Transcript

Let's start. Is that okay? Good. The usual drill about the fire alarms and filming of the meeting applies as one question from the Labour Group. Can I just take that first before we move on to the substantive paper? Is that okay? Yeah, please, yeah, please. We're very glad to have Farage back, but he still needs to rest his voice, so you've got me just for today. So my question is, with only 114 residents successfully applying for the Council Tax Cost of Living Relief Fund in the year that it has been in place, what is the Mayor, what are you doing to support more residents onto the scheme with another Council tax rise on the way? Councillor Saeed, you want to respond, please, yeah? Thank you. Thank you, thank you, Mr Mayor. Let me just address this question by sort of clarifying some of the misinformation spread on social media by some of the opposition members. The Council set aside £658,000 for its Council Tax Cost of Relief Fund, which means that the poorest households in Tower Hamlets are exempt from a rise in Council tax. In this budget, in this budget, we will be increasing the threshold so that any households that earn less than £50,350 will not have to pay the minimal increase of 2.99%. So, taking that into consideration, we are currently the sixth lowest Council tax rate in the City of London, amongst all our neighbouring boroughs, and in terms of increases, we are the lowest, because, Mr Mayor, as you know, we have had frozen periods, so incrementally, we haven't caught up with many other boroughs who have been continuously increasing the Council tax. And your pledge, Mr Mayor says, and your pledge, Mr Mayor says, that we will protect the poorest residents, and that's exactly what we have done. And so the poorest residents remain protected during the cost of living crisis, and over a third of households in Tower Hamlets will not have to undergo a further rise. In terms of increases, like I said, we are the lowest amongst our neighbouring boroughs. In addition to this, 27,000 households will continue not to pay any Council tax whatsoever, making our Council tax discount and relief schemes amongst the most generous in the country, at a time when other councils are considering rises up to 10%, as well as cuts to their support schemes. This is very important to note, because we are definitely, like I say, trailblazing when it comes to supporting our residents in various ways, and this initiative, our Council tax cost of relief scheme, is something that we come up with during our last budget season. Any remaining balances left over in the Council tax cost of relief fund has been used to support winter fuel payments for those most in need, which the Council has decided to subsidise due to government cuts, especially given those who are only getting their winter fuel payments if they are receiving pension credit. But we went further to support all pensioners out there. It is important that all households who are eligible for Council tax relief are encouraged and supported in applying. We have been putting out messages in all three languages throughout our websites on Council tax bills, through local and national newspapers, as well as social media in resident newsletters and within our resident hubs and idea stores. Going forward, we will be building on our communication strategies to ensure that we reach as many people as we can, so that the take-up and the support is taken up by everyone that is eligible to do so. Of course, the support we provide for those struggling in cost-of-living crises is not limited to Council tax support. In this budget, we will be making new investments to restore the meals-on-wheels scheme, to continue winter fuel payments over the next two years, and to provide families with grants to buy school uniforms. And our existing commitments, including free school meals, education maintenance allowance for young people, will continue to be delivered throughout the MTFS. A lot of great stuff to come, Mr Mayor, hopefully in the next budget. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, Lead Member. Thank you, Councillor. Thanks for your question. Mr Mayor, with your permission. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, Madam. You have one question, you've done your question, I'm not taking no more supplemental questions. It's fine. Thank you, I'm grateful to you. Thank you, grateful to you. Okay, can I move on to the formal part of the business, please? Any apologies from anyone? We've got a full house here, grateful to you. Any declarations of interest members? Any of the papers? No? Okay, we've got two sets of minutes, 18th of December 2024 and the 7th, 8th of January 2025. Is there anything there that you're not sure with, you want clarification on? Are you okay with it? Yep, they're agreed. Thank you, grateful to you. Okay, Steve, any announcements, sir? Just a few, Mayor. Thank you very much. Sorry, forgive me. Just to remind everybody, as I'm sure you're aware, Holocaust Memorial Day was acknowledged this week with an event with the Interfaith Forum on Sunday and communications have gone out both internally and externally for the Council to show our support in that respect. I'd like to welcome Kim Bromley-Derry, who's here as an envoy, along with, not this evening, but to Assistant Envoy, Sho Katlal and Pam Parks. And it was a pleasure to attend a meeting this afternoon with the Mayor and councillors to hear from Minister Jim McMahon and the collaborative and partnership approach that's going to be adopted to our Best Value Improvement Plan and the development of it. Okay, more good news. The Council has had more national external recognition for our green spaces. The Royal Horticultural Society has announced that Tower Hamlets is a finalist in the small city category. Some staff at the London Community Credit Union has gone into administration. Some staff use this service and we have put out communications to reassure them that savers are entitled to receive their deposits up to a protected limit of £85,000. And finally, Mayor, I know you were aware, but there was a serious incident that took place on the fourth floor at the Town Hall yesterday. We already offer staff a variety of mental health support and we will be ensuring this is stepped up in terms of senior managers being vigilant and signposting their staff to support services where it is appropriate. Thank you, Mayor. I have a statement to make on the paper that will come later on, on the budget paper. I think I'll do it at this stage before I'll take over and scrutiny and the other papers, if that's okay. Okay, thank you. I am pleased to speak to this updated MTFS report that now includes all capital expenditure. As previously mentioned in the last Cabinet