is a plan to develop that to add more detail and more nuance on
those and we'll take that on board and we'll do that on that specific example.
They are very high level metrics and perhaps your point is well heard and we'll sort that
out.
The second, I think the second point on engagement is there was 500 more focused conversations.
Since then there's been a wider engagement.
There continues to be engagement around it, particularly now in terms of partners and
some of the participatory resident groups, which is still ongoing.
I think there has been a lengthy process to develop this,
and I again will speak to the metrics that we would like to share to you as part of the continued development of this.
It provides the framework and the vision, provides the key ambitions,
but actually how we work with people and the actions that we choose to deliver on them is equally important
and that is going to continue well beyond election cycles and it's a long term piece of work.
Thank you. Kathleen.
Thank you, thanks chair. Thank you for this and thank you for coming back and talking to us about this.
we did talk about this last time about the importance of involving us,
so that is appreciated.
I'm just wondering if you can tell us about, so in the document,
it says our commitment to neighbourhood working,
and I'm wondering whether this is where some of that sort of breaking down
that we're talking about would be done in terms of achieving these goals,
but I just wonder if you can explain it a bit more,
because what I'm sort of reading is,
I think it's stuff that the council would assume that it does well already.
So my question is sort of like what aren't we doing that would,
that means this would be a different approach or what gaps need to be filled
in terms, because what I'm sort of getting is that it's on a hyper,
it would be like hyper local, but I just wonder if you can tell us a bit more about what this means.
Yeah, thank you, Councillor. It's very deliberate to put neighbourhood working in there
because it was felt by partners particularly that that is a really significant opportunity
to demonstrate some of the ambitions and ways of working embedded within the vision of which
they fed into, whether that's prevention or more hyper -local working.
If we think about the blending of opportunities around neighbourhood working that the council
Council is pursuing and expanding upon alongside the local authority as a convener of integrated
health neighbourhood teams of which the NHS 10 -year plan is so kind of explicit about.
So are those opportunities as fully aligned as they could be?
Of course that needs to develop.
Do we have enough neighbourhood insight that we are designing services that really understand
the different communities which exist within those?
I think the council is doing well but could do better as could our partners in fact.
So it's a very explicit reference to something that could kind of galvanise our partnerships
and our residents and indeed the VCS has been part of that, of how we could put some of
the ambitions in practise and demonstrate impact.
But also recognising there's a long way to go on that and it will require a big effort.
Thank you.
Aliba?
Okay, thank you, Chair.
So your report mentions that a group of 20 people will be followed over the next 10 years
to help understand how the borough is changing through their lived experiences.
is 20 sufficient to get a meaningful picture of the boroughs evolving challenges and opportunities
in daily life? Thanks, Councillor, I mean the answer to that
is absolutely not, but it's a, I mean that does not, that should never, and there's absolutely
no intent that that continued exercise would replace all the different types of participation
engagement you would expect a council or service decisions to make.
And in fact the best way, it is longitudinal, but the best way to describe it is also to,
the best output of those conversations will actually be to ensure that there are ways
of keeping residents' experiences and how those experiences have changed over 10 years
in the room for important decisions.
So I'm not going to pick on the police but as an example, many of those residents might have experienced experiencing different hopes and fears over that 10 years, but they may experience an increase in feeling safe, especially, especially specific type of specific groups, whether that's women or whether that's older people, they and they will be explicit about that.
And those storeys will be very powerful human storeys,
which we can use and show and demonstrate
in helping conversations maybe with partners like the police.
So it's important to think, yeah, it's
a really powerful way of telling residents storeys,
but it's just one tool alongside actually much more important
and deeper engagement mechanisms.
But we really want to see those hopes and fears over 10 years
to help challenge ourselves and help challenge our partners.
So it's just one tool and it shouldn't be seen as a key example of understanding the
impacts of being in a much broader set of things to do.
Going back to the 500, obviously when you first came we raised that, we just didn't
think 500 was enough for residents that you've engaged with.
Since then, have you engaged with residents further and has that number increased or what
your plans? Yeah we have, I don't know if you've led on the engagement but yes it has.
I'll pass on to my colleague Craig. Yeah hi Craig Morby, Strategy and Improvement Lead.
So over the last three months we've done a second round of consultation with
residents, but partners and council staff and elected members too. So with residents
we've spoken to another 160 of them. We did an online survey, we went to idea stores and
did some drop -in sessions as well and John's spoken about some of the deep listening we
through ethnographic research with 16 residents who are representative of the diversity of
Tower Hamlets to really listen to their experiences in relation to some of the draught ambitions
and outcomes as well. And I think because this is not just a council vision, it's a
vision for the whole borough, clearly it's really important to engage extensively with
a wide range of partners who will work together to deliver on the ambitions and outcomes as
well so there's been an awful lot of engagement with them through PEG, through thematic partnerships
but also one to one begins with some of the key ones and also because in a diverse borough
like our Hamlets as well we want to make sure that we're engaging with all the different
protected characteristics group has been in -depth engagement with our
equalities hubs and networks to shape them as well so I think we spoke to 115
partners as well and on top of that we won't go into too much detail but on a
lot of work with elected members I know some people have turned up to the member
sessions as well and staff too so in total we spoke to another 401 people in
in the second phase of consultation.
Thank you. Councillor Abdu.
Thank you, Chair. Thank you for coming back.
On the vision, I really like the yet bit. I think that aspiration is great.
So, I think that's a positive. The focus on equity and anti -racism, I think,
is you can see waving through. So, taking that feedback, I think, as well.
As with my questions, there's five ambitions.
is that too many, you know, you've spread quite thinly, there's a lot there.
So take for example Leeds. Leeds has one kind of vision about being the best place for a child to grow up, for example.
A lot of their service, a lot of the things they focus on is focused on that youth and being the best city in the world or country for a child to grow up.
We've covered a lot with the five, so I'd be really interested in your views of whether we spread ourselves too thin there.
