Full Council statement: 16 September 2024 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
Chair, can I welcome you, and all Members back after the summer, and hope you all managed to have a lovely break.
And can I first of all, I’m sure on behalf of all of us, send our good wishes to Abi Gbago, our Chief Executive, who is missing Council tonight and will be away for a few weeks following a medical procedure. Can I also welcome Rachel McKoy, our new permanent Monitoring Officer, to her first Council meeting.
With the change in the weather, the nights’ drawing in, and schools going back, it really does feel like autumn! And speaking of schools, can I take this opportunity to congratulate all Newham students on their fantastic A-Level, BTEC, T-Level and GCSE results this year. I was delighted to see in official Department for Education statistics published last week that for reading, writing and maths, Newham Year 6 pupils are ranked fourth in England, with 72 per cent achieving the expected standard or better. That’s a fantastic achievement, and huge credit to our students, their families our amazing schools and teaching staff.
And while we’re talking about celebrating success, I wanted to let all Members know that by the time we next meet, we will have launched the call for nominations for this year’s Civic Awards. This is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our community heroes and demonstrate our civic pride in our borough and its brilliant residents. So, please do look out for details and share them widely among your networks.
Chair, at last Council we approved the Interim Delegation Scheme for planning applications to London Legacy Development Corporation to be delegated to the Council from 1 September, part of the process of returning planning powers to the borough. I am delighted to be able to tell you that we have now passed another significant milestone, with the London Legacy Development Corporation transition Statutory Instrument now completing its parliamentary process, which means it will come into force from 1 December.
Autumn, is also a time when our minds turn to our annual budget process. Members will recall I spoke at our last meeting of Full Council about how Newham faces the brunt of the country’s temporary accommodation crisis and the extraordinary financial impact of having to deal with this exceptional challenge. And Newham is not alone in the financial challenges we face. Councils across the country are grappling the same issue.
We set out the full details of this clearly and transparently in the Summer 2024 Finance Report for all Members – and the Evening Standard – to see. And we’ve continued to update all Members and our MPs on the budget position and will continue to do so. We face a forecast budget gap of £175m for the next three years. Approximately £100m of this relates to our Temporary Accommodation pressures.
Chair, as Members will know, without these additional Temporary Accommodation costs, the Council would have been in budget for each of the last two years. Because this is a responsible Council with robust financial management of the public’s money that we spend.
As Members know, the scale of these financial pressures mean some form of government assistance will be required.
And we are already in direct contact with government about this. However, the scale of the pressures mean that we must take action now. Because despite the problem being not of our making, and not something we can directly control, we have a duty to our residents to be fiscally responsible. We are already embarking on a significant transformation programme that will reduce our overheads, make significant savings and transform how the Council operates. Delivering innovative and cost effective solutions – delivering the right services, at the right time, in the right way.
And I announced at Cabinet in August that the Council would be re-profiling the budget for this financial year, to make in-year savings. We will be bringing forward a Budget Review Paper to Cabinet in October that:
- Provides the latest budget forecasts and overspend information for 2024/25;
- Recommends proposed in-year savings to mitigate the overspend; and
- Recommends the start of consultation on further budget savings in 2025/26 and later years.
We will be engaging with Members, residents and partners extensively as part of this consultation, and I want everyone to be part of this process. It affects us all, and we all have a chance to shape the outcome. We want to hear from residents about their priorities, and what matters to them.
But Chair, let me be clear, these are not savings we want to be making, and they will not be easy, there will be difficult decisions. But in making these decisions our focus will continue to be on Building a Fairer Newham: a healthy, happy and well Newham where we build an economy that is inclusive for everyone, creating the best place for children and young people to thrive, and where we tackle the racism, inequality and disproportionality that affects far too many of our residents. Our values of fairness, equality and social justice will underpin everything we do, with our people, and getting the best outcomes for them, as our core mission.
And nothing brought this home more starkly than reading the final report of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. 72 people losing their lives, entirely avoidably. A decent, safe home is a fundamental right. It’s fundamental to the quality of people’s lives.
And as a landlord, we as the Council have a duty to ensure our homes are safe and contribute to a better quality of life for our residents. We are carefully examining the Grenfell Inquiry report and its recommendations. We will learn the lessons. We will implement whatever is required to ensure the safety of our homes.
And as your Directly Elected Mayor, I will hold the Council to account. We will be open and transparent about what needs to be done, and our progress. And we will continue to give tenants a greater voice in the decisions that affect their homes and the estates where they live.
Chair, to conclude, we do not under-estimate the seriousness of the challenges ahead. But we know what needs to be done. We have a plan. Our values and the people of Newham will shape how we respond. We’re on their side. We’ve got this.
