Our proud record of achievement
In just 2 years, we have delivered for our residents…
Tackling the cost-of-living crisis:

- Allocated and distributed nearly £10million in cost-of-living support to residents
- Millions of free meals created from 1000s of tonnes of food supplied to charitable organisations
- Council Tax reduction paid to more than 20, 400 working age residents and 7,400 pensioners – saving them more than £32million
- Nearly 50,000 resident visits to the Council’s Warm Hubs
- Froze Council Tax for ALL residents in year 1
- Introduced Council Tax Cost-of-Living Relief Fund for residents earning under £49,500 in year 2
- Provisioned for a Mayor’s winter emergency fund
Homes for the future:

- 22,000 formerly-THH properties brought back in-house
- 100s of homeless people supported into sustainable accommodation
- Rehoused multiple families into wheelchair accessible homes
- Targeting the delivery of 4,000 genuinely affordable homes by 2026
- £8m per year increase in the supply of Temporary Accommodation
- Launching ambitious programme to buy back 200 affordable council homes per year
Accelerate education:

- Universal Free School Meals for all primary (£2m) and secondary school children (£3.7m)
- Introduced £1,500 University Bursary for 400 students in year 1; increased it to 800 students in year 2
- Brought back EMA at £400 per year for 1,200 students in year 1; increased it to £600 in year 2
- Tens of thousands of children supported by the Early Help Children and Family Service
- Increased provision for SEND children by £730k in year 1
- £3m invested to improve SEND transport in year 2
- Created a £100k School high achiever awards – celebrating pupils who achieve high attainment and the parents and teachers who help facilitate it
- £15m to create an Institute of Academic Excellence, to help local young people get to world class universities.
- Roll-out of an £800k Community Languages programme
Empower communities to fight crime:

- Invested £4m to upgrade and install 350 CCTV cameras
- 8,000 additional uniformed police patrol hours funded by the Council (£1.5m)
- Recruited an additional 41 enforcement officers to protect the public (£2.9m)
- £1.6m approved to fund additional police
- 917 weapons disposed in our 4 amnesty bins, including 767 knives.
A clean and green future:

- £5m waste investment to tackle the waste emergency – including 72 additional frontline staff
- £185k to support local businesses to be more energy efficient
- Planted almost 3,000 trees
- £2.1m to improve recycling on housing estates
- £5m for electric waste vehicles and EV charging points
- £180k for low-carbon fuel supply
Invest in public services

- £13.7m per year invested in youth services, including one youth centre in every ward
- £3.5m for local voluntary and community sector through Mayor’s Community Grants
- £2.5m to support free homecare for vulnerable adults 4. £1.1m investment in 5 Resident Hubs.
- Creation of a £1.5m culturally-sensitive drug treatment centre
- Creation of a £20m culturally-sensitive adult care home (50-60 bed adult care facility)
- Opening of a £1.4m Women’s Resource Centre, providing health, educational and employment advice and benefits to local women
- Launching a Somali Resource Hub for the growing Somali population in the borough
Page of
“We are delivering one of the most ambitious agendas in local government”.
We’ve made a good start, but there’s still much more to be done
- Allocated and distributed £6.1m to support our most vulnerable residents from council and government funds
- £31,5m in Council Tax reduction was paid to 35,172 resident accounts
- 22,343 visits to the council’s warm hubs
- 19,772 payments of £100 given to vulnerable families.
- Almost 22,000 properties to be brought back in-house after 86% support by tenants and leaseholders
- 227 homeless people supported into sustainable accommodation.
- Rehoused 31 families into wheelchair accessible homes via our flagship Project 120 scheme.
- Targeting the delivery of 4,000 — genuinely affordable homes by 2026.
- ALL primary school children eligible for a daily free school meal (£2m), rolling out to secondary schools (£3.7m)
- 400 young people to receive a Mayor’s University Bursary (£600k)
- 803 young people to receive a Mayor’s Education Maintenance Allowance (£321k)
- Increasing provision for SEND children
- 17,783 children supported by the Early Help Children and Family Service.
- £800k investment in community language provision
- Rates relief for 834 businesses (£2m)
- 919 enterprises supported by the council’s business programme.
- £40m invested in leisure facilities, including bringing leisure centres under council management
- 3,866 jobs, training/apprenticeship opportunities delivered.
- 1 hr free parking to help market traders
- Reintroduce 4 Parent Parking Zones.
1. 289 CCTV cameras have been upgraded to help capture evidence of crime and ASB (£200k)
2. 7,779 additional uniformed police patrol hours funded by the council (£1.5m)
3. Recruited 41 enforcement officers to protect the public (£2.9m)
4. £1.6m approved to fund additional police and bring back a community constabulary.
- 13.7m invested in youth services including one in every ward
- £4.5m for local voluntary and community sector through Mayor’s Community Grants
- £2.5m to support free homecare for vulnerable adults
- £1.1m investment in 5 Resident Hubs.
- £500k invested to reopen Watney Market Idea Store
- Around 500 people seen monthly over twice-a-week Mayor’s Surgeries
- You said, we did: Life-Saving Equipment installed around the borough
- Over 11k participants took part in 80 consultations
- New Town Hall opened.
1. £185k to support local businesses to
be more energy efficient
2. 972 trees planted
3. £2.1m to improve recycling on
housing estates
4. £5m for electric waste vehicles and
EV charging points and
5. £180k for low carbon fuel supply.
