The Inclusive Growth and Housing Scrutiny Committee met to review the work of the Place Directorate and receive an update on the delivery of the council's Housing Strategy. The committee also considered the scrutiny report, which included the forward plan for the upcoming municipal year.

Introduction to the Place Directorate

The committee was scheduled to receive an introduction to the Place Directorate, which brings together Planning, Housing, Regeneration, and Capital Delivery services. The report outlined the directorate's primary responsibilities and priority areas of work, including enabling inclusive growth, managing the council's housing and estates, preventing homelessness, and delivering new homes, infrastructure, and well-designed neighbourhoods. The report highlighted the directorate's focus on supporting housing and homelessness initiatives, fostering growth and the local economy, improving neighbourhoods and quality of life, embedding climate and sustainability measures, and building inclusive communities.

Housing Strategy Delivery Update

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to an update on the implementation of the Housing Strategy delivery plan. The report detailed the context in which the council is working to achieve its strategic outcomes, highlighting progress made over the past 12 months, ongoing challenges, and planned activities for the next six to twelve months. The strategy's central vision is to provide Improved and fairer access to high-quality and genuinely affordable homes which provide a foundation for every resident to live a happy and healthy life.

The update covered four key long-term outcomes:

• Homelessness and rough sleeping are prevented so that they become rare, brief and non-recurrent. This included plans to improve early intervention and support, empower residents threatened with homelessness, and support those in temporary accommodation into long-term homes.
• Residents can access homes that meet their needs as their circumstances change. This outcome focused on increasing the supply of different types of homes, ensuring new developments provide homes for those most in need, making renting an attractive and secure option, and ensuring good homes for older people and those with specialist needs.
• Every home in the borough is healthy, safe and affordable to heat. The update detailed plans for an excellent housing service with high resident satisfaction, reducing health conditions related to poor housing, and ensuring housing is warm and contributes to the borough's net-zero targets.
• Development enhances neighbourhoods and supports stronger, fairer, and safer communities. This outcome addressed ensuring development supports thriving and resilient places, and that communities are proud of where they live and feel safe.

The report also detailed key achievements from 2025-26 in each of these areas, alongside significant delivery challenges faced by the council, including housing market pressures, temporary accommodation costs, council housing quality, and resident satisfaction levels. The What's next? section outlined planned activities for the coming months across all four outcomes.

The Scrutiny Report

The committee was also scheduled to review The Scrutiny Report, which included the forward plan for the next municipal year. This report invited the committee to review suggested items for the 2026-27 Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan and to make additional suggestions. The forward plan is a working document that outlines the committee's work programme, factoring in statutory reports, major decisions, themed reviews, and policy areas of interest. The report also included an Action Tracker and Recommendation Tracker to monitor progress on tasks and recommendations from previous meetings. Key decisions falling under the committee's remit, as published in the Cabinet Forward Plan, were also presented.