Transcript

Good morning and welcome to members officers press, I can't see any in the gallery, but press that may be watching this live broadcast of today's formal meeting of people on Tuesday the 4th of March 2025. As mentioned, this has been live streamed on the council's YouTube, so welcome to those that are all watching by YouTube, a particular shout out to Council attorney Wilson, who's chair of licensing committee and she'll be observing the discussions around agenda item seven, which is review of the borough statement of licensing policy, which we're presenting this morning. Just as a recap, if there are any members of cabinet or the executive and I don't believe they are that are on online, you'll be able to participate in the debate and discussion, but you won't be able to move a report or vote and your attendance won't be formally recorded. And if you do wish to speak, can you please raise and the hand symbol on the Zoom dashboard that should be at the bottom of your screen. And then for members and officers, could you kindly introduce yourself, including what it is that you actually do when you are about to speak the first time. Right, so we're now going to go for apologies for absence. Are there any apologies for absence formally received, Joy? Yes, there have. We've received apologies from Nancy Charlene McClain, Calabar, and the agent from Mirage Patel, and also Ken East. Thank you very much. Are there any other apologies that have been received by anyone else in terms of any members of cabinet or executive? We note the declarations of interest statements across pages 9 and 10. So the importance of the member's code of conduct, can I ask if there are any disclosable pecuniary interests or non-pecuniary interests they may have in any matter that we're going to be making a determination on this morning? And that's cabinet members only. Could you just advise now? Okay, there are no declarations of interest being made by any member of cabinet or myself. And then if we can just note minutes of the formal meeting, which was held on the 4th of February 2025, and those are covered off on pages 11 to 30, can I just get an agreement that these are an accurate record of decisions taken at that meeting? Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. And now moving on to appointments to outside bodies. I just wanted to advise that for the purposes of the Newham Schools Forum, we have a Newham Council place on the Newham Schools Forum, and I'm pleased to advise that I will be appointing Councillor Rita Chadder to be the Newham Rep on that board. And I'm looking forward to working with her alongside Councillor on our engagement with that body. Can we just formally note our congratulations as well, because I'm sure congratulations will be shared by all members of cabinet and executive. Okay, Joy. Thank you very much. Now moving on to three substantive agenda items. First, which is the quarterly update to cabinet social housing improvements process that's underway. I'm just going to do some introductory remarks, and then I'm going to be handing over to Councillor Blossom Young in her role as the cabinet member and then relevant officers. And the reason I just wanted to do some initial remarks. Colleagues, as you know, we had the regulator of social housing come to do an assessment of the council's housing services last year. And we got the lowest grading or rating of any local authority under this new regime that has been enforced since February 2024. We got a C4 rating. At that time, there was a very clear statement that I issued and a very clear statement of intent on behalf of all cabinet members representing this administration that we will do all that we can to ensure that we undertake a rapid diagnostic and reverse the position that we're in. There's been a vast amount of work that's been undertaken by council officers. My thanks to all of them led by Paul Kitson in his role as the corporate director of inclusive economy and housing and culture under which housing services sit, but also David Padfield. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. And there's a wider team behind the mobilization of the response to the regulator of social housing. And I also wanted to commend Council Blossom Young, who took up the challenge in her cabinet role of being resolutely and singularly focused on our response to the housing regulator report. And I also wanted to thank you for stepping in during that period where we were mobilizing for Blossom to come in. We have progressed with diligence and with focus, and I am pleased that as part of a regular series of reporting, we are bringing this formal report to cabinet. This must be of absolute important interest to all of us as members of the cabinet and the wider executive and indeed corporate leadership board, because this is about the livability and the conditions and issues of safety of over 6,000 households that live in council owned stock. There's a huge amount of work that we're going to need to undertake, but I give this assurance that we will remain diligent in our focus of an excellent resident experience living in our council. And I think we will be at the moment, and I think that's the fundamental report that we have to be looking at the amount of importance that we place on their safety. At note, I'm going to pass it over to Councillor Blossom Young, and then we'll take in any additional commentary. Blossom. Thank you, Mayor. Blossom Young, Cabinet Member for Housing Experience. And thank you so much for your introductory reports and for outlining the importance of this area of work. And it really reflects the seriousness with which which we take our responsibility in this area. So we want to ensure that tenants