This meeting was the first of 2025 for the full Council of Camden Council. It was scheduled to include a petition presented by the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a themed debate about how Camden Council works with partners and institutions, an update on the Council’s response to the Government’s consultation on the 10 Year Health Plan for England, a report on the proposed Council Tax Support scheme, the proposed Contract Standing Orders, the Council Tax and Business rates bases, and the responses to written questions submitted by Councillors for the previous Council meeting.

Petition for debate under the Council's petition scheme

The Council was scheduled to receive a petition with over 4,000 signatures that requested an audit of the Camden Pension Fund investments “in companies involved in any way in the ongoing Israeli occupation of and military assault on the West Bank and Gaza with a view to divesting from them”. The report pack for the meeting includes advice from the Borough Solicitor on the legal obligations on the Pension Committee, arguing that any decision to divest from such investments should be made by the Pension Committee itself, only after it is clear what the legal position is on such decisions, and as part of its ongoing review of its investment strategy and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations.

Themed debate - Working with partners and institutions to benefit Camden

The agenda included a themed debate about how Camden Council works with partner institutions and businesses to “benefit our residents and communities”. The report pack for the meeting says that the intention was to hear contributions from a range of people, including “elected members, residents, representatives of partner organisations and policy experts”.

The report pack includes a section describing Camden’s approach to using its “corporate levers” to create public value through “contractual and regulatory relationships”. It describes how social value requirements are included in the Council’s procurement process, how community benefits are secured from new developments as part of the planning process, and how the Council’s grants and funding programmes work.

It then describes Camden Council’s partnership working, listing partnerships with universities, the Knowledge Quarter, Camden Giving and the Camden Climate Change Alliance. The report pack notes that Camden Council has “taken a strong position about the value that Euston and HS2 should deliver for local communities”, and has worked with HS2 to deliver the Euston Construction Skills Centre. It also describes Camden Council’s Community Wealth Fund and the Future Camden Fund, as well as grant funding arrangements for the voluntary and community sector.

Camden's response to the Government's consultation on the 10 year health plan for England - follow up report to the themed debate

The meeting was scheduled to include an update on Camden Council’s response to the Government’s consultation on the 10 Year Health Plan for England. The report pack includes a summary of the themed debate on the same topic that took place during the previous meeting of Camden Council.

The report pack notes that the Government’s consultation identified three key themes, or “shifts”, in health and social care: moving more care from hospitals to the community; making better use of technology in health and care; and spotting illnesses earlier and tackling the causes of ill health.

The report pack summarises the contributions made by six speakers who joined the debate, noting their comments on the Government’s intended “shifts”, their experiences of working with partners, and the priorities for change they identified.

The report pack says that the debate concluded with a summary from Councillor Anna Wright, Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Social Care, outlining the next steps, and noting that Camden Council would be submitting its response to the Government’s consultation and encouraging others to submit responses too. The report pack notes that Camden Council submitted its response to the Government’s consultation ahead of the 2 December 2024 deadline and that the Government is expected to publish the 10 Year Health Plan for England in Spring 2025.

Council Tax Support 2025/26 and housing benefit disregard income from assessments

The meeting was scheduled to consider a report on the Council Tax Support Scheme for 2025/26, proposing that Camden keep the current scheme with income bands uplifted in line with the new London Living Wage, and that the Housing Benefit Service continue to disregard 100% of War Widows (Widowers) / War Disablement Scheme income when assessing Housing Benefit applications, and adopt the same approach for income from the Armed Forces Compensation scheme.

The report pack notes that “[t]he CTS scheme supports residents on low incomes to reduce their Council Tax payable”, and “represents a significant investment of around £33m during the current 2024/25 financial year in providing financial support”.

The report pack goes on to say that the “scheme is simple to understand and award”, and is based on income bands with “additional support for families with children and those with disabilities”. It says that “[c]laims are assessed on the basis of gross household income”, and the bands are based on the London Living Wage with the new rate of £13.85 per hour being used to calculate the bands for 2025/26. It says that a detailed review of the scheme will be undertaken during 2025 to consider if any changes are needed for 2026/27.

The report pack says that the decision to allow the Housing Benefit Service to continue to disregard 100% of War Widows (Widowers) / War Disablement Scheme income will allow Camden to “[e]nsure members of the armed forces who have been disabled during service or the widows, widowers or surviving civil partners of those who died in service of their country are not penalised due to pension or compensation payments relating to that service being considered when calculating Housing Benefit entitlement”.

It says that the intention is to adopt the same approach for the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme to avoid “Camden inadvertently penalising some military personnel over others”, and to “[e]nsure clarity and consistency in treating this income so that those who have migrated to Universal Credit… don’t get more support towards their rent than those remaining on the legacy housing benefit still administered by Camden”.