How does this compare to the other boroughs?
As much as we are one borough, we're a unique borough,
we're in an ecosystem of 31 other boroughs,
and it's the mayor of London,
how does that connect with the other boroughs?
And at times we're competing against some of these
other boroughs for people to kind of move here,
or businesses to move here,
and what sets us apart I think is really important.
And finally, where is the voice of business in this?
So I think you spoke really well about
the additional work you've done. I still argue that under a thousand people isn't anywhere
near enough for such an important document as meant to be a strategic vision for ten
years. But we are a borough of SMEs, a small, medium enterprise, and huge organisations
like the Canal Wolf Group and the whole Canal Wolf Estate. Where are they waving through
here and how are we bringing them fully into our communities? I think a strategic vision
has a real important role in weaving all of these communities and all these groups together
and I don't see it.
I think that's it.
Thank you, Councillor.
Some of the larger business anchor
institutions have been key parts of this and we spoke to the
relevant growth partnerships at length.
But I do take, I mean, I do think there is a strengthening
in here of SMEs in particular, small medium enterprises in
particularly and that is an ongoing piece of work of which we'd hope to see some improvement
within the draught as a result of that.
What I'll say is that over 2 ,000 people engaged in total, I would argue that that's been meaningful
engagement and I'm not saying that in any way a council is suggesting this but I have
I've seen other borough plans that have advertised 20 ,000 people engaged,
where they're just counting people walking past a banner.
That is something we absolutely don't want to do.
These are conversations that have resulted in feedback and improvement
and hopes and fears and ambitions which have fed into it.
So the quality is important and of course that online availability
was there for everybody.
What stands out in this, if I was to look at other borough plans or even other borough plans that I've been part of,
I've probably not seen such an explicit reference to the importance to protect and celebrate the kind of cohesion and
enabliness against my words kind of external threats.
That is very explicit and not something that exists
in any borough plan that I've seen.
The desire to have measurements within it
was such a strong steer, particularly from partners
and for them to embed within their partnerships is unusual.
There aren't many borough plans that are willing
to put kind of metrics up front so that we feel that will be unique in that.
I think there is, and we are always taken just from today but from elsewhere, what Tower
Helmines is unique in its growth of population within inner London and it's unique within
the scale of inequality within London.
I feel like the scale of inequality is through but perhaps the kind of the vibrancy and population
growth element isn't and that's something again that we're working on.
But otherwise I hope that actually taking the infographics and some of the storeys of
residents aside which will also be strengthened, I think we're on a trajectory to making it
look and feel and to represent the people that have contributed to this to be a unique
kind of town home loan vision.
Oh, sorry, thank you, Councillor.
We are pontificating over the five.
I think we did spend quite a lot of time with partners who wanted to move away from the
traditional siloed ambitions of health, housing and climate and recognising that actually
everyone's responsibility is to, those sit within, actually, we wanted to relate, they
to relate to people's experiences and how the reality of they live their lives, so that's
why you've got a bit more of a life cycle element. I think we are pontificating, it
would be good to get your steer on whether or not actually the way we work with partners
is something that kind of sits above and through that, so then the focus becomes more explicitly

8 SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT

8 a) Strategic Vision 2035 Development & Engagement

on the four, but we couldn't get past four because it's a ten year vision and the challenges
are fairly significant.
Thank you.
Councillor Nettem.
Thanks. I have a really kind of small point but maybe it's kind of related to the sort of pontificating, as you called it.
The ambition around every adult has the chance to build a good life.
I don't know whether the language around chance sounded a little bit like it was almost as if we were,
it was almost a kind of like probability, talking about probability rather than giving people the building blocks to build a good life.
So, yeah, just like a really small reflection about that kind of language.
Thank you, I mean, we might need time to reflect on that as well,
but we'll take that, Stia, thank you.
Any other comments?
Councillor Agham.
Thank you.
that all adults have to live a good life.
As a counsellor, we're facing that.
People are living in their home,
but they're not happy with their homes.
How will we be able to eradicate that as well?
Because the home they're living in,
and the people providing those home on behalf of counsellor,
they are not looking after those people
who are living in the home.
So how are we gonna create a good life for the adults
while they are not happy living in their home?
That's always a tricky question for the director of strategy because the answer is that we
are setting the vision and framework of which other strategies and delivery plans will respond
to deliver.
But what I can confirm is we want to understand the impact around those ambitions.
As I've mentioned, we want to understand different experiences of different groups of people
around those ambitions.
So I keep going to feeling safe, for example, which is a question embedded within our resident
survey.
Now, the headline of feeling safe is interesting in itself, but actually, the insight is in
who's feeling safe and where are they feeling unsafe.
And that is the type of insight that we need alongside this vision, so that the council
and its partners can respond to that challenge with less headline and more granularity because
each area or each group might need a more thoughtful response.
So if we're talking about kind of racism and prejudice and disproportionality,
insight will help with that.
But in working with colleagues, obviously you've seen tonight,
in terms of ensuring that the housing strategy which is in development
is a very explicit and deliberate response to this vision.
The Council has a clear role to respond to the ambitions within this vision,
but it also has a role to work with its partners and say,
when actually these challenges are shared,
like we cannot even begin to get close to them
if we do not act together.
And that is the kind of rallying call of the vision.
So we don't have all the answers now,
but we want to create a environment and a call to action
to ensure that we can, that our strategies and our plans
and the way that we work with partners
begins to answer some of the questions
you have and fill the gaps.
I have a follow -up question.
Because as you said, we work with the partners and stakeholders.
And our stakeholders, I believe that Arsal will be one of the stakeholders.
And they will not be able to do the basic repairs of my home.
How will they work as a partner?
and how we will make me a good life, President of Taou Hammett, a good life.
How will we address this with the partners, stakeholders, the RSL?
