Cabinet - Monday 23 February 2026, 4:00pm - Wandsworth Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Monday, 23rd February 2026 at 4:00pm 

Agenda

Slides

Transcript

Map

Resources

Forums

Speakers

Votes

 
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point
Share this agenda point

Please wait until before 10p.
Thanks for coming for the last meeting of this term.
Are there any declarations of interest?

1 Declarations of Interests

And are there any apologies?
I've got apologies from Councillors Acanola
and Henderson and Yates.
Grant.
Well, we'll begin, as always, with a brief update from me
on what we've been up to since we last met last month.
I just want to start by reporting back on the
Ballum Forum drop -in that we held on Saturday.
It was a really excellent public meeting
because we want to get out, we want to let residents
shape the work that we do.
Oh, there you go, you can see some pictures of it.
And we discussed community safety, cleaner streets,
council tax, and it was really exciting to announce
our Ballum neighbourhood wardens.
It's a great new initiative we'll be talking more about
later on in this meeting.
They're there to provide that visible presence,
that reassurance in the neighbourhood,
and to rapidly address things like graffiti,
fly tipping, damaged pavements, and so on.
We've been running the Ballum Forum for several months now,
and it really is starting to deliver.
We're listening, but we're also acting
on what residents want.
And just to be clear, those wardens are funded
out of property developer taxes,
so they won't add a penny onto your council tax.
talking of council tax we did discuss council tax on Saturday and of course
residents were delighted that as we're again here later on the agenda we have
balanced our budget for the fourth year in a row we have frozen your council tax
for the fourth year in a row particularly important for our most
vulnerable residents who are hardest hit by that very unfair tax and people have
been receiving this news through their door and as I say they're very pleased
with that approach from the Council.
We did have questions on Saturday about how we can keep our Council tax so low and deliver
excellent services.
Cancer Island will be explaining later how sound financial management and value for money
are at the heart of everything we do, and we'll go through those budget papers in detail.
We can also see here on this slide that our investment strategy yields the best results
in London.
We have some of the highest reserves of any council in London
Some of the lowest debts and that enables us to invest in what matters to you
Cleaner streets safer neighbourhoods and a greener Wandsworth and you can see there. This administration has collected
230 million pounds in property developer taxes, which we're then
Spending in every neighbourhood in the borough as part of our decade of renewal
Also just want to mention a really nice visit
I got to do on Friday to the homelessness hub
on Laffender Hill.
It's a fantastic facility.
Congratulations to Council of Decadent
and all the team.
Brings together professionals who will be able
to help people who are rough sleeping
or at risk of rough sleeping.
But it also signals a new way that the council
can provide its services.
So I would encourage particularly people
who live nearby to ask to be curious about that,
to ask for a visit.
They're very happy to show you around.
We want to build confidence in that excellent facility.
On the next slide, I'm really proud of the work
we've done over the last four years
to bring affordable homes to local people.
And this is a moment, as we approach the end of this term,
to reflect on the 500 council homes
we've already built and put families in.
Genuinely affordable homes guaranteed for local families
and of course this is just half of the thousand homes
that we have planned, that we have consented,
that we will build by 2029.
And of course we have two ambitious regeneration projects
happening in the borough as well.
And we saw recently that residents on the Alton estate
voted overwhelmingly in favour of that
broad place -based plan there.
We will do our regular update on the seven rings seven days pledges.
So last month we answered 84 % of phone calls to the council within seven rings and across
January we fixed 100 % of broken street signs, dangerous potholes and graffiti within seven
days.
But we are always looking at ways of improving this service so hopefully you saw recently
we've added into the seven days guarantee faulty streetlights, flyposting or hazardous
broken pavements.
So if you see any of those, please report them.
We'll fix them within seven days.
And another improvement on the service is that you can now use WhatsApp to report any
of those seven days problems.
So if you see graffiti, just take a photo, WhatsApp the council, and we'll fix it within
seven days.
And the other thing we usually catch up on is our free bulky waste bookings.
So every household in Wandsworth gets two free bulky waste collections a year.
It could be a mattress, it could be a washing machine, whatever you have in your home.
Just tell us on the website, put it out on your usual collection day and we'll pick it
up.
Fully 26 ,000 free bulky waste bookings have now happened since it launched last year.
And just to remind you that this service reset in January,
so your two free bulky waste collections a year
are now active again.
So if it's all right, we'll move on to the agenda
this evening, and we have a packed agenda,
because as I say, it is the last cabinet meeting
before the election.
So the first three or four papers are around finance
and our budgets.
So as I say, Councillor Ireland, thank you very much.

