Transcript

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being here today. Please be advised that this meeting will be recorded and posted on the Council's YouTube channel. Can all those speakers ensure you switch on or off your microphone before addressing the meeting and remember to switch it off when you have finished speaking. When members are voting, can you please raise your hand? Item 1, apologies for absence. Councillor Kaira? Yeah. Any other apologies? I see none. Urgent business, I see no urgent business. Item 3, do any members have any personal or financial interests to declare on any item on the agenda? See no declarations. Item 4, is cabinet happy to agree the minutes of the last meeting? Thank you very much. I will now sign the minutes. Now move on to Item 5. To agree the annual plan for the Council. And as you know, when we set out our vision, our vision was to improve the health and well-being of our residents. This report, Beyond Us Today, will begin to articulate the missions that we are working towards and the actions we are taking to make sure we achieve our missions. But it also stipulates the way we will measure our success and report back on what we have achieved. Do members require a briefing? Do members have any questions or comments in terms of their respective areas? Sorry, could we have a briefing on this, please? Yep, sure. As I said at the beginning, our Greenwich sets out the vision for our overall Council. And as you know, in 2022, when we created and started consultation on our vision, we went out to our residents. We went out to our partners and we went out to our community groups. We had various conversations. And that helped us set our vision with the overarching strategy of thinking about the public health and well-being of our residents. Since then, year on year, we have produced an annual plan which is about how we achieve the 20 missions that we set out, of which everyone has their cross-cutting respective areas that we all contribute to. In addition to that, we go through it with all of our officers and we sit down and think about how we achieve those missions. Now recently, we held a partnership summit, which was really helpful in thinking about how we work more closely with our partners to be able to get and deliver on our missions. So the report before you today sets and feeds back on what the challenges are that we still have in our communities, what our achievements are, and what our priority areas are for the year ahead, which is presented to you today by virtue of the 20 missions that we have and what outcomes in our plan and how we'll achieve them. Thank you very much. Does any member have any questions or comments? I want to make a comment, Chair, and that's to say I think this is a really good document. I think it enables -- it's very transparent. It puts on the table our direction of travel. And I think particularly importantly, it enables people to see how we measure where we're going. And I think in terms of a public-facing document, this is really helpful to the population as a whole to understand the direction. Thank you very much. And just to say in response to that, I appreciate that and appreciate all the work that cabinet partners and the communities have put in. Obviously, we spoke to our residents who had the little consultation phone calls where they could leave us messages, and obviously some of the key messages that residents left in terms of the areas where we thought we can improve and areas where we feel are doing well are reported in this report as well. But more importantly, I hope everyone has seen the launch of the new Our Greenwich website, which is up on the main Greenwich website, and in there you can see how we are holding ourselves against each mission and outcome that we're looking to achieve and measure success. Because I think what's really important is that we measure the success of the impact we have as a council. Do any members have any other questions on Our Greenwich? Okay. Are members happy to agree to decisions as outlined in Section 1.1 of the report? Thank you very much. We'll now move on to Item 6 to agree to continue with the development of Marion Road and Marion Grove. And I will hand over to the cabinet member to open. Thank you, chair. And a thank you to the officers for their continued work on this project and also providing the report on this. I won't say too much, just to say that the project itself always proposes a huge opportunity for our borough and our residents to create affordable homes. And the whole development itself is still on course to providing 50% affordable homes to our residents, which we can all agree is amazing what we need. And at this point we are to agree that Marion Road and Marion Grove should go ahead based on the options recommended. And so, I understand that there are some changes here, but we also have to take into the current climate for the changes that have been suggested; however, overall the project is still on course to provide over 1600 homes and 50% affordable homes for our residents. Thank you very much. Before we move to an officer briefing, does anyone have any questions or comments on that report? I don't see any hands. We'll move on to bring in Jeremy Swarley for a briefing on this. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you, Councillors, for your time and attention. As Councillor Raman has said, this report relates to the partnership between Lovell, Paragon, Asra and the Royal Borough of Greenwich, which the Council entered into in 2013. And it concerns three former council estates that surround Woolwich. So there was the former Connaught Estate, which is now Trinity Walk, Marion Road and Grove and Morris Walk, north and south. And back in 2007, '08, '09, there were lots of discussions about what to do with the deteriorating housing stock on those three estates. And the Council couldn't afford to bring the homes up to decent home standards. And the rules relating to the housing revenue account at that time didn't allow the Council to borrow to do work on those buildings. Moreover, the cost benefit analysis of investing a lot of money in those buildings was such that it was made more sense to knock down the development at developments and rebuild. And that's what's been happening since 2013. And the total scheme, as Councillor Raman has said, is to deliver over 1600 new homes. And previously there were a thousand. So there's an additionality of over 500, 600 homes. And this really delivers against the Our Greenwich missions, particularly the having people having access to safe, good quality housing. But also developing neighbourhoods which are positive to live in. And also development that delivers change for those communities around the development. And the communities around Morris and Marion have suffered in particular in recent years. So this is a really positive change. The partnership is governed by a development agreement between the Council level and Paragon Asra. Over the 12 years it's been in existence or 11 years it's been in existence, there have been a number of variations, deeds of variations. And the Council has done considerably better than it originally envisaged in good times. So, for instance, on Connaught, due to the commercial arrangements in the development agreement, there was a land value and an overage payment which not only enabled the Council to buy some Council homes on the development, but it was also generated a significant amount of capital that has been invested in Greenwich Builds to match with HRA Borrowing. So a really positive story overall. And in 2022 Cabinet agreed to what's known as the fourth deed of variation to the development agreement. And that governed the Council being able to purchase up to 265 new homes that would have been built for private sale back on the development of Marion Road and Grove and Morris Walk North and South. And in return for that bog purchase, the Council also secured the acceleration of the development overall. So it's speeded up the pace of development. And I'm sure you're all aware that Morris Walk is now delivering and the Council will be in receipt of 175 units at Morris Walk shortly. And also we'll have the nomination rights on the Paragon ASRA social rented units on Morris Walk North. So really good news. This report relates to a fifth deed of variation. And it relates to the balance of 90 units that were on Marion Road and Grove. And at the time the fourth deed of variation was entered into, those 90 units weren't specified. Marion Road was covered by an outline planning application. The detail was not specified. Subsequently, the Council partly due to the antisocial behavior on the site, but also as part of developing the site more quickly, agreed to call for the demolition of Marion Road and Grove. And that's happened. And as part of that arrangement, it was important that the Council underwrote the demolition costs. So if the developer walked away, the Council would effectively have to pick up those costs. Now with Morris Walk under construction, Lovell have started to prepare their reserve matters planning application for Marion Road and Grove. And the discussions around the 90 units that were due to come to the Council have been had alongside the other units, the units that Paragon ASRA are going to take. And what's being discussed is that due to significant headwinds, for instance, build cost inflation in particular, but also borrowing costs, the viability of the scheme of the final phase is under serious threat. And so we've been working with our partners in Lovell and Paragon ASRA and the GLA to discuss how we might be able to proceed and continue the development. And what that means for the Council is that we would take less units as Council homes. So down from the indicative 90 that we'd agreed as part of the fourth deed of variation, down to 53. But what we have done is insist that Paragon ASRA transfer what was going to be shared ownership units into social rent units. So the options before you as members is that firstly you could choose not to accept this fifth deed of variation. The challenge of that would be that Lovell could walk away from the agreement and the Council would obviously still own the land and it would be a cleared site, but it wouldn't have a development partner. It would have to procure another development partner and there would be delays and so on. The second option is you agree to this revised mix. And so what we're promoting is a pragmatic solution. On balance, it ensures that the three estates will have just over 50% affordable housing. And the capital from Connaught has helped fund the Greenwich Builds program. So whilst on the face of it, it's difficult, I appreciate, for members in a housing crisis to be seen to be reducing the numbers. I think it's the pragmatic solution to make sure that overall housing supply continues and a good supply of affordable housing continues.

