The Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Tammy Hymas, approved the final award of a significant waste contract to Veolia ES (UK) Ltd. This contract, valued at over £230 million, will commence in April 2027 and covers recycling, waste collection, and street cleansing services across the borough for an initial eight-year period.

Veolia Waste Contract Award

Councillor Tammy Hymas, the Cabinet Member for Housing, approved the final award of a substantial waste contract to Veolia ES (UK) Ltd. The contract is worth £230,358,134 and is set to begin on 17 April 2027, with an initial term of eight years and an option to extend for a further eight years. This decision follows a period of consultation with leaseholders regarding the housing external cleaning element of the contract, as required by Section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985¹. This legislation mandates consultation when a council intends to enter into an agreement exceeding 12 months with costs over £100 per year for leaseholders.

The council had previously approved a provisional award of the contract in March 2026, which includes recycling and waste collection, as well as street cleansing services, with the external cleaning of housing estates being a component. The final decision was contingent on the completion of the Section 20 leasehold consultation and a review of any observations received. The council reviewed the feedback and determined that there were no reasons to prevent the contract from proceeding.

The report presented to Councillor Hymas outlined that the alternative to awarding the contract would be for the council to be unable to deliver statutory services from April 2027. No observations received during the consultation process provided grounds for the council to reject the award.

During the consultation, leaseholders raised several points, including concerns about transparency, fairness, and oversight of costs and service delivery. Specific queries arose regarding the £4 million figure mentioned as the annual cost for housing estate external cleaning, with some leaseholders mistakenly believing this was their individual liability. The council clarified that this £4 million represents the total annual cost for all housing-related external cleaning across the borough, which is then apportioned across tenants and leaseholders. The report indicated that while a formal Section 20 consultation was not undertaken prior to the initial tendering in 2024, the council had engaged in broad consultation and sought dispensation from the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for this omission. The final decision was made after considering the observations received during the formal stage two consultation, which concluded in April 2026.

The contract scope includes services such as litter picking, sweeping of pavements and grassed areas, emptying of litter bins, cleansing of play areas, washing of containers and bin stores, and the removal of fly-tipping and graffiti. The estimated annual cost of these estate cleansing services is approximately £4 million, which will continue to be recharged to residents through their annual service charges. The council's Corporate Director of Adults, Housing and Health, Sara Sutton, and the Assistant Director of Housing Management, Neehara Wijeyesekera, were involved in the report's preparation. The Director of Legal & Governance, Fiona Alderman, also confirmed that there were no legal impediments to the decision. The decision aligns with the council's Corporate Delivery Plan 2022-2024, contributing to a cleaner, greener, and more climate-resilient borough.