So, Councillor, to bring that to life, what we would expect,
this vision has been worked with a whole range of partners, including housing associations,
including NHS colleagues, including the police, of which part of PEG, which is the Strategic
Partnership Forum as well. Now what we would want to see is the ambitions within here and
indeed the metrics that come to those ambitions to be considered within partnerships. So that's
the housing partnerships and how they prioritise and how they respond within those partnerships
should consider the ambitions and ways of working within the vision.
And indeed they will also contribute to a shared delivery plan
of which we would see next year.
Thank you. We're going to take a last question from Councillor Aspin.
I just want to help Councillor Khan because I think his first question was
although I don't think we can ever, like a plan can eradicate racism,
but he's asked an extremely important question at a really pivotal time.
And that's one of my things is like, are you really capturing what is happening right now,
asking people and residents and partners to tell us about their challenges,
about their fears, about their hopes in the current climate.
This council ran a BAME commission regarding race and equality for this borough.
It's embedded in our policy but actually when you understand the people you're serving,
the paper reads for itself and that doesn't come across.
I just want to make sure that, I don't feel you fully answered this question,
but then the question was posed in a way where actually you can't say yes, no to can you eradicate racism,
but you can talk about race in a way for this, especially with everything that's going on right now.
I do think that is a really important pillar
that you cannot avoid and be ahead of time
because this is not a period that we think is going to finish
in a day or two or a week.
We know this is a boiling pot,
so this plan needs to be quite inclusive in that sense.
Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that,
but we will reflect and take on board that.
And we feel there are some strong elements
within the vision that speak to that,
but what we'll do is we'll take the steer
and think about how we can make it more explicit.
Thank you.
And just to reiterate, Councillor said,
and also in the beginning of this session
and also the previous session when you came,
I think this is why it's so important that that consultation, that engagement is really robust
and we try and tackle and get to speak to a huge or a large proportion of residents to get their feedback.
So if you can bear that in mind.
With that, we're going to move, thank you very much for your presentation.
We're going to move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the annual complaints
report.

9 ANNUAL COMPLAINTS REPORT

If you could just introduce yourself and then we'll take a photo.
Good evening, Chair, thank you.
My name is Councillor Pardone -Chowdhury,
Cabinet Member for Equality, Social Inclusion and Customer Service.
Hi, I'm Leah Sights, Acting Director of Customer Services.
I'm Ousman Zia, I'm the head of information governance.
Okay, thank you chair.
I'll just start off obviously as corporate complaints annual performance service report
year 2024 to 2025.
The local government and social care ombudsman places great importance on scrutiny and oversight.
in their complaint code to promote continuous learning and improvement.
As such, we are here today to present the corporate complaint report,
which provides some insight into how the Council deals with nearly 6 ,000 complaints
that have been received in that year.
It can help us understand the services areas that receive the highest number of complaints
and the effectiveness of Council at resolving complaints at various stages of procedure.
In addition, we also have annual feedback from LGSCO, including the letter which is
I'm sure you've got this in your pack.
We will take questions obviously.
First of all I'd like to, obviously my colleagues are here, the officers, Leah to sort of present
and we will take questions after.
And Ousmane Zia is here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Over to you Leah.
Thank you.
So I think it's really important to note that the LGSCO, I have to get that right, they're
making some changes to their complaints code,
and one of them is to produce an annual report.
So that's due to be in effect from April 26th.
So we're in anticipation of those changes and to
demonstrate our ongoing commitment to service
improvement and transparency.
We're here practically and early, so we want to take
lots of feedback about the reports as well.
And I guess this really does underscore our dedication
to continuous improvement, but also to make sure that
we're accountable as services overall.
So I think one of the things whilst that as the counsellor alluded to this is around April 24 to March 25
Over that period the complaints function has continued to play a real vital role in ensuring that resident voices
Are heard and the concerns are raised and then we're tracking things accordingly
So one of the reasons why councils bought services back in -house
Like housing management and leisure services was to enable us to exercise greater insights
Sorry to stop here. We're going to take the report as read, if you don't mind.
Okay, Charles. No worries. We will go straight to questions.
If you just want to highlight anything important.
I think we've got a few bits that we wanted to do real high level.
Okay, Ismael.
Thank you very much. So, yeah, just a quick few highlights.
the report, obviously taking it as read, there's a number of figures throughout the three essential
stages of the report, which is stage one and two, and the local government and social care
ombudsman.
I think what's important to note is, you'll see at the beginning of the report, it's not
just about the numbers and the complaints.
There's a real emphasis on how to resolve situations for residents before they become
complaints.
So having that choice and approach available is something we really want to promote within
services at a service level to address the specific types of issues and complaints that
they do get from residents as well.
The other element I think that's really worth highlighting is understanding that despite
the 6 ,000 complaints sounds like quite a large number, in context of the level of services
that we provide.
So for example, you can see there's a number of waste complaints that are mentioned almost 600
And that's taking into account that I think there were approximately 4 million
waste collections over that same year
Similarly for council tax, you've got two hundred and eighty four. I believe there are around a hundred and
The figures here we have for council tax a hundred and fifty thousand council tax properties
What's really important is despite the number of complaints being relatively small in comparison to the service provision,
the complaints provide a really valuable tool for learning and improvement that can feed into the overall service provision for these services as well.
And for us, the local government social care ombudsman is a really helpful tool to really look at some of those cases at a higher level
that obviously were not able to be resolved throughout the two -stage process,
even though the vast majority of complaints are, I believe, the report says 94 % of initial complaints coming in are resolved before they go to the Ombudsman.
But what the Ombudsman complaints does provide, of the 211 cases, it provides us an opportunity to understand from an external perspective,
from an organisation that looks at councils all over the country, and we've also got obviously some figures around London councils to get some comparative data as well.
So we can see in the comparative data with London, those London boroughs, relative to our population,
the number of complaints, which is the 215, is relative to the other London boroughs that have similar populations.
But the uphold rate is just below the average of 84%. So our uphold rate is 83 % as well.
