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Decision:
 
(1)        
To request Waverley Borough Council to discharge
those Regulatory Services functions of Guildford Borough Council
which are Executive functions, with effect from 1 January
2026.

 
(2)        
To note that Guildford Borough Council officers
within the existing Regulatory Service will be transferred to the
employment of Waverley Borough Council where joint posts will be
created to deliver the service.
 
The
Executive also agreed the following recommendations to full
Council:
 
(1)        
To request Waverley Borough Council to discharge
those Regulatory Services functions of Guildford Borough Council
which are Council functions, as set out in Appendix 4 to the
report, with effect from 1 January 2026.
 
(2)        
To note that the joint staffing structure for
delivery of the Regulatory Services functions will consist of staff
transferred from Guildford Borough Council on 1 January 2026 and
Waverley Borough Council staff.
 
(3)        
To authorise the Strategic Director of Democracy,
Law and People in consultation with the co-Chairs of the Joint
Governance Committee to update the Inter-Authority Agreement to
include provisions that ensure all decisions in relation to the
arrangements are made by both Guildford Borough Council and
Waverley Borough Council.
 
Reasons:
·     
To enable Regulatory Services functions to operate
in an efficient and cost-effective way, making use of the resources
available and sharing experience and knowledge with the opportunity
to provide more specialist skills across both authorities, leading
to increased efficiency, improved performance and service delivery
with an expansion of knowledge for individuals and sharing of best
practice.
·     
To provide increased resilience across both
authorities as there will be a more flexible pool of officers
delivering the services across both Waverley Borough Council and
Guildford Borough Council. The current structure has many single
points of failure when staff go on agreed leave of absence. An
outcome of this puts serious strain on the resources that remain to
cover and increases the risk of service delivery
failure.  This new structure will
provide additional resilience to cover sickness absence, annual
leave, vacancies or increased workload should this be
required.
·     
To reduce the operational costs for both councils,
of delivering Regulatory Services. As the new service develops
there will be further opportunities to deliver savings through
joint contracting or delivering specialist services using in house
knowledge and skills.  There will also
be further opportunities to combine It and other systems that will
provide both cash savings and give consistency in our approach to
programmed service delivery and reporting on key performance
indicators.
·     
To ensure that joint working is undertaken in a
consistent manner and in accordance with existing HR policies for
such posts and the Inter-Authority Agreement between the two
authorities for the sharing of staff.
·     
To reduce dependency on external resources and
further implement succession planning and career development which
will provide opportunities for an increase in internal promotion
appointments for existing staff to vacant posts.
 
Other options considered and
rejected by the Executive:
Option 1: Do nothing
Option 3: Restructure existing
teams
 
Details of any conflict of
interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any
dispensation granted:
None.