The General Purposes Committee is scheduled to meet to discuss a number of issues, including a review of polling districts and places, approval of compensation payments to residents, and an amendment to the Members' Allowance Scheme. The meeting will also cover noting any changes to membership, declarations of interest, and signing the minutes from previous meetings.

Polling District and Polling Places Review

The committee will be presented with an update on the Polling District and Polling Places review within the Westminster City Council boundary. The report includes recommendations made in response to submissions received during a consultation, and outlines the next steps in the process following any approvals.

The council is required to conduct these reviews every five years, as laid out in Section 18C(1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 and Section 17 of the Electoral Administration Act 2013. The principles of the review are to:

• To seek to reduce disruption to schools and nurseries caused by closures
• To ensure that polling places meet the needs of polling station staff in the performance of their duties
• To minimise disruption and confusion to voters

A public consultation took place for 30 days, between 12 November and 12 December, where people could share their thoughts on the Returning Officer's proposals for new polling districts and places.

The report pack includes a table summarising the changes between the council's initial proposals and the final proposals after the public consultation. Some of the specific changes include:

• Harrow Road Ward: St Peter's Church Hall is proposed to be used instead of St Peter's Primary School as the school is required to close completely during a poll.
• Knightsbridge and Belgravia Ward: While the initial proposal suggested Victoria Library as a more appropriate venue than St Barnabas Church, the final proposal recommends retaining St Barnabas Church because it is better positioned in the polling district.
• Little Venice: Despite initial considerations to use The Amadeus as an alternative, St Saviour's School is proposed to be retained as the designated polling place because it is a historic polling place and well-positioned in the polling district.
• West End: While Central Synagogue no longer wishes to be a designated polling place due to security concerns, and The Annunciation Church was considered, officers have exhausted all other possibilities in the area and the initial proposals are deemed the most suitable options.

The new polling places, if approved, will be used for the first time at the City Council Local Elections on 7 May 2026.

Approval of Compensation Reports

The committee will be asked to consider two reports regarding compensation payments to residents, both exceeding £2,000.

One case concerns a tenant who experienced delays to major works on their 2-bedroom property, resulting in an extended stay in decanted accommodation¹. The Housing Ombudsman (HOS) found maladministration in the handling of the repairs and the decant. The compensation includes:

• £1,150 for inconvenience, time, and trouble caused by major works delays and lack of communication.
• £1,150 additional compensation for further delays and lack of communication.
• £100 for decant repair issues.
• £150 additional compensation for poor handling of the decant.

In addition to the compensation, the council has been instructed to apologise to the resident, discuss realistic completion timescales, explore the possibility of a permanent decant, provide details on how to make a liability claim for damaged belongings, and conduct a senior management review of the handling of the resident's property's major works and decant.

The second case involves a tenant who experienced delays to the replacement of their kitchen, leaving them without cooking facilities. The council has agreed to reimburse £3,675 to cover the costs of purchasing prepared food, in line with their policy of reimbursing costs following loss of cooking facilities at a standard rate of £15 per household member per day. The compensation award includes:

• £973.71 for reimbursement of 25% of the rent paid for the 31 weeks the resident was without use of their kitchen or alternative cooking facilities.
• £250.00 for poor complaint handling, including failure to respond within timescales and failure to keep the resident informed.
• £200.00 for missed appointments.
• £1,000 in recognition of the high impact of the service failures on the resident.
• £380 originally offered at stage 1 of the complaint process.

Following the complaint, the council has introduced a new process and created two new roles within the Repairs Complaints Team: a Monitoring Officer and an Aftercare Officer. New reports are also being provided to Senior and Area Surveyors to monitor overdue repairs.

Members' Allowance Scheme 2025-2026: Amendment

The committee will consider a proposal to amend the Members' Allowance Scheme for 2025-2026. The proposed changes would enable a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) to be paid for an additional member to sit on the Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) Panel and an additional member to sit on the Rating Advisory Panel.

The current Members' Allowances Scheme was adopted by the council on 5 March 2025, and was drawn up with regard to the recommendations of the London Independent Remuneration Panel's most recent report published in 2023.

The proposed updates follow the approval of the Constitutional Matters report at Full Council on 14 May 2025, which approved the increase in the membership of the Discretionary Housing Payments Panel and Rating Advisory Panel by one seat. The additional seat to each Panel, to be filled by a single additional member of the Opposition Party, increases the membership of each Panel to 5 members.

The members of each Panel are paid an annual SRA of £2,410. Amending the scheme to reflect both these changes will increase the budget required by £4,820.