Harrow Council has suspended its enforcement contractor, Kingdom, following breaches of the council's code of conduct. The suspension was confirmed at a Governance, Audit, Risk Management and Standards Committee meeting on Monday, July 20, 2026.
Cathy Knubley, Strategic Director of Culture, Environment and Economy, informed the committee that the failure of Kingdom to conduct its work in accordance with the council's code of conduct was a newly identified risk in the first quarter of the 2026-27 financial year. This risk was categorised as amber, with a medium likelihood and moderate impact.
Operations with Kingdom are currently suspended, and Harrow Council is addressing retrospective complaints on an individual basis. During the suspension, the council is deploying its own enforcement officers for certain activities. However, due to staffing constraints, the council is prioritising issues such as fly-tipping over PSPO enforcement. Ms. Knubley stated, I would like to say that we are running our own enforcement officers. We have six or seven of them. So, there is still some enforcement, but not to the extent, and certainly we are looking at things such as fly-tipping rather than the other issues of the PSPO, because we simply just don't have the staff to cover that.
Councillor Paymon Assad, Deputy Leader of the Labour Group, inquired why this risk had not previously been registered, citing prior complaints from councillors regarding Kingdom's staff. Ms. Knubley clarified that in the fourth quarter, Kingdom had surpassed all its Key Performance Indicators and was providing a satisfactory service. The risk only became evident after the emergence of a video, which subsequently led to the contract's suspension.
For more details on the committee's proceedings, refer to the Public reports pack.
