Councillor Connie Hockley
Email: chockley@fareham.gov.uk
Council: Fareham
Council Profile: View on council website
Committees:
Activity Timeline
Meetings Attended Note this may include planned future meetings.
80 meetings · Page 1 of 16
Licensing Panel - Tuesday, 2nd December, 2025 10.00 am
Executive Portfolio for Leisure and Community - Thursday, 20th November, 2025 1.30 pm
Decisions from Meetings
106 decisions · Page 14 of 22
Fareham Housing Tenant Alterations policy - approval for consultation
From: Executive - Monday, 3rd February, 2025 6.00 pm - February 03, 2025
To seek Executive approval for the draft Fareham Housing Tenant Alterations Policy to go forward for consultation. Under section 97 of the Housing Act 1985 all eligible tenants have the right to make alterations or improvements to their homes. While tenants must have permission to carry out any alterations or improvements, the law stipulates that this permission cannot be ‘unreasonably withheld’. The draft Fareham Housing Alterations policy provides comprehensive information on the alterations process, background and relevant legislation. The document updates the information on our website and brings it together into a single policy. A period of 6 weeks public consultation will be undertaken on the draft Policy before it returns to the Executive for formal adoption. At its meeting on 9 January 2025, the Housing Scrutiny Panel considered the Policy and a number of comments or suggestions were made.
Recommendations Approved
Performance Measures Approach
From: Executive - Monday, 3rd February, 2025 6.00 pm - February 03, 2025
To seek approval for a new corporate performance measures approach to support a formal continuous improvement framework and transparency across the Council. The Council has a strong background in delivering improvements and efficiencies across our services. In recent years there has been growing scrutiny across the Local Authority sector from central government. This has required increased levels of performance data collection and reporting. In addition to this, the potential benefits of a more data driven approach to service planning, delivery, governance and transparency are recognised. A proposal for a new corporate performance measures approach is presented for approval, developed following engagement with service leads and managers. The Corporate Strategy 2023-29 guides all the work we do. Therefore, the proposed measures are focused on each of our six corporate priorities. The list of measures would evolve over time to reflect changes in service delivery and priorities. Alongside the measures, customer facing services will conduct regular 10/10 surveys. These will help give a fuller picture of service performance and help identify potential areas for improvement. If approved, the measures and 10/10 survey results would be reported to the Audit and Governance committee every six months. A new corporate performance section of the Council website would be created, with data presented in simple charts that show trends over time. Updates on the progress of projects in our Corporate Strategy would also be presented following the annual reviews of the Strategy. This approach would ensure a good level of transparency regarding Council performance. The baseline measures and 10/10 survey feedback will then be used to develop a series of service specific improvement aims over the next 12-months and form part of a formal continuous improvement framework.
Recommendations Approved
Corporate Peer Challenge Position Statement
From: Executive - Monday, 3rd February, 2025 6.00 pm - February 03, 2025
To present and seek approval of the Positioning Statement for the Corporate Peer Challenge to support the LGA peer team to provide feedback. As part of the Council’s commitment to continuous improvement and to meet its Best Value Duty, Fareham Borough Council is participating in the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge. The aim of the challenge is to provide assurance, share good practice with the wider sector, as well as receive valuable challenge and advice to support improved service provision. The peer team will be made up of a lead Councillor and senior officers from other local authorities around the country. Preceding an on-site visit by the peer team to make their own assessments, the Council will be providing a data pack and positioning statement with relevant information including requests for guidance on specific topics. If approved, the positioning statement will be submitted to the LGA peer team to review before the on-site visit.
Recommendations Approved
Housing Revenue Account Budgets, Fees & Charges 2025/26
From: Executive - Monday, 3rd February, 2025 6.00 pm - February 03, 2025
The report seeks agreement from the Executive to recommend to Council the approval of the revised budget for the Housing Revenue account for 2024/25, plus the base budgets, fees and charges and rent increases for 2025/26. The Executive recommended, and the Council approved, in February 2024 the base budget and rent increase for 2024/25 for Housing Revenue Account (HRA) services. The report sets out some revisions to the Housing Revenue Account revised budget for 2024/25 and base budget for 2025/26. The housing capital programme and financing for the years 2024/25 to 2028/29 is also included for information as this impacts on the revenue budget. The report also proposes the increases in rents and fees and charges for 2025/26. The report highlights the issues affecting the Housing Revenue Account. In particular it highlights the increased expenditure needed to maintain the Council’s housing stock in the next 2 years. This will mean that we will not be able to continue with our debt repayment put aside in these years. However, any surpluses that do arise will be considered for this purpose. Due to these pressures, increased budget monitoring has been introduced for this period and a specific HRA Opportunities Plan has been drawn up which contains actions that have been identified to help reduce net expenditure. Council budgets are susceptible to change in the level of expenditure and income caused by factors inside and outside the Council’s control. Scenario analysis has been carried out to indicate the effect on housing balances of changes in the level of expenditure and income. This has been included to support the need to maintain a prudent level of reserves and a working balance.
Recommendations Approved
Fareham Housing Decants Policy - approval for consultation
From: Executive - Monday, 3rd February, 2025 6.00 pm - February 03, 2025
To seek Executive approval for the draft Fareham Housing Decant Policy to go for six weeks public consultation. The Policy details the legislation and process for when occupants are required to move accommodation in an emergency or to enable repairs, major works and development. The policy applies to Council tenants, leaseholders, and in rare instances, private residents. Approval is sought for a six-week public consultation to be undertaken, prior to the policy returning to the Executive for formal adoption. An ‘easy read’ document accompanies the policy and will form part of the consultation. This is to ensure the key points of the policy can be communicated effectively. At its meeting of 9 January 2025, the Housing Scrutiny Panel considered the policy and requested clarification on the rent amount and the number of non-permanent decants in the past year. This is detailed in paragraph 16.
Recommendations Approved
Summary
Meetings Attended: 80
Average per Month: 3.5
Decisions Recorded: 106