We've also got the local government and social care ombudsman letter which outlines that
there's been a notable improvement with the council's engagement with the ombudsman.
We worked really hard over the financial year within this report to really engage with the
ombudsman to better understand what their expectations are, not just from a response
level in terms of responding to them in time and giving them the level of response that
they want, but also understanding how to resolve cases to the satisfaction of the ombudsman
so that if a case still reaches them, we can show we've done everything as a council reasonably
possible to try and help that resident and resolve that particular case as well.
So that's the summary from us.
We're happy to take any questions.
Thank you very much.
Councillor Amy.
Thank you.
It's just on this point about, you talk about just sort of learning from this, and I appreciate
that if it's a housing management issue, it's for them to do that learning and if a complaint
is upheld, to hold their hands up.
But what happens when a complaint is upheld, they say, we got this wrong, sorry, we will
try not to do it again, and then in your team, you get another one and another one and another
on and it just seems like nothing's changing.
What, it's sort of more about your relationship with the sort of core departments.
How do you pass those messages along?
How do you say you might have had to stick your hand up and say I'm really sorry we got
this wrong but you haven't actually changed anything because we're still seeing it every
day.
How does that relationship work?
That's the bit I'm not clear on.
No, that's a really good question.
So we want to address that from two different mechanisms, essentially.
So first of all, we need to have that feedback and communication loop.
The issue is when you have essentially thousands and thousands of complaints, it's really easy
for that to become almost a conveyor belt, where it just gets shot out and then the response
goes out.
So we are working on service plans at the moment to have more featured and structured
training specific to those departments.
So one thing we're doing, for example, is we look at departments where they send out
a high number of responses because they get a high number of complaints.
For example, you might get things like parking or waste where they get very common issues
over and over.
And there's almost, there can be a temptation to almost give out the same sort of answer
again and again.
I'm sure you guys have seen through your members' inquiries,
you might see some answers.
Sometimes they look a little bit copy -pasted
or they're not answering all of the questions in specifics.
So we try and pick up on those issues
and give specific training around those elements.
So housing will have its own specific challenges
in how to address elements.
Children's has specific emotional intelligence parts
we need to put in with their responses
because a lot of social care complaints
aren't just about the decision that's happened,
it's about how the person is feeling,
about having those services involved with their family.
So it's about recognising those independent issues within those services and we try and
target them and work with their management.
So for example, we're going around DLTs at the moment and we're taking more specific
issues local to their services and highlighting what we're noticing as trends.
And the good thing is, for example, through the stage twos that come through to us, those
are officers in my team that picked those up.
So we kind of get to see actually this service, they didn't resolve it at stage one, what
did they get wrong and usually that's enough of a sample size, even though it doesn't obviously
cover the full 6 ,000, it gives us a good enough understanding to try and recognise what some
of those issues are and we can address them that way.
Thank you.
Councillor, Natalie.
Thank you, Chair.
I also had a similar question relating to what Amy was talking about.
You mentioned housing management.
What are, I guess, the...
So I'm thinking about response times.
I think in the report stage two, response times were highlighted.
And it's something around sort of between 60 and 80 percent on time.
and it would be really, I mean, you know, as members,
we often get members' inquiries that are late
and there's a similar process for residents.
They're waiting for the information
and it's really important to them individually.
So improving that response time, I think,
I can understand that it's more challenging at stage two
because of the complexity, increased complexity.
But some of the stage twos aren't more complex.
They're just a review of the evidence.
and what are the consequences for teams if they continually don't comply with the response time?
And what happens?
Thank you for your question. We've done lots of work actually on stage two.
So yes, stage two's last year was 63%.
We are already, so there is some data in there from October onwards, you can see that we
went on a really big improvement journey.
So from December 24, it was at 98%, 100 % were above the 90 % on all stage 2.
So we've already done the improvement piece there and we're maintaining that and we have
done since that date, we haven't gone under our target.
So I think the answer to your second question is around the governance piece that we do
and we work really closely with the corporate directors and the directors and attend their
services as has been referred to and it really is around working with them and
making those incremental continuous improvement that's what we're really
focused on and I think sort of answering both questions there was definitely
we've been really focused on performance and improving that we are now moving
into that realm of much more insight and had we used the insights that we are
getting because it's a massive amount of data you know 6 ,000 complaints to then
start shaping the services and the policies that surround that.
The report shows that there has been a year on year increase in stage 2 complaints, despite
a reduction in stage 1 complaints.
Can you provide insight into what might be contributing to this trend?
Could it indicate that issues are not being fully resolved at stage 1 or that the quality
of responses at that stage may need to be reviewed?
I think that's a really interesting question and there is some interesting insight around
this.
So actually we can even look back to some of the stage 1 trends in some of the lowering
complaints and increasing of some complaints as well.
So you would have seen that compared to 2324 the stage 1 complaints dropped.
What's interesting about that is there were some complaint services which do get high
number of complaints such as housing management, their complaints did drop and I think some
Some of that is the element of them coming in house and improving with that.
But there were other services where we found a common theme such as housing options and
homelessness as well as council tax as well, where they did actually increase into the
next year.
And we feel like those are related to sort of cost of living and people are more motivated
to continue through the complaints process around those types of complaints.
So there's two things we noticed going on to the stage two element of it as well that
You'll also see the ombudsman data feeds into this.
The 211 cases, around 96 or so of them were for housing,
which says almost 50 % of the cases reaching the local government social care ombudsman
are obviously housing options and homelessness.
So I think there's an increased motivation as the housing crisis and cost of living crisis
increases.
People are more motivated to go through and exhaust the complaints procedure because regardless
of there being stage 1 and stage 2, it still may not get them the result that they're looking
for and they have no reason to essentially not continue going further and exhausting
the process.
So it's particularly been around those areas such as housing, anything sort of related
to cost of living, particularly in that area of housing as well, where they've been motivated
to continue going down that particular procedure.
Thank you.
I just wanted to clarify, we've got our legal representative here.
