Transcript

Good evening, afternoon ladies and gentlemen, as-salamu alaikum, greetings of peace to each and every one of you. Okay, thank you. Welcome to everyone, the usual fire drills, fire alarms and filming in the chamber applies. Any queries, ask any of the officers, they will clarify. In the meantime, can I please, you can't hear us? I am sorry if you can't let us try to sort it out. Can you hear us? Yeah, good, good, good. The audience has got to hear us. 130 million pound town hall, members of the public can't hear us. That's something to say about the build and the installation. Can you hear me now? Yes, yes, okay, good. The 130 million pound well spent then, good, I'm happy. Yeah, loudly? You can hear us, yeah? Thank you, grateful to you, thank you very much. Okay, the usual rule about fire alarms and filming in the chamber applies. Any apologies from members, from officers, full house? Yeah, thank you, thank you very much. Okay, any declarations of interest, anyone, on any matter? None, okay. The minutes of the 24th of July this year, any comments on the minutes, anyone? None, okay. Announcements, Mr Chief Executive, you've got none. I have an announcement to make. If that's okay, ladies and gentlemen, I want to make a statement on our homelessness policy. That's my statement for today. Due to the acute housing shortages and associated financial pressures, some seven million pound additional pressures on us just on the homelessness service, the council undertook a review of its accommodation placement policy some months ago in line with other London councils. A perfect storm of low house building nationally, the government benefits cap and an increase in no fault evictions has created immense pressures on our homelessness service, placing additional demand on our already stretched temporary accommodation housing stock. The result of this pressure means that, as is typical across London, all inner city boroughs and the wider UK, many families here in town have found themselves temporarily housed in hotels rather than in appropriate high quality residential homes facilities. Not only is this arrangement financially unsustainable for any council, pushing some councils into bankruptcy, it has a human cost that is completely unacceptable to all of us and which we sought to resolve. The homelessness placement policy was a logical area to review and I want to thank officers for carefully assessing the policy. The main recommendation from the review was that we remove the 90 minute limit currently imposed on the relocation of individuals and families who are homeless in town. However, since the proposed amendments to the policy were recommended, two significant things have changed. First, there has been a change in government. The new government has talked extensively and promisingly about solving the housing crisis and I want to assess the opportunities this brings to the Hamlets. Secondly, I am pleased to announce that we have received new data which shows that over the past year, with focus and dedication, we have reduced the number of families waiting for accommodation in hotels in the Hamlets from 43 in October 2023 to just one as of this week. That is good. As far as we are concerned, that is one family too many waiting in hotels for temporary housing, but it is nonetheless tremendous progress considering where we were this time last year. Crucially, this progress has been made under the existing policy. In addition, and more importantly, we have listened closely to a wide range of views from residents of our borough. I have always said that I will listen and I am a listening Mayor. That this Council is a listening Council and that residents lie at the heart of everything we do. They come first. There has been much scaremongering and misinformation from certain quarters about this proposed policy change over the past week in a way that too often plays politics with the lives of our residents. My role as the Executive Mayor is to rise above the politics and listen through the noise to what our residents are actually saying. As a result of this listening, I am suspending the implementation of the proposed change to the Homelessness Placement Policy to allow us more time to properly review and assess its implication for our people. As things stand, ladies and gentlemen, the 90 minute limit on relocation remains in place. I will update you all on the outcome of our review in due course. Thank you very much. Can I now move on to our Chair of Urban Security and Councillor Di Ciozzoli. Thank you and welcome once again. Please, over to you sir. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you for providing me with the opportunity to feedback the views of the Urban Security Committee. I would like to start by providing feedback from our OSC meeting on 2nd of September when we discussed the call in on the revised Homelessness Placement Policy. Before I say thank you very much for accepting one of our recommendations. The Committee reaffirmed the Cabinet's decision and we have tabooed the report with several recommendations for consideration by the Mayor and the Cabinet. We noted the significant overspend on temporary recommendations and understand the challenges facing the Council. We welcome the two pilot schemes aimed at addressing the issues. Our recommendations include delaying the policy implementation until funding details are clarified, ensuring individual circumstances are considered in a commendation allocation and maintaining the local connection for our borrow placement. We have also requested further information on a number of areas and we would appreciate a written response to our recommendation by 4th of October 2024. With that in mind, I will now provide feedback on meeting held yesterday. Budget Monitoring Quota 1 for 2024-25. We considered Quota 1 budget monitoring report for 2024-25. I would like to thank the Copyright Director of Resources and her team and Councillor Syed Ahmad as well who responded to the Committee's questions. Officers informed the Committee that Quota 1, the forecast was an overspend on the General Fund and highlighted particular areas of overspend and includes homelessness, temporary care, accommodation costs, adult social care and special education needs. The Committee commented on the Council's approach to addressing direct overspend positions to cover the $13.3 million overspend, rational for underestimating the homelessness and adult social care costs and plans to improve future assumptions and forecasts, clarification on zero-based budget application and the forecast overspend of $3.2 million within community directors, understanding plans to enhance income generation by a revenue and benefits service, and plan to reduce the gap and the understanding patterns around slippage projects and clarification in testifying overspend costs and legal services. We hope Cabinet considers our comment in your review of this report. We next held a spotlight on business rate risks. This is a key area, one which provided significant Council income. Our comments focused on how business rate risks factor into future budget planning, understanding the criteria for appeals and how they might be mitigated, and plans on empty office space, how they might be used and the potential of this schedule. We considered the Council's transfer strategy first, and I would like to thank Councillor Shafi Ahmad, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Emergency, for attending and discussing this item with us. Our comments focused on plans to increase the number of electric vehicle charging points and timelines for implementation and accessibility. Our approach to working with experts from the community and the citizens' feedback channel on cycling and working path issues. Our approach to improving territory partner sites, which can be dangerous and challenging if left uncapped. Clarity on darkness bike scooters plans to address some of the challenges with this, influencing mode shift and how this might impact priorities. Our approach to engage marginalised groups for concentration on traffic reduction measures and reporting and monitoring removal of schemes on level of pollution, air quality and traffic to be included in future transport annual reports. Our committee also heard on the response to the local government and social care ombudsman final decision on issues such as complaint and reasonable adjustment policies. The committee received draft papers on a proposed action plan. I would like to thank Councillor Abdulwahid, Customer Service, Security and Social Inclusion for attending. Thank you. Our comments focused on understanding level of involvement in shaping plans for advocacy groups such as Mind and City General Buds. Understanding how the Council balances the cost and resources required to implement the reasonable adjustment policy and criteria applied to it. Assurance on approach to policy compliance and understanding the systematic approach to address the wider issues, including the onboarding and training on reasonable adjustment policies. Finally, we agreed our scrutiny work programme for this year. Officers will be sharing this with you and all and with you and all and would encourage please review your items. We have submitted a pre-decision scrutiny question on the cabinet agenda item 6.3, time bended collection waste service and I would appreciate your response. Thank you. This concludes my report. Thank you for coming here, making your statement. Can I also, on behalf of the Executive, thank you and your members, the cross-party members in the Oval and Scrutiny, for your contribution, holding us to account and being a good sounding board on our policies. For being a critical friend. Thank you very much. Can I also please, before we go on to the agenda, two things. Can I welcome Georgia Chembani, our new Corporate Director, highly experienced person, restructural person. Thank you for coming in as our new Corporate Director for Health and Adult Social Care. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you. You did, I think, pose a question around acquisition, et cetera. I think I have addressed a lot of it in my statement. The rest of it we will address later on. Your question is quite clear, we know what it is. It is about acquisition and also touching on homelessness. So I don't need a further question from you. It is dealt with. We are going to deal with it, don't worry. Thank you. I've got it here, I've got it here. I know what the question is. Thank you. I will ask it on your behalf, don't worry. Thank you, Councillor. Can I move on to the agenda, please? Can I move to 6.1? 6.1 Free Swimming Programme. Thank you, Mayor. This is an update report outlining the new Free Swimming Programme for girls and women over the age of 16 and men over 55, launched at popular baths on 15th July by the Mayor. The Free Swimming Programme has been developed in partnership with Swimming Land and Royal Life Saving Society. The programme represents an investment of £248,000 to support the programme and is supported by local public data and intelligence and targeting residents who are less active. The programme has made 37,600 free swimming places available per year. Additional free swimming lessons and coaching sessions for less confident and new swimmers will be available. There are opportunities to create crash facilities within leisure facilities which are being investigated with the local charity. A detailed review will be undertaken at three months, which is October 2024. Initial technical bookings problem has been resolved and I'm very pleased to announce that 10,447 people have signed up for the Free Swimming Programme, of which 5,089 have fully registered. 86% of those registered are women and girls, indicating significant interest. There has been 9,526 swimming sessions have been booked. Thank you very much and if you need any more questions, officers are there to answer it. Thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Simon, do you want to come in or Jawar, any one of you? I'd just like to thank the team. I think we've in-sourced leisure from GLL for this very, very, very reason to give a different option and more facilities to our community and I think this report goes away to meet that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there anything you want to add, gentlemen? You want to add to what is said already? Jawar? Just to say, the Free Swimming offer is something that Tower Hamlets is taking a lead on and to have 10,000 people sign up for this offer, it's unheard of. There isn't anywhere else in the country that is offering this level of support and it's because of the opportunities across the borough and the communities that we serve, the links to health and wellbeing and the wider agenda. It's not just about the Free Swimming. There's a lot of partnership with colleagues from public health and other areas to have a greater impact for our residents. So we're delighted by the success. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, members, any comments? I'll take the deputy mayor and I'll take Said, please. Good evening. Thank you to the lead member and our officers. I think this report is an excellent report and the investment by the mayor is amazing in making a huge difference to the community. But I just want to comment about Appendix A for Tila Lezha. I think my comment is about the lesser timing hours for Free Swimming for women only and also the times, the slot you've chosen is on a Thursday 7pm to 8pm. I think also Councillor Said, local councillors, this timing is not, I don't think it's suitable for the local ladies or local girls, so I think we need to look at that and also review. And also I just want to understand what's the rationale behind less hours compared to the other leisure centres and also the timing, what's the rationale behind it. Thank you. Please. Yes, thank you for the question. In terms of the hours that were for the Free Swimming programme, what the council did when we brought the service in-house from GLL, we used the same Free Swimming hours that GLL had operated for the last four or five years. Unfortunately the data that supported the evidence of why those particular hours were chosen was not handed over to the council but we felt that we would use that in good faith because that's what existed previously. So that's how those hours. Our own colleagues, now our colleagues, former GLL colleagues have also provided us some local intelligence to suggest that there may be opportunities here to change and tweak that programme. Which is entirely why we felt it was right to build in the review at three months once we understood what the actual situation was on the ground. And at the same time we are going to be sending out a questionnaire to the participants of the programme that have signed up to the programme, be they fully registered or just signed up to express interest. And that will give us additional information that will help us shape and change the programme accordingly because we have built some flexibility to change and amend it. But the core reason was that was what existed previously and have been in place for some time under GLL. This is the opportunity for us to review that. Thank you. Last time when the mayor introduced this, it was at Tila Ledger Centre, I'm talking about Tila, it was very popular and it was in the morning after school. Basically the mums, they drop off their children and they go to school. It was very popular and well attended so I think this is something we need to take in mind. In a couple of weeks time it's going to be dark, seven to eight, and also the local mothers are going to be busy during this time so we really need to take that into account. Thank you. Thank you. Can I request Simon the lead member and the officers please, in the Docklands, that's the only centre we have, swimming facilities in the Docklands, the whole of the island, Tila Road. Can you please, and there's an emerging community there, a secular community there, can you please review the opening hours and more sessions so it accommodates and welcomes more women generally on the island please. Can you do that here? I don't need to travel out to other parts of the borough and if you can let me know and the Deputy Mayor know and the Chief Executive know as soon as possible. Thank you. Saeed, are you going to repeat the same thing or it's going to be different? Just a comment from me really, I don't have a detailed question but I do concur with the Deputy Mayor what he said about Tila Road. I just want to first of all thank the lead members and thank the officers because we've seen this paper build up and we've gone through a lot of sessions and it's an excellent initiative so thanks to the Mayor for bringing this up. And the point of resources, happy to sort of confirm that the quarter million pound investment is in the base so that should continue for our residents for as long as we can continue delivering in terms of this initiative. I think it's something that would help our residents welcome this report. The only bit of comment that I would have is just to make sure that our services, when we mentioned about training, building up to the paper, training our staff who are within the services, just to make sure that they're mindful of the demography they're working with, just to make sure that our residents feel welcome at every point when coming to those free sessions. It shouldn't be any worse than what it should be for someone paying. So that was my comment when we sort of made building up to the paper and it stands at the same time. That's all, thank you. Thanks Said, thank you. I'll be really quick, thank you Mr Mayor. I think very early on in our administration we had to take the decision whether we insource leisure and I think this kind of programme further supports the reason why we did it. We wanted to offer something different as Simon has mentioned. To have more than 10,000 people register is phenomenal, honestly it's phenomenal. For now as part of phase 1 it's obviously offering the free service but then looking at free swimming sessions, looking at CRESH facilities. We're also identifying barriers to residents accessing those services. So women and girls that have children, we're trying to facilitate as much as possible so they can maximise their health benefits from swimming. But also the financial benefits, because we know we live at a time where things are quite tough, even swimming costs money for people. So the fact that these sessions are saving people money goes along with some of your other initiatives where it's saving the average folk in Tower Hamlets money. So I do welcome this report, this update and I look forward to the upcoming phases of implementation. Thank you, grateful. And I bring Wahid in, I bring Kabir in, Wahid. Thank you Mr Mayor, firstly I want to thank the lead member and officers for this report. I think this is going to be a game changer for a lot of our residents when it comes to tackling some of the inequalities, barriers when it comes to health and wellbeing. I think it's a really brilliant initiative. I think one of the things that we need to focus on now is, like Taza has mentioned, in terms of other opportunities and how do we mitigate if there are any barriers that are being faced by residents, how do we mitigate that and how do we further increase that. And also in terms of how do we, because it's a free service, how do we keep the customer service at a very high standard. Just because it's free doesn't mean that basically in terms of the service needs to be any less. So I think it's a brilliant initiative and I think this will be a game changer for a lot of our residents when it comes to health and wellbeing within the borough. I'll just take a few more then you can summarise at the end. Is that OK Keith? Then just take one or two more then you can come in. Thank you Mayor. Mine is more of a statement and I'll start off with a quote from the Field of Dreams. If you build it, they will come. It's amazing that within this short period of time since we've taken over we've got already a 10k membership list and if things continue hopefully it will grow even greater. But I think financial viability is an important thing to look at and although there were sceptics when we wanted to insource this and we challenged both officers and others, so-called experts, this could be a model that will deliver for locals and at the same time generate profit. If I can draw your attention to the 10 year business plan within the report. Within year 4 of the 10 year business plan we are predicting to go into surplus which essentially means it will be profit making while delivering free swimming for thousands of people in the borough. That goes directly in context of the health benefits which are also mentioned in the paper and it's very important when we articulate notions of best value we need to put these benefits in. Because they have wider social impacts, particularly around health. So you look at the NHS budget, you look at other areas where budget is spent in order to support people, health and wellbeing. They play a fundamental role in supporting our local residents living a healthier lifestyle. Thank you, a lot of points in there. I think one of the key things I'll start with, we are absolutely determined that the free swimming programme is integrated as part of the wider service. We are absolutely at the same level of customer experience we'd expect irrespective of how you are, whether it's a paid for service or a free service, that doesn't matter. And that's why it's fully integrated into the existing programme and we fundamentally think that's the right thing to do. I think the wider benefits should not be underestimated. We know from working in partnership with Swim England that the health benefits from regular swimming activity are enormous. There's a lot of national research to back that up and the scale of the work that we're doing is going to be enormously beneficial in understanding those benefits. We are following that up with actually doing a quite important piece of work, we're bidding to the National Institute of Healthcare Research in order to fund some professional evaluation of this, running in parallel with our own review to give us the evidence and the data that we need to show what the wider benefits are to the residents of Tower Hamlet. And that's going to be really important research because part of that will be surveying those that are participating and indeed not participating to understand further barriers to access. Which is why we've built in the free swimming programme, the free training programme and the coaching programme that will start in a few weeks time alongside which the piloting of CRESH facilities to test how they break down the barriers as well as the ongoing review that we're doing in September. So I think we have confidence that we'll have data and evidence to support, to help us to prove the value of this sort of programme as well as the ongoing initiatives to break down barriers of access. Thank you, grateful to you. Thank you Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to make a comment. This targeted free swimming programme is undoubtedly a progressive approach and quite innovative and I applaud your office and the cabinet for introducing this targeted programme. This is informed by public health data and that shows a strong commitment to addressing health inequalities and promoting wellbeing in our communities. Well done to the council for prioritising this important programme and thank you well done officers for your hard work and input. Thank you once again. Thank you, thank you very much. Anyone else? Please Councillor Shafi. Thank you Mr. Mayor and I'd like to commend the officers as well as the lead member for the report and also the positive atmosphere in this room and within this cabinet and within this administration to show the bold and challenging decisions that we make to make sure that our residents come first and the health and wellbeing of our residents is put at the forefront of our thinking and our decision making. And I'd like to thank you Mr. Mayor for your bold decision in making sure that this is delivered and also the decision that you made tonight in regards to the homelessness. Thank you for your support. Thank you very much. There's no one else. Can I just ask you Jawara or Keith, whoever, I know our growth was for 248,000 last year. I just want to, the additional membership is 10,000. Do you know the existing, what were the existing membership at the time? The new number benefiting from the free swimming sessions? In terms of the numbers that have actually signed into the programme, that's just over 5,000. It's 5,096 additional members. We started off in a base position when we took over from GLL in terms of total membership of just under 14,000 and that's now grown, that's grown anyway on top of which is the growth from this membership. So it appears to be really, really encouraging figures, so genuine numbers have increased. Around what, 18, 19,000? Approximately 19,000. Good, good. Can I just say, can I thank the officers, the corporate director, chief executive and the officers and the lead members. Thank you for supporting me in this endeavour. In the early days, after we came in, we said we wanted to do this and bring the leisure services in house. The obstacles that were put in our way. So you can't do this and if you do this, it's not going to be valuable money as though we're going to waste money. But bringing the leisure services in house, ladies and gentlemen, it gives us the flexibility to serve and to benefit and reduce the health inequalities in the borough. This is a good example why we brought the leisure services in house. The other things we're going to do, if the leisure services weren't brought in house, we couldn't have delivered free swimming sessions to our young girls and our women and our men folks. For a lot of people, that small help is a lot of help for them. You can't put a price on someone's life, someone's wellbeing. You can't do that. You can't count everything in life in monetary terms. We're not businessmen, we're not business people, we're community activists and we're here to serve the people of this borough. I believe it was the right decision to make, bring the leisure services in house. I want to thank the University for supporting us after you came in in 2023 and now this clearly shows and is bearing fruit. It will help Georgia in your department to reduce the health inequalities and hopefully we'll get savings in that respect. People's quality of life will increase so this is something that we should celebrate. Also, can I say, whilst other boroughs across the country are closing swimming pools, not only are we keeping it open, we're opening new ones. The one in St. George's, ladies and gentlemen, we're demolishing it, we're out to tender, aren't we now? So