Agenda item - Chair's Communications

96.1      The Chair provided the following Communications:

“We're starting 2026 in Brighton and Hove with a real energy and a clear sense of purpose for our city. This afternoon's agenda tells a powerful story about the kind of council and the kind of city that we are determined to be, one where young people help shape decisions where we double down on recycling and climate action where we deliver our Council plan and protect vital services and where we seize on the opportunities of devolution, where we invest in safe, sustainable projects and where we protect and enhance our precious natural environment.

We begin with a refreshed model for our Youth Council moving to a Cabinet style system, strengthening links with senior officers and cabinet members and creating regular opportunities for young people to present directly to our corporate leadership team and to full council.

This is about putting young people front and centre in how we discuss things and make decisions here at the Council, including for a youth takeover day that will take place this year and youth led consultations and listening events that make sure their priorities genuinely influences what this Council does.

We're also discussing today a new, ambitious programme to move to more recycling and less waste, building on our increased investment, expanded curbside recycling and the successful roll out of weekly food waste collections so that over the next decade we can work towards doubling our recycling rates. By using better data, smarter rounds, engagement with residents and staff, and exploring changes such as alternate weekly collections for residual waste, we want a more reliable, efficient service that clearly supports our net zero and our circular economy ambitions.

Alongside this, the updated circular economy route map and action plan 2025 to 2035 will embed circular principles across the city's economy, from construction and the visitor economy to food systems and digital innovation, supporting green jobs, resource efficiency and a fair and more resilient local economy. We want to keep our money within Brighton and Hove.

This route map positions Brighton and Hove as a leader in the circular economy, aligned with our council plan and our national move towards a green industrial revolution.

Our Mid-Year Council plan performance update shows that even with a forecast General Fund overspend and significant pressures in key services, we continue to make strong progress against our four priorities:

a city to be proud of, a fair and inclusive city, a healthy city and a responsive, learning Council.

From culture change in environmental services to improved housing safety, strengthen safeguarding practise and a more diverse and inclusive workforce, the Council is demonstrating that we can be both forward-thinking and financially responsible.

The accompanying risk management framework and strategic risks underline that we are serious about managing challenges from keeping our city clean and safe to ensuring property compliance, delivering devolution and reorganisation well and safeguarding our most vulnerable residents.

This is about being honest about risk while staying focused on improvement and innovation.

Today, we'll also be considering very excitingly the next steps in creating a Sussex and Brighton Mayoral Combined County Authority and preparations for hosting a mayoral election later down the road.

There has been a delay to the mayoral election, which was announced by government last month. Our message to our city today is very much that devolution is still on track. Devolution itself has not been delayed and we are working, if anything more earnestly and more ambitiously with our partners in East and West Sussex to create this new strategic authority by May this year and to get underway, working with government, receiving their investment fund and starting to make strategic decisions in the interest of all our residents in Brighton and wider Sussex.

Several items today focus on our housing and our neighbourhoods, urgent electrical mains replacement in council housing, procurement for the Brickfields development and our ongoing programme to improve housing safety and compliance. The progress is the regulator of housings judgement is good from dramatically improving smoke alarm coverage and electrical testing to tackling repairs backlogs and fire safety actions and I think it reflects a Council that has moved from a crisis response to a phase of consolidation, improvement and accountability.

I also think I should be open about the fact that since we last met, cabinet decisions relating to housing have been taken as executive decisions do, in particular by myself.

Given the urgency concerned in both cases, a report on these decisions is coming to full Council for information at our full Council meeting next week, and this report can be accessed on the Council's website under the published agenda for full Council on the 29th of January. It gives the full detail of those decisions and it links to the decision report themselves with the background to the issues, the decisions taken and the region reasons for urgency, I will only exercise special urgency powers where the decision cannot wait until the next Cabinet meeting and where the Chair of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee has confirmed that they agree with this position, which happened in both of these cases over the last month. It's my preference for all executive decision reports to come here to Cabinet but this is not always possible in exceptional circumstances and I want to ensure that residents and anyone in attendance today or watching online are aware that these decisions are published and accessible and also reported to full Council for transparency.

Today we'll also consider future arrangements for all this services to ensure our back office functions are modern, efficient and fit for purpose, helping us get the best value for every pound that we spend. These are not always headline decisions, but they are fundamental to well-run services and keeping residents safe, supported and crucially informed. And finally, today our biodiversity habitat, bank pilot at Saint Michael's Field, both the open report and its exempt companion showcases a new way of investing in nature, improving habitats and unlocking biodiversity net gain in and around the city. This is about turning our climate and ecological ambitions into practical projects on the ground, creating richer green spaces for communities while supporting sustainable development.

So as we move through the agenda items today, the thread running through this meeting is clear. A council that listens and learns that plans for the long term and that works with our young people, residents and partners to build a cleaner, fairer, healthier Brighton and Hove where everybody has a chance to thrive.