The Shareholder Committee of Ealing Council met on Wednesday 16 April 2025 and approved the business plan for Greener Ealing Limited (GEL) for the financial year 2025/26. The committee also noted the council's budget for the GEL scheduled works contract.

Greener Ealing Limited Business Plan 2025/26

The Shareholder Committee approved the Greener Ealing Limited (GEL) Business Plan for the financial year 2025/26. GEL is Ealing Council's wholly-owned environmental services provider, responsible for services including waste and recycling collection, street cleansing, parks maintenance, graffiti removal, and parking enforcement. The approved business plan outlines GEL's approach for the coming year, detailing achievements from 2024/25 and setting out objectives and challenges for the year ahead.

The plan forecasts a small pre-tax loss of £54,000, which GEL's current reserves are sufficient to absorb. GEL has made good progress on repaying its initial set-up loans from the council, with the final outstanding balance of £122,000 due to be repaid by June 2025. The business plan proposes a one-off use of reserves totalling £410,000: £250,000 for environmental improvements to benefit residents and £160,000 to fund a business development team over the next year. A commitment has been made to develop a Reserves Policy in 2025/26.

The committee noted the related council budget for the existing total Greener Ealing scheduled works contract sum of £29,640,000 for 2025/26. The report highlighted that GEL's operations align with Ealing Council's strategic objectives, including creating good jobs, tackling the climate crisis through waste management and recycling, and fighting inequality by ensuring fair and equitable services.

The decision to approve the business plan was made by the Shareholder Committee, comprising Councillor Peter Mason (Chair), Councillor Louise Brett, and Councillor Stephen Donnelly. The report was presented by Jess Murray, AD for Community Protection, and Nicky Fielder, Strategic Director of Housing & Environment. Rhian Davies, Interim Director of Legal and Democratic Services, confirmed there were no particular legal issues arising from the report.

The committee agreed that Appendix 1 of the report, which contains the detailed business plan, should not be published as it includes information relating to the financial or business affairs of a particular person or the authority, as per paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

The meeting was attended by Councillor Peter Mason (Chair), Councillor Louise Brett, and Councillor Stephen Donnelly, with Councillor Paul Driscoll also present virtually. Council officers Nicky Fiedler, Jess Murray, Rhian Davies, Isobelle Robb, and Paul Davies were in attendance. Greener Ealing staff Kevin O'Leary, Mike Boult, and Katarina Pohancenikova were also present. Tony Clements, Emily Hill, and Peter George were noted as having apologies.

The Shareholder Committee was established in December 2024 by the Leader of the Council to fulfil the council's shareholder function in relation to its wholly or partly owned companies. This was the first year GEL's Business Plan was submitted for approval to this committee.

The meeting commenced at 5:31 pm and concluded at 6:08 pm.