Agenda and draft minutes

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item. Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made by Members.  

Details of questions should be notified to the Democratic Services Manager via the democratic.services@exeter.gov.uk email by 10am at least three working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting any questions must be submitted by 10am on Monday 2 February 2026.

For details about how to speak at committee, please click the following link - https://exeter.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/councillors-and-meetings/public-speaking-at-meetings/overview/

The Chair advised that one question had been received from a member of the public, and invited Mr Paul Callan to ask his question:  

“ECC complies with the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 by publishing details of over £250 spending transactions quarterly. Devon County Council publishes their figures monthly. I request ECC does the same so that the electorate can make informed judgements about ECC’s Local Government Reorganisation proposals.”  

Councillor Vizard, Portfolio Holder for Climate, Ecological Change and Communities, provided the following response on behalf of the Leader:  

“The Council is fully compliant with the Transparency Code, which requires publication quarterly. As a District Council, we have a smaller staffing resource that the County Council and therefore cannot move to monthly publication”.  

In a supplementary question, Mr Callan asked if the Council would comply with section 58 of the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 and go further than the minimum requirement. Councillor Vizard advised that he would take this away and would share the response with Mr Callan and the committee.  

To receive questions from Members of the Council to the relevant Portfolio Holders for this Scrutiny Committee. The Portfolio Holders are:-

Councillor Bialyk         – Leader of the Council

Councillor Asvachin    – Housing, Homelessness Prevention and Customer Services

Councillor Vizard        – Climate, Ecological Change and Communities

Councillor Williams     – City Management

Councillor Wright        – Deputy Leader, Corporate Services, Community Safety and City Centre

Advance questions from Members relating to the Portfolio Holders should be notified to Democratic Services via democratic.services@exeter.gov.uk

The Chair advised that no questions had been submitted in advance, and no questions were asked at the meeting.  

To receive the report of the Portfolio Holder for Housing, Homelessness Prevention and Customer Services, Councillor Asvachin.

The report was taken as read and Councillor Asvachin and the Strategic Director People and Communities responded to Members questions in the following terms:

Customer Services

• concerns regarding digital exclusion had been taken into account and it was possible that AI could be used to handle simpler enquiries, allowing operators to speak with residents unable to use online services;  

• many residents had created MyExeter accounts to manage garden waste collection;  

• a MyExeter account was not needed to respond to consultations;  

• MyExeter was currently in a one-year pilot and data would be analysed, including to see where people made more than one attempt to create an account; 

• an increase in accounts was expected when Council Tax became available;  
• residents were encouraged to sign up and would be supported to do so when making contact with the council;  

• MyExeter was used to manage garden waste collection, and there was a 97% sign up rate;
• Exeter had a low digital exclusion rate, but it was important to continue to monitor access across all channels;  

• an increase in residents using self-service for routine issues would create capacity for staff to better support those with more complex needs or those choosing not to use digital channels for whatever reason;
• they were not aware of any plans to make other processes compulsory to a MyExeter account;  

Housing

• eligibility for social housing was part of the statutory homeless assessment process;

• each local authority in Devon sets its own allocation policy social housing;
• Devon Home Choice, was the way allocations are administered;  

• the trend in the increase in social housing complaints had been seen nationally and was actually welcomed as it meant residents were engaging with the council which helped the council to continually learn and improve services to tenants;
• part of the increase locally was due to changes that had been made to the complaints process. In the past some issues raised by tenants had not been counted as complaints but they now were;

• the housing benchmark data in the documents shared by the portfolio holder included data from non-local authority social landlords which needed to be borne in mind when comparing outcomes;

• where the benchmarking data shows slightly higher costs for repairs for Exeter this reflects different delivery models, for example, in Exeter these services were contracted outside the organisation so there were no hidden costs in overall budgets that might mask the real costs in providers who undertook repairs “in house”;
• Contract monitoring continued to be a focus to ensure on-going value for money;

• going forward there would be an annual plan published which would show a programme of more regular and varied methods for engaging tenants and gaining satisfaction feedback which was in line with the new Corporate Consultation and Engagement Strategy;
• regarding variation in performance for regular inspections, it was explained that there was a cohort of tenants who refused to give access and rigorous protocols were in place to address this;

• in some cases, voids were for longer periods of time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 103.