and living that living council housing have access to safe, secure homes with access to high quality landlord services that they deserve. And I want to also echo the thanks to Paul, David, and the wider team for the really rapid response that has been made in this area. So to summarize, in October, 20, 24, the Regulator of Social Housing issued the council with a seat judgment against its consumer standards. This is the lowest grading available and indicated serious failings in compliance across several key areas. We've apologized to residents. We take very seriously a response to the issues identified since the regulators judgment. We've embarked on a significant improvement journey for our residents working very closely with the regulator. This is included establishing more robust governance mechanisms to drive our improvement plan. A root cause analysis to understand and address the factors that led to service failures and a renewed commitment to working closely with residents on further improvements in the service. An improvement plan responding to the issues identified is in draft form and is currently being worked on by the council in close conjunction with the regulator. I'm pleased that the regulator at this stage has chosen not to use its enforcement powers available. Cabinet has already agreed 20 million pounds of investment in addressing fire safety in blocks of flats and 18 million pounds of investment in accelerating our decent homes program. Significant work is being carried out to better understand the needs of our more vulnerable tenants in relation to fire safety and to building safety to ensure any risk to our more vulnerable tenants can be effectively mitigated. The service is starting to make inroads into the repairs backlog, and I'm pleased to see improved performance against many of our repairs indicators. I welcome the procurement of external experts to provide challenge to our improvement journey and to audit our resident safety approach. The leadership appointments have been made to drive our next steps, both internal capacity and external insights as we continue to shape housing services better meet the needs of residents. Fully redressing previous service failures will not be solved in a matter of weeks. The draft improvement plan sets out the steps the service will take in the short, medium and long term to achieve this. As such, it's an important milestone in ensuring residents have the high quality landlord services they deserve. Commendous report to Cabinet. Thank you very much. Okay, I'm gonna invite. I think it's. Have thought of both. To say any. Thank you. I just like to highlight the work that's taken place right across the housing services team over the past recent months, and the way that they've risen to the challenge of acknowledging failures in the past, which is really important for our residents. They do that, but also recognizing the need to improve and by driving it with David and myself. Support Blossom Young as council has been invaluable, and we've developed a program attached to the papers today, which outlines the short, the medium and the long term progress that we'll make in addressing the failings highlighted by the USH. Thank you very much. We can discuss some questions that may have some of the last thing that contained within that we're obviously focusing the failings. It's safety standards at the regulator. But more effort in some of the safety findings. We're also making sure that our back office and the foundations on which you made are solid. The future highlights the report highlights. It's like more than a matter of weeks. Indeed, failings in organizations obviously come about a number of months. Sometimes as a privilege will take some time with decisions around procurement, which is unlocked capital, which will address some of the failings. So we'd like questions now from members to get some of the details. Okay, thank you very much. David, is there anything that you would like to add? No, nothing to add. Okay, fine. Colleagues, are there any questions? Okay, Councillor Neil Wilson. Yeah, Councillor Neil Wilson, the Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care. Thanks. I welcome the report and echo the comments already made, Chair. My question, and it's early days because there's been a whole sort of structural addressing, and I'm keen to stress that the ways of working element has been stressed by both the corporate director and the Cabinet lead. But in terms of the measurable improvements, in other words, improvements that are measurable by this sort of inspection regime, early days. But are there any measurable improvement to this stage since the implementation of an improvement plan in bearing in mind that clearly this is, you know, going to take sometimes short, medium and long term, as I think that the corporate directors. Thank you. So thanks for young in your introduction, highlighted some of the challenges that we've had on leadership and some of the appointments as part of the work the regulator wanted us to do. We've done a root cause analysis. One of the main issues that we highlight here is the lack of resilience within the initial structure. So one of the steps forward is we now have a full management team in place to help us drive through this program. In terms of things that were highlighted with the regulator here, we've got very clear metrics. I'll highlight three. The first is electrical certificates, where the regulator was concerned about the number of properties where we didn't have an in-date regular electrical certificate. In the Cabinet report, it now sets out that at the end of January, 66% of the properties under our management had a certificate less than 10 years old. I'm still