Revision to contract standing orders

The meeting was scheduled to consider a report proposing changes to Camden Council’s Contract Standing Orders to ensure the Council complies with the new Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, and the NHS Provider Selection Regime, which came into effect on 1 January 2024.

The report pack says that the new rules “introduce greater flexibility, less bureaucracy and make procurement processes quicker, simpler, and more commercially viable”. The report pack lists the key changes that were to be discussed, including a shift from Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) to Most Advantageous Tender (MAT), a stronger emphasis on Sustainability and Social Value in procurement, and a requirement for contracts over £5m to publish at least three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Approval of resource base for Council Tax and Business rates

The meeting was scheduled to consider a report on the Council Tax and Business Rates bases. The Council Tax Base is used to determine the amount of Council Tax raised from residents. The Business Rates Base shows how much in Business Rates is likely to be raised when rates are charged at the levels set by Central Government.

The report pack notes that the Council Tax base is expected to be 95,769, up from 91,675 in 2024/25, due to the introduction of the second home levy charge which requires second homes to be charged double the standard amount of Council Tax. The Business Rates yield is estimated to be £696m. The report pack says that “[a]longside Council Tax, Business Rates represents one of the largest sources of income for the Council”, and it is therefore “crucial that we have a fair system that drives confidence, reflects local needs and incentivises local growth”. It notes that Camden currently “retains approximately 16% of the Business Rates it collects”, and that the system “introduced in the 1990s in its current form is broken”.

Business from the ordinary Council meeting of 18th November 2024

The Council was scheduled to receive a report on the two motions that were not considered during the previous Council meeting and the responses to written questions from Councillors submitted for the previous meeting.

One of the motions was proposed by Councillor Judy Dixey, and seconded by Councillor Matthew Kirk, about making Camden an “age-friendly” borough. The motion notes that Age UK Camden called on candidates in the 2022 local elections to commit to the Age-Friendly Communities approach, that the borough has a large number of elderly residents, that “Camden has the shameful description of being officially the loneliest place in the country”, and that “[t]he Labour administration needs to ensure that our transport network serves the most vulnerable people in our society, using the social model of disability”.

The motion calls on the Leader of the Council to commit to making Camden an “age-friendly” borough and suggests a range of things that this should include. These include incorporating “age-friendly design principles into all aspects of planning”, providing better access to council services for people who do not use the internet, providing more public toilets, improving the condition of “streets and pavements”, and taking action to address the disappearance of “community assets” such as post offices and banks. The motion also calls for improvements to “accessible transport”, more flexible policies regarding parking, low-traffic neighbourhoods, and Healthy School Streets to help elderly and disabled residents.

The second motion was proposed by Councillor Steve Adams, and seconded by Councillor Andrew Parkinson, about the provision of affordable housing for police officers and NHS workers. It notes that the Government has set a target of 3,137 new homes in the borough every year, which is “considerably higher than had been suggested in earlier consultation and may well be impossible to achieve”. The motion notes the increasing cost of housing in the borough, arguing that it makes it difficult to recruit for important jobs such as policing and nursing, and says that the policy of ensuring sustainable neighbourhoods in Kentish Town “should apply throughout the borough”.

The motion proposes reserving 5% of all new affordable housing for police and NHS workers, with at least a third of this provision for “family accommodation”.

The report pack includes responses to each of the motions. In response to Councillor Dixey’s motion about making Camden an “age-friendly” borough, the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden argues that the Camden Transport Strategy includes extensive Equalities Impact Assessments that “recognise the importance of focusing on residents with limited mobility”. The response also describes the work that is underway to manage issues related to dockless bike hire and A-boards, and says that the Council is working with Transport for London to improve the Dial-a-Ride service and bus stops.

In response to Councillor Adams’ motion about affordable housing for police and NHS workers, the Cabinet Member for Planning and a Sustainable Camden says that “[s]ecuring sustainable neighbourhoods are an important objective of the Kentish Town Planning Framework but are also an objective which applies across the borough”. It notes that Camden Council has an affordable housing target of 50% with a guideline mix of 60% low-cost rent housing and 40% intermediate rented housing, and that Camden’s planning guidance says that “[t]he majority of intermediate housing in each scheme should be affordable to households with gross annual incomes between £33,900 and £45,200”.

It then goes on to say that Camden “will not generally limit occupation of intermediate housing to specified professions”. It says that “[w]here such a restriction is appropriate”, Camden will “generally use the definition of essential workers”, and provides a definition of essential workers that includes “NHS staff, teachers, police, firefighters and military personnel, social care and childcare workers”.

The report pack also includes the responses to nine written questions from Councillors. The topics included the response times for the Council’s “Fix My Street” service, void council properties, the Government’s Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Grant, free flu vaccines for teachers and teaching assistants, crime and antisocial behaviour in Kilburn, the proposed Murphy’s Yard development in Kentish Town, support for private renters on council estates, redundant phone boxes, and the Ask for Angela scheme in licensed venues.