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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 27 May 2025 be received and confirmed as a correct record.
RESOLVED that Cabinet note the decision and reasons why the decision was urgent and needed to be made prior to the next available meeting of the Cabinet.
RESOLVED that Cabinet – (a) notes the contents of the report, including the feedback from Committees summarised at Appendix V to the report; (b) confirms the content of Appendices I to IV for submission to Council in July for approval, and (c) notes the key messages arising from the Self-Assessment and the October to March Performance Update Report (particularly the improvement actions). At this point (11.35am) the meeting adjourned for a refreshment break.
RESOLVED that Cabinet recommends to Council that – (a) Second Homes and Long Term Empty (standard premiums) remain at current levels of 150% from April 2026; (b) premiums for Long Term Empty properties that have been empty for over 5 years are increased annually by 25% up to the maximum of 300%, resulting in current premiums of 200% rising to 225% from April 2026, 250% from April 2027, and so forth, and (c) introduce two new categories of premium relief within the S13a Discretionary Relief Policy as set out within paragraph 4.7 – 4.9 of the report.
RESOLVED that Cabinet’s forward work programme be noted.
RESOLVED that Cabinet approve the issuing of an extension to the contract from 24 July 2025 to 31 March 2026 to allow time to undertake the work required to evaluate this provision and reach a decision on how this must be shaped and delivered in the longer term. The meeting concluded at 12.25 pm.
There were no apologies.
No declarations of interest had been raised.
No urgent matters had been raised.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 27 May 2025 be received and confirmed as a correct record.
The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 27 May 2025 were submitted. RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 27 May 2025 be received and confirmed as a correct record.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that Cabinet note the decision and reasons why the decision was urgent and needed to be made prior to the next available meeting of the Cabinet.
Councillor Delyth Jones presented the report regarding an urgent decision taken by the Corporate Director: Economy and Environment on 12 June 2025 to approve the acceptance of the Welsh Government (WG) Local Government Borrowing Initiative (LGBI) funding. The record of the urgent decision had been attached to the report. The LGBI would provide circa £4.8m of funding for highway maintenance works during 2025/27 with WG providing revenue funding to support borrowing over 20 years and no material financial impact on the Council as the entirety of the funding would be covered by WG. The reasoning behind the urgent decision was to move forward with delivering the full programme of works, at pace, within challenging timescales and scarce resources at the optimum time. The Corporate Director added that the necessary consultation with Member Area Groups (MAGs) on the proposed programme had been carried out ahead of the decision. Councillor Barry Mellor also supported the decision to ensure no undue delay and was pleased to report that work had already commenced on those highway works. Cabinet welcomed the additional capital funding for highway improvements and start of the two year programme. In response to questions the Corporate Director: Economy and Environment provided assurances regarding ongoing communication with residents about those works over the next two years and to showcase the work carried out. Officers had attended MAGs to discuss the proposed programme for next year which included both the Council’s own capital funding and the additional funding from WG with further consultation prior to the end of the financial year to confirm priorities for the second year. The prioritisation of roads for improvement was discussed with MAGs on an annual basis. In response to questions from Councillor Bobby Feeley officers gave assurances regarding the prioritisation process and input from local members in that regard together with the funding process which essentially enabled the Council to spend circa £4.8m over two years funded by borrowing that was repaid through the Revenue Support Grant from WG over 20 years. It was an established funding mechanism similar to the coastal defence scheme but in this case, it was 100% funded by the WG. The two year programme of work had been developed to fit the amount of funding WG provided. The Leader welcomed the input of MAGs to ensure local feedback and knowledge was taken into account as part of the prioritisation process for those works and highlighted the importance of maximising the opportunity to deliver the full programme within timescale. The importance of communication was also reiterated. RESOLVED that Cabinet note the decision and reasons why the decision was urgent and needed to be made prior to the next available meeting of the Cabinet.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that Cabinet – (a) notes the contents of the report, including the feedback from Committees summarised at Appendix V to the report; (b) confirms the content of Appendices I to IV for submission to Council in July for approval, and (c) notes the key messages arising from the Self-Assessment and the October to March Performance Update Report (particularly the improvement actions). At this point (11.35am) the meeting adjourned for a refreshment break.