waiting on confirmation of the February figures, but I believe there should be another significant improvement on that, with probably about another 7 or 8% of our stock cleared during the month of February. And hopefully a similar figure will be achieved in March. Another figure that I'll highlight is the number of outstanding fire risk assessment actions. At the time of inspection, there were about nine and a half thousand outstanding. So far, we haven't reported any significant movement on that figure because we've been reviewing it. However, as a result of those reviews, we're now in the process of closing down a large number of those actions. So over the next few weeks, we should see probably about a couple of thousands of those actions taken off, demonstrating progress in that area. And then finally, another area with very clear metrics is about our responsive repair service. So there's been some steady improvements in that service since the report, and the main metrics for that are set out in that group. Okay, thank you very much. Anything, Carl? Yes, that's fine. I just, just on the last one, though, in terms of repair service, you're probably, you know, well aware of how I might lead this question. And it's not, you know, this is true of local authorities up and down the man, that a majority of our caseworkers around that issue. And it's often people are frustrated and, you know, they come to us, not necessarily reflective of the whole of the social housing tenants. So repair service still work to be done, but there that is contained within the report, and you're coming back anyway, the quarterly one. So I think just to highlight that chair that that would be sort of the interface with members possibly the most difficult to manage in some respect. Right. And if I, if I may, chair, I think just to add to that, one of the, the key bits of work around particularly the transparency standard is around a commitment to better communication with our residents and a better customer service experience. And that's a strategy which is being developed at the moment. Thanks very much. Thank you. Okay, Madeline. Thanks. My question was going to be, are we on schedule to meet improvements? Is that you're pushing a schedule, which is increasing the meeting of those improvement targets. So therefore, I'm going to change slightly and say, are there now systems in place to ensure, well, robust systems in place to ensure that this improvement, when schedules rate improvements will continue so that we do not fall behind in our capacity to meet students, meet residents needs? Yes. So at the moment, we're in the process of agreeing the plan with the, with the regulator. So that will include some deadlines to achieve some of the targets that we're setting out, which will then be reported internally, including to cabinet on a quarterly basis, and also to the regulation as well. As part of that work, we're also looking to put in place assurance around all of the indicators we're reporting on, which will in part involve maybe some external systems that we're buying in to give us that assurance. And in part, it'll involve making the current government structures even more robust. Okay, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali. Thank you, Chair. I echo words of my colleague Councillor Neill Wilson, Councillor Zulfiqar Ali for finance and resources. I'd just like to thank officers and Councilor Jiang for their extensive efforts to move things forward quickly since the outcome of the regulators' report. And I note in the report that we are engaging external experts. It's always good to do that so that we can learn from others and see whether we can bring in good practice from elsewhere. My question is really about what our expectations on that process to strengthen governance mechanisms, et cetera, to ensure that we stay in the long term improvements. So we have a number of different work streams looking at one of the concerns of members following the judgment was the information that previously gone into the governance process and why that hadn't highlighted some of the failures that were picked up by the regulator. And so we have cap sticks who are undertaking a review of the information that went into that process and why those failings were not previously picked up. And then hopefully that will be a significant contribution towards getting that level of assurance that we were just talking about. We also appointed saddles as our strategic partners in the improvement journey, and their role is to provide us with external challenge in relation to things like our analysis of what went wrong and the plan we are developing with the regulator. So the regulator is highlighted to us how important they think that external challenge is. And we've just kicked off that work with Savills. And then the third piece of work that I will highlight is we've also appointed a firm pending choices to undertake a full compliance audit with us. So that is to look at our main areas of resident health safety compliance, including gas safety, electrical safety, water safety, to make sure that all our processes are sufficient and robust, and also to make sure that our data is accurate. If I may, Jay, that's really good. And by note also that we have appointed the legal experts to look at the processes failings, et cetera. The question is, I mean, those work streams, they're quite widespread. How work stream? How is that going to be managed strategically at the governance level to make sure that there is cutting issues are being picked up and we're dealing with a strategic process? So how are they all going to be pulled together? So the main oversight for the program is the Housing Strategic Improvement Board, which