Newcastle City Council met on Wednesday 3 September 2025, to discuss a range of issues including governance, community matters, and neighbourhood services. Councillors agreed to changes to the council's political governance structures and practices, including revisions to the handling of notices of motions, public questions, and cabinet statements. They also heard reports from Councillor Irim Ali, Cabinet Member for Communities, and Councillor Alexander Hay, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, and discussed a number of notices of motion, including support for people dying in poverty, the student council tax gap, violence against women and girls, the Outer West pool, the TVERF waste incineration project, and capping SEND school profits.

City Council Governance

The council agreed to changes to its political governance structures and practices, as detailed in the City Council Governance report. These changes, recommended by the Constitutional Committee, include:

• Notices of Motion: To appear on the agenda in order of relevance to the council, city, national interest, and international issues, with debate prioritised for issues within the council's purview. Motions can roll over a maximum of two times before being voted on without discussion.
• Public Questions: To appear on the agenda in order of relevance to the council, city, national interest and international issues.
• Cabinet Statements: Cabinet portfolio reports are to be replaced with shorter cabinet statements to each City Council covering current key issues, including recent decisions, achievements, local consultations and government announcements, and outline upcoming decisions. 20 minutes will be allocated on the agenda to consider Cabinet statements, including 5 minutes for presentation by Cabinet and 15 minutes for Member questions. Member questions must be limited to issues covered within the Cabinet statements, and will be limited to six, allocated based on political balance.
• Committee Structure: The Climate Change Committee and the Voluntary Sector Liaison Group will be removed from the formal committee structure. Scrutiny of climate change issues will take place through the most appropriate scrutiny committee, including an annual report on the Net Zero Action Plan. Quarterly non-political city-wide forums will be organised, hosted by the council and partners with rotating venues. Future liaison with the voluntary sector will continue through informal settings with new terms agreed with sector partners.
• Ward Committees: Ward councillors will be enabled to determine specific approaches to holding annual ward committees, subject to minimum requirements.

These changes will be implemented by updating the Newcastle Charter, with specific sections being replaced as outlined in the appendices to the City Council Governance report.

Communities Portfolio

Councillor Irim Ali, Cabinet Member for Communities, presented the Communities Portfolio Report 2025-26, highlighting the council's work in building cohesive and resilient communities. Key areas of focus included:

• Community Cohesion: Addressing tensions and promoting unity through initiatives like the Community Cohesion Monitoring Group and the Newcastle Community Bridgebuilders training.
• Empowering People in Communities (EPIC): Improving community spirit and tackling anti-social behaviour through dedicated multi-agency hubs.
• Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Liaison: Partnering with VCSE groups to shape vital services and establish effective partnership approaches.
• Ward Governance and Community Engagement: Supporting elected members in their community leadership roles and engaging residents in decision-making.
• Ward Budgets: Allocating funds to support local projects and initiatives.
• Resilience, Civic Contingency and Emergency Planning: Preparing for and responding to emergencies and events.
• Supporting Veterans: Working with armed forces veterans and support agencies to deliver on the principles of the Newcastle Armed Forces Community Covenant.
• The Newcastle Fund: Providing grants to VCSE organisations to build sustainable community resources and improve the quality of people's lives.
• Students as Partners: Enhancing student voice and agency in Newcastle through the newly established 'Students as Partners Forum'.

The report also outlined future priorities for 2025-26, including supporting safe and cohesive communities, strengthening relationships with residents and stakeholders, and supporting VCSE organisations to contribute to the local economy.

Neighbourhood Services Portfolio

Councillor Alexander Hay, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, presented the Neighbourhood Services Portfolio Report, highlighting the council's work in keeping neighbourhoods clean, green, and safe. Key areas of focus included:

• Core Neighbourhood Services: Providing bin collections, bulky waste removal, street cleaning, and tree maintenance.
• Neighbourhood Focus and Innovation: Trialling food waste collections, expanding plastic films and flexibles recycling, and introducing the West Road Hand Barrow.
• Public Safety and Regulation: Supporting safe delivery of city centre events, prosecuting criminal offences, and responding to service requests.
• Community Engagement: Hosting pop-up recycling events, supporting litter-picking volunteers, and delivering education sessions to schools.
• Parks and Allotments: Bringing the management of parks and allotments back into direct council control.
• Trees and Green Infrastructure: Planting trees and supporting planning and protection work through the North East Community Forest.

The report also outlined future considerations, including launching new waste collection pilots, modernising waste infrastructure, preparing for citywide food waste collection, and reviewing the Air Quality Action Plan.

Questions by Members

Oral and written questions were submitted by councillors on a range of topics.