meeting, this is a fully costed, fully balanced and sustainable budget, ladies and gentlemen. It is a demonstrative of what can be achieved when fiscal prudency, service delivery are treated with the same importance rather than the prioritisation of cuts and service reduction in the name of efficiencies. We have heard from some members of the opposition, some unsavory comments to refocus the debate away from policy and service delivery and these efficiencies that they oversaw. Before returning to the transformational budget we'll be presenting at next month's full council, I would like to remind colleagues across the political divide of the impact of these efficiencies and on the people of Tire Hamlets. There was nothing efficient in cutting youth services to the bone, driving our young people onto the streets where the devil makes work for idle hands. There was nothing efficient in removing educational maintenance allowance, which we introduced previously, depriving the poorest and most in need of our fair chance at a good education. And there was nothing efficient in cutting university bursaries, making it difficult for our young people pursuing academic fulfilment and as a result economic empowerment. There was nothing efficient in cutting frontline services and frontline jobs from across the council that led to the failure of several inspections, including an Ofsted review in 2017 and youth justice review in June 2022. There was nothing efficient in driving up child poverty to over 40% thanks to these service cuts, one of the highest in the country. There was nothing efficient in spending £15 million on public money during the pandemic on a consultation and closure programme to block up our streets and drive traffic onto the poorest parts of our borough, while punishing those who rely on their vehicles to make ends meet and support their families. There was nothing efficient in cutting community language services, depriving young and old from learning their mother tongues, enabling a retention of our cultural and community connection and sense of pride. And there was nothing efficient in cutting Tower Hamlet's enforcement officers and reducing the number of police officers that the council purchased, facilitating a boom in crime and reduction in community safety and coercion across the borough. And there was nothing efficient in closing all but one of our former one-stop shops, dislocating residents from any local support and forcing thousands to travel many miles to an isolated town hall in Marbury Place. And there was nothing efficient in closing all but one-stop shops, and there was nothing efficient in driving up health inequalities, closing leisure centres, disenfranchising women and elderly from keeping fit and making swimming and physical exercise a privilege rather than a right for everyone. And there was nothing efficient in slowing of house building while allowing existing stock to rot and decay, meaning that thousands are now in overcrowded, damp and mouldy homes. Ladies and gentlemen, I could go on about their efficiencies. However, I want to leave the past to the past and concentrate on the future. As with all our previous budgets, we are looking to the future, to rebuilding our borough, providing our residents with the key services, support and pride in the borough that they deserve. We believe in efficiencies and delivery for all. We believe that you can have a financially sustainable plan that delivers the best services. This budget report builds upon the investment and good financial governance that we as an administration have put in place since May 2022. I would like to take a moment to run through some of the highlights of this report. It is indeed a balanced budget, and we will continue to deliver ambitious investment into the communities of Taha Hamlets. We have delivered on all of our earmarked savings. Indeed, the budget that will be set by the Council on 28th of February, sorry, last year, on the 28th of February 2024, secured a balanced position across the medium term and exceeded its savings target with £43.4 million across three years. This reiterates the findings of the government's best value inspection of the Council that recognise the strength and robustness of the Council's finances. And we are going further to reiterate our commitment to good financial governance. I am pleased to announce that we are increasing our general fund reserve to £25 million from £20 million to meet CIFAR best practice guidelines, although we are not obliged to do this constitutionally. We have always said that an authority can have healthy reserves and invest in services, and this report demonstrates that we have achieved both efficiencies and delivery. It also means that we can confidently deliver the life-changing services we have introduced as a Council, as well as additional services that I will turn to presently without dipping into reserves or creating a hole in our finances. This means continuing to deliver educational maintenance allowance for hundreds of students across the borough. Already, 1,550 students have benefited from a £600 award, and we can now match, and I hope to exceed this amount in the years to come. We can continue to deliver university bursaries for hundreds of students looking to pursue their education at university. We believe that every child has a right to continue their education to the highest level, and we can now build on the 800 students of 1,500 awards made to date. Again, I hope we can exceed in the coming years. We can continue to invest £14 million per year into our youth services, rolling out 20 youth clubs across the 20 wards in our borough. We can continue to deliver free school meals for all primary and secondary school children, a £5.4 million a year investment benefiting 38,000 people, saving the average family of £550 a year. We can continue to invest in and enhance our in-sourced leisure services, ensuring that an accessible and, where necessary, culturally sensitive programmes of activities are available to our residents. Further to this, this budget means we can keep all of our swimming pools open, and are increasing the number by at least one in St George's leisure centre, and more to follow. It also means that we can continue to provide free swimming for all women and girls aged 16 and over, and all men aged 55 and over, allowing for an increase in health and well-being across the borough. We can continue with winter field payments for all residents who lost access to the existing scheme due to government cuts. This means that 5,000 residents can claim £175 towards their energy bills during their coldest months, and nearly 3,000 people already have done so. We can continue to invest in our waste services to keep our