To receive the report of the Strategic Director People and Communities.

The Strategic Director People and Communities presented the report making the following points:  

• the government had published its long-awaited Plan to End Homelessness in December 2025 and its goals aligned with those established locally following the Council’s own review work;  

• a strategic data review was undertaken early in 2025 which identified systemic issues set out in the presentations but also offered potential solutions;  

• historically homelessness funding streams from the government had been   sporadic and short-term, which had hindered long-term strategic planning;  

• issues seen in Exeter were reflected nationally, although the city had a notable population of younger, single people who were in a cycle of repeat homeless  found Exeter a relatively safe place to be street-attached;  

• the Council was not the only commissioner of supported housing in the city, the NHS, Social Services and criminal justice agencies also commissioned accommodation-based services;

• when the Council had greater control of funding in previous years, homelessness prevention outcomes were stronger; 

• there was a lack of relationship with the private rental sector;  

• phase one of the team restructure had been completed, and the remainder would be completed by the end of April;  

• staff feedback suggested that a single casework service was desired;  

• the ring-fenced homeless prevention grant was £750,000 less than modelled, however, the overall funding formula was generous;  

• the budget proposal would show a wish to allocate an appropriate amount of funding to homelessness prevention;  

• staff head count would be increased, with fewer senior managers and more frontline housing officers; and  

• new burdens funding must be spent on staffing.

The Strategic Director People and Communities responded to Members’ questions in the following terms:  

• our transformation plans were evidenced based and it was envisaged that any future authority would want to continue this work;  

• new legislation would enable more engagement with private sector landlords and tenants, with the council now mandated to undertake a mediation role to sustain and prevent breakdown of relationships and tenancies between private sector landlords and their tenants;

• there were new national outcome frameworks coming forward with specific metrics that reflected the stated outcomes our local plans were aiming to achieve such as the national target to reduce rough sleeping, by eradicating one-night rough sleeping and focus on long term rough sleepers who were usually individuals with complex needs; 
• the new service would reduce fragmentation and stabilise staffing as it would have all case management workers together in one team on substantive contracts as opposed to the short and fixed term contracts the historic short-term funding had necessitated;
• service providers would be invited to provide feedback on the new service specifications and framework agreements prior to the commencement of the formal procurement process;

• providers could bid to join the framework which set quality standards and pricing providing a more cost effective and flexible approach for the council as commissioner as money would not get tied into block contracts and a provider not meeting the quality standards would not get any replacement frameworks. This had not been used in this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

Please see for noting a link to the schedule of future business proposed for the Council which can be viewed on the Council's web site. This on-line document is a source for Members to raise issues at Scrutiny on forthcoming Executive agenda items:

Browse plans - Executive, 2026 - Exeter City Council

Also attached is a draft work plan of future scrutiny items. Should Members wish to raise issues in respect of future business please notify Liz Smith in advance of the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned for a break at 7:26pm and resumed at 7:28pm.  

The Chair proposed, to the approval of the Committee, that:  

• Councillor Cookson contact Councillor Darling regarding the Eton Walk bin petition organiser;  

• Public Surveys be brought to the June meeting;  

• Little Exeter petition be brought to the March meeting if possible but the Democratic Services Manager would schedule accordingly after seeking advice from the Strategic Director for Corporate Resources; 

• Community Safety Partnership report be brought to the September meeting;  

• six-monthly Homeless Strategy be renamed Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Prevention Strategy; and 

• Tenants Energy Review of our Passivhaus Council Homes be deferred to September.