2 Budget and Council Tax Setting 2026/27 (Paper No.26-63)

Once again, you balanced our budgets once again.
You've frozen that main element of council tax.
Would you mind taking us through initially the budget and council tax setting paper?
Thank you, leader.
Sorry about that problem with the microphone.
Thank you, Biden.
Keeping council tax low is the single biggest thing we can do to help the most residents
and I am delighted that we are freezing the main element of the council tax for the fourth
year in a row and Wandsworth residents will continue to pay the lowest council tax in
Britain.
Our commitment to keeping council tax low will help to keep more money in our residents'
pockets.
This is a balanced budget by using a mix of service income, developer contributions, council
tax, investment income and government funding. Because value for money is at the heart of
everything we do, we have one of the lowest levels of debt and some of the highest financial
reserves in London. We are working through the impact of fair funding, but our first
response is not to increase council tax. We know we must change the way we work to be
more efficient and to find more savings. And our transformation programme is essential
in this, in modernising how the Council operates, to deliver its services, and we estimate an
initial saving of £45 million. But this is to be developed. Since 2022, we've already
delivered in these priority areas. Recycling rate is up by 25%. We have a stronger CCT
network than ever, including three rapid response vans, and we have cleaner air in Wandsworth.
We are continuing to invest in local priorities such as cleaner streets, safer neighbourhoods, greener living and a fairer Wandsworth. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Councillor Ireland. Are there any comments or questions on this paper?
Councillor De Kloet.
Yeah, I mean it's important that we force council tax because we said we would and I
think trust in politics is really important and we know that it's something that residents
feel strongly about.
Alongside the council tax freeze, can you expand on some of the other things that were
delivered with this budget?
Thank you for that question.
Yes, I mean we are compassionate council and it's not just about keeping council tax low.
We want to see Wandsworth to be a fairer place.
So part of that is access for all, which is Britain's best concessionary offer.
And we now have over 10 ,000 members.
You've heard from the leader how we are continuing to build more than 1 ,000 new council homes,
with 500 already complete and tenanted.
Because we stayed true to our values and were tough on developers,
we will now get 200 of these homes in Battersea Power Station.
We've also rolled out landlord licencing across the borough, cracking down on rogue
landlords and standing up for our tenants.
And thanks to our inspections, more tenants will have good quality housing.
We continue to deliver the biggest cost of living fund in London and we've invested
in more CCTV cameras, more monitoring hours of these cameras and three rapid response
CCTV cars because our residents tell us that's what they want to help them feel safe.
We feed over 5 ,000 children free breakfast every morning and we've expanded the free school meals to hundreds more children.
We have the most generous school uniform offer in the country.
We've now had over 25 ,000 free bulky waste bookings since we announced that last year.
And this has contributed to the 20 % reduction in fly tipping, which we've seen across the borough, so that everyone can enjoy the cleaner streets that we're all so proud of.
So I'd sum up by saying since 2022,
Wandsworth is cleaner, safer and fairer.
And again, fourth year of a council tax freeze.
We're very proud of that, thank you.
Thanks very much and Councillor White.
Yes, it's good news, it's good news
for all of our residents.
And thanks to the sound financial management,
we've been able to freeze council tax
and keep delivering better services for residents.
But we all know there are cost pressures to the Council and they're facing that in the future.
Can you tell us why we're confident we can freeze Council tax and this still be the right long -term decision?
Thank you for your question.
We embarked on the Transformation Programme last September and a lot of that is about embracing new technology,
and collaborative ways of working while also developing partnerships with major employees
such as Apple. The transformation programme focuses on reshaping services across what
residents want, what they expect from the council, improving online access and adapting
to changing patterns such as increased homework and neighbourhood based engagement. So that's
a large part of helping us work more efficiently making savings. The initial
initial scoping has identified up to 45 million pounds in savings from
potential efficiencies and that's without reducing frontline services. So
it's this sort of strategic long -term work that formed part of the sound
financial management which makes me feel confident that this is the right
decision to make to freeze council tax. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Is that paper approved?
Thank you.

3 Proposed additions to the Capital Programme (Paper No.26-64)

And if it's okay, Councillor Ireland, if you could take us through the proposed additions
to the capital programme.
I'll just say a few words about this.
So we are an ambitious council and our capital programme reflects that.
We are undertaking a decade of renewal to create a greener and cleaner Wandsworth and
And this is predominantly funded by developers.
Over half of the cost is, over five years,
is paid for from developer contributions.
And I would say all of our capital spend
is about protecting, maintaining, and improving
assets for us and for future generations.
And that's from doubling our investments
in streets and pavements, to repairing our bridges
and tunnels, to enhancing our parks and green spaces.
It's about a long -term improvement for our borough.
This will include a small amount of borrowing, but we feel that makes sense because it's
about investing in our assets for decades to come.
So the cost of that will be shared over the people who will benefit.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Any comments and questions on that?
Councillor White.
Can you tell us about some of the projects included in the capital programme, please?
A large part of it, almost 20 million, is for new family and community building in Portsmouth
Place as part of the regeneration of the Alton estate. And that's on top of almost 17 million
pounds of investment in Roehampton Community Hub, which is already part of the approved
programme. So we're ambitious about the Alton renewal plan. It's going to provide long -term
change and improvements to an area which has seen historic underinvestment and neglect.
We've also got a commitment to more 3G sports pitches and we're getting money from the Football
Federation to help us with that. So it's important for us to make it easier for people in the
borough to become more active and we're very proud of our decade of renewal where we're
spending more money on roads and pavements. We've got the biggest resurfacing programme
in London. It's with the aim of everybody feeling pride in where they live and their
streets.
Thank you.
Graham, thanks very much. Are the additions to the capital programme agreed? Thank you.

4 Treasury Management Policy (Paper No.26-65)

And Cancer Island, if you can talk to the Treasury management policy, please.
So what I see is sound financial management is at the heart of everything we do.
We have strong financial performance in our treasury management and this activity is a
key part as being independently verified as one of the best in the country.
All the borrowing continues only to be used to fund capital investment, to invest in the
particular housing stock, both existing and new social housing, and this to maintain standards
to meet our residents' needs, as well as providing housing for our residents. So the average
return on investments this year has been just over 4 .5%, and I can give you some technical
information about how we've increased the capital value of our investments by over 6 .6
million this year.
But we're very proud of the excellent work that we're
doing, and we recently saw an independent review conducted
by the MFFG corporate markets treasury, which confirmed that
Wandsworth achieves the strongest investment returns
among local authorities in London.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Well done.
Any comments on that paper?
or is it approved?
Grant?
So if we can now move on to the schools maintenance