Thank you very much, Jeremy, for that really detailed presentation and thank you. We'll now go to questions. Councillor Localle, Councillor Taggart-Ryan, Councillor Marie Cousins and Councillor Smith. I just well, sorry, mine is a comment. I think this pragmatic approach is really important. I think what's not quantified here is, you know, if this did not go into completion, the numbers that we have in temporary accommodation and the costs to the council is just out of the, you know, it's unimaginable. And also bringing forward early completion has an impact on those numbers. And I think it's really important that we keep that in mind as well. Thanks. Thank you very much. Councillor Taggart-Ryan. Thank you. I would like to echo Councillor Localle's point. My question is regarding those that have now have moved essentially from social housing to social rent, I just wondered if you could explain more about the rent in those and what markets share that would be going forward at this time, do we know? Sorry, did I, I wanted to check, I understood the question, so from shared ownership to social rent. So those that would have been social rent which are now going to affordable rent, could we explain just more what the affordable rent would be? Okay, yeah, so I don't know the actual numbers of the difference between a council rent and a London affordable rent, so the GLA sets the rent standard and allows for an affordable rent, but I don't know whether, Jamie, I'm sorry to look at you, but I don't know whether you know the difference, it's probably a bit of an unfair question on the spot, but I can find out and we'll come back to you, London affordable rent is higher than council rents. Off the top of my head, councilor, London affordable rent is about 170 to 180 pounds per week, and that compares to, depending on how it's calculated, our two bed and our council or formula rents for housing association of council are between 110 and 130 pounds a week, and market is about 350, 370. Councillor cousins. Thank you, I was just about to go into Google search, but I'll leave that. I just wanted to similarly want to just clarify, so if I'm understanding correctly, although there is a split between what, so we have taken a reduction in our social housing, but if I'm understanding you correctly, the developers are also going to be converting their affordable to social housing as well, is that what you're saying, and then, therefore, overall, is there a gain in technically social housing, as opposed to affordable, because affordable is not social housing, thank you. The short answer is if you go back to 2013, right up to 2022, Marion road estate would have had no council housing on it at all. It would have been developed by Lovell, with the vast majority of it, 60%, 65% being for private sale, and the balance, 35%, being for affordable housing, with a 70%, 30% split between social rent, and shared ownership. The 2022 cabinet decision meant that the council stepped in, and was going to buy 90 of the units that were going to be private sale, so they were all additional affordable homes, and in council terms, council homes at council rents. The change now is that we're introducing, as you say, a reduction in what the council will own from 2022. Lovell will be able to sell 33, and Parrig and Asra have swapped what was the shared ownership units to be social rent. So overall, there is still more social rent than there would have been. Sorry, it's complicated. I think to come into the discussion, within the affordable rent space, there's different types of affordable rents. Now the very mere fact that we're increasing, we're probably decreasing in shared ownership, which it has the additional element of the rent and paying the mortgage, it's probably better that we have the social rent. But more importantly, I think, I guess the question has to be, is our ambition to only build council homes or increase homes of all types? And I think, actually, we would sit here and not be realistic to ourselves if we were to say, well, we're going to build only council homes for everybody. We want more social rented units through housing associations, through the council, through the affordable rent space, and actually, we will take that benefit rather than seeing this whole site ground to a halt. And I think that's the premise of where I place myself in this current decision. Our role as a council is to make sure we are convening partnerships around things that deliver homes for people which are affordable to their incomes. Councillor Smith and then Councillor Rahman. Thank you, Chair. I've been around a long time, and this development of the Woolwich Estates, Denise has been around equally as long, sorry to call you out for being old, Denise, but when I first started my life on the council, I was 12 years in Thamesmead Moorings, and this started during that time, I wasn't a Woolwich Councillor. When I moved to Woolwich Riverside, it was in flow, and there were countless meetings upon meetings upon meetings of which we were looking at various phases, and the old Connaught came out of the ground first. So it's been a long time coming, and frankly, I will be highly delighted when the final stages completed, because let me tell you, when I was a ward member that included Woolwich Dockyard, where it is situated now, there were complaints after complaints after complaints, because we were using the decanted site as temporary housing, or PA were, the quality of the housing was atrocious, the amount of crime and antisocial behaviour that was going on, so frankly, the residents were highly delighted when the demolition ball went in, and will be pleased to see it. So I am delighted that it's being completed, I'm a little bit sad that I'm not there to see it, but I would like to go and see the first