Leader of the Council, Cllr Peray Ahmet, and
the Chief Executive of the Council, Andy Donald, introduced this
item by setting out some key developments and achievements.
Cllr Ahmet began by highlighting the
administration’s priorities of being competent, collaborative
and radical which were included in the party manifesto and then
turned into action through the Corporate Delivery Plan. Recent
progress had included:
- 1,000 new Council homes will have
been achieved by the end of 2025 and nearly 1,400 achieved by May
2026. This was against a target of 3,000 by 2031 so the progress
was on track. The progress had been delivered through a combination
of acquisitions and direct builds with Haringey being one of the
only London Boroughs to still be building Council homes.
- Preparations were being made for the
London Borough of Culture in 2027, following the award to Haringey
last year. A new charity had been launched to oversee this and
preparations included the completion of 36 ‘school
streets’ which would increase to 40 by next year.
- Children’s Services had
secured its first ‘good’ rating, SEND services had
achieved the best possible rating and youth justice services had
improved to a ‘good' rating.
- A focus on getting the basics right
had included the approach to flood prevention and cleaning gullies
on a regular basis.
- Investment of nearly £2m in
eight parks, seven of which were in Tottenham and one in Wood
Green.
- The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would
be of the host venues for the Euro 2028 football tournament and the
Council would be working with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and
external partners on how this could best benefit residents.
- Working with the Greater London
Authority (GLA) and other external partners on policy changes such
as the expansion in the national funding for social housing and the
new Renters Rights Bill which provides new enforcement powers for
local authorities.
Andy Donald summarised a number of upcoming
issues and challenges for the Council:
- In the national policy context,
there were a number of reviews proposed including on adult social
care, children’s social care and SEND.
- The reform of local government
funding was not looking positive for Haringey in the medium-term
and so senior officers and Cabinet Members were working to make the
case for Haringey’s funding needs.
- Rising demand and costs of services
was causing financial challenges with the cost of adult social care
rising by 8.5% and temporary accommodation by 51% in 2024/25.
- Community cohesion was important in
terms of recent events and there had been a lot of hard work to
regain and build stronger connections with communities in recent
years.
- In response to the recent CQC
inspection, an Adult Services Improvement Board had been
established which Andy Donald chaired along with cross-party
membership. An OFSTED inspection on children’s social care
was also expected soon.
- There was a rising number of
complaints against the Council, partly because it was now easier to
do so, and so significant resources were required to resolve these
complaints. There had been work to improve services such as housing
repairs, with better numbers in terms of clearing the backlog,
which should help to reduce the number of complaints. However,
there was much further to go.
- There had been work on the
Council’s property portfolio in ensuring that there were
proper leases on community properties.
- Progress was being made on large
place-making projects which had been stalled for some time,
including the High Road West scheme in Tottenham.
- Another priority was recruitment and
retention of staff due to the very difficult current environment
with people being asked to do more.
Cllr Ahmet and Andy Donald then responded to
questions from the Committee:
- Noting the Council’s response
to the government’s Fair Funding consultation, Cllr White
expressed concern that the current levels of funding were not
sufficient for local government across the country to be able to
meet its statutory responsibilities. He asked what was being done
to make the argument to the government that the current situation
was not sustainable. Cllr Ahmet agreed that the financial situation
was hugely challenging and noted that, with the Fair Funding
proposals, the overall amount of funding had not increased but it
had moved to certain places, particularly to areas in the north of
England. The Council had been very clear about the scale of the
challenge and would continue to do so. There had been
representations to the Government from senior officers and also
politically, including through local MPs, and there had also been a
full response to the Fair Funding consultation.
- Cllr Small asked about the long-term
financial pressures, including the cost of borrowing and how this
could impact on capital investment projects. Andy Donald noted that
there had been a very thorough review recently of all of the
Council’s capital projects, including the timing of the
borrowing, which ensured that the Council had narrowed down its
priorities and was not over-optimistic about when investment could
realistically be made. However, it was sensible to borrow for the
housing capital programme as this provided a future financial
benefit or would deliver on priorities such as High Road West in
Tottenham and the Wood Green Central work.