5 Schools Maintenance Capital Programme 2026/27 (Paper No.26-66)

capital programme, 2627.
Oh, Councillor Gasser.
Thank you, good afternoon.
So this paper concerns the grant that we get
from government for the DFE to maintain some of our schools,
capital infrastructure funding.
We don't know exactly how much we're gonna get this year yet.
We know roughly, based on past years, we think it's going to be about 2 .2 million.
And that will fund seven different schools.
The work we mainly have to do is boiler repair and roof maintenance.
Those are the things that come up and come up in our schools.
And we always ask the schools to put in about 20 ,000.
Just that sort of gets their buy in, makes sure they're committed to the project, and also helps our funding as well.
And just to add to that, the government has recently announced special needs and disability funding, a big massive capital programme in billions.
We don't know what our allocation is going to be here in Wandsworth, but we're hopeful that it will really help us to improve our special needs provision in our mainstream schools.
So we're looking forward to that.
Thanks very much.
Any questions for Councillor Casse?
Councillor Ireland?
I just have a comment really. I read somewhere that over 95 % of our schools are rated as good or outstanding. So well done on that.
Yes, thank you. It's 98%, yeah, and good or outstanding. So that's fantastic and it's really good that we're offering that to all of our children.
And thank you so much to all the schools for all their hard work and all the officers to support them.
And you know, it's something to be really, really proud of and we are.
Yeah, well said, well said. Can we then approve the school's maintenance capital programme?
Thank you. And next, I think back to Cancer Island for the revenue budget monitoring for

6 Revenue Budget Monitoring Q3 (Paper No.26-67)

quarter three.
Thank you. So this paper actually highlights both the challenges facing local government
and the strong position that Wandsworth is in. There's an overspend of two million pound
forecast in health and this is really reflective of the national pressures on adult social
care and is a big factor in our decision to take the adult social care precept for next
year. Within housing, there's an overspend of 4 .6 million. It is significant but it's
fallen by 425 ,000 from the previous quarter, so we feel we're getting on top of that.
Now this cost pressure is almost entirely driven by levels of growing demand for temporary accommodation, and this is the same across London.
Despite this, our healthy reserves balance ensure in the short term we can manage these service spends.
And in the long term, our transformation programme will use the opportunities provided by artificial intelligence and new ways of working to find deficiencies to drive down demand pressures.
Thanks. Any questions?
Councillor De Kloet.
Yeah, when it comes to statutory services, that's one of the areas that are frankly across all of local authorities growing.
What work are we preparing in order to do prevention and early interventions to try and reduce some of the statutory burdens that fall on councils?
and do we welcome the news from the Labour government today about the provision and the changes in the system there?
Yes, absolutely we do. I think my colleague, Councillor Gasser, knows more about the new provisions announced today by the government.
Would you like to make a comment on how they could improve things?
Excuse me. Well, we're waiting to see what our allocation will be, but absolutely, we're absolutely focused on,
We know from parents they want the interventions that their children need to be speedy.
As soon as they need them, we want to be putting them in place.
And that doesn't necessarily mean an EHCP or a great assessment of the child.
It's just the school will spot when there's something development not quite happening, as you'd expect.
Or the parents will spot that.
We want to be able to get in there as quickly as possible and support that child and support that family.
And as I understand the new funding, that is absolutely going to provide that.
So there will be that early intervention and there will also be funding for
schools to provide extra specialist support, extra training.
We want every single teacher in the classroom to understand about special needs and how they can support special needs.
There is also, from the government, there's going to be funding for, I forgot what they're calling them, but let's say experts in the community.
A whole bank of people who are absolutely expert in special needs and they will be able to go into a school and say, yes, we can help you with this, we can help you with that.
So the whole point is we don't want children to get to a crisis point, families to get to a crisis point.
We get in there and we help as soon as we possibly can.
And I think it's very, very welcome what the government's proposing.
And my understanding is from community groups and parents and schools, everybody's very, very happy with these proposals.
So looking forward to them coming forward.
Thank you, Councillor Gazza.
I would like to say thank you for the hard work of the officers in keeping with these budgets as far as possible in these very challenging times.
Children is facing pressure, but they're forecasting to break even this year.
And one big success they've had along with staff in health department, in adults, is
they reduce the use of agency staff.
So we paid two million pounds in savings by that.
I think the use of agency staff in health has reduced by 25 percent, and it's gone from
47 percent to 3 percent in children.
So that's helping to keep budgets under control in times of increasing demand for our services.
Thank you.
So are we okay to approve the revenue budget monitoring for quarter three?
And then, Councillor White, if you can talk to the biodiversity action plan.
Yes, thank you.

7 Biodiversity Action Plan (Paper No.26-69)

The plan has been designed with local residents and stakeholder groups and built on a strong
foundation of evidence.
One is home to over 4 ,000 recorded species and 31 designated biodiversity sites.
We have a commitment to look after these.
This is both good for nature and good for residents.
We will provide more access to clean air, fresh water, green spaces, and thriving ecosystems.
This should not be determined by your background or postcode.
Our strategy is about ensuring that wildlife and conservation reaches all communities,
including those who may have been neglected.
We will maximise the biodiversity benefits of green infrastructure, including sustainable
urban drainage systems, pocket parks and community gardens.
Fundamentally, this strategy reverses the decline of biodiversity and makes for a greener
and fairer Wandsworth.
Excellent, thanks very much.
Any questions for Councillor White?
Councillor Gasser?
Yes, thank you.
It's very good to hear about this going forward, but I'm really interested to look backwards
as well.
What else, what have we been doing in the last three or four years since we've been
in the administration?
Well it's thanks to you, Councillor Gasser, that a lot of the achievements have been made
as my predecessor in the environment role.
But as you know, over 2 .2 hectares of new habitats
have been created within council managed green spaces,
including grassland scrub, wetlands, and deadwood.
Over 600 ,000 pounds have been invested specifically
into habitat management and maintenance
across council managed green spaces
from existing maintenance budgets.
Over 61 tree preservation orders secured since 2020
to safeguard important trees.
We have implemented twice yearly water quality monitoring
for all shallow urban lakes,
including biochemical, invertebrate, and vegetation surveys.
As of September 2025, 74 % of Wandsworth's local wildlife
sites are in positive management for biodiversity,
an increase of 13 % since 2021.
Twelve Council managed parks and commons received a green flag status in 2025, where biodiversity is a key assessment criteria.
Parks for London 2024 saw Wandsworth parks rise from 21st ranked in 2022 to 8th ranked in 2024 across London, with supporting nature a key criteria.
The first Wandsworth in Bloom competition held in June 2025.
The housing team collaborated with the SW15 hedgehogs conservation group to plant 80 million of new hedges to support hedgehogs on the Dover House estate.
Increased grassland and meadow monitoring with new sites added through the No -Mo -May campaign.
In 2025 alone, 24 sites were surveyed for biodiversity gains.
Thanks very much.
Well done to both of you.
Are we okay to support the biodiversity action plan?
Thank you very much.