handover for Morris, because I think that will be an absolute ground-breaking moment. I suppose just for clarification, I don't know if you can do this without me going through every line of the report, so what were the numbers of units in the former Morris Walk Marion configuration of what we're developing now, and what are the numbers after, and what's the split between private and social housing and whatever, because I personally think I'm less inclined to go on a phase-by-phase table than what we've got overall on the whole development, because I think, if I'm right, what we've got overall on the whole development is good news. So could you clarify that, please, Jeremy? Yeah, that's right, so when the estates were formally in their existence, there was just over 1,000 units, and it will end up with over 1,600 units at the end. Morris Walk North will have 304 units, of which the council will own 175, and Paragon Asra will own 87 social rent and 42 shared ownership, and Morris Walk South will be 462 units, Paragon Asra will have 124, and private sale will be 338, and Marion Road and Grove will be 165, of which the council will have 53, and Paragon Asra 79, private sale 33. So overall, it's more homes than were there before, and since 2013, there will be more social homes there and more affordable homes than there were before because of the intervention of the council. Thank you. Thank you. Is it to close, or I'll just ask one additional question for myself. Thanks, Jeremy, for that. My last one is, following this decision, what guarantees, because obviously there's a lot of risk in the economy at the moment, what guarantees do we have on our partnership that will make sure that we get to a place of completion? Yes, so what the report is asking for is delegated authority to enter into a fifth deed of variation, and clearly for us, what we want to make sure is that the fifth deed of variation locks Lovelin to build the scheme out. It also deals with the commerciality of us buying the 53 units. It also will deal with the Paragon Asra switch from social, from shared ownership to social rent, and importantly, it will reinstate an overage provision, so that if the market improves considerably beyond the baseline, then the council will benefit from the overage on the 33 units to be sold with a 60/40 split in favour of the council. Thank you very much. Councillor Ramon. Thank you, Chair, and thank you again to the officers for the report. I guess I'll throw in my own kind of walk down memory lane here as well, just because it's an area that I grew up close to, and I know the estate quite well, the previous estate. I had friends when I was in primary school. They used to live in those estates, and I remember the quality or not the great quality that they were living in, and I remember in primary school, one of the things that we did is plant a tree in the estate so it could be less concrete, and the reason I mention that is because the development provides that step going forward for that area in terms of revitalising the area, bringing some sense of design, some sense of greenness and good quality homes for all residents, and looking at mixed tenure housing, and I think in terms of our greenness, that's what we want. We want a development that kind of brings in those from all walks of life and not just a specific demographic or social group, because we know in terms of regeneration, it will improve through the people coming to it, it will improve the area. So I'm sure everyone is looking forward to seeing the development being complete. We will have some hiccups along the way, but I know the officers are working pragmatically to get things done, and obviously we will be here to make sure that we are sticking to the values of our missions and aims in terms of our greenness as well, to make sure the developments stick to the standards that they promise, so thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. That brings us to a close. Thanks for your presentation, Jeremy. I'm going to move us straight to the vote now, because I think we've all had the opportunity to feed into this discussion and debate and answer questions including clarifications. Are members happy to agree the decisions as outlined in Section 1.1 to 1.6? Thank you very much. We will now move on to Item 7. This is the scheme and estimate report for development of an all new through secondary school post '16 pieces for special education needs and Harwood Road. Now I know we have the absence of the cabinet member here, but I would welcome the opportunity for short apologies, I was thinking of Councillor Kaira, but a short introduction, then we can ask any questions. Did you want to say open this report about the new school? I do apologize, I don't have too much to add to this report, I've been swamped with all these different reports and I'm still getting used to my cabinet role. I just want to say thank you to the officers for the report and the work that they're doing on this site. We do need these kind of provisions and we do need to make sure that this kind of work is kind of progressed, so I'll just hand it over to the officers to take over from this point. Thank you. I know at the time, and obviously we've got quite a few things to get through on the agenda, I'll just give you about a minute to summarise. Thank you. Sure. Thanks for that. I'm Daniel Stainesby, Assistant Director. In brief summary, the report is aiming to set out the scheme and the estimated budget cost for delivering the project. It's a new build SCND score for 128 pupils in the borough. Great need