streets clean, with an additional £14 million being invested into the service. This budget report builds upon the investment and good financial governance that we as an administration have put in place since May 2022. We can continue to freeze council tax. Yes, freeze council tax for the next three years for those earning £50,350 or less. Working families should not pay for the cost of living crisis. The council tax increase that has been proposed is 2.99% and it is not 4.99% that has been peddled by some members of the opposition. And even then, I am complying with what is said in my manifesto pledge, as Councillor Said said, to protect the poorest in our community. The £50,350 threshold hopefully will protect those very people we set out to protect. And I urge all our residents who are entitled to that freeze, the discount, please apply for the scheme as soon as possible. We can proceed to provide free home care for all our residents. This will be launched in April of this year, a £4.9 million per year investment, ladies and gentlemen. We can continue with our comprehensive reinvestment programme to ensure our streets are safe for all our residents. For example, £3 million invested in our CCTV across the borough and the £1.5 million towards the recruitment of 44 additional new timeless enforcement officers, now a total of 72. We are building on this budget, on this, in this budget, and with more staff and more equipment to be installed across the borough. We can proceed with our pledge to reopening a culturally sensitive women's centre and we are confident that this will be delivered this year. We will continue with reopening a culturally sensitive drugs rehabilitation facility also this year. We can continue to provide key services from our reopened five one-stop shops across the borough and we will be introducing a strengthened offer so that residents can resolve some of their issues nearer to their homes rather than coming to the town hall. We can continue with our reintroduced one-hour free parking for customers stopping to shop at our markets and we can continue to robustly invest into the accelerated delivery of thousands of affordable homes to tackle the overcrowding in our borough. These are some of the transformative services that we can continue to deliver thanks to the financial prudency we have adopted as an authority. Since May 2022 we have delivered over £90 million of investment in key frontline services with no cuts to staffing or negative changes to terms and conditions. This includes the creation of countless jobs, apprenticeships and training schemes a fact we are incredibly proud of. This updated report, ladies and gentlemen, also confirms several key capital investments that we will be bringing to the full council in February including a transformatory investment into our already ambitious house building programme. From our housing revenue account this includes investment in the development of new council homes to the tune of £486.9 million. There are 28 schemes that are currently on site or in developing design stages. This includes Bancroft and Woodford, Albert Jacob House and Clichy Estate. New investment of £119 million has been included in the 2024-28 period to support the delivery of these schemes. A further £75 million of new investment has also been allocated for pipeline schemes to generate additional new homes. We remain committed to delivering above and beyond our 4,000 affordable homes target. Acquisitions of new homes worth £187.3 million. The programme also includes an extensive acquisitions initiative. Part funding has been secured and awarded to the council to help facilitate the acquisition of at least 237 new homes. We are way in progress on delivering that aspiration. Investment in existing council homes worth £110.5 million. This includes new investment of £18 million has been added to the existing programme to improve the existing council stock and carry out the essential fire and building safety works and capital works identified in stock condition surveys. This demonstrates the seriousness with which our administration takes delivering new as well as existing uplifting existing decent homes in our borough. Similarly, there is a significant investment in the MTFS in capital programmes and projects included within the council's general fund including key new investment just to give you some examples. We will be investing nearly £60 million into our communities through sports and cultural initiatives including a huge regeneration project of wet and dry facilities at St George's Leisure Centre as well as new investment of £3 million in existing leisure facilities. For example, we are investing £700,000 for the Myland Stadium pitches and £500,000 in your call spa improvements both of which will be open and running in the coming months. We are continuing to invest to bring our schools up to the highest standards including the new Mulberry London Doc School and Institute of Academic Excellence. A total investment of nearly £45 million. Mulberry Doc School was built on land that we negotiated from developers on the former News of the World site in 2013 securing a state-of-the-art secondary school in Wapping, Shagwal and the surrounding areas who are cut off by that strip of land at the highway from the main part of Tower Hamlets. It means a lot to me to see this project finally be completed. This also includes an additional £80 million to ensure the council's schools' assets remain safe and usable as well as £5 million to support the decarbonisation of schools through boiler replacements. We are continuing to invest to ensure that our roads and places are of the highest quality for our streets residents. This includes new infrastructure investment of £17.8 million including Whitechapel Road improvements and works to bridges across the borough. Public realm improvements also remains a top priority for us as an administration. We have agreed £24.6 million additional investment to elevate our public realm including carriageways and footways street lighting and also £1 million of new investment on traffic schemes relating to Manchester Road in the Docklands Brabazon Street in Lansbury Blackpool Way again on the Docklands and Wick Lane and Fish Island. We are proud of the parks we have in our borough jewels of various sizes in the north south east and west and west of our borough. We are committed to maintaining them and improving them wherever possible. That is why we are investing a total of £13.1 million in our parks an investment that includes £900,000 on prefab calves and £600,000 to support electrical supply points across various sites. We remain committed to delivering a clean cycling streets and maintained investment in our waste services. On