8 Balham Forum Interim Report (Paper No.26-70)

Next up is the Balham Forum interim report.
I think in Councillor Henderson's absence, I'll just say hopefully as you know, this
involved going out, listening to a lot of people in Balaam,
asking what they value about their neighbourhood,
what could be even better.
It's involved public meetings, online surveys,
leaflets through doors, QR codes on lampposts.
It's been a sort of exemplar listening exercise
and just to be clear, if the neighbourhood wardens
work out in Balaam, we're very keen to look at
rolling them out in other neighbourhoods
and as the Ballum Forum's been a success in the way we've listened, very keen to bring
that to other neighbourhoods as well. So it starts in Ballum, but it doesn't end there.
Any comments or questions about the Ballum Forum paper? In which case do we approve of

9 Schools Finance Allocation 2026/27 (Paper No.26-47)

the Ballum Forum paper? Thanks very much. I've got one comment which is about direct

8 Balham Forum Interim Report (Paper No.26-70)

democracy, right, the more that we hold these kinds of forums, I've attended the ones in
my ward, it is a form of kind of like direct democracy in which people don't come to the
town hall, very few people watch these meetings, but at those, people turn up because they've
got something through their door, they know that they're going to get direct access to
the leader of the council, and then there are officers there present, and I just think
it is an incredible model and I hope it continues. And Balaam is kind of like the one step up
from what the leaders' road shows were.
And I think it's a really, really good model
to get people to feel like they're part of a neighbourhood.
Because so many of our residents are renters.
They churn through the neighbourhood.
They don't really know how they can connect with the council.
And actually, from what I've seen from the Ballum Forum,
we are getting some of those renters to come
and feel part of their neighbourhoods,
which I think is essential in Wandsworth.
Yeah, no, that's really good of you to say.
So, well, as you know, we're out listening
to residents every weekend, but every month,
We've been through every ward in the borough this year.
We go out and hold these meetings
where people can come along, have a chat, have a sandwich.
But I always say we only know what's going on
if you tell us.
So yeah, people came on Saturday and said
there's a misleading street sign.
Can you get rid of that?
Or can you fix this thing to do with line bikes
or come and visit my charity or whatever it is?
And that's fantastic because we're here to make sure
residents get a good deal from the council.
So as well as enjoying it, we find it really worthwhile.
And just to be clear, it was a request from a Ballum Forum meeting three months ago,
where they said they wanted a more visible uniform presence on the street to
deter antisocial behaviour, to drive down fly tipping.
We then took that away, and
then hopefully we're gonna next month make a reality out of that idea that they gave us.
But I am taking it that you approve of the paper.
Thank you. So if it's all right, we'll move on to school finance allocation 26 -27.

9 Schools Finance Allocation 2026/27 (Paper No.26-47)

Again, Councillor Gasser.
Yes, thank you. So this paper covers the allocation which comes from the government to our schools
and we, what's the word, sort of channel it, if you like, for the schools.
The council itself doesn't have much decision -making power over this.
There's a, it's mainly on a per pupil basis.
There's a small amount of discretion, but actually the decision over that discretion is taken by the school's forum.
So that's a group of representatives of all the different schools across the borough.
And they have a very small amount of discussion over how much money should go to the primary schools compared to the secondary schools.
We have been funding the primary schools slightly more because you need to support children when they really need it right at the beginning.
The government way is to start moving towards the secondary schools so
We are slowly, slowly moving that discretionary funding towards the secondary, that's not huge amounts.
You will know that obviously the funding situation is challenging for all schools at the moment.
We're in a tough world, it's precarious.
But actually in Wandsworth, our schools are in a really good position and that's down to our officers.
The finance officers in the children's team are excellent at supporting the schools and
They work with each and every school that really wants the support, looking at their budgets, looking where they can make efficiencies, what can we do?
And this is helping the schools to actually be in healthy positions, almost all of them are in healthy positions.
That is also supported by our programme of going out and
finding children that should be entitled to free school meals, so the pupil premium.
So that way, not only does the child get the meal, but also the school gets the funding.
So that really does help the schools funding as well.
So it actually means that most of our schools are not in deficit.
Only 4 % of our schools don't have a surplus, which is amazing.
Against nationally, most of this is a 14 % position.
So we're doing really well.
It's a collective response with our offices supporting our schools.
Our schools are working really hard on this as well.
So they're doing as well as they possibly can in a tricky situation.
Thank you very much. Any questions on that paper?
Councillor White. Thank you for that.
Can you outline some of the ways in which we secure the best value for money in our
schools? Well, our offices are very good at building
partnerships which we do that across the council, don't we, in all sorts of areas.
But our children seem particularly good at this.
So we've got a very, very strong partnership with Apple.
They're a great friends to us.
And you'll be aware they've been supporting schools across the borough with alligator
pines, with training, with teaching the teachers and the children.
Probably about a million pounds worth of support so far, which is wonderful.
And we're really, really grateful to them.
That's fantastic.
We have other partnerships.
We just started one with On Running, a sports company.
and they are funding sports activities in 10 primary schools across the borough.
Fantastic. It's just adding extra richness to the curriculum for children,
something that the schools couldn't afford themselves,
these partners are bringing into us.
There's another exciting project, a STEAM project,
which let me get this right, Science Technology, something Arts and Maths.
Engineering is the E, isn't it?
So what the children are learning is about engineering skills,
building music equipment which is absolutely fantastic.
So this partnership with Audiotronics,
it's been in Burtonwood for the last year,
it's going really, really well.
They're gonna roll it out across the borough
and if that goes well,
they're gonna roll it out across London.
So one's worth leading the way once again,
but it's wonderful to see these young people
engaged in music making.
And then of course we've got the partnership
with Magic Breakfast.
So that's getting breakfast to 5 ,000 children
across the borough every morning, which is amazing.
All of these different initiatives,
and we're always looking for more of course,
really helped the schools to provide
the best they possibly can.
No further.
Thanks very much.

