The Housing and Environment Scrutiny Committee were scheduled to meet to discuss the future of waste and recycling in Caerphilly, tenant engagement, and the Housing Revenue Account. Councillors were also expected to review the committee's forward work programme.

Waste Management

The committee was scheduled to receive an Audit Wales follow-up report on waste management.

In 2023, Audit Wales found that the council understood why its performance had declined but had been slow to address this. The 2023 report made two recommendations for improvement:

• The council should set out how it will monitor and evaluate the value for money of its waste strategy once finalised and the strategy's contribution to the council's well-being objectives.
• The council should develop and agree a fully costed and resourced longer term waste strategy capable of meeting both current statutory targets and in readiness for the potential increase in statutory targets in the future.

The follow-up report stated that the council had made progress by developing a fully costed waste management strategy, but there were significant risks to its implementation. The council does not anticipate reaching Welsh Government statutory recycling targets until 2030, and faces the risk of financial penalties.

According to the Waste Management Follow-up, in the last reported year, 2023-24, Caerphilly had the second lowest rate of recycling of all councils in Wales and was one of only four councils not to meet the Welsh Government target of 64%.

The report noted that the council adopted its strategy in October 2024, which was developed using a service evaluation completed with external partners, and a public consultation. The strategy is fully costed and funded through a Welsh Government grant and the council taking out a 25-year loan with repayments of £1.4 million per year.

The strategy contains a combination of objectives and short-term actions, and the council's goal is to reach the Welsh Government statutory target of 70% recycling by 2030. Actions include:

• Purchasing, licensing and developing a new depot and recycling facility for waste management.
• Purchasing and introducing a fleet of ultra-low emission vehicles.
• Introducing a new waste collection regime, changing the requirements placed on residents and the frequency of residual and garden waste collections. (Recycling and Food waste will continue to be collected weekly.)

Tenant Engagement

The committee was scheduled to discuss a new 7 year Tenant Engagement Strategy that had been co-produced with tenants, Caerphilly Homes staff and the Tenant Participation and Advisory Service (TPAS).

The Tenant Engagement Strategy sets out Caerphilly Homes' commitment to working in partnership with tenants to shape the services that matter most to them.

The strategy sets out a vision:

To ensure our housing services are continuously shaped and improved through the real-life experiences and insights of our tenants, placing their voices at the centre of service development and delivery.

This vision is supported by four objectives:

• Understand what current and future tenants want and need and what is important to them.
• Using the tenant voice to co-design, shape service improvements and drive change.
• Meaningful, relevant and timely two-way communication between Caerphilly Homes and tenants.
• Review the effectiveness of tenant engagement activities and update the approach based on evidence.

The report also covered Tenants' and Residents' Associations (T&RAs). Over the last 10 years, the engagement and involvement that T&RAs have with Caerphilly Homes has declined. The recognition criteria for the Associations are outdated, and the funding formula is based on an historical formula used in the harmonisation of policies in 1996.

The committee was asked to consider three options for the future recognition of T&RAs:

• No change, continue as we are; providing funding if requested using current formula and guidelines.
• Remove funding and maintain a list of active Associations for consultation purposes only if needed - there have been no requests for funding since 2020.
• Discontinue funding and offer advice and support to Associations when requested and consult more widely with other community groups as well as the remaining Associations, act as a link if any community group has a housing issue in their area and make budget available on request where required.

Housing Revenue Account Outturn

The committee was scheduled to receive a report on the outturn position for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the 2024/25 financial year.

The HRA budget for 2024/25 is £60.300m with its main components consisting of £23.200m of salaries, £8.400m of capital financing charges, £2.200m Housing Strategy - New Build (net of salaries), £1.600m of building maintenance and response repairs (net of salaries), £3.000m of SLA type internal service recharges, and £19.200m of revenue contributions to fund the PAMS (Post Asset Management Strategy) programme.

The Housing Revenue Account Outturn 2024/2025 stated that the HRA is reporting an underspend of £5.346m for the end of 2024/25 financial year. The surplus is split between general revenue underspends and capital related underspends.

Forward Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to review its forward work programme. Forward Work Programmes are essential to ensure that Scrutiny Committee agendas reflect the strategic issues facing the council and other priorities raised by members, the public or stakeholders.

The Housing and Environment Scrutiny Committee Forward Work Programme includes all reports that were identified at the committee meeting on Tuesday the 17th of June 2025. The work programme outlines the reports planned for the period September 2025 until March 2026.