Cabinet - Monday 19 January 2026, 7:00pm - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Cabinet
Monday, 19th January 2026 at 7:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Chris Whitbread
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  1. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  2. Cllr Stephen Murray
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
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  3. Cllr Martin Morris
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  5. Cllr Martin Morris
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  7. Cllr Martin Morris
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  9. Cllr Martin Morris
  10. Cllr Smruti Patel
  11. Cllr Martin Morris
  12. Cllr Smruti Patel
  13. Cllr Martin Morris
  14. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  15. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  16. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  17. Cllr Smruti Patel
  18. Cllr Roger Baldwin
  19. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  20. Cllr Smruti Patel
  21. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  22. Andrew Small
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  24. Cllr Stephen Murray
  25. Cllr Chris Whitbread
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
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  1. Cllr Holly Whitbread
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  4. Owen Sparks
  5. Andrew Small
  6. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  7. Owen Sparks
  8. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  9. Cllr Jon Whitehouse
  10. Cllr Chris Whitbread
  11. Cllr Ken Williamson
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  1. Cllr Chris Whitbread
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  2. Webcast Finished

1 Webcasting Introduction

Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:00:00
I would like to remind everyone that this meeting will be filmed live or recorded and
uploaded to the internet and will be capable of repeated viewing.
Therefore, by participating in this meeting you are consenting to being filmed and to
the possible use of those images and sound recordings.
If any public speakers on MS Teams do not wish to have their image captured, they should
ensure their video setting throughout the meeting is turned off and set to audio only.
Members, I don't need to remind you, when you're speaking, please turn your microphone on, and when you've finished, please turn your microphone off.

2 Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence. I don't believe I have any apologies for absence this evening.

3 Declarations of Interest

Item 3, declarations of interest. Do any members have a declaration of interest?
Item 4 is the minutes of the last meeting. Can I take those as being a correct record?

4 Minutes

5 Reports of Portfolio Holders

Reports of portfolio holders on top of anything that's reported elsewhere, apart from the
successful opening of the pool last week, which I think a number of members have now
had the opportunity to see, and would all agree that it's a really good facility now
available to the people of Epping and surrounding areas,
which is first class.
If we then move on to public questions
and request to address the cabinet, I've received none.

6 Public Questions and Requests to Address the Cabinet

7 Overview and Scrutiny

We then move on to the report of overview and scrutiny.
Councillor Baldwin.
Yep. Thank you, leader.
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:01:42
Yes, it's a, it is very short and sweet this evening.
So this is a short update as there hasn't been a meeting
of the opening scrutiny since the last cabinet meeting.
But all these scrutiny committees continue to deliver
according to their work programmes.
I think we've got coming up the in place committee,
which is on the 27th, when we're inviting TFL.
And then the next meeting for opening scrutiny
is on the 3rd of February.
So that's it, I'm afraid.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Councillor Baldwin.
Councillor Murray, my apologies.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:02:20
I missed your hand before. No, no that's fine. It's absolutely correct that you took the
Chair of ONS first, Chairman. I just wanted to say three brief things under overview of
scrutiny. Like the Chairman of the main committee, I wanted to remind not only the Cabinet but
members of the public through this webcast that place don't do have TfL timing and though
the official deadline for members submitted questions may have gone. I don't have that
on the top of my head. I would encourage members of the public to let us know what their concerns
are. To be honest, I think we do have a very clear idea, but let's hope that some progress
can be made on that meeting. The second thing I wanted to say was that I did a little bit
of my own overbearing scrutiny and almost kind of invited myself to visit the Echinsport
Centre. That visit took place on Friday afternoon and I was very, very impressed by the facility.
There are a few questions around it which I won't go into here now, but the questions
I had were well answered by the officer who took me around the media.
And I have to say, not only was the centre very impressive, but the passion and the knowledge
of the officer who took me around for the best part of 90 minutes on Friday was also
super impressive.
And the third mark I wanted to make was that probably I won't be speaking on any of the
items on the rest of the agenda and that's not out of lack of interest but it's because
the portfolio holder has dealt with these at the community select committee and I think
every single one of these have gone through the community select committee process and
we have been able to interrogate them very thoroughly.
So you'll be pleased to know, Chairman, that I'll probably not be saying anything else
tonight.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Murray.
I'm delighted that you got round to see the pool on Friday.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:04:35
And I have to repeat what you've just said.
Our officers have really, the whole team, and in particular James and Amelia, have played
a first -class role in making sure that facility was delivered.
And our thanks go out to them again.
I've had numerous occasions to be very proud of our officers over the past year for many
different reasons and we are lucky here in Epping Forest with the officers, the
team that we've had and been built up in recent times by our Chief Exec and
Deputy Chief Exec moving forward and it gives me every confidence for the future
which is really good. Councillor Baldwin thank you for your report. If we then
move on to the first of these housing items which again I'm pleased have gone
through the proper scrutiny as before they've come to us,
which is what Councillor Murray made a very good point
of earlier in the year.
Councillor Patel, item number eight,