tender should come in. Please correct me. We're going to be going out to tender very soon. A £39 million new state of the art leisure facility in St. George's site which is going to deliver a wet swimming pool and a dry facility. That is talent endless, that is our leadership. We're opening new facilities. We're going to invest money in the spa facilities in York Hall, but I also said I want to see the spa facilities in Myland Sports Centre, in Poplar Baths and Tiller Road to be upgraded. We want our people to have the best facilities and can you please make sure the facilities are clean? We've seen some women out there and I get told by them the facilities are not clean enough, especially the women's side. I've not been in there, I don't know, but can you please make sure we have clean facilities regularly, safe facilities and customer care. There was an issue with customer care previously, I know we've made strides, but our customer care needs to be excellent. No one has any excuse of being dismissive or rude, including us as members, elected members, to any member of the public. We may not be able to deliver what they want, but we must treat them with respect, with etiquette, with the highest professionalism. Can you please make sure that happens? That's my request to you. With those comments, can we please note the report and please continue the good work? Thank you very much. You're doing well, aren't you? B-Well Leisure Insourcing Capital Programme, that's the next paper. Absolutely. Please. Thank you Mr Mayor. This report identifies the urgent need for capital funding required to carry out priority short-term improvements to Myland Leisure Centre. We are those sports pitches and your call spa, both of which provide a significant income contribution to the 10-year revenue model for the B-Well Leisure Services. I'm pleased to say that the report also explained further work underway to develop options for a second and further phase of improvements to the B-Well Leisure facilities shown in table 6. In addition, the report explains other investment and facilities being developed in the borough. Myland outdoor sports pitches and your call spa are budgeted to achieve approximately 1.1 million per annum. Capital funding of 1.16 million is being requested to fund both projects for your call spa and Myland pitches. Myland pitches facilities made of a group of three seven-airside pitches and a further five-asset pitches attract over 150,000 visitors per annum. The pitches have now reached end of life and so repairs are increasingly difficult and expensive to carry out to ensure they meet appropriate safety standards. Your call spa will provide a high spa experience and related therapies, wellness and beauty treatments. As part of the 10-year business model, the spa is anticipated to generate a net income for the council. Thank you. Thank you very much. Simon, is there anything you can add, sir? I think this again reflects the vision of the council and the administration to improve our sports facilities overall. But let's not forget, you know, your call is a poem of British boxing. I think this is just the beginning of a good commercialisation project where we can build on that, not just providing better facilities, but to improve our income. The sports pitches at Myland are not grand. You know, everyone loves football. Let's get our young people out there and improve those pitches and I think this is a really good report that starts to move what we wanted right from the beginning in sourcing leisure, in the right direction to improve facilities and the community's health. Thank you. I just want to add to what Simon said, that this is the start of a journey, I think. We're about four months old as a service, so I think this is the start of a journey. This is the first set of immediate improvements to really important facilities that both can offer health and wellbeing facilities to the borough. They are popular and will generate income as well, which supports the viability, going back to one of the earlier questions. As requested, I think we've worked hard to develop a provisional list of future options and future ideas for consideration. We're working those up in detail to go through the council's internal governance process around capital investment for consideration amongst all of those other options and opportunities that the council has. So we're working those proposals up in further detail, ready to show a future commitment and future opportunities that we have for the overall offer. Alongside the major projects that already exist, such as St George's, and I should just remind Cabinet that you've already approved investment this year of in the order of 3.6 million pounds, funding some of the slightly less interesting infrastructural aspects of the facilities, like things like boilers and electrics, and all those things that are really vital to keep the facilities open. So I think what we're developing is a really exciting package of investment in the leisure facilities in Tower Hamlets. Thank you. Thank you, grateful to you. Members, Councillor Kabir. Thank you, Mayor. Can I start off this time by saying about time, too? For too long, these assets, you know, places like York Hall, have been allowed to deplete and to such levels that, you know, I went visiting there and I saw pigeons flying overhead while I went for an award ceremony run under the previous providers. So it's our asset, and it's important we invest in it, but most importantly, it's for the residents to have access to such sites and enjoy the glories of its heritage. And as Simon said, you know, it's the home of British boxing, so I think we should create a heritage trail and put York Hall at the centre of it, to be honest. That's it, thank you. Thank you, grateful to you. Tala. Thank you, Mr Mayor. I was just showing the corporate director pictures of the Marlin football pitch and the state it's in, and it's so sad that it's got to this position and this should have been done yesterday as opposed to tomorrow. But we are where we are, and it once again shows the commitment that officers, members, the Mayor have in, you know, providing the best facilities possible. I think when it comes to the spa, I just wanted to mention, considering the demographic that we have in Tala amulets, whether we can consider a hammam of some sort. It offers similar sort of offer, but I know residents from here go to Stock Newton and other places, and if we can, because this sort of capital investment is contingent on some income targets that we have, I think it could be something that's quite income-generating. Dean, now you go to your mum. Well done. Okay, good. Councillor Kibirabai. Thank you, Mr Mayor. If we are going to make this a healthier place for all residents, we need laser centres that are welcoming, well-maintained and safe for all. It's for this reason that fully support investing in these capital works, and in turn, the Healthier and Tower Hamlets. But my question is, while the works are expected to deliver long-term revenue benefits, the projected income figures are based on estimates and forecast. How confident are you in the accuracy of these income projections, and what measures will be put in place to monitor and ensure that they offset the investment cost and deliver the expected long-term revenue benefits? Thank you. Thank you, Kib. Just note that. Is there more comments than anything else? Councillor Shafi. Thank you, Mr Mayor. And again, we want to highlight the fact that its capital fund, almost £1.2 million, has been invested in both sites, and an asset surely to Tower Hamlets and Tower Hamlets residents. Again, we as a council could have said we'd outsource the building to someone else, but we've again made that bold decision under this administration to make sure the insourcing of the laser centres and making sure that residents are kept in the forefront of our decision-making. And this is truly an investment that will be beneficial for many, many years to come, for the council and for the residents. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other members? No one else? Steve, would you like to come in, please? Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to make the point that I think this is something the council should be celebrating, to thank the officers for all their hard work. I, as you know, have quite a lot of communication with Chief Executives across London, and some of them are actually in awe of what we're able to do. So you're investing in training facilities, you're investing in enhanced service provision, which is an important part of maintaining our medium-term financial strategy. As the councilor has just said, capital investment can lead to revenue generation. And on that vein, I notice in paragraph 3.22 you talk about bringing back feasibility studies for the items that are listed in the table, and the Mayor and I have been discussing it will be really helpful to have those reported to cabinet in November. There's a lot of feasibility work to do there, but if it's going to inform the MTFS, particularly the council's approach to capital expenditure, it needs to happen then, and we have made a commitment that it will inform the 25/26 budget. So if that could be added as a recommendation, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you, grateful to you. Thank you for this paper, and whilst we note the immediate spend that's necessary in your call, absolutely, but we need to spend further money in the other sporting leisure facilities, especially bringing them up to scratch is very important. And also making sure, as I said earlier on, the spa facilities for women in particular, and men, in the other sporting centres. I learned popular bars, popular bars we did when we heard in a previous term, we delivered that for £30 million. I hear, I mean, the spa facilities and the changing rooms have been run down, unfortunately, been allowed to run down, not under you, the previous operators, and Tiller Road isn't in a very good state. So please, if you can, bring a paper to us for November cabinet on those facilities and what additional facilities we can install in those centres, very important to us. I agree with Councillor Thall and Hamam, because yes, it's true, residents do go outside, we don't have a Hamam facility within the borough, one generates income from us, but also it's about looking after our residents rather than special women travelling out of the borough. So if you can look at such a facility in one of the sporting leisure centres, please, absolutely, and if you can, I'm going to just amend, subject further to what the Chief Executive has said, just on the recommendation, one is noting, second, we want a further report to cabinet, in the November cabinet, on the further capital works. Is that okay? That's the further, is that okay, Joel, to note that. With that caveat, can we agree the report? Thank you, thank you very much. Good. Now, can we, 6.3, the waste regulations and time-banded waste collections. Again, a very important paper to clean, help us to clean the borough, collect the rubbish on time and more frequently. Okay, thank you, Councillor Shafi. Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, all. I am pleased to announce and to introduce you this report, which sets up our plans to bring in time-banded waste collections from early December this year. This is another positive step to deliver a cleaner and greener borough as part of the Mayor's waste improvement plan, to support residents and businesses and reduce impact of waste on our town centres, high streets and main commercial areas. This is about driving positive behavioural change to improve the local environment. We will work hard to educate, inform and advise people of this change. A detailed communication plan will help inform everyone with focus on ensuring that the information is simple, accessible and understandable to all, including our BAME community. To enhance waste collection services for residents, businesses in our high streets, centres and main commercial areas. And I'd like to hand over to Richard and Ashraf Ali to continue. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you, Councillor Shafi. For me, this is, we want to be proud of where we are, where we live, where we work and the community. We should have clean streets. We're following good examples of Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea, Lambeth and places like that. This is a bold thing to do. I think it's the right thing to do. And I want a street scene that we can manage. I don't want people coming out of their homes or their shops or businesses or parks, open spaces whereby you're then confronted with bags of rubbish on the pavement at any given time, 24/7. That's wrong and this report sets out the framework in which we can tackle that. Thank you. Thank you. Ashraf, please. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Just to add on to, whilst the paper makes a number of recommendations which is going to go to the full Council in October, I just want to actually highlight a couple of the key benefits of this time band will actually bring. As Councillor Oates mentioned, enhanced improved service that will be offered. It's about the waste collection services for residents and businesses in our high streets, town centres and main commercial areas. It will help to reduce illegal dumping, decrease the negative impacts of illegal waste in our town centres and high streets. It will increase our illegal waste growth. It will boost our commercial waste businesses. Enhancing income generation will improve a service offered and increase compliances. Cleaner streets will ensure clean streets throughout the busy periods from Monday to Sunday. So it's a seven day service, improving the overall environment. Boosting the recycling. Promoting the increase of recycling, especially from the flats above shops. So this is some of the benefits Mr Mayor, this paper eludes. Richard is just going to highlight some of the implementation plan, how we can actually implement this. So we plan to implement this in early December. It has to go to full Council just because the legal framework needs to be endorsed. We will be working on a detailed communication plan and that will be published in newspapers for a four week period. And we aim to make sure that the information about this has been highlighted is as simple and easy to understand as possible. But this is about an improved service offered to residents and businesses and we will be making sure that people will be able to go online, check our website and understand how these changes affect them. And there's quite a bit of work to do that but we expect to have all of that ready for our go live date of the first week of December. Richard, thank you. I'm just referring to paragraph 3.8. I thought it was a mandatory thing to have banding. This says previously, previous to us, that there was not one. Yes, so Mayor, back in 2012 with the Olympics we basically put time bands in but we didn't put the legal framework in to enforce them and since then it's never properly worked. So we've got time bands but people are confused by them, the service wasn't achieving those times so this is going to really rationalise the service. We're talking about twice a day collection, seven days a week. It will be a lot easier and clearer for people to know what to do with their waste, whether they're a resident or a business. And we'll have the signage, the information to make it very clear when people can and can't put their waste out. And this is about making sure that we don't have waste on the streets in the day causing an nuisance and it will help us improve the cleanliness of the borough and it will be a lot clearer to people about what they should do with their waste and previously it wasn't. Okay, good. It's a good thing for business and for our residents. They have certainty and we have a clean borough hopefully. Okay, thank you. Any members please? Any one? Deputy Mayor? Thank you, thank you Mr Mayor. I welcome this report. I think it's a very important report but I just had one question. When you talk about the Isle of Dogs on the streets on the Isle of Dogs on both banding times, does that mean from today you're going to stop collecting waste on the Isle of Dogs? Can you please clarify? Yes, so these collections arrangements are basically our main town centres and high street routes out there. Correct me but I don't think we've got as many of those going to the Isle of Dogs. That's the position. So it's our main high streets, town centres and commercial areas. It includes all of those areas. I'm just racking my brains to think what we might have missed but I don't think we've missed anything. Thank you. Please, COVID and I will move to second. Thank you Mayor. I just want to confirm with you that when we enforce this new structure we're going to be contacting the operators as well in order to notify them of the time zones. And it's not about just targeting the businesses but it's about creating a cleaner, safer high street. Yes, we will. We're going to get quite a bit of interest I think with these time banding collections. We're running these routes already. We've been running the new routes for a few weeks now. But we will be making sure that all of the waste operators operating in the borough understand these new requirements. And we'll be proactive in talking to them about it. Councillor Mustak please. Thank you Mr Mayor. Just some words of appreciation. Today marks a long overdue leap forward in our mission to revitalise our high streets and town centres. With the introduction of time banded waste collections we are not just tackling the clutter. We are transforming our public spaces into cleaner, vibrant areas that reflect our community's pride. By enforcing the time that's waste regulations 2024 we are setting a new standard for responsible waste management and ensuring our streets are as welcoming as they are bustling. This is more than just a policy Mr Mayor. It's a commitment to the future of our borough. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Is there anything else we want to add to what's been said? You're okay here? Good. Thank you. There's a number of recommendations in the report. Can we agree the reports and the recommendations please? Is that okay? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. We'll move on to another very important paper. Watchable Markets. Well overdue watchable market improvement. The stalls. The general landscaping. So again who's going to, Kabir? I always get confused with the lead member on this one. Go on Kabir. Thank you Mayor. This report is seeking the approval to authorise the procurement process to fabricate and install the new market stalls on Whitechapel Road as part of the Whitechapel Road improvement programme. It follows successful prototype trials on the high street and workshop including regular consultation with traders to inform the final decision. It's developed out of the Whitechapel vision master plan which saw the revitalisation of the market as a central component of the regeneration vision. The total cost of the contract is estimated at 3.8 million including a 15% risk allowance. Funding provided via the leveling up fund. Procurement exercise will include the purchase of spare parts for the stalls to allow replacement of any breakage to be covered for at least the first 24 months of operation. It will provide coverage of 12 months of structural maintenance. Once complete day to day management of the stalls including responding to trader issues with the structure with regards to normal wear and tear will be the responsibility of LBTH Markets team. That's it Mayor. Thank you. Paul, anything to add? Just simply to add Mayor that this will be a great improvement for the market stalls across the Whitechapel and I think it's really strong support for small business and local business growth and will attract more people into the area to spend time. Thank you and absolutely. Whitechapel has become a hub, a city. You've got the hospital, you've got the town hall, you've got the Elizabeth line, you've got the underground. It's only 2 minutes away from the city. Thank you very much, very helpful. It's become a hub. When we did the Whitechapel vision and the master plan 10 years ago and I was the Mayor, the whole idea was that we'll bring the town hall here when we bought this for 8.5 million pound. You were there. The whole idea was that this will act as a catalyst for regeneration and re-energising this part, the western part of the borough and have a trickle down effect to the rest of the borough. It's creating jobs, it's creating homes. Look behind Barclays, the homes were delivered. The life sciences that will eventually come along on the Whitechapel State. The market is so important. It's the lifeline for the people of East End, the stalls. They provide jobs, they provide income for so many people. But we need to raise the standard of that market. Those stalls don't look that good. They look out of date, they look in a very poor condition. We want to modernise them, keep stalls but modernise them, have modern infrastructure which the stall holders, the people who work in there, want or support. Plus the shop owners on the parade, they are equally important. So we will be spending money, ladies and gentlemen, to upgrade, putting new stalls on that facade, on the northern side, but also doing infrastructure work, new paving, new greening, etc, to bring it, give it a good upgrade. That's what we're trying to do. So I think this money will be well spent, well overdue, to attract more visitors to the borough, welcome the visitors and support our local, small and medium sized businesses. Alexis, anything you want to add? I think that's very correct, Mr Mayor. As you say, long overdue and this is an exciting start of the final delivery phase for the project, along with the planning application that was submitted back in August. I think it was very pertinent that the time banding collections paper came before this because the success of this scheme is not just the capital works, it's working together with other services, particularly in highways and markets, that bring holistic change and holistic regeneration vision to the area to keep that legacy, to ensure that the capital works are supported by those improvements as well. Confirm please, Alex. For the stalls, installation, the parts, etc, the capital works are 3.8 million, and for the overall work of upgrading the landscaping, we're looking at 7.9 million pounds, is that correct? Yes. Okay, great, good. Thank you. Colleagues, anyone? I think just to add to you, Mr Mayor, TFL are obviously investing in their stock as well, so when you look along Whitechapel Road, all the shop units, once they're done, will look really good. As Alex mentioned, the fact that we'll be clearing litter through the waste banding paper that we just approved recently, I think Whitechapel is going to be a place where a lot is happening, people will be visiting, so it will be good for tourism, and in terms of safety and keeping it green, I think it is going to be the epicentre of St Hamlet, so I do look forward to it. Thank you, Tala. Please, Said. Thank you, Mayor, and yes, I totally agree with yourself and Councillor Abou about how this is definitely a fantastic initiative, a lot of money, a significant amount of money being spent in transforming Whitechapel. But it's very important not to remember that this transformation is coming at no cost to the users and the storeholders and anyone that's sort of benefiting from this environment, this isn't costing anyone any money, this is purely an initiative and a sort of investment from the Council to transform the area, so I think that's really important, Mayor. Anybody else? Okay, good. This is, again, a good initiative, we want to see this being delivered as soon as possible, I'm grateful to you, your team, Ashraf and Simon's team, the way you've worked together to bring this to us. We very much want to see this being delivered as soon as possible, because the other side, the market side, it doesn't look good, we want to support the storeholders, we want to support the shopholders, yes, and I want to also thank TFL, you know, credit is due where it's due, for them upgrading their shops, etc, but they've got to keep the rent reasonable and affordable. And we want the business to do well and we want our residents to be served well too, the market is absolutely, it's part and parcel of the fabric of Tamlets and London, so can we agree the report, please, here, recommendation? Yeah, okay, thank you, agreed, thank you, Alex. Okay, can we move on to the next paper, please, again a very important paper, Anne and colleague are joining us, Serious Violence and Exploitation Strategy 6.5, Tala, you want to introduce it, I'll ask Anne and our friend here to say a few words, Simon may want to come in. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, needless to say tackling crime in our borough is a top priority, we have committed or you committed before the election in your manifesto to invest if you win in a lot of things to prevent crime and we are doing that. In relation to this particular report, the Serious Violence Duty came into effect in January 2023, we know serious violence has a devastating impact on the lives of victims and families and the legislation specifically requires collaboration between key authorities in local government to prevent and reduce serious violence in the area. Those include the council, the youth offending team, metropolitan police, the fire authority, probation service and integrated care boards. So the agencies were responsible and required to form a relevant partnership, agree a local definition of serious violence, this is what the legislation asked us to look at, we were somewhat different compared to other London authorities where we included hate crime as a serious form of violence. We had to produce a serious violence needs assessment and use this evidence base to form a strategy. So just to touch on some of the politics stuff that we've implemented through the commitment in the budget, we are investing in youth services, so young town hamlets will play a key role in reducing crime in the borough. We are grateful the size of townless enforcement officers, so enforcement activity will be more visible and active and there's a number of collaboration workpieces we're doing with stakeholders like the police and others to reduce crime in the borough. With that being said we've got Naveed and Andy and Simon if they wanted to add anything. I think it was brilliantly put by Councillor Choudry, it is part of a bigger picture, I mean we are under a duty but so are the police, the fire brigade and the health authority so this is our part towards a strategy but I think it was brilliantly put so thank you. Thank you. Anne and Naveed please. Thank you Councillor Choudry, as you've said this is a partnership strategy Mr Mayor and it seeks to bring about systemic change because otherwise these issues can fall into the trap of being resolved through policing, criminal justice or safeguarding. So this is about whole system responses, it's underpinned by a very good public health evidence led data and needs assessment to look at the underlying risk factors around violence. So it's very much looking at a preventative approach and some of the risk factors that we've identified, there'll be no surprises, high levels of local deprivation, high demand for drugs, drugs are linked to violence and violence is linked to drug markets. At an individual level, childhood experiences and adverse childhood experiences and being exposed to violence or domestic abuse at a young age and so it's very well evidenced. What we do now, we actually do have some very good practice in Tower Hamlet and in your papers there is an action plan which is the current action plan and so some of the highlights around that are around reducing access to weapons. So for instance our trading standard service do test purchase operations, last year we installed knife amnesty bins in hotspot areas and we've taken almost 1400 knives and 229 weapons off the streets since 23. We've installed a number of life saving bleed control kits and trained staff and youth workers on their use in hotspot locations. The Theo service which is being expanded and grown is doing regular weapon sweeps and the lead member has lobbied the government on the regulation of dangerous weapons like crossbows. We work with communities and neighbourhoods to reduce violence, we have responses to critical incidents as you know Mr Mayor and we facilitate the tensions monitoring group and we've worked with our VCS partners over the last couple of years to secure funding for very hyper local responses to violence on the Isle of Dogs and now in Bethnal Green. We do support victims of violence and we'll be bringing forward a new council strategy on violence against women and girls and women's safety but at the moment we fund an independent domestic violence advocacy service to the tune of almost half a million pounds to support victims. There's some ground breaking work in children's services around exploitation and child criminal exploitation and we work with probation on our award winning inter-grace defender management service. So there's quite a lot happening already but what we want to bring around and the outcomes we want to achieve are included in the cover report. It's at page 121 in your pack, paragraph 311 but it's all about whole systems, it's about protecting children and young people who are at risk, it's about supporting victims and it's about reducing, reoffending and recidivism and we do quite a bit of work in that space. We hope to make quite a difference with this new strategy. There's been broad consultation on it and I'll ask Naveed to just give you a flavour of some of the consultation responses. Thank you very much Anne. There were a number of consultation activities that we undertook using a broad range of methodologies with the aim that we reach the broadest range of both our stakeholders but importantly our residents. Some of the activities or the groups that we engage with are detailed on paragraph 3.8. I won't go through these but suffice to say it captures both our statutory partners, colleagues in the VCS sector and importantly our residents including our young people. Some of the feedback that we had back, if I can sort of touch on that, so we had a hackathon survey which engaged about a thousand young people and some of the key feedback that we had there. A number of respondents, approximately 250, said that they were worried about street gangs, 230 respondents said that they were worried about the impacts of youth violence and 603 respondents said that they were more likely to approach family members when they were worried about serious violence and with only 40 saying that they were more likely to go to the police. The feedback was also qualitative and paragraph 3.9 gives a flavour of some of the feedback that we had there and importantly it just reflects the impact that serious violence can have on the quality of life of our residents and then therefore the importance of having this strategy in place. Some of the stuff that we had back in terms of some of the face to face sessions, there were concerns about reporting violence and there was a reticence to report drug activity or violence through fear of repercussions. There was, residents reported, poor perceptions of the police and relationship with the police and the need for better diversionary activities, especially for young people to prevent them from chasing fast money, I think was the kind of feedback that we had back. So each of those has been, the sort of feedback that we've gathered has been used to inform the strategy and particularly some of the interventions that we want to take forward. Thank you for that, grateful to you. Any comments, League members? You can't go quite, you've got to say something, come on. If you say so, Mr Mayor. Let me start by welcoming the report. I was having a conversation with the Deputy Chief Executive not long ago and one of the things I think is really important in terms of future strategy is how we can empower mothers. One, identifying and two, getting that support and three, educating their children as well as parents, but mums play a pivotal role and I think we should look at ways we can empower mothers to have a more active role in identifying, understanding and getting guidance and advice in order to create diversity. To create diversionary approaches so that it doesn't escalate to the levels where enforcement have to be involved or social services have to be involved. Thank you very much. Anyone else? You're okay here? You're happy with this paper? Can I just make some general comments? Thank you, thank you for this paper, grateful to you. The money that went in and into this, I'm looking at the Chief Finance Officer's comments, page 123, in the delivery of the serious violence and exploitation strategy is funded from a public health grant of £2.1 million. Further external grants of £3.6 million is quite a substantial amount of money, rightfully so, has gone into trying to fight crime, the causes of crime, that's very good. Additionally, what is important to note is that since we've come in on 5th May 2022, we have invested some over £40 million, reinvested £40 million in the community, in the people of this borough, additional money to what already has been spent. £2.3 million in recruiting what you may know, townless enforcement officers, is to help us work with the police, work with the people of the borough, to keep the borough safe. We've also set aside, we have set aside a further £1.2 million per year to buy, in this country you can buy additional police officers to serve in your area in addition to what you get from the government or the local, the London Mayor. Unfortunately, because there are shortages of police officers, trainee police officers, so the Commissioner for the Met has not been able to provide us more police officers for this money, and this money is just sitting in our bank. And last time when we were here, we had additional police officers from council money that we had purchased to help us to reduce crime, keep crime low. Unfortunately, after we left, only 12 were kept by the previous administration, the rest were let go, not a very wise decision given the increase in crime in the borough during the 7-8 years that we weren't here. We have also, there's also been some £4 million investment, Thala, please correct me if I'm wrong, in the CCTV cameras, nearly all of them, how many, 350, nearly all of them, and they're up and running, it's about 98-99%? They're all up and running, 350. Excellent, that wasn't the case when we came here, they're all up and running to help to keep our borough safe, to keep our children safe, keep our women safe, and our men's folk, and the people who visit the borough. We've invested some £22 million, ladies and gentlemen, on young people alone, young people. £13 million on youth services per year, then the bursaries, you know, further amount of money, then free school meals, the only borough in the country. We want our kids to have a fantastic future, fantastic life chance, and become educated individuals, leaders of tomorrow, responsible adults of tomorrow, and not to engage in any kind of unsocial activities. We can't reduce crime, or get rid of crime on our own, we are reliant on the police, it's a partnership approach. We know crime continues to be an issue in the borough, we know drugs, you know, drug pushing continues to be a problem in the borough, any inner city borough has that kind of problem. But believe me, we're conscious, we live in the borough, we work in the borough, we have families who live in the borough, we want our boroughs to be safe. We're doing our best to reduce crime, and this paper shows we've invested a further amount of money in partnership with our colleagues to reduce crime in the borough, and to make our borough even further safe. So I'm grateful to the officers and to the members for the time and effort that you and the officers have put in for this strategy. Thank you very much. Can we now agree the recommendations, please? On the forward plan, you haven't got Tala's photo and the borough commander's photo, you've got my photo, I'm going to get in trouble, can you make sure you have their photos please? Please, thank you. OK, can we now move on to Agenda item 6.6? The budget monetary report, culture one. Mr Said. Thank you, Mr Mayor. So Tala Hamblets, our quarter one forecast out turn position is showing us a £13.3 million net overspend for the financial year ending March 2023, so we are forecasting. This is reflected across the whole country, though there's pressure driven services, mainly in homelessness, we are seeing a £7.6 million pressure, adult social care is £3.5 million and special needs, education needs and disabilities is £2.2 million. These pressures are all national issues that the council has been cited on and as a result has made adequate risk provisions within our MTFS, should we need to call on it. By definition, the nature of such demand-led pressures impacts hardest on areas with high population, such as our Great Borough. There is a clear trend that illustrates that over the past few years Tala Hamblets has been increasingly able to take the necessary corporate and cross directorate management action to deliver the downward movement in directorate overspends positioned by the end of the financial year. Particularly where a favourable movement of £7 million was achieved from the quarter one forecast to the final out turn position last year. Though it's quite high at the moment, there is always that trajectory of meeting those demands as we come to the end of the year. This is just a Q1 projection at the moment. However, the forecast allows us to focus on specific drivers on financial challenges at the earliest point in a planned and measured way. This quarter one forecast out turn position is based on departmental predictions relatively early in the financial year. As such, it provides all corporate directors the opportunity to identify, agree and implement mitigating actions in-year to improve the forecast out turn position. All such in-year mitigating actions will be reported as part of our Q2 budget monitor. Next, the DSG. The dedicated school grants quarter one forecast out turn is an overspend of £2.6 million at year end, largely due to pressures and high needs block. In the HRA accounts, our quarter one forecast revenue out turn position in an in-year overspend of £3.9 million. As the HRA is a ring fenced account, this overspend will need to be funded from HRA general reserves at the year end. Now on savings, the £37.4 million in-year savings target, £13.4 million which is 36% of the savings are reported to have already been achieved. £14.2 million which is around 38% of the savings are on track to be realised by the end of the financial year. £9.3 million which is 25% of the savings may have some risks involved but there is generally high confidence that they will be realised by the end of the financial year too. And £0.5 million which is 1% of the savings is reported as delayed. The general fund quarter one capital forecast out turn for the financial year is £92 million which represents 70% of the revised capital budget of £131.9 million resulting in a forecast variance of £39.9 million at the end of the financial year. Largely related to forecast slippages on key projects. Moving to housing revenue account quarter one capital forecast out turn for the year is £114.7 million which represents 96% of the revised capital budget of £119.7 million resulting in a forecast variance of £5 million at year end. Largely related to slippages in council's new build programme of £5.7 million. In terms of benchmarking Mr Mayor just to end this we have at the time of the report we had 16 London councils reporting their financial position forecast at quarter one out of the 32. And benchmark wise we are number 10 out of the 16 in terms of facing pressures of forecast by the end of the year. Which is good, which is competitive we are in a better position. We are in a good position. That's right and should the remaining of the 32 boroughs report we will be relatively