top of the £14 million additional investment in revenue support for the waste service we will be investing a further £12.3 million to improve our capital assets which includes new investment of £12.1 million for flats waste services and £1.3 million for waste vehicle replacement. This is on top of the £5 million we invested last year to upgrade our fleet and enhance the route delivery systems we have in place. We are determined to ensure our streets are the cleanest in London. Finally we are committed to making our council a green and environmentally sustainable authority. That is why we are injecting a further £8.1 million into carbon offsetting. Several funding commitments have been included within the programme to make the borough cleaner and greener with £3.1 million of new investment going towards energy efficiency renewable energy and food waste treatment. We all have a responsibility all of us to protect our planet and we are committed to continuing carbon offsetting where possible. These are just some of the additional capital investment that we are guaranteeing as part of this year's MTFS and I look forward to the lead member presenting them in detail at the next month's full council budget meeting. I would once again like to thank the section 151 officer, the chief executive officers across the board in the finance department and certainly the lead member Saeed and all officers for delivering this sustainable balanced and investment focused ambitious budget. We are excited to see the benefits that we will bring to residents across Taha Hamlet building on our existing investment. Finally ladies and gentlemen I would like to address the spectacle that occurred at last week's full council meeting where the labour group attempted to block our amendments to their opposition motion. The group cited that we had stated an inaccuracy regarding the overpayment of a social care contract to the tune of £62 million during the previous Mr. Biggs administration. They tried to imply that the information was incorrect that we had attempted to mislead the public. Let me set the record straight about what happened during their time in office. The people of this borough deserve to know the truth. I am now quoting from an audit committee report of June 2024. In 2018, an exercise was carried out for the reconciliation of domestic care payments. PwC review of the DMT report of domestic care payments highlighted that overpayments occurred due to system issues at Tower Hamlets. In response to this, LBTH took the approach of paying statement invoices around £11 million which were due and would reconcile them to goods received later. These never were the case and were unreconciled, ladies and gentlemen. The investigation goes further, saying that the true amount overpaid to provider A remains unknown, but that the value of the contract rose from just £5 million to £30 million by the end of the contract period and thereafter to £60 million. Investigators described this as a serious governance failure under the previous administration. Lastly, investigators said the council failed to have proper arrangements in place to reliably report finances, manage contract risks and provide proper internal governance of contracts or monitor contract performance from 2017 and 2021. From 2017 to 2021. As such, nothing that was said in our amendment to the opposition motion was incorrect. The contract did indeed balloon from £5 million to over £60 million. There were governance and financial failings that enabled this to happen, which we inherited. It's a legacy issue that we inherited and we have since fixed. There were about £11 million of payments that were unreconciled. I would advise some members of the opposition to act with a little more humility rather than attempt to politicise full council meetings and obstruct facts that expose their record of efficiencies whilst in power. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Can I now call on Councillor for the chair of the ONS, please, to kindly make a statement. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. So I'm here to feedback the views of overview and scrutiny committee from two meetings that happened in January. At the beginning of January, the committee met to perform a robust review of the council's 2025 to 26 budget report, medium-term financial strategy and fees and charges 2025 to 26. I'd like to thank Councillor Saeed Ahmed and Julia Lorraine and their team for their presentation to the committee and for taking the time to answer all our questions. The committee is pleased to see that this budget supports significant investment in several new initiatives aimed at assisting residents facing financial hardships. However, we cautioned that the new initiatives included in the budget must be implemented effectively, monitored regularly and remain financially sustainable. We have submitted a report to you, Mr Mayor, including our recommendations and requests for additional information and await your response. To provide you with a few brief highlights from that report, we are pleased our request for long-term funding for waste services has been met in this budget. However, we want to see further information to evidence the need for the substantial investment committed and more information on how this will be spent, in line with our best value duty. We recognise the opportunity for innovation and savings through technology and AI, but we would like to see a more comprehensive consideration of risk to staff and residents before the council commits to this. We wholeheartedly support the introduction of school uniform grants. However, we would like clarity on the development of this policy and its application supported by data to evidence need, long-term use of the policy, and reasoning behind applying it to only reception and year seven pupils. This will help us to evidence any future investment that might be needed. Moving on to our meeting this week, the committee considered the progress of leisure services insourcing. I would like to thank Councillor Kamrul Hussein, Simon Baxter, and Johor Ali, and the team for joining us and answering our questions. We discussed the importance of ensuring both the social value and commercial aspects of the provision are successful. We were informed that the service has been successful in bidding for an independent evaluation of the impact on health and well-being, and we will ensure that we review the findings when they are available. Members shared their feedback on the service from both their own experiences and residents' experiences. The committee made a few suggestions to improve the provision. We recommend that we promote Be Well in an accessible way that encourages users from different