Newham Council is addressing concerns raised in a recent Best Value Notice from the Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government (MCHLG). The notice, received on 8 May 2025, highlighted areas needing “concerted focus and accelerated action to assure government” and was issued due to concerns about the council's financial sustainability, its work with the Improvement & Transformation board, role clarity, cultural change, leadership effectiveness, delivery against action plans, and engagement with the MCHLG.
The council is outlining its approach to these governance issues at a meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee on Monday, 30 June 2025.
The Best Value Notice identified several areas where further assurance or improvements are required, including:
- Financial sustainability
- Engagement with the Improvement & Transformation board, making full use of its expertise and responding to its recommendations
- Reviewing and clarifying roles and responsibilities and scrutiny processes to enable more effective decision-making
- Continuing to implement and measure cultural change, particularly in improving relationships between members as well as officers and members
- Ensuring the effectiveness of the Council's officer and political leadership, by developing a comprehensive retention strategy, and appropriately managing any leadership changes
- Continuing to deliver at pace against the recommendations from the various review/inspection recommendations and action plans, including meeting the set milestones and measuring the impact of change
- Engaging constructively with MCHLG on at least a quarterly basis to discuss progress against the areas highlighted in the Best Value Notice.
In response, the council has committed to working closely with the MHCLG and publishing regular Best Value progress reports as part of its transparency agenda. The council is preparing for its first meeting with MHCLG officials in June 2025.
To improve financial sustainability, Newham Council is planning several actions:
- Identifying £57 million in savings in its 2025/26 Budget Plan.
- Implementing efficiencies from the Transforming Newham for the Future Programme.
- Increasing council tax by 8.99%.
- Covering £51.2 million in 2025/26 and £16 million in 2024/25 of its revenue expenditure from the sale of council assets through Exceptional Financial Support.
- Refocusing the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan towards improving housing stock repairs, maintenance, retrofit and a slight re-balancing towards new home acquisition as opposed to home construction.
- Completing the Value for Money (VFM) Base Budgeting exercise to identify how and where spending provides value for money.
The council is working towards completing all remaining LGA Corporate Peer Review recommendations during Autumn 2025. The Audit and Governance Committee convened to discuss the council's response, and the next meeting is scheduled for 16 July 2025 at Newham Dockside.