beyond the lower end of the 32 London boroughs. But at the same time our budget is much larger than other areas and we have a much higher density population so we have bigger challenges so in that contrast we are actually doing quite well. Thank you Mayor. Truly Madam Deputy Chief Executive. I'm happy to answer any questions. The only message I'd add and as you know Mayor often my job is to be a harbinger of doom. But the message I would answer that I was about to get to the solutions now. So for me the fact that we are able to forecast at the early point in the year and Said mentioned it, it buys time and it buys time for corporate directors and I'm one of them. I'm accountable for delivering the budget that you set as all my colleagues we all accept that accountability and I know that we are working very hard collectively to identify mitigating actions. There are some areas and you've mentioned it earlier this evening Mayor, national concerns, housing, temporary accommodation and I like you I'm optimistic that the new government will come forward with some changes that alleviate the pressure. If they don't and that stays it's other areas of our business that we will need to look to to make mitigating savings but we will be doing that and of course if anybody's got any particular questions and any points in the report I am here. As are the accountants who actually prepare those numbers for you. Thanks. Thank you for coming. Steve do you want to come in? I just wanted to make a couple of points really. I wanted to re-emphasise what Julie's just mentioned and the point that Said made. When you look at the way in which the local authorities performed over a number of years we have always reported a position in quarter one and we've resolved it by quarter four. The pressures that the local authorities are facing at the moment are common, they're well known, they're known across London, they're known across the country and we have a new government that hopefully is going to support addressing some of those pressures. Particularly around homelessness, TA, SEND and adult social care. What I wanted to comment on was the new performance management framework that you and I have been discussing for a long time where we will hold corporate directors accountable for the delivery of their budgets. But also supported by new infrastructure, we have a budget board which is chaired by Julie as the corporate director of resources and the deputy chief executive and we have a restructuring reorganisation board which takes account of a lot of our expenditure around salaries and the organisational costs for the local authority. So from my perspective I think you should feel particularly confident in our ability to deliver the budget within the boundaries that we have in the current financial year which will inform a particularly, I believe, ambitious MTFS to deliver the administration's goals. Thank you, grateful to you Steve. I mean we've, as I said earlier on, we are in the city borough, we've had one of the largest increase in the country in population in the last census. We're a very young population and an ageing population too. With an ageing population you will get more demand, more pressures on our adult social care services. So if you look at the report on page 226, it's the additional pressure of £3.5 million. And the officers know and they are, through our current budget making process, they will look at ways how we reduce, how we mitigate that pressure, we have to. Homelessness, as I said in my opening statement, we have additional pressure of £7.6 million on the existing budget around homelessness. And it's mainly because of the number of people coming through our doors who have been evicted or been given notice to evict with rent have increased. Who we have to accommodate, either put in hotels, commercial hotels, or in temporary accommodation. Temporary accommodation to hamlets is impossible to find, even in neighbouring boroughs, before we were able to find them, there were no currents there, before we were able to source them in neighbouring boroughs if not into hamlets. And now we have no choice but to go a bit further. And it's not healthy for our residents to be living in hotels, because one they can't cook in there, sometimes they have communal bathrooms, single mothers, that's not a good thing. But more importantly, it's like they have to source cooked food from restaurants or takeaways. And when you're unwell or you've got young children having takeaways every day for 3-4 months, I know someone who's been in hotel for 6 months, 7 months, an elderly gentleman who's got Coronary Heart Disease, he's got his diabetes, what that person is going through is unbelievable. We don't want to be in that position, but that's increasing, not only is it affecting people in their health and mental stability, but it's also increasing our homelessness costs. So we're trying to get away from that, get away from that. So we're trying to source properties across London, and I'm grateful to the officers for bringing down families living in commercial hotels to one, that's a good thing. For individuals, we also need to do that, we're on the right trajectory. The cost of that is £7.6 million, and I'm quite confident over the next few months the cost will come down with the mitigation that you have put in place, very confident. Send children, those vulnerable children who are autistic or have special needs, and the transport that's linked to them, the travel cost, that's also, cost has gone up to some £2.2 million. Those costs are not because of us, it's because of the profile of the borough, because of the increase in population in the borough, we are providing services, but we can't sustain that kind of cost year in, year out. I also knew them in the news that their homelessness cost is about £22 million. They're saying if it continues, they'll become bankrupt. We are luckily not in that position, we have contingencies, but the point is I'm requesting corporate directors, I'm requesting lead members and officers. The point is we've got to do our best to work on the mitigations and to try to reduce those additional pressures without affecting services, looking after the most vulnerable in our community. That's why we got elected, that's why we are who we are as an administration, as a council, but bring the cost down. We don't want to jeopardise our financial stability. I'm grateful to Julie and the team, Said, what we've done, the budget we delivered last year, for the next three years, but we are in the process of doing a number of further three years of budget, every year we do a three years budget, but this cost has to be contained, Steve. I need your help. Is that okay? So colleagues, anyone, any comment you want to make? You know, it's a note in report. COVID. Thank you, Mayor. Just to, one of the areas of overspend is homelessness, which is my area, 7.6 million. Just to assure you that we are taking a sledgehammer to the budget in terms of reviewing our processes, in terms of how we acquire property, and there is a paper here as well that will play a great deal in terms of reducing those numbers in relation to temporary accommodation. As you mentioned earlier today, one of the key exercises or key actions was to reduce the number of residents in commercial hotels, and as you mentioned, as of last Friday, there was only one family in a commercial hotel. So we are taking a very proactive approach, and I'm hoping by the end of quarter two and quarter three, that number will substantially reduce in the face of the national context. COVID. I mean, this is the benefit cap imposed by the previous government and is continuing now. It's not helping. You know, that benefit cap, before the benefit cap, we can source properties in town hamlets. We can source properties in the navy and boroughs because people are on benefits. They can pay the rent, and the benefits, the housing benefit will help them. Unfortunately, with the universal credit and with the benefit cap, you know, rent is, how much rent that is paid for the housing benefit system, universal credit, is capped. So who's going to pay for the balance? We can't, and unfortunately, the tenants can't too, and rent, because of the mortgage and the interest rate, you know, went up over the last few years. The mortgage has gone up, landlords are charging exorbitant rents, you know, rents, and we can't, and the residents, tenants can't source properties within the borough or local locality. Therefore, we are forced to source properties a bit further away, much more cheaper, cheaper properties. Our people need home. I mean, we must not forget, when residents, I see in my surgeries, residents who come to my surgeries, who've been served with Section 21 notice, you know, they are in a state because no one wants to become homeless. No one wants to uproot from the borough and go somewhere else. There's children go to school here, they have hospitals here, they're unwell, their GPs are here, the communities are here, single mothers with young children. They don't have any families outside. They need help, you know, people who are unwell. So, I know we're doing our best, but we've got to a procurement team, yeah, the team that sources properties across London, Tower Hamlets, we've got to become more good at, Julie, our job in sourcing properties either in Tower Hamlets or within neighbouring boroughs or within London. You know, that 90 minute rule is very important, it's for a purpose and there must be good connectivity. I know we're doing our utmost to protect and support our residents who are the most vulnerable. You know, if you're homeless, it's the last resort and people are in a very bad state. We need to support them, we need to work with them, but they need a home rather than a hooch home. That's the point I'm going to make, yeah, please, yeah, it's very important. Thank you. Any other comments please from anyone? Any comments? None. Thank you for the noting report, thank you for the work Syed, Julie and the team, Mr Razak, our son and the team are doing on this and Steve, I'm grateful to you, but we are in a budget making process, I'm very confident that we will once again deliver a balanced budget come next February. In fact, we have no choice, okay, thank you very much. Can we agree the note report please, yeah, thank you, thank you. Can we now move on to, yeah, another important paper, well overdue, 6.7, the adoption of Spitalfields and Banglatown SPD. John. Okay, Mayor. The Spitalfields and Banglatown area has experienced significant change in recent years, including increased pressure for new development, which has been accompanied by an active community playing a part in planning matters. Furthermore, the community are facing increased living and housing costs and an increase in acute need of affordable housing and the community facilities. Identifying opportunities to manage development in a way to help respond to these challenges has been key in driving this SPD. A motion was passed at full council in October 2022 that recognized these issues and the motion that a supplementary planning document for the area would be produced to help respond to the challenges and help ensure appropriate development in the area and guide coordination. The SPD relates to providing guidance on housing delivery, scale and massing of buildings, the location of public routes through the site and the provision of green spaces and how the distinctive culture of the area can be incorporated into development, alongside giving guidance on eight sites with the potential for development. The SPD production was involved in extensive engagement with the local community to determine what types of development are most appropriate and what community infrastructure might be needed to support development. Comments with the local community took place in two phases, first in May to June 2023 and then in November to December 2023. The final draft of the SPD underwent statutory consultation for a period of six weeks in May/June 2024. Comments received showed a broad support, particularly for residential development with objections focused on the role of heritage assets in development, the impact of tall buildings and the use of alan gardens. The SPD will serve as supplementary guidance to the 2022 adopted local plan and therefore any applications will be subject to assessment against the adopted plan and this as an approved SPD. Just simply to add to this, this is an important supplementary planning document that will ensure the appropriate placemaking is undertaken, providing the appropriate affordable housing and the right housing, supporting community services and the infrastructure necessary to enable that community to be regenerated and thrive for the benefit of local people in the area. Can I just also add, we have Sri here, our planning and building control director. Sri, is this your first paper in cabinet? The local panels, yes. Okay, thank you. I'll come back and wrap up. I'll say a few words now, then I'll bring colleagues in. Can I say this paper again is so important. I remember when we, I wasn't here pre-2022 and when I came back in '22 and when I came across that consented planning application on the Truman's Brewery, I was quite surprised and shocked. It's a fantastic site, has huge opportunity, the whole site, but Brick Lane in Banglatown is the spiritual home, not only of the Bangladeshi community, but of the whole East End community, whether it's