The Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Alambritis, said that one of the top priorities of the council was to keep residents safe and that the council has an ongoing duty to residents in properties transferred to Clarion. The Leader has therefore been working with council officers and partners, including the Police and Fire services, to reassure residents and ensure that all safety requirements have been met.

The Leader outlined other key priorities, including children’s services, education, new housing in the borough, lobbying on Crossrail2, regeneration in the town centres, safeguarding services at Epsom and St Helier Hospital and identifying opportunities for shared services with other councils. He said that the main challenges for the year ahead would include public health, mental health, impact of Brexit on council services, uncertainty regarding business rates retention and adult skills training to meet the needs of local employers.

The Chief Executive, Ged Curran, drew the Commission’s attention to the extent of the challenges facing the council in relation to care for the elderly, uncertainty in regard to the funding regime for local government, pressures on the housing supply in London, impact of housing costs on retention of teachers, community cohesion and financial pressures on the NHS. He said that the council was addressing these challenges through work with partners and with the Local Government Association. He stressed that finding new sources of funding would be challenging and would require the council to participate in more commercial activities that would have an element of risk. He said that the Target Operating Model would be refreshed this autumn and would then be paused in the spring to enable manifesto commitments to be addressed after the council elections in May.

The Leader and Chief Executive provided additional information in response to questions:

·         The results of the Annual Residents Survey are broadly positive – residents are satisfied with services, think Merton is a good place to live and there were high scores on community cohesion indicators. Some concerns were raised about difficulties in contacting the council, mainly in relation to parking and planning services, and these will be addressed.

·         Emergency procedures in Merton are robust and exercises carried out regularly to test them – a full exercise is planned for the autumn. Around 30 council officers have been providing support to Kensington and Chelsea and to Camden.

·         The council carries out checks on care homes prior to placing people there.

·         A change in national policy would be required to have a significant impact on the provision of social housing. In the meantime the council is doing what it can to increase provision when new housing developments are agreed as well as building a small number though the Local Authority Property Company.

·         The council continues to explore new ways of making savings through commercial activities such as investing in commercial premises or running care homes, whilst being mindful of advice from the Treasury cautioning councils against overstretching financially.

·         The Leader, Chief Executive and relevant cabinet member and officers meet regularly with Clarion to review service performance and other pertinent issues.

·         The Equality and Community Cohesion Strategy will be an active and fully implemented document supported by partnership working, including with faith groups.

The Leader said that the Cabinet Member for Community and Culture is keen for the council to submit a bid to the Mayor of London to become a borough of culture. Commission members indicated that they would back this bid.

The Chief Executive undertook to find out what arrangements had been made to check the YMCA buildings in Longthornton ward for fire safety. ACTION: Chief Executive