10 VAWG Task and Finish Group (Paper No.26-28)

Is the school's finance allocation for next year agreed?

11 Wandsworth Highways Maintenance Programme 26/27 (Paper No.26-33)

Excellent.
And next up on the agenda,
a slightly different type of item where,
as you know, as part of our scrutiny,
Councillors look into certain topics of their choosing. It's not my choice or the cabinet's
choice and I'm really pleased we've got Councillor De Bruijs here to give us an update on the
Task and Finish group that's looking at violence against women and girls. So, hi, we're very
pleased to welcome Councillor De Bruijs on the video link. So, over to you.
Hi everyone, I'm really sorry to not be able to join you here in person. Just to give a
bit of a summary of what we found in our report, the report's been to both Children's Committee
and we held a special joint committee which was great to bring the Children's Department
and the Health Department together. We had some of the young people that we spoke to
in the review there just last week and it received a really positive response from both
you know, the administration and the opposition.
So that was really great to see.
But just as a reminder of the themes of the report
that I know you've all read.
One, you know, we spoke to an awful lot of young people
and they were really wanting to actually have a conversation
around how to prevent violence against women and girls
and wanting to be part of that in Wandsworth specifically,
but felt like kind of those opportunities
were quite haphazard, on and off.
Sometimes they got a one -off training session
or a one -off session at school, but it wasn't really consistent over the years.
And that was mirrored with what teachers and parents told us as well.
So there's a real appetite to have a conversation about
black -centred women and girls around misogyny and toxic behaviours.
But we kind of need to create those spaces.
And secondly, you know, given all of the online harms that many young
people have experienced, often some of the really kind of toxic influences
people are and young people are experiencing them in isolation, that's what they told us.
So instead of having a shared experience, maybe through EastEnders or a SOAP where you might have seen a domestic abuse relationship before,
and you could discuss it with your family, with your friends together in your living room.
Instead, you're seeing a video at a completely different time to when your friends are or when your family are.
And there's that inability to kind of discuss that.
So in turn, how can we create those shared opportunities
to see content and discuss it
and kind of interpret it together and come together?
And then the kind of third theme was around young people
and communities really valuing a sense of belonging.
And especially some of the young kids at school
told us that inclusive and affordable activities
they feel make the most difference.
So sometimes they see kind of really affluent kids
getting to go to lots of different clubs, sports clubs, after school clubs,
and they in turn feel like they're spending a lot more time on their phones,
whereas they feel like if we had the same offer for everyone or as much as possible,
that actually there would be less opportunity to look at that content online and to feel really isolated.
Two more, the fourth theme is that prevention is available,
but sometimes we're not very good at connecting it. So people at school have heard about
interventions from the Children's Department, some of our domestic abuse services are connected in
with community safety, but we have a real role, especially as a council and a kind of system
convener, to bring everything that's available together in one place so that whether you're a
young person, a parent, a youth worker, a teacher, you know what's on offer across Wandsworth.
And then finally, and kind of most importantly, not everyone experiences violence against women and girls in the same way.
And we absolutely have to make sure that our interventions and our responses culturally competent.
And we know in Wandsworth that many women and girls who access support English isn't their first language.
So we just need to be really, really alive to that and making sure our responses is in respect to that.
So I'll just pause there, but I know that you may have
some questions and some of the recommendations,
but a big thank you to everyone
that took part in the review again.
Oh, and thank you, because it's a fantastic piece of work.
I'd really recommend people go online.
You can find it, obviously, in the papers for this meeting
and have a look.
So thank you very much to you and your colleagues.
Are there questions while we have Councillor De Bruyne
so I can see Councillor Gasser and Councillor White.
Thank you very much.
Let's be really interesting.
And actually I've got a message from Councillor Henderson who can't be with us, sadly, but
he's taken a very great interest in this area of work.
And this is what he would like me to say.
So he said, in our 2022 manifesto, Wandsworth Labour committed to doubling resources in the fight to eliminate violence against women and girls and to make VORG a top priority of the Labour administration.
I'm extremely pleased that not only have we met those pledges, but this excellent work
by the cross -party VORG task and finish group builds on that and establishes a clear line
of direction to take forward this essential programme.
I would like to thank all those who have worked to bring this report to fruition.
It shows what can be done when party differences are put to one side, and we work collaboratively
to the benefit of our communities.
So that's from Graham.
And then there's a question from me.
I'm really interested in all the engagement that you did, because I think you spoke to over 300 people.
So just how did you do that?
And tell me about some of the people that you met.
Thank you.
Yeah, absolutely.
And thank you for sharing those comments from Graham.
So we knew that we wanted this report to be a different kind of report.
We didn't want it to be a kind of policy speak report that didn't speak for the young people in our community.
So the report is written in the language of which we spoke to people in and what they told us.
So we spoke to 350 different people over Wandsworth.
We spoke to our Youth Council, who were absolutely fantastic,
and they had some of the best ideas, probably better ideas than we had as councillors.
We went and spoke to sports groups in the borough.
So we had a really amazing conversation with a young boys football club.
And they again gave us some of the most interesting
and kind of outside the box ideas
of things that they would really value.
We went to schools, we spoke to head teachers in the borough,
we went and saw our women's refuge
and we heard directly from survivors
about what would have really helped them
earlier up the chain.
And some of those women have been in contact
with Wandsworth housing team,
but also other housing teams across the borough.
So they gave us some really interesting ideas
and in kind of what other councils might be offering.
We spoke to our parent champions, youth workers,
so many more, but yeah, it was absolutely great
just to kind of make sure that this report was grounded
in those experiences and is full of their quotes.
Can I just come back on that?
Oh, I was just gonna say, yes, thank you very much.
And I did hear, one of my colleagues spoke to Krasi,
the youth mayor, and asked him about that,
the highlights of his year as youth mayor.
And actually he said being listened to, being an advocate of his views and his colleagues' views or the other young people's view,
the real highlight, and being in that council chamber where we were a week or two ago,
and having everybody in the room listen to young people's views was so important.
And that makes me really proud that you did that.
But also I think we have a responsibility to act on what the young people have told us and they have told us.
They want to talk about this.
They want adults to help them talk about this.
So I do think this cabinet needs to commit to taking that forward, putting some funding towards that, if needs be.
We need to really help young people navigate this difficult, difficult world of misogyny.
And it's girls and boys, they all need our support with this.
Yep, thank you, Councillor Dobras.
I thought it was an excellent read and a really, really important report.
The world that we live in now is very different from the world that I grew up in,
and the many influences I think that certainly men come under now,
or young men come under now, is very different from, as I say, the world where I grew up.
So, with the online world especially, can you tell us more about the role the Council can play,
and how this fits in with some of what we're hearing about potential national changes
around social media regulation.
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for raising that.
So, you know, time and time again, throughout the review,
both young people and parents told us that they felt that, you know,
social media and smartphones were unfortunately a real cause
of much of this information being shared just so easily and so readily.
You know, one young guy spoke to me, said that he was scrolling, looking at a recipe,
and the next minute he scrolled and got some very kind of graphic content of a woman essentially
being abused on TikTok. So, exactly as you said, it's that kind of ease of access. So, I think,
you know, one's like, oh, you need to listen to the evidence and look at what the national
direction is, look at what other countries are doing, look at what our schools and parents are
telling us and very seriously consider using the evidence
about what would be appropriate in terms of phone usage
and allowance in our schools, social media usage as a whole
and what we can do as a council to kind of put some
of those clear guidelines in place.
Thanks very much.
Well, I think that's all of the questions we've got
for today, Councillor De Brace.
I just want to say thanks again very much for your time today. This is clearly a conversation
we are going to continue. I think we are going to take up Councillor Gasser's challenge to
explain how we're now going to strengthen our work in this area and our commitment.
So keen to continue that discussion with you and your colleagues who have worked on that
in the weeks to come.
Thank you so much everyone. Have a good meeting.
Thank you.
See you, thanks.
So I think having heard that presentation,
are we okay to accept the VORG task
and finish group report?
And I think therefore to also accept the spirit
of its recommendations and take up the challenge
of taking it forward.
Thanks very much.