Also, just bear in mind, we've got people in the gallery.
So my question is around the housing, ombudsman, sort of numbers and the complaints and how
we've been handling it.
I know we've had a briefing and then you've had a, now I've been told that there's been
a publication since then. When will we be able to bring that back here for screep to
have a conversation around that? Because here we can see quite clearly the
Ombudsman is quite happy about the improvements that we've made and with the housing we're
slightly, we're in a different place, we're at the start, so it would be good to have
a conversation around that because it does seem like the council knows how to improve
and if it's one organisation I'm sure we can do the same for the housing complaints.
So I think what could be helpful is we had a specific
briefing for you on that case, what's happened since,
and what we're doing with that case.
So that case has since become a final decision,
which means it's published and obviously we can discuss
that as well.
But I'm happy to arrange, we can arrange a briefing
where we're housing out with that and the action plan.
Jayed?
Thank you, Chair.
My question is around what part of the stage 1 or stage 2 complaints overall.
Does external suppliers or internal processes within the council have an impact on stage 1 or stage 2?
I don't see that in the report, especially around external suppliers, partners,
which are, which the council or the process in itself gets blamed for.
I understand that, but could you elaborate or just give a picture if you know what part
of external suppliers have an impact on your local housing management?
So you're right.
In terms of the contractor element, that does feed in heavily into obviously the repairs
and the housing management side of the complaints, which do make up a significant amount of the
complaints themselves.
The reason this complaint, sorry, this report wouldn't have gone into detail around that
is housing management and, you know, Karen, correct me if I'm wrong, housing management
do publish their own specific report around this service area, which I do believe they
go into that particular element of it as well.
So they did publish a report, I believe, last year, 23, 24, so I'm sure they have an incoming
where they will go into that specific detail.
So they should be a separate report for that.
Councillor Abdui.
Thank you.
My questions are around service design and the feedback loop,
but also the quality assurance of this system.
So I suppose in reverse order, there's really helpful data here,
but I get from residents contact saying they haven't had a response
to their complaint and it's been, you know, so many months on.
So how are we meant to have confidence in this,
and how can you reassure us?
There is confidence in the system,
because we get casework from residents who say,
and they give us proof.
They got an acknowledgment of their complaint,
but they haven't had a response of their complaint.
And in terms of the number of complaints,
how much is this used as a feedback loop
to service improvement?
So housing study aside, there's two of the four directorates
are beyond the 20 days.
I said I take communities, how much of the learning are we then going back to the SMT or the corporate director saying
this is a particular area you need to really focus on because
I suppose we can see complaints as just a kind of disgruntled resident, but also it's a sign, isn't it?
It's a flag, a red flag that something's not working in our system or our councils. How is that service side of feedback done?
So a great question.
I think I've answered elements of it anyway.
You're absolutely right.
It is about feedback.
So one of the big changes that we've done from last year is that we do now have PowerBI
in place.
So all directors and corporate directors have access to that.
So it's live data.
You can go in and see exactly what's outstanding and for where.
We go to DLTs every quarter, in particular with communities.
We've been doing much more focused work with those.
housing's ongoing and continuous and much more regular than just the quarter.
So we do go round and make sure that's done.
There's also quarterly reporting that goes up to the statutory monitoring officer and
the chief exec.
So we've kind of got these feedback loops building in.
It is now making sure we're tracking those changes moving forward.
So anything that's outstanding or overdue, that's tracked and chased.
There's regular reports that go out weekly, isn't it, with overdue?
Weekly reports also go out to the relevant directors highlighting what ones are overdue for their service areas.
I think also adding on to the other point, what's been interesting recently with Power BI is it allows us to track down some of not just the bigger picture sort of services,
but we can also see for example we went to a community's DLT, it allowed us to see even at the team level for the teams that only get like maybe 40, 50 complaints a year,
and they actually have some of the lowest performance numbers
because it's not built into their processes
because they just don't get that many.
And it's those type of residents
where sometimes you get those services,
they don't get that many complaints.
And those residents, their responses, you know,
they go out of time, they get later,
they don't get the answer they need.
So, you know, it can be one of two things.
It can be in the larger services,
they may need improvement within their processes,
they may need to look at their potential service pressures
and resources as well.
and then you also get the services that don't get that many,
but because they don't get that many,
there's a gap there which we've been trying to address as well.
We've also been trying to understand for those services
what some of those hurdles are for them to be able to answer complaints effectively,
because you could have a 95 % in -time complaints rate,
but if that 5%, you have people who have their complaints
of 30, 40 days overdue or whatever it might be,
those really rare cases where they just don't get a response in a good time,
all those, obviously it still has an impact on this particular residence.
So we've been trying to use that new data that we have to really sort of syphon in and understand
even at a smaller team level what has been happening with those teams and where are some
of those gaps and we're working with them closely on the strategic level to try and give them the
support and assistance they need. They may have some of those soft skills to answer complaints
correctly or have to go through the user system correctly. So we've been trying to attack it from
both those elements.
Thank you.
We're going to take one more question.
Halima.
Thank you.
Can I ask two?
They're two small ones.
So do you find the complexity of leasehold cases or limitations in communications contribute
to the escalations in stage two?
That's my first question.
And the second is, so your current process, so you're going to be looking at the different
As a resident I might put in one complaint, but it will tie into three departments.
So how do you manage that and could that impact your stats?
Thank you.
So in terms of the understanding the housing management side of it and the escalations
to stage two. I think a lot of it is understanding you might get a complaint come through and
it primarily just might look like a repairs issue or something else, but there is obviously
other issues involved such as communication, et cetera. We've recently been working with
the housing management team because it was a stage twos with housing management. It used
to be something that our team used to do within the information governance. Since housing
management have come in house, there's a lot more expertise to try and help address some
those elements because previously we were working to try and get that information from
housing management which obviously was formerly Tau Hahn's homes and because we didn't have
that structured in relationship which is obviously in house now, there was a level of sort of
knowledge and understanding that was missing. So I think that's been something that's been
improved and that's something that should also be addressed in more detail within the
housing management report that will come out as well. In terms of the other part of the
The other part in terms of the departments and when it's mixed, we have the system that
enables us to go away and ask for contributions from other service areas. Yes, that can add
to the timing but generally when it first comes in it will be allocated out to two or
three at the same time if we know sometimes that comes out and says we need something
from a different service area. But we still try to monitor everything overall.
