The Performance and Finance Scrutiny Committee are scheduled to discuss the council's carbon emissions, housing needs, social housing and temporary accommodation, and the committee's work programme. The meeting will be held at Surrey Heath House.

Carbon Emissions Report

The committee are scheduled to discuss the Surrey Heath Borough Council Carbon Emissions Report 24-25. The report monitors the council's greenhouse gas emissions across scopes 1-3 between 2021/22 and 2024/25.

The report states that Surrey Heath Borough Council's aim is to reach net zero carbon emissions across its operations by 2030, following the declaration of a climate emergency in October 2019.

The report highlights several achievements since 2021/22, including:

• Continuing improvements to the energy efficiency of council-owned buildings, including solar PV systems at The Square and Places Camberley, a new Building Management System (BMS) at Surrey Heath House and lighting efficiency works.
• Transitioning the council's fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, with 30% of the fleet now being EVs.
• Ensuring all electricity is from zero emission sources.
• Completing the installation of 46 EV chargers across Surrey Heath's public car parks.
• Planting 16,000 trees and bushes on council-owned greenspaces by 2026.

The report also provides a breakdown of the council's emissions by scope:

• Scope 1 emissions (direct emissions from owned or controlled sources) have reduced slightly from 265.6 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (tCO2e) in 2021/22 to 236.1 tCO2e in 2024/25, an 11% reduction.
• Scope 2 emissions (indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling) have reduced completely from 403.9 tCO2e in 2021/22 to 0 tCO2e in 2024/25, a 100% reduction. This is attributed to procuring REGO¹ backed electricity.

• Scope 3 emissions (all other indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain) have stayed the same between 2021/22 and 2024/25. The report notes that scope 3 data has the highest margin for error.

  Estimated scope 3 emissions account for 98% of SHBC's total emissions, with annual procurement emissions estimated to be 27,499 tCO2e.

  Surrey Heath Borough Council Carbon Emissions Report 24-25

The report states that the council is determined to protect the local environment and recognises the role that it must take in driving urgent action. Protecting the environment is one of five key strategic objectives from the Council Strategy 2024-2028.

Housing Needs, Social Housing and Temporary Accommodation

The committee are scheduled to discuss a report on Housing Needs, Social Housing and Temporary Accommodation. The report reviews the performance of Housing Services over the past 12 months, covering:

• Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG)
• Housing Advice & Homelessness
• Temporary Accommodation
• Rough Sleeping and Emergency Accommodation
• Registered Social Landlords

Disabled Facilities Grants

The report states that the Home Solutions Team delivers the council's mandatory and discretionary grants programme, including Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG). DFGs are capital grants available to people of all ages and in all housing tenures to contribute to the cost of adapting a property for the needs of a disabled person. The maximum grant award available is up to £30,000.

The report notes that Surrey Heath's allocation for 2024/25 was £964,246 and the 2025/26 allocation was £1,096,927.

Housing Advice and Homelessness

The Housing Solutions Team deals with housing advice and homelessness in the borough. Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, the team received 1,078 approaches from households whose housing situation was likely to lead to homelessness without intervention or who were already homeless.

The report notes that there are several factors that have contributed towards the significant increase in approaches to the housing solutions team, including the increase in cost of living, changes to domestic abuse legislation, and a continued gap widening between the Local Housing Allowance rate and cost of private renting.

Temporary Accommodation

The council's main temporary accommodation option is with Accent Housing, at two sites: Darwin Court (12 self-contained units) and Lawrence Lodge (32 units with shared facilities).

Accent have notified the council that Lawrence Lodge will continue to be available for temporary accommodation use until June 2026, when the accommodation is planned to close for redevelopment works.

Rough Sleeping and Emergency Accommodation

At the end of 2024/25 there were 5 known rough sleepers in the borough, a decrease from 6 at the end of 2023/24 and 9 at the end of 22/23.

In 2021, the council used developer contributions to buy Connaught Court from Accent, a 10-bed unit to provide accommodation.

The Housing Register and Allocation of Social Housing

As of April 2025 there were 502 households on the Housing Register. In 2024/25, 141 households were successfully accommodated.

Floating Housing Support

The council delivers a Surrey County Council contract with funding of £50,000 per year to deliver Floating Housing Support. In 2024/25 there were 84 referrals for families and individuals needing help to maintain their independence in the community with the help of floating support.

Registered Social Landlords

There are 3,608 social housing homes in the borough.

Work Programme

The committee are scheduled to discuss their work programme for 2025/26.

Some of the topics listed for future meetings include:

• Half Year Budget Monitoring Update (5 November 2025)
• Half Year Performance Update (5 November 2025)
• Draft Annual Plan 26/27 (21 January 2026)
• Budget Setting 26/27 (21 January 2026)
• Theatre, Heritage & Leisure update report (4 March 2026)
• Corporate Enforcement Plan (4 March 2026)
• Q3 Finance Monitoring reports (4 March 2026)

The work programme also lists items to be allocated when necessary/as appropriate, including pre-decision scrutiny on the write off of bad debts, and pre-decision scrutiny on any proposal for the part write off of debt owed to the council by the Business Improvement District.