The Hastings Borough Council Cabinet met on 1 September 2025, and agreed to recommend that the Full Council adopt the updated Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), and also agreed to a revised Local Development Scheme (LDS). The Cabinet also reviewed performance for Quarter 1 of 2025/26, and noted the Financial Monitoring Report and the Treasury Management Update.

Local Development Scheme

The Cabinet agreed to the content of the revised Local Development Scheme update September 2025 FINAL, which includes a timetable for the preparation of local plan documents. They also agreed to delegate future minor updates to the LDS timetable to the Lead Officer, in conjunction with the Lead Councillor.

The report noted that the key milestones for the Local Plan work are as follows:

• Public participation in the preparation of the Local Plan (Local Plan Regulations, Regulation 18 Stage – Preferred Options) - December 2025/ January 2026
• Publication of the Proposed Submission Local Plan (Regulation 19) - June/July 2026
• Submission to the Planning Inspectorate for Independent Examination - December 2026
• Local Plan Adoption - June 2028

The key milestones for the West St Leonard's Neighbourhood Plan work are as follows:

• Regulation 14 Pre submission consultation and publicity - Quarter 3 2025/2026

The key milestones for the Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus Supplementary Planning Document work are as follows:

• Public engagement in the preparation of the site of the Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus Supplementary Planning Document - December 2025/ January 2026
• Consideration and Adoption of the Former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus Supplementary Planning Document by Full Council - March 2026

The report stated that:

Drafting and adopting a new Local Plan now is one of the best ways to secure a positive outcome for residents, businesses and community organisations for years to come, in the context of Local Government Reorganisation.

Statement of Community Involvement

The Cabinet agreed to recommend to Full Council that the Statement of Community Involvement be adopted, incorporating comments arising from public consultation.

A Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is a document that sets out how the council will engage with the local community and other stakeholders on planning matters. The new SCI, the 6th iteration, will set out and guide public engagement into the next draft of the Hastings Local Plan and onwards stages.

The report stated that:

The SCI provides an opportunity to demonstrate that the council's commitment to ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the planning process.

The SCI sets out a range of engagement activities that are relevant to:

• Developing the new Local Plan, (Planning Policy)
• Consultation on planning applications (Development Management),
• The council's roles in relation to the Neighbourhood Planning process.
• the council's Duty to Cooperate with neighbouring authorities on cross boundary strategic planning issues

Financial Monitoring Report

The Cabinet noted the contents of the Financial Monitoring Report for 2025/26 to the end of June 2025 (Period 3), and approved the Asterisk Capital Programme Schemes which have been agreed by the Capital Assurance Board (CAB).

The forecasted outturn for the 12 months to 31 March 2026 is an adverse variance to budget of £735,023 for direct service expenditure, but this is partially offset by a use of unbudgeted earmarked reserves.

The report noted that the budgeted savings identified through the PIER programme¹ are ongoing, and of the budgeted £429,500 opportunities, the full amount is expected to be achieved.

In line with the revised reserves policy the recommended minimum balance for the General Reserve is £4m, and the General Reserve balance is forecasted to be £6.4m at the year-end.

The key variances year to date are:

• £691,763 adverse variance in Housing
• £156,132 adverse variance in Environment and Operations budget
• £304,760 favourable variance driven through drawdown of unbudgeted, Earmarked Reserves.
• £184,303 favourable variance in Property & Commercials Asset Manager budget

The main reason for the overspend in Housing is a higher number of households living in privately procured temporary accommodation (PPTA) at the start of the financial year than had been forecast in the budget.

The report stated that:

At the point the budget was set we had 500 households in PPTA and set a forecast for the remainder of 24/25 of a reduction of 10 households a month. We therefore forecast having 470 households in PPTA at the start of April. However, due to higherthan-expected need for temporary accommodation we started the financial year at 535 households.

Since the start of the financial year, there has been a reduction in households in PPTA, including a reduction of 15 households in June alone, which is the largest monthly reduction ever experienced.

The report also noted that the acquisitions programme, where the council buys and refurbishes homes for use as temporary accommodation, continues to progress in line with targets.

The schemes approved by the Capital Assurance Board on the 30th April 2025 were:

• Cyber Security
• IDOX Planning
• Housing Acquisitions Staffing
• Street Cleansing & Sweeper
• Asset Management Plan (R&R)
• Countryside Stewardship

Treasury Management Update Report

The Cabinet noted the Treasury Management Update and recommended approval of any changes to the prudential indicators².

The report noted that the average level of funds available for investment purposes during the quarter was £19.74m. The Council holds £4.6m core cash balances for investment purposes (i.e., funds available for more than one year).

The weighted average return of the portfolio at 30 June 2023 was 4.34%, and the Council has overperformed against the benchmark backward looking SONIA rate of 4.31% by 3 bps. The Council's budgeted investment return for 2025/26 is £1,178,000, and performance for the year to date is forecast to exceed the budget by £5,000 to achieve total returns of £1,183,000.

The value of the CCLA Property Fund as 30 June 2025 was £1,812,624, which is £187,375 (9.37%) below the initial investment amount of £2,000,000. The dividend yield on the net asset value is 4.7%. The value of the Better World Cautious Fund as 30 June 2025 was £2,678,804, which is £321,195 10.71%) below the initial investment amount of £3,000,000. The dividend yield is 3.36%.

As at 30 June 2025 the following longer term loans made to other organisations were outstanding:

• Amicus /Optivo - £1,788,235
• The Foreshore Trust - £32,280
• The Source - £5,494
• Hastings Housing Company - Loan 1 - £784,676
• Hastings Housing Company - Loan 2 - £344,810
• Hastings Housing Company - Loan 3 - £4,359,912

The report stated that a detailed report is coming to a future Cabinet meeting regarding the potential options for the Hastings Housing Company.

Performance Monitoring Report

The Cabinet reviewed and agreed performance for Quarter 1, acknowledged performance monitoring arrangements for 25/26, and thanked staff for their hard work and achievements to date.

The Performance Monitoring Quarter 1 2025/26 report provided a summary of council performance for the Quarter 1 (April - June). Performance reporting and updates are reported in a Dashboard format which follows the same Directorate arrangement as the financial budget monitoring report.

The report noted that statutory performance indicators and progress on other agreed indicators are only included in the report. A RAG rating³ is used to determine progress where Green reflects performance on track, and Red and Amber are 'exceptions' – will not (Red) or might not (Amber) meet expected performance.