Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllrs Jo Clements, Brian Chick and Jamie Martin.  Cllr Jackie Edwards joined the meeting late due to another meeting.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

There were no substitute members.

To elect a Chair for the Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2026/27 municipal year.

Nominations were sought for the election of Chair. A nomination was received and seconded for Councillor C Rigby. No further nominations were received.

RESOLVED that Councillor C Rigby be elected as Chair of the Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2026/27 Municipal Year.

To elect a Vice-Chair for the Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2026/27 municipal year.

The Chair sought nominations were sought for the election of Vice Chair. A nomination was received and seconded for Councillor D D’Orton-Gibson. No further nominations were received.

RESOLVED that Councillor D D’Orton-Gibson be elected as Vice Chair of the Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the 2026/27 Municipal Year.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

The Chair declared an interest in item 6 in that he worked for a community energy company but had no work with the South West Net Zero Hub.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 25 February 2026.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 February 2026 were confirmed as a correct record and were signed by the Chair.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of public questions is mid-day Thursday 14 May 3 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is mid-day Tuesday 19 May the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is Wednesday 6 May 10 working days before the meeting.

There were no public issues for this meeting.

For the committee to note the latest updates to the Recommendation Tracker and consider any outstanding actions.

The Chair informed the committee that there were no updates on the tracker to update at the meeting.

The SW Net Zero Hub have been invited to attend and share expertise with the committee in relation to financing sustainability initiatives, particularly:

·       Measures required by councils to become funding ready and attract investors.

·       Good practice in other councils.

The South West Net Zero Hub gave a presentation to the committee a copy of which appears as an Appendix to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The hub talked the committee through the work they do and how they helped local authorities with their net zero goals.

They developed and delivered net zero policies with a purpose of helping local authorities to move from net zero ambition to practical public delivery. They also provided impartial advice, technical support and project development funding.

It was stated that the focus for BCP would need to be how projects were currently delivered.  Readiness was another key point with understanding sites and partners and the role to play. 

Delivery would need more than availability and different funding methods.  They would need to be meaningful with practical suggestions.

The hub would work with BCP for a couple of years in a partnership role which would support the council and community energy groups. There was funding coming from Great British Energy sporadically, but it was unclear how much.  The committee were informed that there was a development fund to support revenue and not capital.

It was stated that quick wins were large scale solar car ports and roof top solar.  Sites would be looked at, then commercial buildings and the assets. The first steps would be understanding assets and knowledge sharing with other LAs.  The SWNZH was willing to help access learning and knowledge and sharing sessions between councils.

It was suggested that the Council could work with local groups and have a community energy team.  Encouraging schools to invest in solar panels is another approach to take however that can be difficult due the schools funding.

It was discussed that BCP could find the following ways to focus resource to generate income:

Have consistency and momentum. 

Dorset community energy was doing work in the area, work with them. 

Progress work on estates.

The Chair thanked the SWNZH for attending the meeting and their presentation.

The Chair asked the Portfolio Holder to find a way that the council could focus a resource on accelerating those projects as much as possible as those examples of Portsmouth and Southampton, where they're actually generating good income and can afford to go on and do the less easy to access projects is really where we want to be. Also just keeping that, momentum in place.

Dorset Community Energy, did quite a lot of work elsewhere in Dorset. They were keen to do work within BCP, and we had been talking with them to see if we have any suitable roofs for them to use that they effectively invite the public to invest money in the scheme. The had also done a number of schools and some co-housing. Officers had been doing a lot of work trying to progress our own estate, particularly the corporate estate. Solar was put on the cafe on by Bournemouth Pier this winter. The portfolio holder had discussions around a revolving funding where the council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

This report provides the Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee with the annual update on progress in delivering the Housing Strategy 2021–2027.  

Over the past year, delivery has continued across all five priorities, with a focus on increasing housing supply, strengthening homelessness prevention, improving housing options, and raising standards of safety and sustainability.  

The report summarises key achievements and highlights the main challenges and risks, including sustained housing demand, market and viability pressures affecting affordable housing delivery, ongoing pressure on temporary accommodation, and the capacity implications of regulatory reform. It also outlines proposed priorities for the year ahead and the intended approach and timetable for developing a new Housing Strategy, recognising that the commitment to meeting future growth needs is expected to remain a core priority and that the Council will need to continue to act as an enabler, partner and facilitator, as well as a direct deliverer of new affordable homes.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Regulatory Services presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

This report provided the Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee with the annual update on progress in delivering the Housing Strategy 2021–2027. 