8 Council Housing Development - Prisoners Building Homes

Council Housing Development.
Hi everyone, I mean, I'm gonna keep it short.
I mean, this is a really exciting project
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:05:39
we're looking into where we have prefabricated
developments that we're going to try and identify sites
that will be appropriate for.
So the reports are out there and if there's any other questions we can take them and anything
I can't answer we'll write back.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Members.
Councillor Morris.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:06:00
Oh hi, thank you.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:06:04
Yeah, I just have some questions because this is, the garage is near Pickhill in Waltham
Abbey.
So this is a new scheme is it that hasn't been tried before?
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:06:19
It has been tried in one area that I know of, I can't remember the name now,
I don't know if anybody else remembers it, but it has been trialled in one other area,
but we can give you more information if you like.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:06:28
Yeah, yeah, okay so we have had, we've got some experience of using PPN.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:06:35
Not us ourselves, other councils have done it.
So we've looked at how that's run and it's been really successful with that council,
also from memory from what I remember.
So yeah, we're hoping that we could roll one of those
issue, one of those projects out ourselves.
And we're hoping to have really good results with that.
We can get back to you with the council name.
Yeah.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:06:57
And the main reason for going down this route,
rather than the normal route of just, you know,
getting a developer to submit plans for it.
Well, prefabricated buildings are a lot more economically
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:07:09
viable for us as well at the moment and if they're garage sites we've had a lot
of contamination etc in the past and they haven't been the most economically
viable sites that we've tried to build on and we've actually been quite in the
minus really with them so what we want to do with these is it does two things
really it's one it's going to meet our housing needs two it's going to also
enable prisoners who are working hard and trying to get upskill themselves in
in terms of getting back into the society
with gainful employment.
So that's two.
And then the third is basically our garage sites
get used up and they're not used
for antisocial areas as well.
So it's trying to, yeah, trying to hit a lot of things.
And we are not experts now.
We can't build with economical viability
on those sites at the moment with the current climate.
So Prefab buildings does exactly that for us.
I think they literally are almost like plug and play.
So yeah.
Really excited about them.
And is there any, I mean, there might be concerns
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:08:13
from residents about the prisoner building homes initiative
and are there any ideas about how that's gonna be tackled?
Oh, okay, so no, so they won't be there on site.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:08:20
So these are worked on offsite by prisoners
and then they get transported directly onto site.
So somebody else does the, well, installation of the
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:08:29
It's the development company or whoever, yeah,
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:08:32
they will manage the logistics,
but they are built offsite, yeah, they're not built.
Cllr Martin Morris - 0:08:38
Okay, all right, so there's not something that would make sure we don't have any runaways here
Okay, thank you very much. Thanks for watching, Councillor Morris. Councillor Whitehouse.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:08:46
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:08:51
Thanks, yes, perhaps I just ought to declare that I am a garage tenant, although not of any of the sites mentioned here.
Yeah, two questions one sort of wider one and one minor one.
The minor one is I did not understand the rationale in the second paragraph for the Council reducing maintenance of existing garages.
It says they're used for storage and therefore maintenance has been decreased.
I just don't understand the link between those two things.
The wider point is I wondered if the Council looked at public sector land beyond underutilised garages.
I'm particularly, I mean, I hope somewhere
there's a working group, you know,
with the run up of an organisation,
looking at public sector land and, you know,
what land is operationally needed and what land isn't
and making sure councils aren't disposing of land
that might be useful in the future and so forth.
And I wondered whether, you know, for this purpose,
there's any looking at beyond garage sites.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:09:55
Councillor Patel. I will have to take that back and try and
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:10:00
get your response on that one. But we are currently only looking at garage size for
this particular scheme. But overall there is a review happening with a lot of sites
and what we can do with them as well anyway. Like for example, we are looking at prefab
buildings by Habitec which is going to come next later on in the report as well. And that
talks about basically how we can get disability access kind of housing as well, which we are
unable to build at the moment. So bringing in different experts to reach, you know, to
fulfil our housing needs in a different way as well. So looking at really different options
that we may have.
The point about maintenance?
Cllr Roger Baldwin - 0:10:40
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:10:43
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:10:44
I will have to cheque on that one because I have a feeling what it's trying to, I don't
I don't know about this but knowing people who do rent those garages out, as well as
some friends of mine, I wonder if they are referring to the fact that people are just
using it as storage and not necessarily keeping cars in them or something. But I will get
back to you on that. That has literally just topped my head.
I think that is just general, isn't it?
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:11:08
Councillor Whitehouse, Mr Small will make a comment on the public sector land.
Andrew Small - 0:11:15
Thank you. I think there have been a number of attempts in recent years to actually care
about. I have a register of public sector owned land really, not just from individual
organisations but across the public sector, so we have a clear understanding of where
there's duplication and surplus land as well really, and I think that will become ever
more important as we go through the process of local government reorganisation. So yes,
it's certainly a focus for now.
Thank you.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:11:40
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:11:44
Councillor Murray. Yes, thank you Chairman. Sorry that I'm breaking the rule I established at the beginning of the meeting for myself.
But I thought Councillor Murray's made some very good points. I just wanted to ensure him that we had really gone over these in detail at the Communities Committee.
And I know that he will have read the full report because that's his style that we've picked up in the last couple of years.
And I do think the paragraphs in part four of this report are very exciting in terms
of the social value of this scheme as well.
So I just remind him of that part of the report and members of that part of the report as
well.
That is, those are accurate statements within the report and that social value element I
think is also very important.
Super.
Thank you very much Councillor Marr, that's very helpful.
Members we've got recommendations before us this is a good step forward it
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:12:40
hopefully will mean a quicker delivery of the garage sites which will help on
our housing list. Members are we happy to agree? Thank you very much. Then we move

