The Cabinet noted the council's provisional financial outturn for 2023-24, reviewed the Quarter 4 performance report, and approved the revised Homelessness Accommodation Placement Policy. The Cabinet also approved a procurement transformation paper intended to address a history of failures in council procurement.

The Budget

The Cabinet noted the provisional budget monitoring 2023-24 outturn which identified an underspend of £300,000 on the General Fund and overspends of £2.7 million on the Dedicated Schools Grant and £5.2 million on the Housing Revenue Account.

Speaking about the budget, Chief Executive Ms Julia Lorraine said:

I joined halfway through this financial year, but was presented with a series of significant budget pressures that you all faced at the beginning of the year when the budget was set. And to do that, and throughout the year continue to face the pressures that most London boroughs face around homelessness, send an adult social care, and still end up in the position that we did, is a real reflection of prudent, proactive budget management.

The Mayor praised the efforts made to control the budget, highlighting the council's commitment to fiscal responsibility whilst also continuing to fund and reinvest in public services.

Procurement Transformation

The Cabinet approved a procurement transformation programme that is intended to address 'significant procurement failures' and ensure that the council is in compliance with the Public Procurement Act 2023. The new Act comes into force in October 2024, so the programme is intended to achieve compliance ahead of that date. The Act itself aims to reduce bureaucracy in public procurement and to open it up to small businesses and social enterprises.

The Mayor referred to the programme as 'well overdue', alluding to historic governance failures in the council's procurement practices.

Speaking about the programme, Steve Reddy, Deputy Chief Executive said:

We must reflect upon the fact that when Deloittes, we had qualified annual accounts for 2018, 19 and 1920, and the list of governance failures during those two years are really a justification on their own for slimlining the procurement process for investing in it and a justification in part for the target operating model that you and I have discussed on many occasions where we take the business of procurement back into the department so they're closer to the service that they're there to support. So I'm really pleased with this report as I know you are as well.

The Strategic Delivery and Performance Report

The Cabinet noted the year end Strategic Delivery & Performance Report 2023-24. It was noted that the latest figures showed that there were 26 measures in the report rated green, 5 rated amber, and 9 rated red. There were also 6 that were 'data only' and 5 that were reported annually.

The Mayor highlighted the council's achievements in delivering on many of its commitments, but also expressed his disappointment with the areas of underperformance. These included the performance of the Housing Supply team, the Education department's performance in delivering statutory assessments within the 20 week target, and the continuing low recycling rate in the borough.

Several cabinet members spoke about the performance of their departments. Councillor Talar Choudhury referred to the performance of the Community Safety team, drawing attention to the successful efforts in engaging adults with substance misuse issues following their release from prison. He said:

This is all in the context of us being a very high performing borough when it comes to this KPI, so when it comes to our comparators elsewhere, we are performing at a high level but to our standards we've been doing so much more work to bring it up to a higher percentage and as I said Q4 we've hit that target.

Councillor Kabir Ahmed spoke about the performance of the regeneration team. He expressed optimism about the team's ability to deliver on its commitments to increase the council's housing stock, saying:

So the other thing about housing is as each program finishes sometimes it takes longer but the drops are quite substantial so if you're looking at a strategic site you may get in one go 500 units come through through one development it could be potentially higher. If I use the context of the ASDA Site for example you're looking at a delivery of 2000 units and then 35% of that being social housing so that's how the housing phases operate so we're hoping within the term we will be dropping what we pledge in terms of the housing units delivered for this borough.

The Local Plan 2038

The Mayor announced that he had asked for discussion of the proposed submission version of the Tower Hamlets Local Plan 2038 to be postponed. He said that he wanted to investigate the possibility of removing maximum heights from building site allocations in order to explore the delivery of more family homes and affordable homes. The plan is now to be discussed at the next Cabinet meeting, scheduled for the 24th July 2024.

Homelessness Accommodation and Placement

The Cabinet approved a revised Homelessness Accommodation Placement Policy which will guide the way that the council allocates accommodation to homeless households, including where it secures accommodation for them. The new policy defines a number of zones for the placement of homeless people that move beyond the previously defined 90 minute travel radius from the borough. Zone A refers to the borough itself, Zone B to the rest of Greater London, Zone C to a selection of counties and districts adjacent to the capital, and Zone D to anywhere else in the country.

The policy includes a number of safeguards relating to the priority that will be given to in-borough placements.

Karen Swift, the Director of Housing, said:

So the placement policy sets out how we will allocate temporary accommodation or private rented accommodation for those who are seeking assistance from us. We have taken the policy through Council, and Council have advised that the policy is legally sound and meets our equality duties.

The new policy also explicitly allows for viewings of temporary accommodation to take place in some exceptional circumstances. This is in order to ensure that temporary accommodation is suitable for people's needs, in particular for families or individuals who have disabilities.