the French Huguenots, the Jewish community, the Bangladeshi community and other communities from Eastern Europe that have lived there for centuries. And to see and hear of potential developments on the site with disregard to the wider communities, the housing stock just on the other side of Woodside Street. It was a very important site, like Lissen House, Arthur Degan House, the Chicksend, that part of Chicksend State, western part of Chicksend State, was quite surprising. And we have the small shops on Brick Lane, Banglatown, who are the lifeline to the small and the medium sized businesses and the communities of Thai Hamblers. But very importantly, as I said, it's the spiritual home of the Bangladeshi community, that no matter where you live, you originate from Thai Hamblers, you move to other parts of the country, but people will visit Brick Lane, Banglatown, White Chapel, etc, Thai Hamblers, at least two or three times a year, if not more, if you're living further away. Banglatown means a lot to us and the people of the East End, and to see that development was approved in a piecemeal manner at the cost of small businesses and the characteristics of Brick Lane, Banglatown, was quite shocking to me and us after we came back here. Steve, I shared some of the concerns with you, you know, after we came back. This is so important. I'm grateful to Marisa, Youshri, Paul, Corby, but more importantly, or equally importantly, to Sam, Alibor, and Kiran Jubair, who also put in a lot of time into this to get us to where it is. They are protecting the characteristics of Chixent, protecting the characteristics and enhancing of Brick Lane, Banglatown, but also any development coming up, when it comes before you, Sri, and your committee, that this is a material consideration that planners have to take on board, the applicant, the developers have to take on board, and certainly the members of the SDG, the strategic development committee, the councillors, can take on board. It's about providing more homes and homes for rent on the Truman's Brewery site. It's about providing and supporting small retail units, small retail units, not big chains, not having night clubs, you know, on that site. Also having open and community spaces, green spaces. It's important for our kids, for our elders, you know, to be able to have and enjoy the space, and it shouldn't be a no-go area. Truman's site, when it's developed out, it's developed out in a sensible, you know, coherent manner, but also it's conducive to the surrounding estate on Chixent West, and on the other side, Quaker Street, and Holland State, and basically encourages families to go out there. We don't say no development. In fact, we want a lot of development, the development that sits well with the local community. So I'm grateful for what you've developed, what you've delivered. Thank you. Colleagues, anyone? Please, Shafi. Thank you, Samir, and again, I want to echo the same words that you said. BrickLang is known to everybody as East End Heritage, and this report and this forward plan cements that we are community-led. We make sure that the community or the residents and the businesses who live within this area are made sure that their small businesses are protected, the children, the future of the council estates are protected, and we make sure that going forward, any planning that comes along is driven by community coherence and community-based decisions. It's a commendable report, and thank you to the officers for bringing this to us. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Anyone else? Please, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I live in that ward, and you know, it's a huge potential, and looking at the SPD without actually going through each item, I think it shows if you work with other landowners, other developers, the potential is huge, whether that's housing, regeneration, and other benefits. I think we've spoken earlier paper around Whitechapel being our town centre and BrickLang being so close. I think where we can explore wayfinding to connect Whitechapel and BrickLang will be useful as well. So with those comments, I think I welcome the report. Thank you. Anyone else? Please, Ustak, sorry. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to extend my deepest thanks to the Mayor and Council for the leadership, but also to the dedicated officers and those others behind the curtain working tirelessly to help implement this plan. This plan, I would say, strikes a delicate balance between honouring our heritage, as Mr. Mayor rightly said, and embracing progress, especially for the Bangladeshi community at the heart of its neighbourhood. I'm immensely proud of the collective effort that has brought us to this moment, Mr. Mayor, and of the vision we share for a brighter, more inclusive future for all who live and work in our borough. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Greatful to you. Shrii, anything you want to add, madam? Just very briefly, Mayor, as you all have set out, this emerged from the motion from October 2022, and the SPD really takes on board the seven key principles that were set out to focus on housing, affordable housing, but also with a lot of evidence that we've gathered from the area about the need locally for play areas, green spaces, cultural uses, community facilities, which makes Brick Lane the place it is as a kind of centre for diverse communities, as you mentioned. The SPD also has a real red line boundary, but it also acknowledges that the development and the benefits that flow from that red line area flows out to those estates, and that is also a really good opportunity for doing the investment that we want to do to make sure those, whether it's about expanding the green spaces or connecting, we can do it. And equally, Councillor, to your question about linking in, that's something we're working very closely with our regeneration colleagues, and we've been exploring opportunities for urban greening all the way from Allgate up to Whitechapel, and how we can make sure that the investments flowing from these developments can come forward, equally acknowledging that we have some land, but really it's how we work with private sector, RPs and public bodies in the area to bring forward developments that are much needed in the area, that complements housing, but equally recognising that it's partnership working. That was all, Mayor. Thank you, Sri. Look, we did this master plan, Whitechapel, 10, 12 years ago, and that development is being delivered, and the master plan and any potential development applications are being delivered in a structured, coherent manner, but to benefit the people of the borough, not at their expense. The master plan is beautiful in Bangla town, and that piece of land, how many acres is it? Three and a half, four acres, isn't it? It's quite substantial that it's been delivered, again, any development on that site has been delivered in an organised manner to the benefit of the local community, not at their expense. So, it's a good report, it's a fantastic opportunity for us to develop out Chicken West and to protect the characteristics and support the businesses and the people of Brick Lane, Bangla town, surrounding areas. Can we agree and adopt the spirit from the Bangla town SPD, please? Can we do great? Great, thank you. Thank you, Sri, thank you to the officers. Can we now move on to the contract forward plan C.8.1. Thank you, Mayor. So, as we know, the Council's procurement process requires anything for service contract of a million pound in value, and capital works over five million pound to be reported at Cabinet. We have two items here, the first one being in children, which is a supply of frozen and fresh meat. This is the procurement of frozen and fresh meat, which provides our school meals across the borough, and we are part of a procurement across London, a group of five East London boroughs, and via this arrangement, we can drive efficiencies and cost savings, thereby achieving best value. The second one is in housing and regeneration. That's the concierge and related services, and that's an extension for the concierge services currently being delivered on some of our tower blocks and homes. This extension will allow the review of the service to ensure that we are still providing the most appropriate services to our residents in those locations. Thank you, Mayor. Okay, these are both quite straightforward, Julia, straightforward. I think we, let's agree it, let's get on with it. Is that okay? Thank you, thank you very much. Okay, we move on to the next one. Again, it's quite straightforward, nominations to outside bodies. Sorry, have I missed anything? 6.9, sorry, forgive me. Yeah, I've got it, I've got it here, sorry about that. Okay, it's the acquisition, it's quite important, it's an urgent one. Again, this is an urgent one, the reasons for the urgency is sitting, it's on the body of the report. Sayid, do you want to come in, Julia, then I'll come in on the back of that, yeah? Oh, sorry, COVID, sorry, I forgot, sorry. It's acquisition, I thought it was contract, Sayid. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Go on, COVID. Hello, Mr. Mayor. I'll be quite brief, Mr. Mayor. The Council has 25,072 households currently on the housing waiting register, this is as of 31st August 2024, of which 10,898 are overcrowded and in high priority Band 1 and 2. We have secured £40 million from the GLA and just over £8 million from MHCLG, respectively, in order to put forward a programme of acquisition. We are targeting the purchase of 237 properties and this cabinet paper is to agree the drawdown of that money in order to go forward in negotiations in order to purchase those properties, Mr. Mayor. I'll leave it at that. Just to reiterate what the lead member said, this is a paper just to seek approval to be able to draw down that £40 million, which will be an important part of the acquisition programme. Great. Can I just add on to this? This is so important for us. We just spoke about homelessness early on. There's a serious lack of one-family sized homes in the borough. I know we've got a house building programme, we're working with developers, our commitment is to deliver in partnership from various sources 4,000 homes over the four years that we've been here, which is an ongoing programme. This will massively contribute towards that, the 200 homes. Not only will allocate 100 to a home dose on temporary accommodation, so help people on homelessness applications, but also another 100 of family sized homes. This is so important, Paul. I've just said to Steve, I want a paper, I need a timeline from you, on the procurement process, the acquisition process. We don't want it anymore. We're giving you the go-ahead now to acquire, we can't waste time, because it's about the human cost of not having homes. The people who are lingering on the waiting list, people who are in hotels or outside of the borough, the homeless families, we want to bring them in the borough, or provide people who are the most vulnerable to live within the borough. So we want to see a programme, we want to see who's going to lead on that, Paul, it's so important. We need competent people, who are people who are going to be smart, who are going to go and acquire as quickly as possible, whether it's buybacks, whether it's from developers, or whether it's from the market. And we want it delivered within this year. We've got six months left, why can't we deliver it now, why do we have to, it should have been delivered yesterday. But you've got the money now, draw down the money, we want to see a programme delivered now within this, within December 31st please, that's what I'm going to ask. I need your help please. Yes, Mayor, as I said, we are in the process of drafting that programme for you, that will set out how we deliver those 200 units by Q4. That's very helpful. Colleagues, anyone, it's a good paper, just want to get on with it now. Thank you Mr Mayor. Do you think any key risks are there to acquire these properties, because all homes in the programme must be acquired by March 2026? Sorry Mayor, that's the expiry date set by the GLA, so if we can do it faster, we can maybe nominate for another tranche of funding there afterwards. Because if we deliver this successfully and quickly, there's a possibility we can bid for a further sum of money. Julie, Madam, please. I think there is, and I think we always have to look to what's happening, and the local opportunity and actually political moves currently being made at a national level about changes to private sector landlords and their inability to use the current quite easy eviction process. This may well drive a number of landlords to exit the market, that is a massive acquisition opportunity on our doorstep, and so we need to be ready to act very quickly. Okay, anyone else? Anyone else? Can I ask you Steve, will it be appropriate to add an amendment, point two to this report, that once we want an acquisition programme to be up and running now, but we want a paper, a programme paper, at the next cabinet. Please, yeah. Perfectly appropriate, and I'll work with Paul and the council and Julie to make sure it's delivered. And a timeline that delivers it within 31st of December 2024. Is that okay, please? Okay, thank you. Subject to that caveat, can we agree with this paper, and can I thank the officers for bringing this paper? Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Julie got that amendment, yeah? Thank you. Okay, that's done, now we move on to 6.9. What have I left? 6.10, yeah? 6.10, yeah. Okay, we move to 6.10. Nominations to outside borders, again, it's straightforward. Can we agree with this report? Yeah, thank you. Agreed. Then we go on to, give me a second, please. 7.1, thanks. Thanks, Tish. 7.1, okay. Okay, again, fire safety, a very important paper. Fire safety and capital investment works, Latham House, Latham House. Again, it's an urgent paper, yeah? The reasons for the urgency is set out, and it's obvious in the COVID report, and you're welcome. Thank you. Please, Kobi. Mayor, as said before, fire safety is something that this administration takes very seriously. Through the process of investigation and various different surveys we've run, Latham House has a number of defects that need to be rapidly fixed. There's a live waking watch in Latham House, and it's proposed to CABINA for us to get those repairs done as urgently as possible under our capital investment program. Paul, sir. Yes, this is obviously the process for us to go to tender to secure these fire safety works that will introduce additional fire safety such as sprinklers, system and improvements of the fire doors within the building, including some external fabric repairs that deal with any fire safety issues that have been identified. So this is a really important procurement process and tender process that we're seeking approval to move forward with them. Thank you. Andy, you want to add anything, sir? Thank you, Mr Mayor. No, just to say that this, along with the next item, will be subject to recommendation that we set up a special project group to take both of these items to market. We are at the brink of the new regulations, we've just got the new Building Safety Act in, there are lots of different hoops and barriers we have to jump through, so we just want to make sure that group is set up, the right legal advice, the right project team to move forward. Thank you, grateful. It's quite straightforward, it's absolutely necessary and it's well overdue for those residents. I've had a number of residents in groups come to my surgery since last one year and it's your ward, Waheed, who are there, and Aliwa and Suhel, just to reassure them that work is well in its way, but I think security personnel there helping them is absolutely necessary and I'm glad we've extended that contract. Any comments? Can we agree to the recommendation? Thank you. Again, another important is the further paper on the substantial investment worth £140 million plus across the borough on upgrading our properties and other related works, COVID 7.2. Sorry, the reasons of the urgency set out in the report. Okay, thank you. So just a brief overview Mr. Mayor, this is our Decent Homes 2.0, so its primary focus will be around fire safety as well as a fabric first approach, and there will be a certain quota of doing bathrooms and kitchens, but the main focus has to be around fire regulations, fire safety and building safety with the new housing regulations. It has an additional £10 million reserve built into it, so the programme is over five years, it's costed at £140 million within the current MTFS, we've allocated £85 million with a £10 million reserve attached to that. Alongside this is another £3.5 million consultancy framework which will aid us in terms of guiding where the essential works need to happen and the priority order in relation to that. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Madam Julie, you helped so much in your team with this. Yes, I'm really pleased to see this, I think what this paper does is simply describe a very efficient and effective route to market that engages members very well in the design of an appropriate specification that needs local residents, safety requirements and value for money. I was just speaking to Steve that this alone with Latham House and the related personnel contract, there's two elements to this, we're looking at investment of £160 million, £70 million in buildings, fabrics, safety, decent homes, etc. That's big stuff for our residents and do you want to add anything sir? We've got the same recommendations as before about the group to set up to make sure we do it absolutely correctly. And I think it's important that people of the borough need to know, I think, thanks Steve, if you could talk to Andreas Kieran, that this message needs to go out. This is a council which is investing in homes, more homes, but more importantly in safeguarding those homes, making them safe and secure for our residents, it's important. Anyone else please, anyone want to make any comment? Please Paul, please. Just really to reaffirm that this is a major investment in our residents and in our homes, both in terms of ensuring that we invest to improve those homes as well as ensuring that we make sure that people are safe that live in those homes with the five safety investments that will be taken. And we've also allocated money for knock-throughs, a number of knock-through requests have come over to you Paul and Karen and the team. Now you've got the money, can we get on with it please? Where people are living in serious overcrowded households, there's opportunities to do knock-throughs where flats become available, homes become available to make them into larger properties, alleviate the overcrowding. We have spaces for kids to live in, do our own work. Can we please do that now, deliver it please? We've got households there, their kitchens are falling apart, the cabinets, the drawers, the bathrooms. Can we now please get a programme together, identify the need, get a programme together, get a timeline and can we please procure the people and do it please? Can we agree with the report please? Great, thank you very much. Good. The last paper I believe, a very important paper is our domiciliary care contract led by officers. And it's coming to us with a recommendation, this is so important, it's about the care of the vulnerable, it's about providers, so please keep it away and I'll ask Georgia. Again it's an urgent paper, the reasons for the urgency are set out in the board of the report and there's also an exempt item, pink paper to it, please don't refer to anything from the pink paper to this part of the session, if you do have anything then we'll have to bring it after public and members of the press have left. Please don't refer to costs, don't refer to anything on there, please, thank you, please keep it away. Thank you Mr Mayor. When I began serving as lead member for health and social care over two years ago, the first major project Mayor took on was designing a brand new tender for our council's home care services. It is through home care that so many of our most vulnerable residents are able to remain with their families and in their communities and living full and independent lives for as long as possible. It was number one priority to ensure that residents would be able to choose between a variety of culturally competent, locally based providers for the care of themselves and their loved ones. It was also important to ask that working conditions of carers, many of whom make up a backbone of our local community, were improved significantly. Now after years of invaluable work from our council's commissioning team, I can say with confidence that the home care contract we are about to award today are truly groundbreaking. This council has selected eight top rated general home care providers, almost all of which are locally based on and all of which have agreed to invest back into community through major social value measures. We have also selected 14 additional local providers that will be given smaller care loads, allowing them to grow their business and thus fostering a blooming care industry in Tower Hamlets. On this new contract, all carers will be paid London living wages or higher and will be offered both full time and part time contract. We will also be working with providers more broadly to put an end to exploitative zero hours contract all together. Our residents deserve the best possible care this council can provide and our carers deserve to be able to perform their crucial jobs with dignity, respect and fair pay. I am confident this contract will go above and beyond in doing both. Thank you Mr Amoeba. Thank you very much. Georgia, Madam. Thank you Mayor. Just a few things for me. Just to emphasise, as Councillor Chaudry has done, to say we have many statutory responsibilities in adult social care but I think one of the key ones is making sure that people's needs are met. And they are also met in a way that promotes independence, choice and control. That's very, very important. We also know that people who are supported to remain at home in their communities have better lives and we are confident that this locality model of home care will fulfil our aspirations as a borough to ensure that every resident in Tower Hamlets who requires support at home at any point in their life actually has a positive outcome as a result of that. So I have nothing further to add other than to say that on behalf of Councillor Chaudry we commend this report to you and we ask for your approval. I have colleagues who are available to answer questions if required. Thank you. Thank you. And I know you and the team have put in a lot of effort and so did the former corporate director Denise Bradley into the interview certainly with Travis has helped us so much. Any comments from anyone please in the comments? It's a good thing we need to do this. Just for the record I just want to make it clear that we as members, we had no part to play in the procurement. It's a purely an independent process led by officers. We set out the framework, the principles, allocated the money, it's come to us as a recommendation and we're accepting the recommendation in its entirety. Is that correct for the record Steve? It is correct may I probably should emphasise two things actually. First of all that's absolutely correct and I have a responsibility to make sure that there is the appropriate separation and there has been and corporate directors and other staff have made that sure that that's the case. And also I'd like to thank Georgia because you've only been here a week, everybody's worked really hard on it but you've got up to speed and grappled with it and delivered it in a timely fashion along with your colleagues so I'd like to thank you as well. The eleventh hour of work that was involved in this, getting into this cabinet today, I'm really grateful. But can I just say for us, you know, delivering excellent care to the most vulnerable in our residents is our primary objective. We're using public funds through agencies to care for those residents so they are the most important people. Please plead to your officers and to our people here to make sure performance has been monitored regularly, properly and there are no safeguarding issues. We are dealt with as quickly as possible and nipped in the bud. There's no room for complacency, my request. Second, the care workers are the second most important people. They work for tuppence I would say. Some of them work for just a London living wage and the zero work contract doesn't help, didn't help. Through this process we have tried in our small way to deal with zero work contract. We've given care workers the opportunity to get some contracts if they choose to do so. Please, we've got to make sure, we've got to make sure those agencies are not putting those care workers off. They get a serious chance and opportunity to take up what we offered. They're not discouraged from getting onto a contract. And I hope this government who said they're going to do away with zero work contract, I hope they do that. It's very important. The third thing that we've done through this process that we've capped, you know, through the locality model, we've capped the money that an organisation, a provider can get. So any provider can only bid for maximum two lots in lot one, two locality, that to £6 million. One locality is £3 million. There should not be, and there must not be, any room for anyone to get any money more than that unless a provider falls out and you want to redistribute that work. Redistribute it fairly, please, not to one provider. Okay, so every one of them are able to deliver. That's very important. And second, in lot two, the spot purchase, we've also capped that potential contract to £600,000. Again, my request to you is to make sure, please, there's even distribution of work. So those organisations have the ability, the new ones, to build capacity and no one takes us for granted. So care workers have a chance to get some work from all the organisations and to look after and care for our residents. But those care workers, please, can you please make sure the London Liberal Wage is passed on to them. We know one or two organisations have been naughty and they haven't done that so. Okay, we know who they are, I'm not going to name them now, but it's our job to make sure, Georgia, we're enforcing that. And if they're not playing balls over the contract, it needs to be enforced. There's no room for complacency or manoeuvring on our part, Steve. That's my request. Is that okay, yeah? Please, that's my request. With those comments, can we agree this paper? Good, thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, I think we're done, haven't we? No other business? Let's bring this session to an end. Grateful, thank you to all. Thank you. (audience applauding)