Thank you very much.
On that note, I want to thank our officers for your time.
We are going to move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the flood risk report.
You
Thank you, we're gonna before that you comments we're gonna take the report as read so
If there's anything that you want to highlight
Over to you
Thank you and good evening, everyone. This is an ongoing recommendation progress update
previously recommended by the ONS committee here. I have taken the report has been read.
I'm just going to go quickly through the recommendations and where we are so far with that.
on the last page.
Recommendation number one is publish, update
for the LFRMS and asset register.
The draught local flood risk management
completes the SADs guidance drafted and under review assets register
and SADs mapping in final stages.
We're expecting that to be December 2025,
subject to our consultation approval.
That's the first one. Second one is increase the team capacity, which was highlighted.
So we are pleased to say that we now have appointed a flood engineer from July of this year.
And ongoing recruitment reviews and upskilling are ongoing. And we will further review this in 2026.
The implemented target works and monitoring. Over 200 cyclists' achievements so far is
The first 200 cyclist friendly gullies covered, installed routine drainage maintenance,
ongoing wider improvements, CCTV surveys and we are awaiting funding as well.
The next phase of implementation will be 2026, subject to funding.
We look forward to that implementation.
And the fourth recommendation is the response and to strengthen out of hours services in response to the...
Currently we have CCTV led out of our arrangements, which is maintained,
but we are not actually adding additional services implemented as of yet.
Services are currently at a satisfied level,
and we will review the flood data in 2026 to ensure we have a data -led approach
in ensuring whether we need to strengthen our out -of -hours service.
Established internal flood risk group are already arrangements
to hold annual internal meetings, cross -service engagements initiated.
Our first meeting is scheduled in quarter three of this year.
Strengthen external partnerships, continued engagement with GLA groups, CRT groups, liaison,
case by case.
We are doing this as an ongoing step going forward.
So I hope officers here, directors here to answer any questions should you have any.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any questions or comments?
Nati, can I say a few words?
Sure, go ahead. First of all, thank you very much.
It's very exciting to see the full circle of work that we started over a year ago.
So, yeah, thank you for the work and thank you for your openness.
It was a really, really interesting project to work on.
I just want to focus on the two things.
So the out of hours response and the monitoring.
So I understand that there's no, that the funding
for Gully sensors in high risk areas isn't currently funded,
but are you going to look at that in the next funding stream?
That's one question.
And then the second question is really about the approach.
So even though there might not be, so the data might be reviewed, but the thing that
I really got from researching this last year is that it's about risk management rather
than looking at what necessarily has already happened.
So the out of hours response is about having the officers who are already on out of hours
response briefed and up to date on what they need to do in the event of a flooding event.
So yeah, if you could just talk about the kind of approach and also about where the
funding is, that would be great.
Thank you, thank you, Councillor, great question and I'm sure this is a pretty much needed
question.
So just on my right is Vincent, head of highways and transportation, interim head of highways
and transportation, we'll come into some of those questions.
Just before we go, just going to those questions,
just to give a bit more context on background
what Councillor has presented.
The flood and risk management team
already provides a very good service.
And if you remember last year,
we had independent consultant and expert consultants
came in and presented with your support
and then doing rounds, going visiting and so forth.
So we already have a quite strong flood risk management plan.
What was from this group came in and some of the recommendations to take forward would actually enhance
flood risk plans that we already have across
London other London boroughs, so it's really in a good position that we are in in terms of the plans that we have
We already exceed our strategy
Duties on flood especially so that's important to note and obviously in the report when it comes out in in December
that will highlight that.
Just on the second question, and then I'll ask Vincent to do the antivirus question, just on monitoring and supporting,
we're still going through the internal governance process for capital funding for some of the
initiative and ideas that we want to implement.
Some of the
cycle friendly and garlic lending is part of our existing maintenance programme.
So we continue in that and that will be continued to happen going forward.
But what we want to do is enhance some of the SADs programme and other programmes that
will further sort of look at flood risk management.
So still we're going through a lot of governance processes.
We have put internal bid into our capital delivery board meeting.
That will be assessed later in the year in terms of if we are successful or not and then
obviously we'll allow the outcome of that.
If we are successful, then we actually will put into a programme for delivery of some of those initiatives.
So we're not ruling out in terms of being successful, so that would be internal governance.
We're also exploring external funding from environmental agencies and TFO and various other bodies who actually support some of these initiatives.
So that's also in the pipeline. So we're hopeful some of those initiative will enhance some of our projects that we want to actually deliver
in terms of out of hours
Thanks, I shall and then thanks cancer Ben B and Faye
I'm clearly very excited about the full circle of this. I so thank you very much for your support and the committee support
What I would say about the out of hours is we are looking to
Sorry to stop you.
If you could introduce yourself.
Yep, Vincent Valera, interim head of highways,
transportation and parking.
I report to Ashraf, so I deal with everything
highways related, and that includes flood resilience
and our flood management plan as well.
So as I was saying, and just expanding on what Ashraf said,
that we are very keen to ensure that the resilience is there

10 FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT

and I think one of the main components
of bringing it to the committee and working with
the committee and your colleagues is to ensure that
as you put very rightly there,
it's not just generally having the response,
but making sure that if there was a flood incident,
officers know what they're doing
in that multi -agency approach.
So I think you touched on a really, really good point there.
I'm more than happy to keep on ensuring
and considering how we can expand that out of hours.