for SCND, as members will I'm sure be aware. The scheme itself has been designed, it's gone through the planning application process and has received a resolution for consent. We've been busily developing the design, it's now in the process of going out to tender to get the final cost, so what you see here is the estimated budget for the scheme. Through the design process, we've understood the site better and done some detailed investigations. Through that process, we've found some cost increases which are summarised in the report and that's captured within the budget presented here to date. I think I would say we haven't actually concluded the tender process yet, so there's still some risk that cost may change, but we've built into the budget, you see here some contingency to cater for some of those fluctuations. The next steps will be to tender the scheme, start construction on site with the aim of opening the school in autumn next year. Thank you very much. Do members have any questions or comments? Councillor Smith. Thank you, Daniel, for the report. We desperately need these places, I know and understand that, and I support it. My one question is just the stuff that's in the programming, page 1, 2, 3, 4, 19, which I know you've just said, open in autumn 2025, that looks like a really tight timetable to me, and I suppose I wanted just to test the confidence in the achievement of that. And if we're not totally confident, what's the likely slippage in it? Thank you. Any other questions at all? No? OK. Daniel. Firstly, a really valid point and great question. We are delivering this scheme through an off-site construction, so it's a very rapid construction phase, which will help deliver the programme. We're confident in that programme as of today. What we've also done is we've got the school on board now through the Compass Partnership for Schools, and we're working very closely with them to put in place a contingency plan should it not be ready, and we've agreed that with them already, so there is some capability to go beyond that date should that programme not be delivered. As I sit here today, we're confident we can achieve that November date, given all things being equal. Thank you. And just on costs, obviously we know the current bill costs are rising at the moment, do you see yourself keeping within budget, and what implications will that have on the school? So you're right, the costs are still fluctuating in the market, I think it's stabilised a little bit since the crazy inflation period we had about two years ago, but they're still on the rise. As I said, we've got some contingency built into this project budget you see here, there's also still some remaining allowances built into the Education Capital Programme. Should it go over what we see here, we've got some capacity to cope with that. Ultimately, we'll be looking to make sure the scheme comes within this budget and undertake value engineering, essentially, to try and revise the scope or specification where we can and still deliver the same number of places in a lower cost way. Thank you very much. And as you undergo that process, can my request that we keep the cabinet member updated through all those different challenges, just to ensure that we're all updated on it. Any other questions? Councillor Smith. On that same page, 418, the DFE announcing additional high needs grant to mean that we don't have to pay any more money. I think that that is something that we should celebrate, that we're actually getting some money for things that we need from the Government. Quite right, and I think you mentioned that helps to do that. In addition to that point, I think one of the things you opened with about the need for SEND, and we all know the need has been rising. Obviously, myself and Councillor Kyra have been going to schools, and that's been spoken about in a lot of places. A lot of parents are under a lot of pressure and need more support. So obviously, there is more need for school places and places where people can have an inclusive education and get the right support that they need. So I guess this is one that we are going to be keenly keeping our eyes on. I'll bring in Councillor Amman to wrap up. Thank you, Chair. Just to add to that, we do need these spaces and we do need these facilities. In terms of our vision to make our borough inclusive and also in these times of financial difficulties, having facilities within the borough would also help families alleviate those additional costs that they may incur or they have to make provisions for that. So I think the more spaces that we can create within the borough, the better our residents will be. I know many of us here who have had some personal kind of experiences of these would also kind of appreciate it. So yeah, thank you for the report, again, and thank you for the work on this. Thank you. Are members happy to agree decisions 1.1 to 1.8? Please raise your hands. Thank you very much. We will now move on to Item 8, and almost a happy moment to see this report come forward, to agree to adopt the Statement of Community Involvement and Developers Engagement Charter. I will hand over to Councillor Amman to present. This is my first cabinet, so hopefully this allows you to get familiar with my face and voice. What a way to start. This is an exciting report, so I will open the report and hand over to the officers. So just say thank you to the officers and obviously thank you to the chair for working on this report and providing the kind of work on this. And just to say this report is to adopt the Statement of Community