backgrounds, including disabled residents, to engage. We also recommend that the service engage with NHS to explore using some of our facilities, such as swimming pools, to support physiotherapy sessions. Additionally, we would like the service to explore how it can better accommodate the needs of women through flexible opening hours or childcare facilities. Finally, we encourage the service to explore specific apprenticeship roles for care-experienced young people. The committee would like to note that this has been a significant undertaking by the council, and we are pleased with the progress delivered so far. We will continue to monitor performance, and we will have further discussion in six months' time. Lastly, following our discussion last month, the committee agreed on several recommendations on flood risk management. We are confident that we are meeting our obligations as a statutory flood risk authority. However, we have identified some gaps in our response following the flood flooding event in 2024, and our recommendations are aimed at strengthening this. Councillor Shafi Ahmed and our officers will engage you and other officers in developing a response to these recommendations, and we would really encourage you to consider this report and support us in addressing the areas of improvement needed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, councillor. Thank you for coming. Thank you for those comments. Grateful to you. Okay. There are no call-ins. Can we move on to the agenda? Rest of the agenda, please. Yeah? Is that okay? Good. The big one. I made a statement on the budget. Said. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, as we know, we've already covered the general fund revenue account from the previous cabinet. I will just highlight a little bit on the HRA and capital, and, of course, you've already touched on most of the exciting stuff in terms of capital. Within the HRA, over the next four years, there is £513 million of investment in new homes building programmes and £187 million in property acquisitions. Over the 30-year life of the HRA business plan, there is investment of £1.3 billion in existing stock. That means new kitchen, new bathrooms, new windows, roofs, communal areas, adaptations and safety works to our existing stocks. The key HRA indicators of financial sustainability are maintained with a minimum reserve level of £10 million and an interest cover ratio of £1.15 million. The rent increases are set at 2.7%, an average weekly increase of £3.64. 73% of the HRA's income comes from the rent fund and stock investment and new bill programmes. Approximately 68% of the tenants, of our residents, are on housing benefit and will not be impacted by the directly increase in rent. So that's 68% safe from the increase of the 2.7%. The council will also be investing in new technology to more effective target repairs and replacement as well as providing an improved service to residents. So most of the income collected, just under 50% goes straight back into building acquisition new homes and repairs and maintenance. So anything that the increase the residents will pay towards is going to go back to benefiting our residents, nearly 50% of that. In terms of capital, Mr. Mayor, in addition to the HRA, a £242 million capital programme to the year 2024-28 for the general fund is being proposed. Mr. Mayor, you have covered the top-line investment of significant capital programmes, projects included within the general fund in your opening statement. I just now want to thank Julie and the finance team for their hard work, as well as all the colleagues across the board to bring us here at the moment. I've got Julie here, who would like to add more on the HRA business plan. Thank you. So, just to give members' assurance and draw to your attention the risks, first of all, it is a strong and robust HRA, and I'll deal with the HRA first. The HRA often sends people running to the hills if we think it's challenging balancing a three-year MTFS. It's a walk in the park to balance in a 30-year housing revenue account business plan, which is what we need to do. And we need to not only balance it, but also stress test it, imagine some what-if scenarios, and make sure that the plan is robust and can weather a storm. So, the good news is, and it will all be set out in detail for you, the plan is robust and strong. We've had independent assurance. Where are the risks associated with the plan? Government policy, we're still making assumptions on rent. We don't know what the long-term intention will be, although all indications at the moment are very positive. The HRA strategy we have in place allocates significant funding to two main areas. one, investment in our existing stock for the reasons the councillor set out, and two, investment in new homes. The two are completely interrelated. We're able to generate capital from borrowing only as a result of the rental income we receive. Only by boosting the rental income we receive can we borrow the money to invest in the stock, and only by increasing the number of houses we have can we boost the rental income we receive, because rent increases, A, are controlled by government, and B, are not a tool by which members would want to generate additional funds. So it's just a cautionary note that says for Tower Hamlets, and we are in a strong position, the biggest risk to our HRA business plan is not delivering the additional housing units that are fully funded within our business plan, and I'm happy to answer any specific questions members have got. Julie, thank you. Sayeed. Now I'll open it up to members. Please. Mayum. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, it's just a comment. I'd like to thank the lead members, so, and also our finance team, I think, I think it's, you know, for the hard work and commitment they put in. I mean, house building is a top priority for you and the council. So the return on investment from the HRA income is, you know, so significant, allowing us to improve the existing stock. While also delivering new kitchen and bathrooms, so a modern bathroom, so I think this is so important. And also it's important that the communication is out there, that it is value for money. Well, the income, well, we have the income, but the delivery is there, you know, a better delivery is also there. So I think we need to be more thorough in terms of our comms with the existing residents. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Please, Tala. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And can I also share the appreciation for the finance team, the lead member and colleagues in this room, and obviously beyond the room, in coming together with a brilliant sort of HRA budget, as well as a capital budget. I think for me, I think for me, I'm going to try and keep it focused on community safety, because there's a lot we can talk about if we talk about the entirety of the budget. And when it comes to HRA, I think considering the drivers of crime is important. And I think one of the drivers of crime, sadly, in this borough, or two of the biggest drivers, is the cost of living and also the housing situation, overcrowding. And the fact that we are investing nearly half a billion pound in investing in new stock, I think is so significant in reducing crime. So not only is it, you know, giving someone a decent home to live in, but from a crime perspective, I think we should hopefully be seeing reductions there too. I think in sort of combining that with the acquisition programme and the investment in existing stock with new kitchens, bathrooms, I think people will be overwhelmingly happy with this budget, in my opinion. And I think from a political standpoint, I think we are still committed to ensuring that we achieve a target of 4,000 homes by the end of next year. And through this budget, I am confident that we can. I think also, sticking to community safety, with this budget, you will see that there is further investment by you and the Cabinet in community safety on estates. So people will be aware that we have invested already on CCTV across the borough. We have a network of around 1,040 cameras, whether that be in parks, streets and other areas. But now we have decided to invest on estates, where sadly, majority or a lot of our problems are in. So we've done an analysis of our hotspots. We've looked at where we need to invest more. And bringing back the Almo, Tamlitz Homes, back in-house, has given us that opportunity. And sadly, what we find is there's faulty equipment, equipment wasn't fit for purpose. And that's something that we've also had to inherit whilst, you know, bringing this back in-house. But point being, the headline is, we've invested nearly, or committed to invest nearly £4 million on CCTV on estates. And following on from the resident survey, where residents are saying drug dealing and visible sort of issues on estates are a concern for them. I think this will help massively, in addition to all the investment in CLs, more policing and so on and so forth. So with that being said, Mr Mayor, I wholeheartedly support this budget. And I think it's a great piece of work from everyone involved. And I hope, through this investment, crime reduces in the borough. Thank you. Grateful to you. Councillor Kibria, then Shatidambin Kobiri. Councillor Kibria, please. Thank you, Mr Mayor. This budget sets a major landmark by making Tower Hamlet the first council that UK to reinstate free home care. No longer will disabled and chronically ill residents have to choose between getting the care and support they need and living a happy and fulfilling life. This budget also provides much needed additional support for adults with learning difficulties, allowing them to not only survive, but thrive and become independent later in their life. This budget shows that we as a council are more than capable of taking care of the most vulnerable people in our community while still balancing our budget. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Grateful. Councillor Schaffin, please. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Good evening all. So, again, I echo the words of the rest of my colleagues in terms of the budget delivery lead member officers, everyone who worked hard to get to this position. And I believe, as spoken by yourself, Mr Mayor, that this is a budget which is making headlines in the right way that Tower Hamlets is here and committed for the residents of Tower Hamlets. We know previously there was a magic scissors that was cutting all the investment from frontline to back, everywhere we understand, from the waste, from the keep the streets clean to underachievement in our schools, under budgeting our social service. Everything was being cut, everything was being cut, everything was being cut by a magic scissors that we never saw, but it was kept on cutting and cutting. Today, your budget, your statement ensures that this borough is safe, this borough is working for its residents, this administration works for the residents who have elected them to represent them in this very town hall. And I'm very much pleased with the investment that you have committed for the waste service going forward. We want to make sure that we become one of the cleanest, if not the cleanest borough and greener borough in London. Additionally, the decarbonisation of schools, the extra investment of coming through for the carbon offset, the food waste management, and also the public realm money that is being spent. It shows that we want to make Tower Hamlets, the visitors and residents proud, and I am proud to say that this is a budget that we will approve, and I believe that this is a forward and progressive budget. Thank you to all. Thank you. Thank you, Shafi. Thank you very much. Kobir. Thank you, Mr Mayor. So, I mean, I think I've already given accolades to our officers, lead member, and the mayor. So, I think it's really important to speak about transparency, and it's very important as a council we acknowledge areas and difficulties we are in. So, we know there are issues with repairs, we know there's issues with dampened mould, and we know there's issues with overcrowding. We know a number of our stock has issues around fire safety, building safety. We also know a lot of our residents need decent homes, and we need a programme for that as well. So, they're the challenges. Now, the good news is, within this budget, we've allocated 140 million over five years towards fire safety, building safety, decent homes, with an additional 10 million reserve attached to that, 85 of which are within the lifetime of the MTFS. That's the three-year programme. Now, in relation to dampened mould, we have put a lot of investment in, we are reviewing all the areas, and all the properties that need inspecting. We've got a multifaceted approach, but all of that takes money, so this has all been integrated in from the HRA budget. Again, wrapping up, I've spoken a lot about this previously, but in terms of how we put the programme in place, it's important to acknowledge that the level of headroom we've created over the years, we're operating over a 30-year business plan. And as the corporate director, who's sitting next to me, says, it's a HRA that's a dream for a corporate director of housing and regeneration. So, I believe, with this budget, we're investing in the right areas in order to deliver for residents of this borough. And that's what we've been elected to do. Thank you. Thanks, Cobra, for