As Ashraf said, we already have seven months of the year
that has already been looked at,
and we have resilience in our CCTV.
On the point about funding, as Ashraf said, we are exploring other avenues.
Flood Ready London has three million that is open to the clusters in London,
and that's an ongoing project that will use some of this work that we're doing,
as in building the resilience and there's six work streams that we're looking at,
to ensure that we are at a point where we can go to them with off -the -shelf interventions.
Just quickly, if you could say a little bit about on the scrutiny review, it was recommended that out of our service,
but officers believe that CCTV led is more adequate. Elaborate on that, please.
Thanks, Councillor Wyatt. So as it stands for our winter maintenance service plan which
deals with gritting and highways emergencies, et cetera, we already have a robust system
in place for seven months of the year, and outside of that, Councillor Wyatt, we already
have the CCTV that acts as I would say the HQ for anything that comes up in and out of
So anything after seven o 'clock or in the evenings?
We already have that resilience built in where they will be connected to either silver and gold within highways
But we are willing to look at that because we do appreciate that
Looking at and the system that we've had in place for some time and there are opportunities to build more resilience
but again
as I said
We have already seven months of the year and for highways offices on call and for the remaining five months. We do have already
out of our CCTV that acts as that in between for the services.
Thank you.
Kasala, my name.
I'll ask my question. Thank you for your time.
I still have not heard the answer from my colleague.
He says instead of the sense of CCTV, who monitors the CCTV?
Because what tend to happen when we were flooding last time,
there was all kind of different mechanism was in place,
but none of them was interacting with each other and therefore that was the reason it
happened flooding and me and Natalie went into, there was a failure in the system and
all the systems are there but now you are saying who actually really taking responsibility
in monitoring the system. Can you elaborate on that for me please?
Thanks Councillor Manan and absolutely that's a really, really good point here. So just
Just to elaborate, the system that we've had in place was to have the initial phone call
from the members of public to go into the CCTV control room.
As a result of the intervention of the work that we're doing with overview and scrutiny,
we've looked at the internal processes to ensure that there is contact from highways
officers with the CCTV officers.
What we've also done is we've ensured that there's internal process maps that we've reviewed
to ensure that there's a residence there,
so that there's clear connexion points
on who it needs to go to.
You're absolutely right, Councillor.
In January 24, it was the floods in Fish Island
that has prompted all of this.
So we welcome the scrutiny that has come about from this.
As Ashraf has said, we do want to ensure that there is,
Councillor Bien, they made a really good point
that it's not just about having that phone,
It's about having a multi -agency approach and we believe that since it's been raised in the last year or so
We have a greater appreciation of where those touch points need to be. So you're absolutely right
Someone says there's a flood incident
It goes into CCTV then as a clear process map there and ultimately CCTV is covered by public protection
Which is in communities and works very closely with public run
It's our gay counsellor
.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor
Afti.
Thank you.
Specifically on this presentation,
I think it is great.
A lot of work is being done.
On the fish island example,
you have spoken
about the strategic
partnership approach.
You have spoken about
how you are building
a confidence with the local residents.
You spoke about
the GLA,
which is fantastic,
the great London authority.
How are you building
confidence
with local residents. In Hackenwick and Fish Island there's a really bustling community
and they would have to deal with insurance and a whole bunch of other things. I think
a part of our work as a council is to instil confidence that we've got this in hand and
as officers you've got this in hand. So if you could speak a bit more about the comms
piece and how you're ensuring that residents feel confident, especially in Fish Island.
I know not too long before that there was Puddah Mill Lane and it cuts across different
councils and sometimes people worry about cutting across different councils. So how
are you instead of confidence in local residents?
Thanks, Councillor Abdu. That's a really good, that's a great question. So we've obviously
focused on the more formal relationships that we've had. So the Canal River Trust, with
GLA. However, I'll certainly take that back to speak with the team to ensure that we can
community forums and the residential forums and I think that's a really good piece.
I attended, Ashraf asked me to attend instead to the highways emergency preparedness for
the DFT and it was a workshop a couple of weeks ago.
That talks exactly like that, where it's fine to obviously build with Thames Water and deal
with the EA and et cetera, but they talked about the person that matters the most, which
is your resident, isn't it?
So a really, really good point.
I will take that in our working group and perhaps if we come back to an end of year
wrap -up then we can talk about how we have built on strength and external partnerships
on that.
Thank you.
Great question.
Just to add on to what Vincent is saying, the business continuity team, learning lessons
from what happened in the past.
there's a clear, as Vincent alluded,
looking at our process.
So in terms of our residents, we've already got a database
of the local residents affected in different areas.
So there's a lot more stream in terms of how we can actually engage
and making sure the wellbeing and welfare,
all that kind of things, linking them to various services.
So that's completely reviewed and looked at
and embedded part of the process.
So when the business continuity teams look at these incidents,
We know exactly how to approach and communicate that to the residents.
So that's been embedded.
Thank you.
Qazir Ahmad Khan.
Thank you, Chair.
Thanks for the update on this.
And also thank you that you appointed an engineer for flood risk.
So it's great news for people.
We feel safe.
Those areas will be like flat risk, they will feel safe,
they will be engineered that way you can count on him or rely on him to sort out the flat risk.
You have mentioned that nearly 200 psychophilic early were covered.
Do you know how many we need actually?
question one.
And same with the flood risk,
the gully sensor, you wait in funding
because due to funding you cannot put the gully sensor.
Our flood risk is so bad that we need a gully sensor as well.
I'll just put context in terms of how many
are cycle friendly.
We know there is 10 ,000 gullies we have in the borough
across and that's been mapped out.
in our asset register, so we know in terms of how many in total cycle friendly we want.
We have, as Vincent will come into, put in the capital funding stream to replace all
the cycle friendly and then we've got strategy in place in terms of looking at various strategic
routes first and then obviously rolled that programme out subject to funding.
Thanks, Councillor. On the second point about Gully sensors, was it?
