Agenda item - Chair's Communications

77.1      The Chair provided the following Communications:

“Since our Cabinet meeting last month, Members and officers have been working incredibly hard as ever to deliver for our city. The multi-use games area in Hangleton has been refurbished and is looking fantastic and already being well used.

As is the games area in Saltdean, we are investing in facilities that residents need to stay healthy and to play sports to match this, our Labour Government announced yesterday that Brighton is one of only 8 early adopters to pilot the Government's new Young Futures hubs, which are a key part of the new National Youth strategy.

The Conservatives overlooked young people for far too long, and the Young Futures programme will create a national network of inclusive youth spaces for 10 to 18 year olds, along with support for those up to 25 years old that have special educational needs.

It's a brilliant opportunity for us to work with our young people here in the city and with our partners to co-design a space that offers real support. This comes, of course, alongside the new child Poverty Action Strategy, which was published very recently by our government, today's homelessness strategy and the scrapping of the two child benefits limit in last month's budget.

Also this month, we've rolled out real time bin collection tracking all part of our ambitious modernisation of the service and most recently, food waste collections have started across the west of the city. Our plans for a new swimming pool in Withdean have received planning permission, the first new swimming pool in the city for 40 years, while our draft budget would protect our offer of free swimming for under eighteens in our Council run swimming pools.

We've received 2 gold awards in the last month, the first from the Sutton Trust for our package of school reforms, meaning our secondary school admissions policy is now one of the most progressive in the country putting Labour's values into action and our councils planning team has very well deservedly jumped from bronze to gold in their rating this year by Planning Resource the sectors leading publication for the speed and quality of its decision making.

We've participated in the 16 days of activism campaign highlighting the Council services and 3rd party organisations available to support women and girls in the city facing domestic abuse. We've commemorated World AIDS Day and renewed our achievable commitments and all new HIV transmission in the city by 20-30 and we've commemorated Trans Day of remembrance, remembering trans lives lost to violence following the decision made at Cabinet last month.

We've also formed part of the government's official bid for the women's FIFA Football World Cup in 2035 as one of the potential host cities, one of 16, and we've launched a new campaign on the harm caused by particle pollution from wood burners over the winter months.

We've also launched a new consultation on a planned Community Safety Strategy.

I'm really proud to announce for the first time today that we've also rolled out operating women's only emergency accommodation and temporary accommodation in response to feedback we received about the lack of safety that some women experience who have been housed by us due to their experiencing homelessness.

Today's agenda is shaped by strong focus on our finances and the strategic decisions that will define our city's future. We begin with the October 2025 targeted budget management report which examines the impact of our risk management measures on our current financial position and our year end forecast. While we've seen improvements since the start of the year, the financial year significant overspend risks remain in the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account and Schools Budget. Critically low reserves, an inheritance from the previous Conservative government and local Green Party mean we must maintain our drive for continuous improvement through tighter controls, Directorate recovery plans and our ongoing transformation work including digital transformation.

Looking ahead today, we'll also consider the General Fund Draft Budget and Resources update for 26/27 to 29/30. This is where our Council plan comes to life. In financial terms, aligning our budgets with our ambition for a better Brighton and hope for all.

The draft budget and medium-term financial strategy highlight the scale of our challenge, projecting a gap of around £24.9 million next year and over £80 million across the period before savings. The report details the savings and transformation programmes proposed for key services such as adult social care and housing and set out our assumptions on Council tax and national funding reforms ahead of the provisional local government finance settlement, which we expect next week.

We also have a report today on libraries and I note the keen public interest in this and residents in the public gallery.

No one enters politics wanting to make difficult decisions about closing certain public facilities, but the challenge we face from past chronic underfunding across the public sector, from health to local government, is real. And even though our government is now providing real terms, funding uplifts, pressures on our services and the complexity of issues we face is also real. This was very much evidenced by our CQC inspection into adult social care this month, which ranked us as requiring improvement. We aim to reshape how libraries operate, exploring new income streams, partnerships and changes to the estate, while maintaining as much access for communities as possible.

Our City Transport Plan 2035 will set a strategic direction for safer, cleaner and more inclusive transport over the next decade. It brings together our climate and air quality goals with improvements in public transport, active travel and road safety underpinning future bids for external funding and investment in our city's transport network.

We will also discuss our homelessness and rough sleeping strategy 2035 to 30, which responds to the sharp increases in homelessness, temporary accommodation costs and rough sleeping.

This strategy takes a prevention first partnership approach to reduce demand for expensive temporary accommodation, improved pathways out of rough sleeping and align closely with our financial recovery work in homes and adult social care.

I was privileged earlier this week to visit the Clock Tower Sanctuary, which is an organisation that provides support for young people between 18 and 35 experiencing homelessness and I just want to put on record my deep appreciation for the many charities and organisations in the city that provide excellent support services and the increasing partnership working we are doing with them to ensure that together we can deliver as much support as possible.

Our agenda includes the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust Service fee for 2026 to 2031. The proposed funding agreement gives the trust stability, while recognising the Council's wider financial pressures, framing the service fee as an investment in our heritage, our visitor economy and our cultural offer.

Finally, I want to highlight our response to the regulator of social housing regulatory judgement. This six-month update demonstrates significant progress on compliance and a major reduction in the historic Council house repairs backlog, strengthen leadership, governance and data quality are helping us to move from short term recovery to a more embedded systems led model.

We're also seeking delegated authority to procure a two-year stock condition survey, ensuring we can plan for the long-term condition of our homes and meet our emerging and evolving, legal duties.

Taken together, today's agenda shows a Council that is ambitious for its residents, honest about the financial pressures we take and determined to keep delivering improvements across the city. I'm grateful to all colleagues and officers in particular for their hard work, and I look forward to our discussions and decisions this afternoon”.