The Cabinet of Newham Council met on Tuesday 17 February 2026 to discuss and make decisions on a range of important issues. Key decisions included the approval of the final budget proposals for 2026/27, which will see a 4.99% increase in Council Tax, and the merger of Odessa Infant and St. James' CofE Junior Schools. The Cabinet also agreed to commence procurement for a specialist tennis operator to manage facilities across nine parks in the borough.

Budget Scrutiny Commission Report 2026

The Cabinet considered the report and recommendations from the Budget Scrutiny Commission (BSC) regarding the council's finances and draft budget proposals for 2026/27. The Executive response, provided in Appendix 1, largely agreed with the recommendations, particularly those focusing on strengthening financial resilience and governance. Key decisions included:

• Cross-Cutting Governance and Budget Process: The Executive agreed to require full, timely, and detailed supporting papers for all savings, growth, and transformation proposals. They also committed to prohibiting the inclusion of new Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) savings without a clear and evidenced delivery plan, strengthening corporate modelling, improving transparency with Scrutiny, and ensuring cross-Council integration.
• Financial Resilience and Sustainability: The Cabinet agreed to publish a multi-year general and earmarked reserves rebuilding strategy by July 2026 and to strengthen the corporate savings tracking system, with a new tracker to be operational from Q1 2026/27.
• Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) and Revenue Collection: The Cabinet agreed not to proceed with the proposed CTRS saving until updated legal and financial advice is obtained and consultation responses are reassessed. They also agreed to review council tax debt provisions and operating models, and to publish an equity assessment of CTRS options.
• Libraries Review Savings Programme: The Cabinet agreed to pause the Libraries Review savings programme until a full options appraisal, the Libraries Strategy and needs assessment are published, and impact assessments on service access are provided. Communications with residents and stakeholders will also be improved.
• 10 Victoria Street Development: The Cabinet agreed to rescind the previous decision to demolish and rebuild 10 Victoria Street, and instead repurpose the existing building for mixed social tenure accommodation for homeless single people and couples. They also agreed to develop a new capital bid for refurbishment.
• Youth Services: The Cabinet agreed to publish impact assessments and a delivery mechanism for the Government's Youth Matters National Youth Strategy, and to provide information on whether Newham Council intends to be a trailblazer borough. They also agreed to require business cases for all council-owned youth venues and ensure representative comparator data is used for savings or redesigns.
• Temporary Accommodation (TA) and Homelessness: The Cabinet agreed to undertake a full demographic and demand review of TA households, model the impacts of asylum hotel residents entering TA, and develop dynamic modelling tools agile to changes in Government asylum policy. They also agreed to reassess regeneration and housing pipeline assumptions to reflect TA pressures and demographic trends.
• Housing and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan: The Cabinet agreed to produce a fully updated five-year HRA business plan, incorporating full impact assessments of national leasehold reform, regeneration viability risks, and TA pressures. They also agreed to assess impacts on both HRA and non-HRA residential capital schemes, include Decent Homes compliance as a time-bound objective, disclose all negative-value HRA transfers with mitigation and rationale, reassess the sale of investment properties, and review the viability of the Populo Business Plan concerning the impact of the Renters' Rights Act.
• Environment, Sustainable Transport and Waste: The Cabinet agreed to pause the proposal to implement fortnightly residual waste collections until full impact assessments are completed. They also agreed to require a whole-system waste modelling approach and the production of an integrated strategy for statutory plastic films collection by 2027. The Cabinet agreed to reverse or mitigate the cut to school crossing patrols, except where Healthy Streets schemes eliminate risk, and to reassign patrol staff to other high-risk areas if displaced. Furthermore, they agreed to request and publish a briefing paper on the Workplace Parking Levy and investigate alternative data sources for parking surcharges.
• Inclusive Economy and Income Generation: The Cabinet agreed to develop a scenario-modelled, stress-tested income generation strategy and to review the charging of market rents to Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector organisations.
• IT, Digital and AI: The Cabinet agreed to require costed business cases for AI and automation technology, produce an implementation roadmap for exiting OneSource, publish a financial reconciliation comparing the OneSource exit business case with actuals, establish a value-for-money and governance framework for digital and AI tools, and provide an organisation-wide inventory of AI software, licences, usage levels and associated spend. They also agreed to require full business cases for any future shared-services changes.
• Newham Council's Landlord Licensing 2026 Renewal: The Cabinet agreed to include all wards in the London Borough of Newham in the licensing scheme based on more recent data, review licence fee levels based on robust evidence, and strengthen data and data systems to support higher cost recovery fee setting and relicensing.