9 Housing Compliance Policies

on to item 9 housing compliance policies. Councillor Patel. They are
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:12:59
literally what they are in terms of wages updating our policies in compliance
the compliance and some of the mandatory ones for us to do so yeah thank you.
Thank you members, these have all as Council Murray actually told us earlier on and
Councillor Patel has made us fully aware these have all gone through the
Communities Committee. Any questions? I know the cabinet's gone through them as
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:13:19
well can we take that has been agreed? Thank you very much. Then item 10 housing

10 Housing Rent Setting and Income Recovery Policy

rent setting and income recovery policy. Councillor Patel anything to add?
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:13:31
Nothing new, Chair. Thank you.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:13:38
Okay. Members, any questions? Again, you've had the opportunity at Communities and there's
a cabinet previously discussed as well. No questions? Can I take that as being agreed?
Thank you very much. We then move on to Item 11, the risk report.
Councillor Holywhip, read.

11 Risk report

Cllr Holly Whitbread - 0:13:56
Thank you, Chairman. This is an updated corporate risk register from previous discussions. It
went to audit and governance on 27 November, but it is very similar to when we previously
discussed this report. You will see that homelessness remains a significant pressure on the Council.
We have removed Council house building as a corporate risk. The reason is that we had
a series of right to buy receipts to spend, which now have been spent. So that has been
closed. But the other themes are still there. Local government reorganisation has been downrated
slightly because a lot of the work around the business plans has now been completed,
taking pressure off our workforce. And again, we see the increased pressure of community
cohesion due to some of the issues surrounding the Bell Hotel. But happy to take any questions
and hopefully members have had a good opportunity to read the report. Thank you.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:14:51
Thank you. Just a quick question from myself. We've taken LGR down a step from local government
reorganisation. We've taken it down a step because we've got through the first phase
of putting in the different ideas for what the structure may look like. But of course
we expect the government to give us a minded two with a very tight time scale in the very
we not, and of course we're going to have capacity issues once we get to that phase,
and it's going to take a lot of time up for officers, should we not have it back to its
current level, bearing that in mind?
Sorry, just a comment on that as well. I should have also added different work streams have
Cllr Holly Whitbread - 0:15:31
been set up, so it's organised and we've got everything in motion and in place. I'll pass
that over to Owen to comment further.
Owen Sparks - 0:15:44
Andrew Small - 0:15:46
I think the nature of the risk register is responsive really to the current situation
and so I think this will be one of those risks a bit like our budget and financial situation
that kind of waxes and wanes a bit in response to where we are in the process or what challenges
we see ahead of us.
I like yourself anticipate that it will increase again in due course as we are clearer about
what the problem is that needs solving.
I think it will increase very, very quickly post -March,
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:16:12
once we get the minded -to decision.
And depending whether it's three, four or five,
whichever option the government decide to go with,
I do think it's going to take an awful lot of officer time up.
And again, even this year, we've seen an awful lot of...
Because we are, you know,
a highly respected team of officers who are heavily engaged in the process,
it's really important that we make sure
we've got the right capacity there,
and budget doesn't fall behind, those type of things,
