The Overview and Scrutiny Committee of Newham Council met on Thursday 23 October 2025, to discuss the council's finances, complaints procedure, and progress against a non-statutory best value notice. The committee was also scheduled to review a report on leisure inequalities in the borough.

October Finance Review

The committee was scheduled to review the October Finance Review 2025, a suite of reports providing an update on the council's financial position. According to the agenda, this included:

• Budget performance, including emerging financial risks and key areas of overspend and underspend as of October 2025.
• Oversight of Newham Council's overall outturn budget performance.
• The mid-year Treasury Management update, confirming that the council continues to manage borrowing and investments prudently within the agreed prudential framework.
• The Capital programme and its re-prioritisation
• An update on the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), setting out the council's forward financial outlook.

According to the report pack, the MTFS showed that the council faced a budget gap of around £53 million in 2026/27, rising to £80 million by 2028/29. The report pack also noted that around 90% of this year's planned savings had already been delivered.

The report pack stated that the review included officer-generated savings and cost-reduction ideas for initial consideration, including:

• Increasing council tax by more than the referendum limit.
• Further increases to fees and charges.
• Reducing the maximum level of financial support under the council tax reduction scheme from 80% to 70%.
• Cutting the costs of adult social care by reducing the number of small packages of care currently provided.
• Increasing the caseloads of social workers in children's social care.
• Significantly reducing the level of universal youth services provided.
• Substantially reducing or ceasing altogether investment in cultural services and events and further reviewing the extent of library provision.
• Changing staff pay terms and conditions.

Annual Complaints Report

The committee was scheduled to discuss the Annual Complaints Report 2024-25. According to the agenda, this was to review complaints made and whether there were lessons to be learnt, and structural changes to complaints handling to be made. The report was scheduled to include regulatory or ombudsman feedback on complaints handling across all services.

The report pack included the following key points:

• 6,716 new corporate complaints were received at Stage 1 in 2024-25, representing a 16% increase in demand on the previous year. 79% of Stage 1 complaints were answered within timescale compared with 80% last year.
• The number of corporate complaints received at Stage 2 was 497. This represents 7% of all complaints. This was 100 more than the 23-24 total of 397.
• The Top 5 Stage 1 corporate complaints received relate to (in order of demand) waste (1,181), housing repairs (1,062), parking and enforcement (589), housing options (479), and housing services (411).
• Where the council upheld a resident's complaint, the most frequently recorded reason was due to a delay in responding.
• Newham's upheld rate of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has unfortunately increased to 88%.
• There has been a positive increase (11%) in compliments received from our collection points compared with the previous year.

Non-Statutory Best Value Notice

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on progress related to the Non-Statutory Best Value Notice since July 2025. The report pack noted that this was to include information concerning staff turnover at senior levels.

Fit for Purpose? Newham's Leisure Inequalities and the Borough's Plans to Address Them

The committee was scheduled to receive the final report of the Health and Adult Social Care (HASC) Scrutiny Commission's review of leisure services.

The report pack included a draft of the report, which made the following recommendations:

• That the London Borough of Newham carry out its own survey of activity levels, to support more refined monitoring of inequalities and intersectionalities.
• That the Council's Public Health Team carry out an immediate deep dive to better understand physical activity levels across Global Majority communities and related intersectionalities.
• That the Council's Public Health Team develop a more nuanced system for classifying local activity levels, replacing the current terms active , fairly inactive , and inactive .
• That a Leisure Needs Assessment be developed to support a clearer and more strategic approach to the borough's activities offer, leading to the development of a Community Leisure Strategy.
• That, when reviewing and removing duplicated leisure activities, the Council gives due consideration to any potential impact on existing inequalities.
• That recognition of trade unions be expected from larger organisations responsible for managing the borough's leisure infrastructure.
• That Populo work with the Council's Public Health Team to develop a more joined-up approach to activity provision within LATCo-developed infrastructure.
• That the Council engage with existing private gym providers to explore opportunities for building a more holistic understanding of resident activity patterns and what works locally.
• That the Council's leisure resource map and Better leisure centre timetables be shared across all GP practices in the borough, and that use of the Joy App be standardised among Social Prescribers.
• That opportunities be identified to bring under-utilised spaces into use for the delivery of local leisure activities at low cost.
• That a Newham Walks map be developed, with support from local food businesses offering access to seating and toilets in welcoming and accessible environments.
• That the Council capture and actively share examples of local best practice in leisure and physical activity provision beyond the borough.
• That the Commission continue to monitor inequalities and intersectionalities in physical activity levels across the borough, and revisit this area within its 2025/26 work programme to assess progress.

Work Programme

The committee was scheduled to consider its Work Programme and confirm items for the next meeting. The report pack included a draft work programme for 2025-2026, with items currently scheduled for the committee's November meeting including reports concerning Council Tax Collection Rates and Newham Council's Emergency Preparedness and Resilience.