The policy was prepared after considering that the council is currently exceeding its budget for temporary accommodation by £5.2 million and amidst a national cost of living crisis which is leading to a significant increase in demand for accommodation.

The Cabinet also approved a new Homelessness Accommodation Procurement Strategy and two pilot schemes to help to prevent homelessness: the Cost of Living Grant Scheme, and the Find your Own PRS scheme.

The Cost of Living Grant Scheme will provide a cash grant to householders to help them to accommodate a family member who might otherwise become homeless. The Find your Own PRS scheme is intended to help homeless households to find their own private rented accommodation and will provide financial assistance with the costs associated with moving.

Improving the Homelessness Service

The Cabinet noted a report on the ongoing efforts to transform the Housing Options service. The report detailed the progress made since the last Cabinet meeting, where it was agreed to commit £1.93 million to improve the service. The majority of that money is being used to recruit 34 new staff, 15 of whom are intended to work directly on the frontline. A recruitment fair held on the 9th July was reportedly attended by over 500 people, and the recruitment campaign to fill the 34 new roles is ongoing. An independent review has now also been completed and the service is working to implement the recommendations made in it.

The meeting heard that the team is currently working to develop a comprehensive induction and training programme for all staff, which will focus on empathy and trauma informed practice.

Annual Report on School Performance

The Cabinet noted the Annual Report on School Performance for 2022-2023. The report showed that Tower Hamlets' schools continue to perform well, with 96% of schools being judged to be 'Good' or 'Outstanding'.

However, it was noted that outcomes at Key Stage 5 are considerably lower than the national average, and that there was a need to improve these outcomes in order to encourage more students to remain in the borough after the end of Key Stage 4.

The Mayor expressed his sadness at the number of children in the borough who are being sent to schools outside of the borough to complete their A Levels, saying that:

it also saddens me to see that every year a good number of our kids queue up at institutions, sixth form colleges or sixth forms, outside of this borough, they don't have the confidence, a good number, to go to sixth forms colleges or sixth forms institutions in our borough. They're queuing up at other institutions. That saddens me because they're the role models. They are the future. They need to stay in the borough and take advantage of our institutions. Something is going wrong somewhere.

He drew attention to the manifesto pledge to set up an Institute of Academic Excellence.

Speaking about the need to improve the performance of the education service, Councillor Kabir Ahmed said:

and we saw it the year before and one of the challenges that we've put our officers under is to, as a local education authority, is to drive key stage five. Now we're still not seeing that level of growth that we would like to see and I remember a corporate director once saying that we're not failing our children because they're going to other local authorities to get their sixth form education and the qualifications and for me as a councillor in Tower Hamlets and as part of the administration I feel as a council we're failing them, because they're having to travel, that extra hour they go to go somewhere else, that extra hour they spend to come back, that's two hours a day that they can spend either resting or doing additional studies. That extra money they spend, we're not supporting them with that, we're giving them EMA but there's no additional support for that.

Former Shapla School Site Interim Use

The Cabinet approved the interim use of the former Shapla School site as a decant location for a number of services that currently occupy the Professional Development Centre site and the Commercial Road site. The move will make way for two other projects: the development of an Institute of Academic Excellence at the Professional Development Centre site, and the development of housing at the Commercial Road site. The interim use will be in place until 2027, after which it is anticipated that the Shapla School site will be incorporated into a larger scheme for the redevelopment of the Ocean Estate.

Market Designations

The Cabinet approved a plan to increase the size of the designated pitches at Columbia Road Market, Watney Market and Whitechapel Market in order to regularise an established trading pattern and also approved the designation of an additional trading area at Columbia Road Market between Raven Row and Gosset Street.

The decision to redesignate Watney Market was delegated to the Corporate Director following the completion of a consultation with traders.

Market and Street Trading Fees and Charges 2024-25

The Cabinet noted the planned fees and charges for market and street trading for 2024-25. The only increase to be applied is a 3.1% uplift in line with the Consumer Prices Index.

The Mayor expressed his desire that the fees be presented in a way that makes the scale of the uplift clear to traders.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets Productivity Plan

The Cabinet approved the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Productivity Plan, which is a new statutory requirement. The plan is intended to help the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to understand what is working well in local government, the common themes and opportunities for improved efficiency.

Nominations to Outside Bodies

The Cabinet approved the following nominations to Outside Bodies:

1. Councillor Shafi Ahmed was nominated to replace Councillor Kabir Hussain on London Councils’ Transport and Environment Committee (TEC).
2. Councillor Musthak Ahmed was nominated to replace Councillor Abdul Wahid as the Council’s nominee to London Councils’ Greater London Employment Forum.