Councillor Doreen Huddart asked Councillor Daniel Greenhough, Cabinet Member for Economy, Jobs and Skills, about the establishment of a construction skills training centre in Newcastle, similar to one in Sunderland, given the infrastructure and housing expansion and the identified skills shortage.

Councillor Huddart also asked Councillor Alexander Hay about measures to reduce waste to landfill, given that residents are being told there are no replacement glass caddies and to throw glass in with mixed recyclables.

Councillor Greg Stone asked Councillor Hay whether the council should enable appropriate public liability insurance cover for allotment associations on allotment sites for which the council has oversight, given that he had not received a response to his request for a briefing note on the council's understanding of issues raised at the AGM of the Newcastle Allotments Working Group.

Councillor Stephen Barry-Stanners asked Councillor Greenhough about the role Newcastle City Council will play in delivering the £121.8 million investment announced for Forth Yards, including how this funding will help unlock long-standing barriers to development on the site, and what the wider benefits will be for housing, jobs, and regeneration in the city centre.

Councillor Marc Donnelly submitted a written question to Councillor Hay regarding the policy on the replacement of glass caddies, given that the council's position has always been to separate glass from dry recyclables.

Councillor Donnelly also submitted a written question to Councillor Karen Kilgour, Leader of the Council, regarding the policy on the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers, given her statement that she backed a government promise to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels.

Councillor Lawrence Hunter submitted a written question to Councillor Kilgour regarding the policy on flying the Union Flag, given that a Labour council has become the first in the country to issue a pledge not to take down the vast majority of England flags from lampposts.

Councillor Jane Byrne submitted a written question to Councillor Kilgour regarding the potential impact on community safety and cohesion of her media release calling for 'an end to asylum seeker hotel contracts', given that it was issued the day before an anti-asylum seeker demonstration was due to take place outside the New Bridge Hotel in Monument Ward.

Notices of Motion

The council discussed several notices of motion:

Support for People Dying in Poverty

This motion called on the council to explore how the Council Tax Reduction Scheme can better support low-income households where someone is living with a terminal illness, to work with partner agencies to improve information sharing on those living with terminal illness, to review eligibility criteria for discretionary financial support provided by the council, and to consider council strategies such as the Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and Health and Wellbeing Strategies to ensure they consider terminally ill people and take steps towards minimising winter deaths in line with NG6 guidelines. The original motion can be found here.

Student Council Tax Gap

This motion called on the council to participate fully in the consultation process on the Fair Funding Review 2.0, making the case for the funding gap caused by Class N exemptions to be filled and that future funding assessments should reflect changes in Council Tax rates and student numbers, and to engage with similar authorities and others, locally and nationally, to jointly lobby HMG on this issue. The original motion can be found here.

Together Against Violence Towards Women and Girls

This motion called on the Cabinet to report back to Full Council within 12 months on actions taken to implement this motion, to approve work with survivors and local specialist and 'by and for' services to understand the local impact of VAWG and develop a strategy to address it, to request all schools in Newcastle provide comprehensive education on healthy relationships, to approve a review of the Council's procurement of VAWG services to ensure alignment with statutory guidance and that the needs of all survivors, and to appoint a VAWG Member Champion to monitor delivery of this work and ensure survivor voices are heard in shaping future action. The original motion can be found here.

Outer West Pool

This motion called on the council to create a dedicated webpage which will be updated on a regular basis to keep residents fully informed, stating exactly what is happening and when, to reconvene meetings with local elected members to ensure up-to-date information is relayed back to residents, to ensure that the promises initially made are honoured, and to provide timescales for the build so that residents can have some confidence/reassurance that progress is being made. The original motion can be found here.

TVERF Waste Incineration

This motion called on the Cabinet to withdraw from the Tees Valley Energy Recovery Facility (TVERF) project. The original motion can be found here.

Capping SEND School Profits

This motion called on the council to write to the Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell to ask her to remind her Labour colleagues of their commitment in their manifesto to improving children's outcomes-not excessive profit making, and to write to Education Minister Bridget Philipson to urge her to support the SEND cap, which mirrors similar measures floated by her in November 2024 to cap profits for companies that run children's homes in England and to ask her to support efforts to expand state-run provision, including support for Councils to build their own schools. The original motion can be found here.

Review of the HMO Licence Fee

This motion called on the council to conduct a prompt review of the Mandatory HMO Licence Fee to ensure it sufficiently and adequately covers the true cost of enforcement and administration of the scheme, to engage meaningfully with other local authorities to conduct a review of Mandatory HMO Licence Fees in England, to review the model to account for HMOs with different numbers of occupants, to raise this as a matter of urgency with the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, and to refer the review of the Mandatory HMO licensing scheme to the Overview and Scrutiny committee for examination. The original motion can be found here.