those words. Julie, madam, please. Yeah, I think the portfolio touched on a really important point that I would just like to expand on for members. One of the acid tests for resilience or a measure of commitment, certainly that the regulator will use, is it's quite easy when you look at a 30-year future spend to be making assumptions that there's lots, lots more money because of the impact of inflation year on year. So, the acid test is, you take this business plan, you wind everything back to today's equivalent values, and you compare it with the last business plan. And on that basis, the lead member is absolutely correct. This business plan allocates £140 million more than the previous business plan across the 30-year life of the plan for investment in existing stock. That's a 12.5% increase on prior years. It is across the life of the planet, it is planned expenditure, but I just thought it's really important to understand the true measure of resilience is not the big future numbers. It's in today's values. Is that going up in real terms or is it going down? And across the life of the planet, it's going up, and I'm sure David will have some comments to add to that. Because it is great for a corporate director of housing. It's going to be a very busy corporate director of housing, but it's a great position. Thank you. Please, David, you and Ed. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, I suppose just to sort of welcome everything that's been said by yourself, the lead member, by Julie. It is a plan that gives us a really strong basis for the investment that we need to make in both our existing homes, but also our new homes. I think a number of my colleagues in London have used phrases like they're having to choose what to fail at. That's unfortunately the choices that they've got in their HRA business plan. I think we're in a position where we're fortunate because we're able to meet all of our statutory requirements for this investment, but also then go beyond that by investing in things like decent homes, by investing in a really ambitious housing programme as well, and actually have options to step that up. And so, you know, obviously there are always headwinds and things that can come our way that we will have to deal with. But if that happens, there is quite a lot of prudency built into this to make sure that we maintain progress with all of our key aspirations. So, you know, it is a strong position, as everyone said, and it's one that I think will benefit our existing residents, but also our future tenants. Thank you very much. Before I bring Steve in, anyone else make any comments? Anyone? Please, Councillor Moustak. Thank you, Mr Mayor. Just a quick comment. Echoing with what's been already said, I would say I'd rather describe this project is key to shaping our borough's future. It sets priorities and shows resources are used wisely and supports economic growth and public well-being. And I believe this plan will guide decisions to invest in important in the future. Thank you very much. Good. There's nothing else. I know a lot of work went into this. You know, it's about one year's of work. You don't see it in the 200 or so papers. You don't realise it. But I know all cabinet members have been involved and the corporate doctors and officers across the board. It's the future of this borough. Steve, can I ask you to please say if you want? Thank you, Mayor. I suppose I would just say two things. Obviously, I support and endorse all the good things that have been said and the excellent hard work has gone on. But there are two other aspects I think it's just worth reflecting on. The Mayor, quite rightly, constantly talks to me about ensuring that the two sides of this budget are delivered. So we will spend the money that's been allocated, we will ensure value for money, and we will ensure the provision of high-quality services as a result of the money that you've allocated to deliver, whether they be new services or existing services. It has to be of the highest quality. But there's another side to it. And it is the responsibility of corporate directors in liaison with their cabinet members to ensure that the savings are delivered, to ensure that they're delivered in year, to ensure that you're working hard, to ensure that they're delivered over the period of the MTFS, and to ensure that the budget balances each and every year. And the Mayor talks to me about that a lot, quite rightly. And I have conversations with Julie, quite rightly. And we will make sure that we regularly report, in as transparent a way as is practically possible, your performance in that respect. I don't want to finish on a, it sounds like a very heavy down on that, doesn't it, at the end? Because it is an excellent budget, but it's really important that we understand both sides. Thank you. So, thank you once again. Go on, Bobby. So, once again, for the sake of transparency, as we have the Section 151 officer, can we, as cabinet members and the Mayor, be reassured that we have robust financial controls in place, and we have accountability processes in place via, as Steve said, corporate directors and CMT, So, to the best of my abilities, the right answer would be in stereo, Councillor. We have empowered corporate directors at the Council. It's my job to monitor the budget, provide you assurance that the amount that's going to be spent can be spent. But actually, the really hard work, the delivery of it, and the control of that sits with corporate directors, and I wear one of those hats as well. So, from my perspective, I'm confident the resources and systems are in place to monitor it, but I am absolutely mindful that we do rely on corporate directors and their DLTs to see financial management and oversight as a key part of their remit too. Thank you, and I know that David takes that very seriously. Thank you. We've got the recommendations there. Let's agree with the recommendations, and let's get this across the line at the full Council meeting on the 28th of February next month. Okay? Thank you, Saeed and Julie. Thank you very much. Great. Good. Can we now move on to agenda item 6.2? Okay. Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This item seeks approval to publish the statutory notice for the proposed amalgamation of Globe Primary and Rachel Keeling Nursery into a single 3 to 11 primary school from September 2025. The first stage of the public consultation has been completed with no major objections and strong support from both school and governing bodies. This step will allow the process to move into the next stage, ensuring further consultation before a final decision is made. So the recommendation is that the Mayor and the Cabinet approve the publication of the statutory notice to proceed with the next stage. And also, just for the assurance for you and the Cabinet, that we will make sure that when we do the actual consultation that we get more response. There are more response than what we have at the current stage. Thank you. Steve's here. If there's any comments. Yeah, Steve. You're now, sir. Just to emphasise that this is amalgamation and the nursery closes as an entity, but the nursery site itself stays open and is part of the school. So there's no closure. It's just an amalgamation of two organisations into one through school. They're both outstanding. So our young people and families will get an outstanding service. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. to create a benefit for those in need of care and support at a time when the cost of living crisis continues to impact on residents. Currently the upper capital threshold of getting help with care costs is more than £23,250. This means that if your capital income for example savings is more than £23,250 you will have to pay your own fees as a self-funder. If your capital is less than £23,250 the council may provide you with the financial support and you may have to pay a contribution from your income. Thresholds are set nationally by government. Under the new charging policy those in need of domicilial care will not longer have to be assessed for a contribution towards the cost of their care. Thank you Mr Mayor. Thank you. Georgia Madam. No, nothing to add Mayor. Thank you very much. Good, good. Anyone? It's quite straightforward. Go on. Thank you Mr Mayor. I welcome this and I think it's a fantastic investment. I was at an event yesterday along with the Councillor Kibriya Choudhury, a carer's event. There was about over 500 people there and and they really appreciate this investment. There are local carers who care for the elderly and vulnerable people and they welcome this investment. And when we, my question to the corporate director is when we last time did that under your leadership, we had a good and robust monitoring and evaluation in process. We want to do further, we want to make more improvements and I just want some kind of assurance in terms of monitoring and evaluating the actual service that we provide the free home care to the vulnerable. Thank you. Thank you for your question Councillor. Yes, we have built that in because we appreciate it's really important to get a sense of who is benefiting from the free home care, the impact that it's actually having on people's lives. So that's something that has been built in and we'd be quite happy to bring regular updates to you. Thank you. Anyone else? Mr. Mayor, I'd like to start off by celebrating this and I think it's really important we celebrate our senior citizens who have contributed so much to society and at a time where the cost of living crisis along with winter fuel payments and a whole load of other issues. A number of our senior citizens are feeling the pinch, as one may say. And I think this is yet another opportunity to try to support those who have supported this nation, this borough, you know, for a whole lifetime. So once again, I celebrate this policy and I think we should celebrate it as a council and we should do a launch that welcomes as many of our senior citizens as possible to this council and we should effectively use the grocer's wing in order to do that. And I put that on the corporate director and the lead member. Thank you. Please, Shafi. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm councillor Kobi Rahman took my wordings. But again, I'm ecstatic. We are ecstatic. It's a celebratory moment that we are leading this as under your leadership in terms of giving back to our elderly. We have to make sure that our elderly are respected. Today, we are sitting on this position here today because we believe that our parents, our elderly who came to this country gave us an identity. And today, because of this identity, we are here sitting with a title in front of our name. Not because we were here, but I think we are here to serve the community. And I believe being a councillor and being part of this administration, I'm extremely proud to say that this will be delivered. And I think this is something already nationally we've been recognised for the winter fuel payment, for the elderly care. And this is a momentous occasion where we will celebrate going forward for the elderly care. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to make a quick point. It's about, sorry, bucking the trend. So when others fail, sadly, we show them that there is a way out. So for example, where, and we are implicated by this as well, national pressures on budgets, whether it be homelessness and an adult social care, it's something that is a pressure for us. But even within that sort of environment and paradigm, we're investing in free home care, where, you know, there's only one other local authority that probably does that. And we were the first to do it when you were in power last time. I think when you look at other areas that winter fuel payment that have been cut by government, we introduced it. You know, you look at EMA that the government cut, we introduced it. So the point about bucking the trend and trailblazing and showing other local authorities that you can do it. You know, if corporate directors, if council staff and politicians work collegiately, you know, there are potential opportunities and solutions. And I think I just wanted to make that point because I think with this paper, we are obviously preparing for that free home care. That's what this paper is about. It's about changing the fee structure. And I think eventually, when it's implemented, it's just another example of how you can buck the trend. Anyone else? Said, is there anything you want to add? I think this is one that when we first came back to office 2022, it was within our budget setting process, one that you, it's a big pledge of yours and it's one that we really wanted to implement. But we were prudent and we chose the right time. We waited and this is the time to implement this. So that's the main thing. Looking at sustainability, implementing something that we can sustain for the long run. So again, like everyone said, it's one of the aspects of this budget. I'm looking forward to presenting this next month in the full council and going through all the exciting initiatives that we will present then. Thank you. Thank you, Greg Paul. Thanks for those comments. And the paper is self-explanatory. Thank you, Georgia and keep it away. Can we agree the recommendation? Is that okay? Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Noted. I think we've now have a business. We've come to an end. Thank you, everyone. Good evening to you.