And how many do we need, did you say? It's a really good question.
So again, going with this golden thread that Councillor Bienfert is saying,
it's just about building that awareness and intelligence.
The DFT workshop I went to about three or four weeks ago talks about
building residents for what if.
We know that climate is changing massively.
There's been recent events in the last couple of years where shyer counties have lost bridges
because of the mass rain.
So you're absolutely right to question, well, is flooding that bad?
The work that has been undertaken in the last year has identified five critical drainage
areas, one of which was Fish Island in Councillor Hadley's ward.
Millwall, Poplar and Isle of Dogs.
So because they're on a flood plain,
we would consider them at higher risk.
So in answer to your question,
and apologies in a long -winded way,
there are some areas that are going to be inherently more at risk
due to surface water and the fact that there's a flood plain.
So there will be areas that are more susceptible to floods.
it doesn't mean that the whole of Tower Hamlets is at risk.
And we're doing this work to ensure that we do have
a data -centric and data -led approach
so that when we do have funds available,
we can focus on the areas that need it most.
So in answer to your question, no,
the whole of Tower Hamlets is not at flood risk,
but there are some specific areas
that we do need to focus on going forward.
Thank you very much.
The first one should be in Fisher Island.
Because of you have any follow -up questions counsellor, do you have any follow -up question? Okay. Thank you very much
if
We don't have any more questions with a move on. Thank you very much for that
We are going to move on to

11 SCRUTINY LEADS UPDATES

Scrutiny leads update if any leads want to give an update
Let's start with, I think, Councillor Kibbe, you've got an interview tomorrow morning.
So yes, you may.
Okay, thank you very much.
And also, just, Councillor Abdu 'l -Mannan, I know we've heard the sad news of your mother -in -law
passing, so thank you very much for actually attending and being part of the meeting.
We're going to go to Councillor Nattoli for your brief update, please.
Thanks, Chair.
I've been finalising plans for my scrutiny review which will be into
reducing road deaths
And I've been meeting officers and speaking to residents in the community in general
So we had someone a few people come and present a petition last week at for Council
About this issue as well and I also had a very positive meeting with the lead member who's just left
we
We looked at it was a really good and I think we talked basically about how
scrutiny and cabinet can work together to really kind of move things forward for the whole council
and I think the flood risk item we've just had has really shown how scrutiny can shine a light
on an area that maybe doesn't have as much attention but is still really important to
on especially from residents perspective.
I think what we also discussed is that the review
that I've got planned for making recommendations
around reducing road deaths has the potential
to maybe have something, have slightly different
priorities from the cabinet's priorities.
But I think the lead member was really open
and we had a really good discussion about the issue
and I think we can hopefully have confidence that the cabinet will be open to the recommendations that this committee makes around the issue.
So that's really good.
Thank you Councillor Latou for that. Councillor Abdu.
Thank you chair, just two updates from me.
So work's continuing on my scrutiny review which is tackling the reoffending rates and focusing specifically on the ages 18 to 25
So as they move from transition from being a child to an adult and how we break that link of reoffending rates
And my review sessions on the first December's I'd love to see
Councillors and co -opted members come along if you're free. It's just also just a flag. It's no
National hate crime awareness week, so I'd really encourage
Councillors to go along to some of your sessions are being held across the borough
I've got along to a number of different sessions with officers. Thank you
Thank you.
Thank you, chair.
My update is very brief.
I did a whole few meetings.
Just a couple of meetings I have.
I attended housing regeneration subcommittee,
cabinet subcommittee meetings
and I update them about our last housing regeneration
I update them and also I attend a site visit to see a commercial property in Benjerson
Road with the colleagues as well as the council officers.
And thirdly I will have a final scotini review meeting tomorrow so I will ask the colleagues
to attend this one tomorrow, 6pm, 3 .16.
So I look at colleagues to attend and put their view on this final review.
That's the opportunity.
Thank you, Councillor.
Councillor Manendruzia?
Why not? Let me just give you a brief.
We are having a meeting of these teams soon.
Also some of the highlights we're going to do, which will work on the pipeline,
is the mental health issue of the bullying.
That's one of the agenda I'm going to tackle this year on this school, this uprising.
So to update, I'm going to publish the report for all year for everyone to see.
Probably next week, after I'm alright Steve, after I sit down with Steve and myself and the other members to finalise.
But one of the main things is the mental health issue, with the link to the bullying and stuff like that,
that's going to be the main of the agenda issue. Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much for those updates.
We will move on to our exciting, which is a pre -decision scrutiny of unrestricted cabinet
papers.
I think there was a deadline, which was actually today, so I think the only person who has
has submitted anything or is concerned about asthma and no one has submitted anything.
So Daniel I don't know how we're going to do this.
We're going to get some…
Yeah that's fine, we'll just…
So we've got the two questions, so we'll get the responses ahead of cabinet.
I think we've had this before where we give committee members, I'm done but for other colleagues in case they want to put something in tonight or tomorrow morning you should give them a bit more time until maybe 12pm tomorrow if anyone wants to submit any questions.
It's good for this committee to put questions in.
I think, although I totally agree with Councillor Asma, but also you've got to be fair to the officer,
they have to, you know, there is deadlines set and we constantly talk about deadlines,
papers on time, etc. So we need to be also held accountable for that.
However, as the last person said, if you can accommodate us, no pressure to 12 maybe for anyone to submit anything.
Just totally down to, I'll leave it to you.
Yes, I think that's fine. If members do have any questions, they can send them in by 12 o 'clock tomorrow.
But obviously just bear in mind that we obviously have to send it out to other officers to get responses ahead of the cabinet.
So that's why we do have the original deadline.
But today, if there is any additional questions, send it to us by 12 tomorrow and we'll do our best to chase them up.
Thank you, Daniel. I think that's it. If we don't have anything else, we'll conclude here.
Our next meeting is the 25th of November. Thank you very much for your contribution.
Have a great evening and see you all later. Thank you.