12 Local Government Finance Settlement (Paper No. 26-80)

The next paper is Wandsworth Highways Maintenance Programme
for the year ahead.

11 Wandsworth Highways Maintenance Programme 26/27 (Paper No.26-33)

Councillor Yates can't be with us tonight,
but I'm sure she'd want me to point out

12 Local Government Finance Settlement (Paper No. 26-80)

11 Wandsworth Highways Maintenance Programme 26/27 (Paper No.26-33)

This is the largest highway maintenance programme
anywhere in London.
It's obviously Wandsworth's biggest ever
highways maintenance programme.
More than 10 million pounds here.
This investment is part of our Decade of Renewal.
That's funded by those property developer taxes.
And actually this came up in Ballum on Saturday.
People were really pleased with the pavements
that they've seen going in.
Whether you have children that are scooting along
or whether you have mobility issues yourself,
of people wanna see those beautiful pavements.
So I note this paper in the year ahead
says you'll get new pavements in Ballum
if you live in Morella Road, Ranmere Street,
Ritherdon Road, Brenda Road,
Cheriton Square, Chestnut Grove, Eatonville Road.
And it is worth looking through the list in the paper.
And I know it can create envy
if the road next to yours is done and yours isn't done,
but I promise we'll get around there soon.
but are there any comments or questions about the highways paper? Otherwise is

