This meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board included pre-decision scrutiny of the proposed Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan, rent setting and service charges for 2025-26. It also included for discussion the recommendations from the Children's Commissioner's Takeover Challenge meeting held in October, and updates from the Select Commissions.

Housing Revenue Account Business Plan, rent setting and service charges for 2025-26

The report pack included the draft HRA Business Plan, rent setting and service charges for 2025-26, setting out the investment priorities for the Council's housing stock over a 30 year period.

The report states that the Business Plan prioritises investment in three core areas:

• Ensuring tenant’s homes are safe, decent and thermally efficient. • Extending the benefits of council housing to more residents by expanding the Housing Delivery Programme. • Modernising the housing service to enhance customer experience, improve productivity and achieve full regulatory compliance.

The Plan includes a commitment to continue the Housing Delivery Programme, under which the Council has built hundreds of new homes in the borough since 2018. The plan also makes provision to fund aids and adaptions within council housing stock, day-to-day responsive repairs, planned repairs, damp and mould works, gas servicing and other cyclical maintenance. The Business Plan makes provision for £979m of investment over 30 years, including an additional £35m of investment over the next five years.

The report also details the recommended increases to housing rents, non-dwelling rents, District Heating charges, and other service charges for 2025-26.

The recommended increase for Council dwelling rents is 2.7%, which is equivalent to the Consumer Price Index plus 1%. This follows Government policy outlined in the Rent Standard, which limits rent increases for social housing. The Council is required to rebase (revalue) the Affordable Rent value for properties in the borough on each occasion that a new Affordable Rent tenancy is issued or renewed. The Council also proposed to retain the policy of realigning rents on properties at below formula rent to the formula rent level when the property is re-let to a new tenant.

The report states that:

There are 12,668 tenancies in receipt of full Housing Benefit or full Universal Credit (UC) who would not be directly affected by an increase in rent. 2,276 tenancies receive part Housing Benefit and any increase in rent would be part covered by benefit payments.

The report recommends that a decision to reduce the price of District Heating charges during 2025-26 be delegated to the Assistant Director of Housing, in conjunction with the Assistant Director of Financial Services, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing.

A 10% increase on garage rents was proposed in the report pack. In previous years garage rent increases have been in line with the increases for service charges, which are proposed at 2% for 2025-26. The report states that the aim of the larger increase is to eventually facilitate more investment in the garage estate.

The Council planned to complete a stock condition survey during 2025/26, which would allow it to plan a more proactive programme of capital expenditure in future years.

Children's Commissioner's Takeover Challenge Recommendations - Health and Wellbeing

This item was scheduled to receive the report and recommendations from the Children's Commissioner's Takeover Challenge (CCTOC) meeting held on 17 October 2024. The report pack includes the minutes from that meeting, which was dedicated to the CCTOC.

Rotherham Youth Cabinet chose Health and Wellbeing as the theme for the day, breaking the theme down into four topics; Vaping, Mental Health, Physical Activity and Healthy Eating.

For each of the topics, members of the Youth Cabinet asked questions to a panel made up of officers from the Council, including the Director of Public Health, the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment, the Assistant Director for Education and the Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning and Performance.

The Youth Cabinet then made a number of recommendations relating to each topic.

On Vaping, Youth Cabinet recommended:

• That consideration be given to making public buildings vape free zones, where possible.
• That the Director of Children’s Services works with the Youth Cabinet to promote the Government consultation for children and young people.
• That the Public Health Team, work with the Youth Cabinet to develop a ‘Rotherhamised’ campaign relating to vaping.

On Mental Health, they recommended:

• That the Council sought to encourage all schools in the borough to ensure that young people feel listened to within the schools, and that schools were committed to support.
• That consideration was given to how the provision of a dedicated youth space for young people could be achieved, for example, a development of a space similar to the Barnsley Youth Zone.
• That the Council worked with its partners to enhance early detection and diagnoses of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and the potential need for an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to assist with the reduction of potential waiting times for the young person to access the EHCP provisions.

On Physical Health, they recommended:

• That the Council sought assurances from schools within the borough that they would consider increasing extracurricular clubs, including the range of sports.
• That the Council aimed to ensure that all parks within the borough were kept in good condition and safe.
• That consideration be given to providing exercise equipment to all parks in the borough, where possible and that activity-based walks were considered at popular locations, in conjunction with the Rotherham Youth Cabinet.

On Healthy Eating, they recommended:

• That the Council sought assurances from schools within the borough, that they ensured that healthy food options were available to all young people.
• That schools in the borough to give consideration to the young inspectors completing an inspection of school lunches and lunches provided as part of Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, where possible.
• That the Council and its partners gave consideration to producing a teenage- specific campaign to support healthy eating.
• That a site visit to the allotments be arranged for members of the Youth Cabinet.

The minutes of the CCTOC meeting record that all of the Youth Cabinet's recommendations were agreed. The report pack also included a report on the CCTOC, Children’s Commissioners Takeover Challenge - Health and Wellbeing - December 2024, that repeated all of these recommendations.

Work Programme

The report pack included the OSMB's Work Programme for 2024/2025.

It shows that a meeting took place on Monday 4 November 2024 between the Chair of the OSMB, Councillor Brian Steele, the Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy, Councillor Denise Lelliott, and the Chair of the Planning Board to discuss the process for planning enforcement in the borough. Following that meeting, it was agreed that statistics about planning enforcement in the borough would be circulated to all elected members.

The Work Programme also shows that work was underway on two Spotlight reviews: one on agency staff, and one on grass cutting and grounds maintenance in the borough.

Work in Progress - Select Commissions

This item was scheduled to receive updates from the Chairs of the Select Commissions on their work in progress.

Forward Plan of Key Decisions - 1 December 2024 - 28 February 2025

This item was scheduled to receive the Forward Plan of Key Decisions, Printed plan Forward Plan of Key Decisions 1 December 2024 - 28 February 2025.

The Forward Plan contains details of all of the key decisions the council expects to take over the next three months. The plan is refreshed monthly.

Call-in Issues

This item was scheduled to consider any issues referred for call-in from recent cabinet meetings.

Urgent Business

This item was scheduled to consider any other urgent business.