Final Budget Proposals for 2026/27 and Council Tax

The Cabinet considered the final budget proposals for 2026/27, which include a 4.99% increase in Council Tax. This increase is comprised of a 2.99% general Council Tax increase and a 2.00% increase for the Adult Social Care Precept. The budget balances significant ongoing demand-led pressures, demographic and inflationary pressures of £59.860 million with total savings of £55.747 million and additional income, mainly due to the government's Fair Funding Review increases of £44.293 million. The balanced outturn position is dependent on the delivery of all savings to time, value, and profile. Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) will not be required, and the Council will not be selling assets to fund ongoing service delivery costs, as a sustainable balanced budget for the next three years has been achieved. The Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) has also been extended to five years, showing a balanced budget until 2028/29, with plans to address future gaps. The Contingency budget has been increased to £10 million, approximately 2% of the Net General Fund Revenue Budget. The General Fund Balance is forecast to be £52.090 million, maintained at 10% of the Net General Fund Revenue Budget for the five-year MTFS period.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget Setting Report 2026/27

The Cabinet reviewed the updated financial position of the HRA, proposing a rent increase of 4.8% (CPI + 1%) from April 2026, in line with the national Rent Standard. This increase will support major investment in the Housing Transformation Programme, aiming to improve compliance, customer experience, and service delivery. The budget also reflects increased provision for statutory testing, landlord health and safety obligations, and long-term void costs. The HRA Business Plan has been updated to demonstrate financial sustainability for 2026/27, with a projected total capital investment of £344.5 million over five years. The report also detailed risks and mitigations, including inflation, market capacity, income pressures, and compliance requirements.

Merger of Odessa Infant and St. James' CofE Junior Schools

The Cabinet agreed to the discontinuation of Odessa Infant School on 31 August 2026 and the enlargement of St James' CofE Junior School by lowering its age range to 3-11 years, creating a single primary school from 1 September 2026. This effectively merges the two schools under a unified management structure. Power was delegated to the Corporate Director of Resources and the Director of Children and Young People to take further decisions regarding the transfer of the Odessa Infant site and buildings to the Diocese of Chelmsford.

Pre-Procurement - Newham Tennis in Parks Management & Tennis Development Programme

The Cabinet agreed to commence procurement for a concession contract for a specialist tennis operator to manage the tennis membership scheme, deliver a tennis development programme, and maintain tennis courts across nine park sites. The contract will be for an initial term of five years with an optional two-year extension, with an estimated total value of £1.8 million for five years and £2.6 million for seven years. The contract will provide a minimum fixed income of £55,000 per annum, with any surplus shared between the operator and the Council (minimum 20%). A waiver was also agreed to extend the current contract with the National Tennis Association by a further 12 months until March 2027 to allow time for the new tender process.

Enforcement Solution - Back Office Processing and Permit System

The Cabinet approved the re-procurement of the Council's parking back-office, notice processing, and permit system via the ESPO framework for a ten-year period commencing 1st February 2027. This contract will have an initial fixed term of three years with up to seven annual extension options. The procurement will be evaluated on a 30% Price, 60% Quality, and 10% Social Value weighting. The estimated expenditure is up to £1.5 million.

Appointments to Outside Bodies

No appointments were made to outside bodies during this meeting.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The exclusion of the press and public was noted, with no vote required.