Involvement, which is SCI and Developers Engagement Charter, DEC. Just a quick overview of what that really means. So in terms of the SCI, this is a document in which the council sets out how they will engage residents, communities, businesses and local organisations and other groups to ensure as many people as possible are able to contribute towards the plan-making process and input on individual planning decisions that affect them. So we can already see why this is important. And in terms of the DEC, it's aimed at developers, those aimed at developing land in Royal Greenwich to ensure best practice in early engagement with local residents, businesses and community members prior to formal planning applications being made. So we can see why both of these elements are really important. So in terms of our vision for regeneration in Greenwich, we want to make sure that our communities are involved as early as possible in this process. So having these laid out in a document, which is a statutory document, will make sure that we are informed, our residents are informed, and when it comes to developers, they are also informed of what is required of them, which is clearly laid out in these plans and processes. And this is why it's a very exciting document, and I can see why the leader is excited about this. I was reading this, and I've heard many feedback around developers and developments over the years, especially when I'm engaging with residents, that they don't feel connected and they don't engage with us as early as possible. So hopefully this will help alleviate those issues, and obviously it's a document in progress. So I just wanted to share my, you know, open the document and now pass it over to the officers to give us the context. Thank you. Thank you. Just before we open, I will say, officers, again, another minute, just in consideration of time. You don't need to go too long into it. Sure. Thank you. So as Councillor Almond says, the statement of community involvement is a statutory document that the council is bound to prepare by the planning legislation, and we're supposed to update that. Just move the mic a bit more closer to you. Sorry. Yep. So the SCI is a statutory document that we're bound to update every five years. So the last time this was formally updated was in 2020 in response to a COVID-19 pandemic, and before that, the previous version was dated 2016. These two documents have been prepared in accordance with the council's wider community engagement framework that's been prepared, and they complement that framework and sit alongside that to consider planning matters. The council undertook a public consultation on both of the documents in March and April of this year via commonplace and in hard copy in libraries, et cetera. So we received 72 comments cumulatively on both documents from a variety of stakeholders, including residents, members of the public, residents associations, and statutory organizations. So officers reviewed all those comments and made some changes to both documents to improve their clarity and effectiveness, and I think around 25% of the comments that were made resulted directly in changes being made to make the documents clearer. And, yeah, I think the report, obviously, is to direct -- ask cabinet to agree to adopt the two documents formally so they'll then be publicized on the website and used in future to both develop local planning policies through the local plan and through individual planning applications. Thanks. Thank you very much. Do we have any comments or questions? Obviously I'm going to comment. Councillor Cousins? Thank you, everyone, thanks. Just wanted to say that meaningful community consultation or engagement by contractors is very important. We have had incidents, for example, our borough is bordered by other boroughs, and you'll find that, for example, in Abbey Wood, they're actually consulting in Bexley on something to do in Abbey Wood. And that does have a difference, because residents will think, well, it's Bexley, it isn't Greenwich. So it is very important. And if consultation like that to me wouldn't be meaningful. So I do hope that the implementation of this will be monitored along those lines as well, because it really is important when it comes to place. Thank you. I mean, on that point about monitoring, I guess, you know, officers can probably speak to some of the monitoring that happens as a result of when a developer submits a planning application, would you like to just expand on that for Councillor Cousins? Yeah, sure. So once the documents are adopted, it gives some clear direction to developers in terms of what's expected of them in terms of best practice and meaningful early engagement before the planning application is submitted. So the developer charter will then be reflected in our local validation list for planning applications. So this is a requirement on all major developers to provide a statement setting out how they have engaged with local people and how that feedback has been taken on board in development of the scheme before it is submitted. And is it correct that this will be reported when the applications consider that planning committee? >> Yes, it will be part of the officer's report. So I think there is a real opportunity there to demonstrate what we as Council have set out, our expectations of who they should be engaging, but actually the consideration of the application for the committee to have a view on that. Any other comments or questions? I would just like to thank you for the length of work. You have worked quite closely with the community