is chaired by the Chief Executive. So all of those reports to be reported into that group. And then that also reports into the Mayor's Strategic Board as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Nope. All right, fine. So colleagues, can we just make note of the recommendations on big page number 32? For the reasons set out in the report and its appendices, Cabinet is recommended to note 2.1, the Council's progress to date on the development and implementation of its response to the Regulator of Social Housing's report. And 2.2, the further plans to drive improvements and bring service into full compliance with the regulatory consumer standards. Can we agree to note? Is that agreed, Cabinet members? Agreed. Thank you very much. Okay, colleagues, we're now moving on to the next Cabinet report. And this is a Cabinet report that I will be introducing. I'm happy to also invite Councillor Zulfa Kali and Councillor Blossom Young, if they so wish, to make some remarks. So colleagues, as you know, we have the wholly owned, housing delivery company, Popolo, has been mobilised as part of our affordable homes for noon programme to deliver a significant number of homes since 2019. They are also the development management partner for Carpenter's estate and this paper in summary presents the business plan for Popolo living for the 2025-26 period, reflecting the required changes to our housing delivery strategy. We presently have a number of homes. We presently have a number of routes towards delivering homes that our people can afford. We build them directly through our affordable homes for noon programme, through which we leverage the expertise and capability and capacity of Popolo living. In the alternative, we deliver direct via the capacity that we have within the Council through a combination of the Housing Services team and the Community Waterloo in Place team. And that all important thing of money is also derived in part from the HRA budget, but also grants that we get elsewhere and loans. Other routes towards housing delivery acquisitions. And we've got a number of the routes, including our small sites programme. So this plan that we're presenting reflecting the 2025-26 business plan for Popolo living is about Popolo living working for us as the council and as its principal and only shareholder. We direct the strategic intent of Popolo living as it relates and reflects our requirement as an administration to build homes, then the framework of robust financial management and everything that entails, not least as a consequence of the budgetary pressures we're facing specifically acute in relation to temporary accommodation. Having worked closely with senior council officers, having worked closely with senior council officers, Popolo living has adapted its approach to develop the business plan that we are presenting today. And it shifts Popolo's role to a development manager or management role, promoting sites through planning and development processes, whilst allowing the council to retain ownership and access institutional investment to accelerate housing delivery, which is much needed. In our borough. In our borough. The business plan makes a strategic shift in or marks a strategic shift in response to economic pressures, including the increasing costs of borrowing. That borough is through the public works loan board and instead of relying solely on councils, while borrowing Popolo will act as a development manager, unlocking up to some circa 8,000 homes over the next 20 years. The company will also oversee developments, ensuring quality and sustainability, while the council retains long term assets. Just by way of illustration around delivery Popolo's delivered in the past year alone, 75 homes at social rent levels secured 4.1 million pounds in brown land remediation funding and progress major regeneration sites like Carpenter's Estate, Pier Road and Cyprus. The latter two in the south will borrow and they've come a separate papers cabinet meeting last year. There's a lot of detail in the cabinet reports which we're happy to answer. I'm happy to answer. And on that note. Right. In the first instance, either Councilor Sufika Ali or Blossom, if they would like to say anything before I hand it over to officers. One final comment from me. One final comment from me. I think that this is a significant and important and relevant point for Popolo living. But more importantly, our approach as a council, as we strategically look at how best and better we can effectively deliver homes through minimising our borrowing risk exposure. But also in the context of the previous paper that's come to this cabinet as it relates to the regulator for social housing and the work that is required to be undertaken by the housing services team in that regard. It is right that we've got Popolo living that sees the mantle as it were and charge forward with our housing delivery in its elevated development management manager role. So I'll pause there. Are there any comments that you wanted to add? Thank you, Chair. I echo everything you've said. Clearly, you know, we are facing a major housing homelessness and temporary accommodation crisis and everything that we do within the housing service. Indeed, a lot of work has already been done to prevent homelessness and sort out the temporary accommodation costs as we go along. But clearly, the pressures are still there. And therefore, we do need more homes. We have committed in our manifesto that we build 1,500 new homes, and we are well on our way to do that. And the popular is is Council's own entity, as you said, chair. And this is a way to deliver and maximize value for money and opportunity for us to work in partnership. And I think this business plan