Over the past year, delivery had continued across all five priorities, with a focus on increasing housing supply, strengthening homelessness prevention, improving housing options, and raising standards of safety and sustainability. 

The report was about people and very importantly to make sure more residents had access to safe, secure homes.

It was reported that last financial year the Council delivered 145 homes across the conurbation and a further 243 were planned for the next financial year.  Those numbers would clear the Council’s current emergency waiting list, which equated to around 10% of the current waiting list.

More than 1,100 households were helped to avoid homelessness in the previous year.  Rough sleeping was at the lowest it had been post Covid and no families had spent more than 6 weeks in bed and breakfast for nearly 2 years. There was a strong focus on the quality and safety of housing services including achieving a C1 which was the highest compliance and governance rating from the regulator of Social Housing.

That rating was an important result and reflected the effort and partnership working across the board. There were still pressures and there was a high demand for housing.  Affordability was an issue for many residents, not just rent but also the cost of living, temporary accommodation was still under strain, and affordable housing was also affected.

The changes to the renter’s right were positive but brought higher expectations around higher expectations around assurance, compliance and quality.  The priority of the team was to grow and de-risk the affordable housing pipeline which deepened early intervention in terms of homelessness, widened housing options for residents and ensured safety quality and sustainability were at the centre of everything delivered.

The renter’s rights reform was causing issues for some residents as landlords asked them to leave as the landlords are worried about the act and those people have informed that they have been advised to stay put until the bailiffs arrived. It was mentioned that there were people that had been paying their rent but were self employed helped as that was difficult with letting agents as they required certain accounts or guarantors who had to earn over a certain amount. It was stated that the renter rights act was challenging and was not a perfect piece of legislation and there were issues with it but would be beneficial for renters across the period it was in place.  There was a slight rise I section 21’s in the lead up to the changes but not as much as anticipated, that did provide some challenges. 

The team had worked hard to engage with landlords and work with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Committee is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Environment and Place Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Committee is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

This item was to formalise the refreshed work plan that would be in place for the remainder of the Council term so the committee would know what was coming up.  The document could be subject to tweaks if required with committee agreement.

There were 3 recommendations on the report, 1 was to agree the work plan and 2 were around the responses to Council on items that had been referred to you to committee that would not be taken forward.

The first item that was agreed was the lens of Sustainability, which was discussed in work planning but required formal agreement at committee.

In work planning the committee had picked out 3 key topics that they wished to spend a longer amount of time on.  Those topics were reflected below as the scope had been drafted into the work plan

Christchurch Harbour – the committee agreed to invite Wessex Water and the Environment Agency into the meeting for a discussion, the scope was detailed in the work plan.

Van Life – item to committee in September and a working group which was arranged with van dwellers in June.  The September meeting slot would have information from the working group meeting in which van dwellers were spoken to directly about their needs. Briefing notes from departments would form a report and those officers would be brought into the meeting to discuss issues.  This approach was agreed

Van Life working group – It was agreed that a small group of councillors would hear directly some insight from Van Dwellers about their experiences and needs, this session would be a pre-arranged briefing session.  The Cllrs agreed were Cllr D’Orton-Gibson, Cllr Moriarty and Cllr Edwards.  It was also agreed to set up a separate session with Kushti Bok.

Sustainable energy - committee in November, the scope combined two areas that the committee stated they wanted to combine in the work planning session.  That was agreed, along with inviting the Net Zero hub back to that meeting.

There were some Cabinet reports scoped into the work plan as well as spaces for Cabinet reports that might become pre-decision scrutiny.  There was a list of 4 reserve items identified that could be brought into any empty slots that may arise.  The committee agreed to keep the rapporteur items as per the work plan.  There were briefing topics that also needed to be scheduled that were pushed to accommodate van life. Dates would be scheduled for those.

There were some items the committee wished to refer elsewhere as follows:

Request to look at HMO’s there was a working around the housing strategy, and the committee felt the item would be better  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

BCP Council adopted ‘A shared vision for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 2024-28’ in May 2024. 

The shared vision is the corporate strategy which sets out the council’s vision, priorities and ambitions as well as the principles which underpin the way the council works as it develops and delivers its services. 

Incorporated in the vision is a set of measures of progress for achieving the vision, priorities and ambitions. 

This is the performance monitoring report for Quarter Three 25-26, presenting an update on the progress measures. 

The council’s delivery against its priorities and ambitions can also be monitored through the performance dashboard which is available on the council’s website providing up-to-date real time information on the progress measures.

The Chair presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

This report was an audit item and for information only to track data and progress.