engagement team on this work, and this is a good opportunity of cross collaboration around that, but more importantly, as we approach the work around our local plan, what's really exciting in this report is the community review panels, and I think that will be a real opportunity to bring our communities in to think about how we consult on a place, how we consult on thinking about the vision and the future of our local plan and how we use their voices to shape it. So it's a real great work, and I guess one thing to note is that obviously key to me and the leadership that I'm trying to lead, this is all about community engagement. It is all about making sure we encourage developers to do more, and I set out and worked with the cabinet member to make sure that development charter is here, so I'm really proud that you guys have done it, because not me, but you guys have done that work collectively to get there with other council officers, so I'm proud that it's nice to see you here today in front of cabinet. So we'll now move to agree and check if everyone is happy to agree decision as outlined in Section 1.1. Thank you very much. Now, there is no I guess, Councillor Raman, you are having a baptism of fire today in that sense, and because the next one is also you, Item 8, which is this is to enter into a lease to enable the long-term occupation of the flats shared at the house at Royal Hill. Now, I note that we have seen a lot of Royal Hill, and we've been through this report collectively before, so I probably won't take a presentation on it, but I am very happy to see the new opening of Royal Hill, which is a specialist development supporting adults with learning disabilities. I went for the opening day myself, and it was absolutely fantastic, and I know you as cabinet member will be leading on a visit to demonstrate the work that's being done there, working with other Councillors, so I think this is one that we're happy with and ready to go to a comment on, to a decision on, so I'm going to put it straight to the vote, if that's okay. Are members happy to agree decisions as outlined in Section 1.1.1.4? Thank you very much. I will now take the Item 10, which is the Royal Greenwich Safeguarding Adults Annual Report. This is to note the Annual Safeguarding Adults Board Report, and I would like to welcome Michael Preston Shute, if that's correct, thank you, the Independent Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board. This is your report, actually, because actually even though we work as partners, you know, you have your independence of making sure that we report back and take the lessons and the learning, so I'll hand over to you to speak to your report, and then we as a cabinet will consider it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chair, and thank you for the invitation. I'll be brief. This is a statutory requirement, it's built into the Care Act 2014, that we produce an annual report, and that we share that with the Chief Executive, the local authority, the ICB, the Borough Commander for the Police, and Health Watch, and that we present it to cabinet and relevant governance committees within the local authority. The statutory responsibility of the Board is to seek assurance about the effectiveness of adult safeguarding and to promote the effectiveness of adult safeguarding, and hopefully the report does justice to how we have sought to implement that statutory duty over the last year. I want to commend the contributions from our three statutory partners, and particularly from Nick, who's here today. I want to commend the enthusiastic participation of our cabinet member, which has been a pleasure and a joy, I have to say. I also want to commend the strategic partnership across the Council, because that's something that we have developed over the last few years with Florence, with Jamie, with Debbie, and others, and what that produces is a whole system response to safeguarding. Adult safeguarding is just one part of the safeguarding jigsaw, as indeed we know from a safeguarding review, which we're sharing with our children's colleagues, which we'll report in the fullness of time. We are busy, not least with safeguarding adult reviews, of which we have five in train at the moment. We are not an outlier in this borough in relation to safeguarding adult reviews. There are London boroughs that are undertaking more, and London boroughs that are undertaking less. We have seen an increase in the referrals for safeguarding adult reviews, and I think that is because we have been successful in raising awareness about adult safeguarding amongst our communities in Greenwich, but also, to be frank, amongst our elected members, and I was grateful for those elected members who attended a couple of events that Nick and I did jointly to outline the responsibilities in the CARE Act in relation to adult safeguarding and the important role that elected members play in that, particularly our cabinet member. So I'm assured about the strategic engagement and relationships in the local authority. I'm assured about the strategic relationships between the local authority, the ICB and the police. However, I do have a worry list. One of my worry lists is how we are supporting people living in the community with severe and enduring forms of mental ill health, and that has been the focus of several conversations that Nick and I have had with strategic leaders in Oxleys, and I want to get beyond that to actually hear the lived experience of practitioners in Oxleys and indeed people living with mental distress. That's top of my worry list. The