the monitoring of what we're doing,
and again, just organising the joint committees
and everything else that goes with it.
I think we should probably lift it up slightly.
Owen, do you?
Happy to do so.
Owen Sparks - 0:17:00
I think that obviously makes complete sense.
Obviously we'll be taking the next few poll
to all the risk in February so gang we can then pass look at their adjusted and
then bring it back so cool stuff and let's call to do that be useful
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:17:17
council White House from an audit and risk as councillor we've mentioned it
Cllr Jon Whitehouse - 0:17:19
went to the auditing governance committee at the last meeting the
meeting before last one of the comments that the ordering government community
made was there lots of risk which hadn't moved in quite a long period and sort of
whether this showed the mitigations that have been intended to reduce risk weren't actually
working. I think that's often not the case. Things like cyber security, they just are
continually coming forward with new risks and different things being tested and so forth.
And it's a continual effort to try and just keep the risk acceptable, let alone reduce
it. But I think the Audit Committee would take the view that it's a good sign to see
some risks moving off the agenda, some risks being changed in level and so forth, even
if they get reversed at some point, because hopefully that's an indication of them actually
being looked at afresh each time and the mitigations working or not working as opposed to just
rolling over the same thing from quarter to quarter.
Thank you.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:18:26
Sorry, Councillor Williamson, my apologies.
Thank you, Chair.
On the quality of majors,
Cllr Ken Williamson - 0:18:30
happy to say that although it's still in the red here,
we are moving in the right direction.
And I think Councillor Murray's mentioned it a few times.
It does take a long, long time
for this to feed through the system,
but there are really good positive signs of improvement.
Good.
Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:18:49
Members, the risk register is before you.
Can we agree that?
Thank you.
I've got no reason this evening to go into private session.
and therefore that brings our meeting to a close.
All right.
Oh, I'm in trouble.

12 Any Other Business

So members, we are not finished yet.
So I do need to take us into private session
to agree the minute from last time.

13 Exclusion of Public and Press

14 Minutes (Exempt)

So to consider whether under section 100 in brackets A
in brackets four of the local government act

14 Minutes (Exempt)

Cllr Chris Whitbread - 0:19:21
of schedule 12A of the act as amended
or are confidential under section 100 in brackets A in brackets 2.
Members can we agree that we move into private session?
Cllr Roger Baldwin
District councillor for Loughton Forest ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Roger Baldwin
Cllr Martin Morris
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
Labour Party
View profile Cllr Martin Morris
Cllr Stephen Murray
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
Independent
View profile Cllr Stephen Murray
Cllr Smruti Patel
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill West ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Smruti Patel
Andrew Small
Chief Executive (Acting)
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Andrew Small
Owen Sparks
Interim Strategic Director / S151 Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Owen Sparks
Cllr Chris Whitbread
District councillor for Roydon and Lower Nazeing ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Chris Whitbread
Cllr Holly Whitbread
District councillor for Epping West and Rural ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Holly Whitbread
Cllr Jon Whitehouse
District councillor for Epping East ward
Liberal Democrats
View profile Cllr Jon Whitehouse
Cllr Ken Williamson
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill West ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Ken Williamson