The Executive, Resources and Contracts Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the council's business management, scrutinise the Chief Executive and Leader, and review the award of a contract for facilities management at the Bromley Civic Centre. The committee agreed to support the recommendations for the award of the facilities management contract, and noted the matters outstanding, work programme, and forward plan of key decisions.

Valuation Office Engagement

Rob Knight, Operations Director, and Jo Moore, Director of Non-Domestic Rating from the Valuation Office, addressed the committee to answer questions. Mr Knight explained that the Valuation Office is an executive agency of HMRC and is planned to integrate back into HMRC by April 2026. The agency supports the collection of £60bn across the country, working with Revenues and Benefits Teams to ensure smooth collection of council tax and business rates.

Points made in response to questions from the committee:

• The average wait time for a valuation depends on the nature of the request, with a target of dealing with 95% of requests in 90 working days. Cases involving appeals can take up to a year, although this timeframe is reducing.
• A band review is triggered when homeowners make improvements to properties, and the property is subsequently sold.
• To be removed from the list due to degradation, a property must meet specific criteria.
• There is changing legislation concerning houses of multiple occupation¹ (HMOs), which will also address the issue of changing licences.
• There is nothing in the Regulations which supported compensating for losses.
• A change in business use could trigger a change in valuation, with valuations for empty properties based on rental values.

The Chairman, Councillor Simon Fawthrop, requested an update on the backlog in three months. The committee also asked that the Assistant Director for Exchequer Services ensure that information around licencing be forwarded to the Valuation Office Agency where appropriate.

Scrutiny of the Chief Executive and Leader

The Chief Executive, Ade Adetosoye CBE, and the Leader of the Council, Councillor Colin Smith, responded to questions from the committee.

Mr Adetosoye addressed the bleak financial outlook and increasing growth pressures, acknowledging that the settlement had not favoured Bromley. He outlined the following operational actions taken by Chief Officers in response:

• Reviewing unit costs in services to address the key reasons for growth, such as opening a residential home and transforming the delivery of SEN Transport².
• Service redesign considering how services could be delivered differently.
• Transformation Programme.
• Use of the Growth Reduction Board.

Regarding escalating unit costs in children's social care, Mr Adetosoye noted that funding for a residential home had significantly reduced unit costs, from an average of £14,000 per child per week to £5,000 per child per week, while also providing the council with an asset. There was also a focus on recruiting in-house foster carers to care for the most complex and challenging children, which was anticipated to deliver further savings.

Mr Adetosoye confirmed that staff were embracing the use of AI where appropriate, and the resulting changes in practice were delivering further efficiencies. He also noted that seven London Boroughs were requesting exceptional borrowing, and this number was likely to increase.

Councillor Smith confirmed that arrangements were being put in place for the Resources, Commissioning and Contracts Management Portfolio, and the plans would be communicated once they were in place.

Regarding the use of agency staff, Mr Adetosoye explained that it was not efficient to employ someone on a permanent basis when the council received time-limited grant funding. He suggested that discussions with the Department for Communities and Local Government would focus on encouraging them to allocate funding for 3 to 4 years. He also noted that increased technology use could potentially reduce the need for agency staff in the future.

Award of Contract for Total Facilities Management for Council's Civic Centre at Churchill Court

The committee considered a report on the award of a service contract to a supplier to provide facilities and building management at Churchill Court, the council's civic centre.

The Assistant Director for Strategic Property confirmed that monitoring capability within the team had been increased, and various measures were in place with staged approaches for managing performance with respect to delivery of the contract.

They also agreed to provide further details around the performance measures with respect to security and cleaning audits, confirming that contractors would undertake some audits to provide information to the council for contract monitoring purposes. The council's Contract Monitoring Team would also undertake spot-checking audits, with the frequency depending on the specific KPI³.

The Chairman, Councillor Simon Fawthrop, noted his previous request for consideration to be given to consolidating some of the KPIs.

The committee noted that reports on contract monitoring would likely be provided annually, although this would be confirmed once arrangements were in place.

The committee agreed to support the recommendations in the report.

Matters Outstanding and Work Programme

The committee discussed business management, including matters outstanding from previous meetings and the proposed work plan for the remainder of the year, as detailed in Report CSD25117.

The committee requested that the written update concerning the Churchill Court Letting Strategy and the update on the RAAC Review be added to the list of Matters Outstanding.

A member questioned why the committee was not being presented with a Work Plan beyond April 2026. The Deputy Democratic Services Manager explained that the practice for the last four years had been to present the Work Plan for the current municipal year only. They reassured the committee that the rolling work programme was continuously evolving, and these changes were appropriately captured and recorded. As in previous years, the work programme for the following municipal year would be presented at the last meeting of the current municipal year for information only.

A member requested that updates on the Estate Team and Active Property Investments be added to the committee's Work Plan.

The committee agreed to note the report.

Forward Plan of Key Decisions

The committee noted the Forward Plan of Key Decisions covering the period October 2025 to January 2026, as detailed in the Forward Plan - September document.

In response to a question, the Director of Finance confirmed that there were currently no changes planned to the Council Tax Support Scheme.