The Scrutiny Committee will meet on 2 December 2025 to consider the following items. Report and recommendations, including those from its working groups, will be published as a late supplement.

• Authority Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement
• Housing Complaint Handling Performance (Q1 and Q2)
• Building Safety & Compliance (Q1 and Q2)
• Draft Resident Involvement Strategy 2025-28
• Decarbonisation update: Impact of Energy Efficiency Funding programmes (LAD1b and SHDF) and EPC programme
• Net Zero Tracker
• Air Quality Action Plan
• Biodiversity Strategy and Environment Act update
• Treasury Management Annual Report

The Scrutiny Committee met on 2 December 2025. The Committee considered the following items.

• Authority Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement
• Housing Complaint Handling Performance (Q1 and Q2)
• Building Safety & Compliance (Q1 and Q2)
• Draft Resident Involvement Strategy 2025-28
• Decarbonisation update: Impact of Energy Efficiency Funding programmes (LAD1b and SHDF) and EPC programme
• Net Zero Tracker
• Air Quality Action Plan
• Biodiversity Strategy and Environment Act update
• Treasury Management Annual Report

Celeste Reyeslao, Scrutiny and Governance Advisor, presented the comments and recommendations from Scrutiny Committee regarding the Authority Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement.

• Recommendation 1: For Cabinet to review the reporting of housing delivered, separating out those on sites of under 10 units where the requirement for affordable housing is not triggered within the covering report for future years.
• Recommendation 2: For Officers to identify, if possible, the complex set of reasons as to why the housing completions reported are currently under the target or if not possible, explicitly state this.
• Recommendation 3: For Cabinet to request officers to investigate bottlenecks with the current processes.

Councillor Hollingsworth presented Cabinet’s response to the recommendations. He said that they agreed the first two recommendations from the Committee. Regarding the third recommendation, he said that they had a productive conversation and debate about this matter, and they acknowledged the issue they face around the pressure of resource. He said that they welcome the recommendation as it highlights their work to help resolve this challenge.

The Scrutiny and Governance Advisor presented the comments and recommendations from Scrutiny Committee regarding the Housing Complaint Handling Performance (Q1 and Q2), Building Safety & Compliance (Q1 and Q2), Draft Resident Involvement Strategy 2025-28, Decarbonisation update: Impact of Energy Efficiency Funding programmes (LAD1b and SHDF) and EPC programme, Net Zero Tracker, and Air Quality Action Plan. She noted that no recommendations arose from their consideration of these reports.

The Scrutiny and Governance Advisor presented the comments and recommendations from Climate and Environment Working Group regarding the Biodiversity Strategy and Environment Act Update.

• That Cabinet draw on the expertise of community and voluntary groups to provide input and support the delivery of the Biodiversity Strategy; and actively inform the public about the criteria for good habitat, clearly promoting what good biodiverse habitat looks like so as to strengthen public understanding and support for practices (such as leaving verges uncut) that protect local species.

Councillor Railton responded to the recommendation from the working group and noted that they were in agreement with the recommendation.

The Scrutiny and Governance Advisor presented the comments and recommendations from Finance and Performance Working Group’s consideration of the ODS Group Performance Report. She noted that these recommendations were originally presented to the Shareholder and Joint Venture Group, but it was recognized that these recommendations would be more adequately addressed by Cabinet.

• Recommendation 1: To increase the use of CCTV given that it has been the most effective measure for preventing fly-tipping.
• Recommendation 2: That repairs of play area equipment be reverted to a delegated budget arrangement, as this model has previously demonstrated greater efficiency and addresses the backlogs in maintenance.

Councillor Railton responded to the second recommendation regarding the ODS Report and stated that Cabinet did not agree this recommendation.