12 Local Government Finance Settlement (Paper No. 26-80)

that approved? Thanks very much and we have two more papers on the agenda. The
local government finance settlement, Councillor Ireland.
Thank you, I could say a few words about this. So this refers to the provisional local government finance settlement which was
published on the 17th of December.
And this is the first of a multi -year settlement since 2020
and covers core funding for the next three years.
That's from the 1st of April, 2026 to the 31st of March, 2029.
Now the aim of the settlement was to redistribute resources
towards areas of higher deprivation with weaker tax bases
to address historic underfunding in poorer regions.
but this means that boroughs like Wandsworth that have had historically low council tax rates
and relatively strong tax bases are disadvantaged. Now we did lobby hard, we continue to lobby
to improve the position for Wandsworth and the proposed formula was amended to include better
indicators of deprivation and to include the high cost of housing in London, but the settlement has
shifted funding away from inner London, it's reduced transitional protections and assumes
significant council tax increases. Now, for us, the short transition period of three years
is challenging, but the position we only learned about this two months ago, and I think this
requires careful handling and not be panicked into making rush decisions. Regarding our
our budget for 26 -27, it hasn't changed those plans because we anticipated the loss of funding
of 19 million. Our funding was protected up to 95 % and we factored that in when we were
calculating the budget so it hasn't changed our plans there. Now, we are confident that
we can manage this and achieve a balanced budget in future years while protecting our
and as I've said before, a large part of this is developing the transformation programme.
Now we've been working on this over the summer and in September we will produce the medium -term
financial strategy which will set out a more accurate picture of our financial position
over the coming years. So I'm very keen that this is a calm, measured response that puts
our residents first and we're not looking to make them pay initially, we're going to
try to make the savings and efficiencies we need as far as possible internally. Thank
you. Thanks very much. Any comments or questions?
Councillor Di Cidio? Yeah, I think, you know, like you say, this
is, we've had two months to look at this and I think it's important that we don't either
reacts too brashly and quickly without thinking
through strategically what it would look like to shape
our services internally.
And the transformation programme is exactly what we need to do.
I mean, this is a council that was run a certain way
for 44 years.
And there are loads of things that we can see change.
Look at the housing improvement plan and the big changes there,
which are about modernising departments that maybe
for a long time just didn't have that look behind the bonnet.
I guess the kind of political point I want to make, though, is that it's important that
the entire basis of some of the amazing things that we put through on the budget, access
for all, the decade of renewal, these progressive modernization and changes are not then used
as basically sacrificial lambs in terms of any attacks
that we get from our opposition and from the media
as they circle in on Wandsworth and places like Westminster.
And so my comment really is that you
need a labour council on your side
that is going to look after those at the sharpest end
while navigating these choppy financial waters.
And that is basically what you have
been doing for the last couple of years.
It would be good to get a sense from you about what
some of the modernization processes you think will deliver some of those savings, and then
also some of the things that we can be thinking about over the summer that you'd like us to
start moving on fast. I mean, housing being a key drag on the General Fund at the moment
because of temporary accommodation, there's a lot to be done there to try and do more
early prevention work and lower the duty and things like that.
the cost of temporary accommodation is high and it does come from the General Fund, but
officers are taking steps already to control that and the signs are looking good. We're
not taking anything for granted. It is the transformation programme. It offers us so
much opportunity to make the most of the artificial intelligence, changing the way we're working,
creating more efficiencies. But really, we are absolutely committed to protecting frontline
services. We will do everything in our power to try to modernise the way we work, to make
a 21st century council before we look at cutting services to our residents.
We are very fortunate to have a Chief Executive and a Director of Transformation that have
got a good track record on this at previous places, so I'm very confident in their ability
and I know that the officers I speak to are very, very keen that this work continues.
They fully support it.
So I think working together we can achieve that.
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
And do we approve that paper?
Thanks very much.