for the next year has, as you said rightly, been developed in a close liaison with with offices and indeed the cabinet leads. But we are facing external challenges. You know, these plans need to be flexible enough. And I think the model that has been suggested in this report, it clearly demonstrates maintaining that flexibility to ensure that we look at the viability of the scheme and the options as we go along, reflecting the national crisis, maximize returns. And you will see the new model, which operates on a sort of development manager role for the for the popular as opposed to, you know, the sole developer and is a positive. And we are destined to deliver 2,000 homes by 2035, if I 50% affordable, and you will see that the return on the investment we are making is going to be 40 years earlier. I mean, you know, it is expected that we will get dividend by 2038-39, which, as I said, is 40 years earlier than what previously anticipated. But we have the flexibility, we work with the popular as an entity of improving governance arrangements to make sure that there is clear and transparent projects in terms of what popular does and how we work together alongside the affordable home new program. home new program as well, because collectively we want to build more homes one elements or work stream of the living and giving that objective. So I think it's it's good to see the improvement. And I recommend the report for loading purposes. Thank you, James. Thank you very much. Okay. Are there any additional contributions from officers? Okay, so would you like to say anything? I just free to the map. I can, I mean, the council showed tremendous leadership over the recent years in developing new homes. And popular in the council have made some key decisions over the past 12 months. Like sites in Stratford and Pier Road and Cyprus to increase the number of 100 more homes over the coming years. But it's also likely that it recommends that it's but for less to the capability to popular land and land supply in its own assets to power and should therefore pivot, as you were, to look for models which could increase hardship as well. So what the paper does is maintains that momentum, maintains that pipeline. High five and go to see who's a bit freaky of the options, lay them to us, and make sure that they're important. Okay, thank you very much. Colleagues, are there any questions? I'd have a question then, even though it's a bit cure. Oh, sorry, did you have your hand up? I did have my hand up, yeah. Councillor Sarah Ruiz. Councillor Sarah Ruiz, Cabinet Member for Environment, Sustainable Transport, Children's Services and Education. I just have a quick question I don't mind. I don't know who will answer it. But how will pop? So one of the key areas of the current regeneration, both in Carpenters and in Cluster House and in Canningtown, is the co-production and the way in which the community is worked with. How will populous work on these three areas, enhance the local area beyond housing, because the areas isn't just about housing, it's actually the public realm, etc. In terms of community spaces, sustainability and infrastructure. Paul, did you want to answer and I can come in afterwards? Okay, so I mean, obviously, the place making element as people use it, a really important element of making a place feel like home. And those regeneration areas we've spoken to are sizable enough that we do need to make sure we've got the right other development coming forward as well as homes. I think that's been achieved through the Carpenters Master Plan and the work around Carpenters, because that's going to happen very well so far. I think what this possibly enables us to do is to bring partners to think are more appropriate to deliver certain elements of those, whether it's public realm or commercial property and so on and so forth. But I think it's been very much part of the popular approach, and in fact, the council approach to Newham. It's something we can't really do, but we can't make a suggestion from all members of that borough around the way to increase that sense of co-production around quality placement and go through the line. Thank you, Paul. I mean, the only other thing that I would add is that in terms of the co-production and practice, you'll be aware that we started that in 2019. As we began to work through the Custom House or the Custom House Canning Town regeneration, but it very much accelerated in a way that hasn't been possible in Custom House and Carpenters State. And we're looking at transferring practical practice to other estate regeneration areas. And then obviously under the planning, seeking as much schemes and the regeneration approaches also allow for the place vision in neighbourhoods and in localities to align with a wider place vision that we have for this borough. Because we want this borough to be a great place for people to live, be well, be happy and live fulfilled lives. So there's a number of different strategies that come into play as we advance our work across the different estate regeneration schemes. And I think if you look at the quality and quality of the buildings that popular living have been responsible for, and the way in which they've been engaged very diligently with residents, particularly again citing Carpenters Estate. It's been really impressive. So I trust that helps. Are there any other questions? No. Okay, I have a question. Okay, you have a question. Yes. I think it's for the benefit of those who may be listening a lot, etc. Maybe worth us explaining how the new business plan aligns with the council sort of housing delivery goals and what benefits bring to the residents widely new. Sir, could you repeat the question? The new business plan, how