police have introduced Right Care, Right Person. As I'm sure many of you are aware, we need to monitor the outcome of the implementation by the Metropolitan Police of Right Care, Right Person to make sure that we are not losing the opportunity to check on the welfare and the wellbeing of adults at risk of abuse and neglect. We have more to do to engage our community members, and we have more to do to sustain some of the very innovative developments that adult social care has led on, and the innovative development I really wish to emphasise is the one on self-neglect and hoarding. If there are two themes within our safeguarding adult reviews, both those published and those not published, the first of those themes is mental health, often associated with substance misuse. That's an area where we need to continue to seek assurance, but the second theme is self-neglect, and there again we are not an outlier. Self-neglect is the most frequently reviewed type of abuse or neglect in England, far in excess of any other form of abuse or neglect. Nick and adult social care, with the blessing of the council, have funded a project on self-neglect and hoarding. Nick I know is endeavouring to secure the future of that project, but we really need to encourage the ICB and Oxleys to step up and contribute meaningfully in relation to resource, to enable that project to continue, because it has already demonstrated its effectiveness, as a couple of case studies in the annual report will demonstrate. I could go on, but your time is precious, so I will stop, and if members have comments I'm delighted to take. First of all, thank you very much for coming today and speaking to your report, and I appreciate your thanks for the strategic working relationship. The report is also to continue that and build on that, report back on those case studies, and also for us to continuously learn from it, so I'm grateful that the relationship we formed with all partners, noting that this report helps to strengthen that relationship. I'll now hand over to the cabinet member to speak to it. Thank you very much, and I guess I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank Michael for all of his work. Having taken on the post and attended recent meetings, seeing the diligence and the scrutiny that he applies in his role, I know adds real value, and asking those difficult questions and ensuring that we're making sure that we're doing everything that we can, and we recently had a safe government board meeting this week, actually. Was it this week? Yes, of course. No, last week. Sorry, it was last week. It was a really, really thought-provoking discussion, digging into the complexities of homelessness and domestic violence, and seeing how Michael is using that board to bring directorates together and have the important cross-cutting discussions, and asking those questions about how we can do better and make sure we're doing the best we can to safeguard and protect adults in our borough. So I'm really, really heartened by the work and the challenge that we have, and doing everything we can, I think, to improve and protect those at risk. So thank you. Thank you very much. Are members happy to agree decisions? I apologise. Thank you very much in section 1.1. Agreed. Thank you very much. We will now move on to our final item for cabinet today, which is the Quarter 1 Budget Monitor, to note the Council's revenue position at the end of Quarter 1. I'm not convinced we need an officer presentation, but potentially need a cabinet member opening. So we'll hand over to Councillor Highland. Okay. I'll be very quick. I'd like to thank the finance team, firstly. This report is for the end of Quarter 1. That's April to the end of June. We know, don't we, we've seen on BBC in the last 24 hours how expensive some of these individual placements are, and how they're putting Councils at risk all over the country, and we are no exception. Thank goodness we've got very good senior management looking after that situation, but nevertheless it could put us in the red by 5.1 million at the end of this financial year. In total, 8.6 million, so just over 8.5 million is the situation as it is now, and that includes all of the cuts we've made, and if we don't make all of those, some of those are fairly risky or delayed, then we could see that rise to 15.6 million. So it's so important that all the directors and cabinet members are bringing home those savings, and I'll open for any questions. Chair, thank you. I don't see any hands for questions or indications. I guess I would like to thank officers as well for their work on this, because I know out of the plus 100 proposals, actually largely we are cracking on with making those savings, and that's fundamentally required to safeguard the future of this authority. If we're going to keep delivering the services we need for our residents, we need to make sure we balance our books. So I'm grateful for all the work. I know there's some challenges in the report which is reflected there, but the articulation of what we're trying to do and the difficulty around it is well articulated. So thank you for your work on this, and I would ask that we keep up the work and that we lend our voices and we kindly wait for the 30th October to further find out the future of local authorities when government begins to set out their position on the budget and their spending review. Thank you. Are members happy to agree to the decision as outlined in sexual 1.1? Thank you very much for attending cabinet, everyone. Have a good day. Thank you. end of transcript [BLANK_AUDIO]