13 Adoption of the Wandsworth Local Plan Partial Review (Paper No. 26-81)

There's just one more paper tonight, which is a bit of a late -breaking paper.
Councillor Di Catem, do you want to explain what this is?
Yeah, so the planning inspector has finally got back to us on our regulation 19 changes
that had been left with him to kind of review.
And it's very, very good news.
So the modifications are along the lines of what we thought were coming our way from the
hearing that took place.
We gave an update to the Transport Committee, I want to say a week and a half ago, two weeks
ago, before the Inspector had actually come out and clarified what the final outcome would
be.
So I'm going to run through a bit of that and try and do it in layman's terms, because
there's going to be a lot of percentages that I want to break down in a way that is understandable.
So this was one of our key manifesto commitments,
which is about making sure that private sites in Wandsworth
deliver as much public good as possible.
And for us that's delivering as much affordable
housing as possible.
And so the way the system works at the moment
is there is a GLA fast track,
which means that if a developer comes forward
with 35 % affordable housing,
they get a fast track where we don't look at their books
and find out what their profit margins and viability are.
it's kind of carrot to encourage development.
And the way that the Bonswyths handled this affordable housing
percentages and the fast track in their own planning policy
was that of that 35%, 50 % would be allocated for social housing
and 50 % for intermediate products like shared ownership.
So the GLA allows you to staircase up
to a 70%, 30 % split with a 70 % social housing ask
and a 30 % intermediate ask.
And so that was one of the changes that we asked
from the planning inspector, and that has been granted.
So now, when a scheme comes through,
we can ask for the maximum amount of social housing
to deliver for those residents who are on the waiting list
in temporary accommodation and causing such strain
on the general fund.
And also making sure that our neighbourhoods remain diverse
and affordable to everyone, not just people who have
the ability to buy market housing.
The only thing that we didn't get signed off on, so we got of all our checklists and I'll go through them,
the only thing that the inspector hasn't given us agreement on is we wanted to create a 45 % fast track,
which meant that if a developer came to Wandsworth, that if they built 45 % affordable housing,
then we would have a special fast track for them to try and use the fact we have very high land values
and this is a very, a place that is desirable to invest in on private sites.
And we had a strong evidence base for that.
We could show that 70 % of our sites are viable if you have a 45 % fast track.
We came in some quite choppy headwinds in the national picture because of the stalling
sites, difficulties in, you know, there's a big political debate about what's causing
it, but with rising interest rates, flat prices in London, dual staircase, increased fire
safety burdens.
So because we had just dragged our affordable housing, since we've taken office, we've managed
to get our affordable housing permissions and numbers up really significantly, I think
the inspectors was like, you've done really well, let's see how you go on the course so
far.
Because for the last decade, probably the best period in which you could have got affordable
housing out of developers, we had a 35 % policy,
but the Tories only got 18 % affordable housing.
And of that 18%, they only got 7 % social.
So we're hitting 35 % regularly, but I
think the inspector was like, keep hitting a 35 %
for a couple of years before you come back and try
and get a higher percentage.
But we're an ambitious progressive council
that tries to ask for as much as we can.
And so that was the only area where we didn't get sign off.
But on 70 -30 split, we got sign off on sites
smaller than 10 dwellings.
We now get a financial contribution towards those,
so 50 ,000 pounds, which goes towards our 1 ,000 Homes
programme, building social housing ourself.
We got useful changes on the housing mix on bedroom sizes.
Because we were sometimes seeing schemes come through with very
high bedroom intermediate products, which basically meant
they weren't really affordable products because
of the income caps.
So we've regulated that a bit more to make that more
Meaningful and so that the affordable products that are getting built are actually affordable
We've also
managed to get a really good move on co -living and
buildings with shared facilities
So that's one of the most high return products
But as you know, it's not something that can go out to the weight to the waiting list and it's a quite a bespoke product
so we've managed to get that
They have to deliver 50 % affordable housing because of the high returns they get.
We want some public gain from that.
And we've also managed to change the way that student housing and bill to rent housing also operate in the borough.
To make sure that we're really getting on the prime sites that we want the housing for local residents that we know so desperately needed.
So it's a really important raft of reforms.
It was a hard battle.
Our officers did an incredible job.
I saw them at the inspection in the town hall making the case for us.
While we haven't made it on our 45 % fast track,
I'm hoping that in a couple of years
we'll be able to reopen that again,
because I think it, like I said,
we had the evidence base for it,
but we were coming into a very difficult
political circumstances with the GLA
changing their own thresholds internally.
But this was well worthwhile,
and there will be more social housing
and more public goods coming out of our
Plannings Applications Committee
because of these changes.
So a very good news storey,
and exactly what we set out to do four years ago.
Thanks very much.
That's a very good summary and excellent work.
Thank you.
Any comments or questions?
Councillor White.
Yeah, it's good news.
It's not all doom and gloom from sometimes I think that we feel that policy could be
a little bit more better for us because of what we deliver and what we are delivering.
I was going to ask you around, once we do get the planning permission, is there any
sort of help in legislation in pushing those plans through such that they're not sat on
for years and years and years until the situation is a lot better so developers can make more
money?
I have a whole host of things I would ask from a government.
I can't, sadly, I don't have the power to legislate myself, but I think you're absolutely
you're right that planning permission does not mean build.
And that is the challenge in what's happening
at London at the moment.
So we're in a very good position.
And you have to think long term.
And I think there is a balance to be had
between long term thinking.
Because you don't want a permission that makes it through.
Because I've seen that before.
I've seen permissions where they say,
well if we ask for too much, it won't get built out
and they'll just hold onto their permission.
So we'll drop the affordable housing
and the permission comes through.
And lo and behold, just like everyone else in the market,
they hold onto the site anyway.
So getting a permission with a higher affordable threshold,
a higher affordable percentage,
is good for the long term when a developer
finally comes to building it out.
Because they are going to, unless they come back
and ask for a change and do another submission
and try and negotiate down, we've got that locked in.
I think you're absolutely right though
that we need mechanisms to try and make sure
that that land banking process doesn't happen.
It's a massive bug in a country like Britain
where the very large big developer players
have thousands of permissions all across the country which they can carefully manage and
build up at certain times.
We often – we're quite loud about our views about how that system could change.
We've seen some very good things come from Matthew Pennycook, particularly around compulsory
purchase orders and local authorities being able to use that to try and erode hope value.
But you're right, there's more to do.
But with the power that we do have, getting that permission that does have a higher threshold
means that it's then safeguarded and the best outcome
from when the build takes place.
So we do what we can and we fight for as much affordable
housing that we can build.
And if it's not built out now, it's
built out in the future without them having to come back.
And if we're not around and someone changes it,
then there's a political, you can point and say,
these people allowed affordable housing to be cut.
And that's important, some accountability.
And Councillor Gasset.
Yeah, thank you very much. It's really good to see all these changes that you and the officers have fought for. It's fantastic.
But are you confident there's a pipeline of developers coming through that are keen to build under these conditions in Wandsworth?
Yeah, so in some ways, because of the pipeline that we know is happening, it's why, you know, I think we've given them,
Inspector sent on Friday the outcome of the report and we're getting it to cabinet so we can get it through for Council,
so it can be live and immediate for the pipeline of developments that continue to come through
Wandsworth.
Like Wandsworth, I think we have to be realistic about the London -wide challenge.
There are outer boroughs with lower land values where it's really difficult, but Wandsworth
remains a viable and a profitable place to build housing.
And so there's that Goldilocks moment of making sure that you don't stall everything, and
That's what we've tried to evidence.
The whole basis of the Reg 19 was that everything
had to mean that sites remained viable,
and we were very clear about that.
And that's what the evidence basis showed,
is that we could get sites coming through
with these changes and remain viable.
And by viable, for those at home,
is that the scheme was profitable enough
for the site to come through.
So there is, and developers, and we always say this,
and this gets lost in the public,
they always have the non,
they can always go down the viability tested route.
So a developer can always let us look into their books,
go through the viability tested route,
and if the numbers don't stack up,
then the affordable housing percentage is dropped.
The key with what the changes we're trying to make
is navigating that we actually know
that that's what's really happening,
and that's where the threshold changes are important.
And we've been quite vociferous,
and we will be in our response to the consultation
on the threshold changes,
because we think actually the fast track is a carrot.
And so if you really are saying that this is about finances,
let us see those finances first.
And I think that's been key to our public pronouncements
on the matter anyway.
Thanks very much.
So is that paper on the adoption of the Wandsworth Local Plan
partial review agreed?
Excellent.
Well, thanks very much.
We got to the end of a packed agenda.
We've also got to the end of this cycle in the council's life. So thank you very very much cabinet members
Officers who are here today for your service for local people because I think this is quite
Characteristic set of papers that demonstrates sound financial management that value for money
But protects our green spaces and biodiversity
Make sure we have safer greener streets supporting our young people and as always protecting the most vulnerable
So thank you very, very much for your work
on behalf of local people.
Good evening.
.