does it align with the council's strategic housing delivery goals and how will this benefit the new residents? So the, how would business plan don't relate to that? I was very much tied into the corporate plan objectives that you've highlighted before about the trajectory of the council's that you've covered across Newham. So it's entirely focusing into that particular part. There is a really, obviously a close alignment between the work that we've done on our current communities about expanding them and the connections between that addressing the current stock issues as well. So we're making sure as we go forward and we're thinking about the way we're doing customer housing, hang town, and carpenters. We're also aligned with engagement with residents and the investment through the item that we've just discussed around the RSH and group. I think actually this is planning quite well tied into the stuff that we're doing in the house and field as well, if that's. How will we ensure that the progress is made equitably along with other, you know, you mentioned carpenters and customers and others to make sure that they are delivered at the space that the council expects us to deliver? So some of that some of that some of that will be addressed through the governance maintenance that we have with. We don't have one current director of the project about the same generation plan that has a delivery program achieved through. I mean, you've got a strategic housing delivery board, which is said. Yeah, said through them. Go inside for. At various times to the scrutiny function of the council as well. Thank you. I'm aware of that, but I thought it'd be better for the listeners perspective. Thank you, Jay. Okay, so I don't quite understand the equitable question point at the equitable point in your question. His scheme as it relates to regeneration will have its own set of specificities and as part of program management and delivery in line with the delivery timetable. What needs to be mobilized and the budgets assigned, it will be proportionate to that over having an equitable distribution because we have schemes with different timelines. But if the question you're asking is, will there be a material consistency, forgive the pun, of the experience of residents as they are living through a regeneration? Programme driven by the council through its wholly owned housing delivery company. And in this instance, in light of the business plan, Popolo will have an enhanced developer manager, a developer role, then the expectation would be that there would be a consistency in application. Um, and practice. Yeah, thanks. I think it's about delineating the two different things. Absolutely. I think since Popolo is the delivery organization, I just my question is more about, yes, as you said, quite rightly, the progress through the overall development plan, and ensuring there's adequate capacity to carry on with the other schemes. Well, and learning from Carpenter is taken into consideration, absorbed as part of the ongoing process. So that was fine. Thank you. Any other questions, colleagues? No. Okay. Okay, so just moving on to the recommendations on big page number 89. For the reasons set out on the report on its appendices cabinet is recommended to approve the Popolo group business plan for 2025-2026 as set up in a set out at appendix one. Is that agreed? Agreed. Agreed. By everyone, including myself, Joy. Okay. Now we're going to be moving on to the final cabinet report, which is the review of the borough's statement of licensing costs. And we have Councillor Amaverde. I'm so sorry. I've got down listed as lead member Councillor Tony Wilson, chair of the licensing committee in my notes. That's not accurate, is it? No. Right, so, and it's on the, it's on the agenda item. Sorry, can you just advise? I've got lead member Councillor Tony Wilson, chair of the licensing committee, and then Councillor Amaverde, cabinet member for crime and community safety. The other way around. Cabinet's premises, Mayor, it should be Councillor Verde. Okay, so can we note for record, this cabinet member is Councillor Amaverde, and we correct that in the minutes. Apologies for that. Anomaly, Councillor Tony Wilson. Right, so I've got the inviting Councillor Amaverde, the cabinet member for crime and community safety under which licensing policy sits over to you. Thank you, chair. Councillor Amaverde, cabinet member for housing needs, homelessness, private rental sector and community safety and crime. Thank you. I just want to formally introduce the review of the borough statement of licensing policy. This is the sixth revised version of Newham's council licensing policy. Undertaking in order to comply with the requirements placed on us as a licensing authority by the Licensing Act 2003. And strongly supports our corporate plan priority for building a safer new. This policy has been prepared to assist the licensing authority in reaching a decision on applications, setting out those matters that would normally be taken into account. It seeks to provide information for applicants, residents and businesses in the borough and the responsible authorities of the licensing authority's expectations. The policy has been completed completely rewritten from scratch to produce a constructive and modern policy, which is aspirational and sets a constructive tone. The authority actively encourages early pre-application engagement with the responsible authorities prior to an application being lodged. And as well as offering a pre-application advice service also focuses on mediation between all parties where we have those application. The policy was approved by Licensing Committee on the 20th of February 2020, 2025. And I just want to commend all those on Licensing Committee that have helped to support this and those in the wider consultation. Supported by Alid Richards, Sheila Roberts and Edward King, who have helped us on. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, may I invite Alid, Sheila Edwards to add? Thank you for the introduction. I think the tone of the policy highlights the key points. And what I'd like to focus on is, as Councillor Bernie says, it's completely rewritten from scratch. It's a modern and constructive policy. It sets the tone that we want for this authority, which is to sort of a successful business. And offer a variety of and also to support residents and to balance the licensing objectives. Um, the cause of out for six weeks statutory consultation between the 16th of December and 6th of February. Um, as Councillor Verdi says, was approved by full Licensing Committee on the 20th of February. Um, there's quite a lot of information under the appendices one to seven, um, which contains the policy itself. And for seven, full responses to the consultation in Appendix six. Um, and Appendix seven, which is our formal response to all concertees. Um, and I'm happy to take any, any questions. And the cabinet may have one on the policy itself. All right. Super. Thank you very much. Um, are there any questions, colleagues? I've got councillor one test cam. Then I'll go to council John Whitworth and then council of Boston young. Thank you chair. Um, I do welcome this report. Um, I think for the first time, you know, we mean safe. Um, has been included in the, um, uh, policy. And, um, I, I did have a question, uh, if we could have a little bit more clarity into how, um, do we envision this improving safety in, um, licensed. Okay. Thank you very much. I'm going to take council John Whitworth as well, and then we'll do a roundup. Yeah. Councillor John Whitworth, cabinet member for air quality and climate emergency. Uh, I've got a question about the consultation. And it's very, it's a very well crafted, uh, policy, which I'd like to commend. But, um, as far as the consultation is concerned, I wondered, um, what feedback was found to be the most valuable. And how this was, um, reflected in the final policy. Okay. And then council Blossom Young. Um, thanks so much. And I, I really welcome this report and particularly the very considered work around cumulative, um, impacts and equality in particularly. And I guess on that equality's note, I wanted to talk more about the accessibility. It's made in the policy. Um, uh, I can see there's a very clear policy layout, for example. And understand there's been some language support through the language shop. So wondering if you could. Um, so of course, so, um, I'll take that in order of the question. So, um, women's safety, chapter 28, and this, um, I've been really, um, uh, kind of, it's my key focus on the new policy. In, in, in license and working in the field of licensing. It's obvious over the last few years since the pandemic, probably. And the moment safety is, is fundamental part of the state nighttime economy. Um, so section 28 sets the tone of what we expect from licensees. And we, what we expect of them when they launch an application. What we expect from them when they have a great policies. And everything from competence and self training policies and procedures. Um, we've only just shared yesterday. Um, some home office funded, um, spiking. So in, in summary, it says what we expect and what we will uphold from license premises. Um, moving on to the consultation, um, all feedback was, was valid. Um, the only feedback that results in terms of policy, um, was feedback, um, on section 28 to make it more inclusive. Um, to acknowledge the vulnerability is something. Although predominantly, um, an issue for women in the nighttime economy, it's a wider issue rather than sections of society. So we, um, amended the language to reflect that. Um, the, um, the other, um, responses you'll see from my form response to ending seven. Um, we took on board in the standard in debt, but it didn't result to a change in policy. Yeah. Hopefully that answers that question. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and in terms of the last question, um, you know, it's, it's, it's a, it's a double S bar of growth for small businesses. Um, I want the policy to be, um, accessible, but the language and layout is clear as possible. Um, we've paid for a translation from the language shop. If there's any activity or the representative, any section, the language of their voice. Um, very important to me that the policy is accessible and practical and useful. And everything from the large high football premises right down to a small workshop. Um, so as you've seen the policy clear as possible and accessible as possible. Probably something that is just not worldly and not well for me. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Fine. Colleagues. We're gonna just note, um, the recommendations. So these are approval recommendations 2.1 big page number 142 cabinet is recommended to one to consider the draft policy and statutory feedback and approved statement of licensing policy to note that the proposed statement licensing policy will take effect for five years. And three to send this matter to full council to adopt the final version of the statement of the licensing policy. Um, is that agreed? Agreed. All right. Thank you very much. That's agreed. Um, colleagues. I just needed formalities to note, um, can we just note the agenda item 8, which is exclusion of the present public. Is that noted? Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. And enjoy the rest of your days. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Jении지가рей Kr website. Okay. Okay.