Report and Improvement and Transformation Plan attached.

As part of the Capitalisation Direction arrangements, the Council was required to submit an Improvement and Transformation Plan to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The report gave a progress update on a number of key projects.

It was clarified that no assumption had been made about achieving planning permission for the data centre. This would be a decision for Strategic Planning Committee. It was therefore agreed that the report should be amended to reflect this. A timeline for the completion of items would also be added. Officers had requested a meeting with the Government Minister to discuss retention of business rates for the Data Centre. Efforts were ongoing to seek the retention of business rates for other new sites.

Information on savings achieved in gas and electricity costs could be obtained and a graphical representation of the direction of travel could be added to the report. It was suggested that more information on how home to school transport was working would be useful and that the safety of the service could be referred to the People Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

The priorities of the Mercury Land Holdings Business Plan were to deliver good quality private rented sector accommodation. The Monitoring Officer added that a report on the governance of Mercury Land Holdings would shortly be presented to Governance Committee. This could be taken to Audit Committee at the same time. This had been prompted by the motion agreed at the July Cabinet meeting.

It was emphasised that the Council did not wish to use temporary accommodation. Housing demand needed to be met and a role had been identified for Mercury Land Holdings in the private rental sector. This would also inform the next version of the Council’s Local Plan.

Children’s welfare had undergone a recent Ofsted inspection. This area had been given a high risk rating by Cipfa assessors but work was in progress with NHS partners to address this. The direction of travel re support given to care leavers could be confirmed. Data could be obtained on the numbers of children hospitalised with mental health issues who had not previously received Council intervention.

Services that achieved full cost recovery included the crematorium and the registration service at Langtons. Price points were kept under review but there was a wish to avoid any overcharging for Council services. Charges for e.g. leaseholders and caretaking services were also reviewed in consultation with tenants and leaseholders.

The Council’s debt recovery board had been running since January 2025 and focussed on improving the collection process. It was accepted that the Council had to recover debt in a certain way and Council bailiffs had won an award for being compassionate service. The Council would look to offer support to people who had missed payments of Council Tax etc.

The Board agreed the following action points and recommendations:

- The section of the Improvement and Transformation Plan re the data centre to say ‘consideration by Strategic Planning Committee’ rather than ‘consent expected’

-       A timeline for the completion of items to be added

-       Savings on the cost of gas/electricity to be shown

-       The direction of travel for the projects to be shown in the report by use of graphs etc

-       Safety of school transport to be referred to People OSSC for further scrutiny

-       The direction of travel to be included in the care leavers section

-       More detail requested on children in hospital with mental health issues, particularly those admitted direct at stage 4, without prior intervention.