- Asked by Cllr Small for further
details about how staff morale was being supported given the
current pressures, Andy Donald commented that the workforce was
committed to the public sector which had experienced austerity for
a number of years. He added that the Council worked hard across the
organisation to make sure that staff were valued and there were
also a clear set of values that were co-produced with staff. There
were also regular opportunities for staff to share their views and
ideas with senior leadership, including through a series of staff
workshops. Recent progress in recruitment and retention had
included a consistent rise in the number of permanent
children’s social care staff, with the proportion of agency
workers reduced from over 30% a few years ago to around 18%
now.
- Asked by Cllr Small about the
longer-term cost savings through the corporate property model, Andy
Donald explained that it was difficult to drive improvements and
efficiency savings when the Council operated from such a large
number of buildings and so moving to the new Civic Centre would
help to consolidate facilities management work and reduce costs.
Investing in improving the quality of buildings also contributed to
efficiencies, while making staffing as efficient as possible, for
example in libraries, had also helped.
- Cllr Connor referred to the
Council’s draft Statement of Accounts, published in June
2025, which described past weaknesses with procurement and contract
management, and asked how the work to strengthen this was
progressing. Andy Donald responded that, this time last year, he
regarding the changes as being too slow but that significant
improvement and progress had been made since then. There was
further to go as purchases could still take too long, market
knowledge could be improved and there were too many contracts
rolled over at the end. However, there were now governance
frameworks in place to ensure that this didn’t continue to
happen on an ongoing basis. There were also now commissioning
programmes led by the Director in different parts in the
organisation with more consistent processes in place.
- Cllr Connor asked how any costs
incurred by the London Borough of Culture work would be dealt with,
given the challenging financial situation that the Council was in.
Andy Donald reiterated the establishment of a new charity which
opened up more sources of funding that were not available to the
Council as a local authority. There were significant commitments
already from key partners, but it would of course be necessary to
have a programme which reflected the budget that was available. He
added that the Council had a role in providing optimism and hope
for its communities and the Borough of Culture was one way that
this could be achieved.
- Cllr Connor asked about the
Council’s position with the new local NHS framework, with
proposals to merge two large Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in north
London. Cllr Ahmet commented that the merger proposals were still
at an early stage but that a prominent issue of importance to the
Council was moving towards neighbourhood working and that these
conversations were even more important given the larger size of the
new ICB. Andy Donald added that it was also important to maintain
conversations with the ICB on where responsibilities sit in areas
including SEND, Continuing Healthcare and safeguarding and to be
co-producing in those areas.
- Referring to initiatives such as the
school streets and the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), Cllr
Lawton asked about the momentum to achieving a radical
environmental impact. Cllr Ahmet noted that there was a dedicated
Cabinet Member for Climate Action, which was a role that she had
created three years previously, and the intention was to embed
climate action across the organisation. While there was more that
could be done, there had been some bold schemes implemented,
investment in areas such as parks and more action would follow in
the near future.
- Cllr Lawton asked about the
importance of work on community cohesion that did not just involve
reactive statements, particularly given recent events and an
upcoming election period. Cllr Ahmet responded that working with
communities was something that the Council did well and took
seriously. She noted that it was sometimes necessary to have
reactive meetings, for example after the Turkey/Syria earthquake.
However, the ability to react effectively depended on having
ongoing relationships with communities, which was supported by a
series of networks and stakeholder panels to discuss areas
including education, health and housing. There was also a
multi-faith forum which helped to keep communities together and to
demonstrate that we stand together during the current worrying
times.
- Asked by Cllr Gunes about her
proudest achievement during the term of office, Cllr Ahmet referred
to the house building programme and the good quality of the new
homes that were built. She referred to the new build blocks in
Tottenham Hale, of which 40% were now Council homes, while there
was also investment in the local parks and a new health centre. She
added that, rather than looking at individual moments, the
achievements were in bringing a sense of community and serving the
local community as best as possible while making sure that their
voices were heard around the table.
Cllr White also recognised the achievement of
the house-building programme and thanked Cllr Ahmet for joining the
meeting.