Councillor Julie Matthews presented the report and Council’s Performance Self-Assessment for 2024 to 2025 and Performance Update Report (October 2024 to March 2025) for Cabinet’s consideration ahead of its submission to Council. Cabinet was guided through the report which consisted of an Executive Summary (Appendix I) highlighting performance against objectives and the seven governance areas; the Performance Update Report October 2024 to March 2025 (Appendix II); all improvement activities generated since 2023 (Appendix III); new Citizen Voice report (Appendix IV) triangulating a range of data, and recommended changes by Governance and Audit and Performance Scrutiny Committees (Appendix V). Councillor Matthews reflected that the Council should be proud of what had been achieved in difficult circumstances over the past twelve months with clear evidence of delivering to high standards. She highlighted the 5 key achievements over this period together with the 5 key challenges and areas for improvement (Appendix I). The Head of Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital and Assets thanked the Strategic Planning Team for producing the documentation and for the input of both Governance and Audit and Performance Scrutiny Committees, and Cabinet was asked to consider and accept or otherwise their recommended changes (Appendix V). She also highlighted the legislative requirements for monitoring and reporting performance and identifying improvement actions, with 9 improvement actions identified for this period set out in section 4.3 of the report (wording adjustments to improvement actions ii and iv recommended by Performance Scrutiny Committee). Cabinet was also updated on progress with improvement actions previously identified in the report over past years (Appendix III). The Strategic Planning and Improvement Officer provided further context advising that 20% (16) of corporate plan indicators had been categorised “red” and the team would be working to pre-empt indicators going forward to prevent deterioration and undertake further work to make reports more user friendly and easier to navigate. She proceeded to highlight and elaborate on a number of areas of excellent performance “greens” together with “red” areas where challenges were faced. Cabinet thanked officers for the substantial report and hard work carried out. Main areas of debate focused on the following – · the importance of the documents as a performance management tool was highlighted and officers encouraged the various governance boards within the council to identify areas for further scrutiny and populate their work programmes · the Citizen Voice report was a new approach to include a range of data from council services who had direct engagement with individuals that provided valuable perspectives on some of the detail captured in the Corporate Plan in addition to the annual Stakeholder Survey. In some cases, the data held by services reinforced the findings of the Stakeholder Survey but in other cases there was contrast, with service data perhaps providing a more representative response given the Stakeholder Survey was subject to self-selection bias. Improvement action ix focused on alternative arrangements for stakeholder feedback to improve confidence in the data gathered with a number of options currently being considered including conducting randomised stakeholder surveys and using benchmarked data such as the National Residents Survey and the intention was to continue with the Citizen Voice report in future. Proposals would be brought before Cabinet for consideration in due course · concern was raised that the analysis in the Citizen Voice report relating to a number of corporate themes found that whilst data had demonstrated good performance, there had been a significant and unexplained difference in residents’ perspectives, which was an area to be addressed. Officers advised that improvement actions v and ix worked together to better communicate with stakeholders, ensure the triangulation of data in the Citizen Voice report, and worked to review the stakeholder survey to reduce bias in the data received · improvement action ix had been strengthened following feedback from Performance Scrutiny Committee to consider how reduced or changing capacity would impact service delivery and agree mechanisms for communicating that to stakeholders which would manage customer expectations and support staff delivering with less, and it was acknowledged that the financially challenging situation would continue, and all members should work together in that regard · there was some debate on the “red” indicators, and it was accepted there were different shades of red in terms of the severity of the impact and outcomes and each indicator had to be considered with the narrative and in context · outcomes in areas such as child poverty and the percentage of people accessing benefits remained poor and reflected the wider UK and global economic challenges; the performance management framework around the prosperous theme included a mix of national and local indicators, some of which the authority had no direct control over or influence, but they were included to provide context and transparency and other aspects such an economic development was best directed by the authority to where it was needed most · improvement action vi referred to the additional £250k pressure allocated in the budget for 2025/26 for the Climate and Nature Strategy and the Council’s Greener Board should examine the gap between current performance and net carbon zero by the 2030 target and assess viable pathways to securing funds; there was a coherency across Welsh Government departments to make a step change to net zero and a need for both funding and capacity to deliver that change. The Council would need to be prepared for a situation where the net carbon zero target had not been met by 2030 but significant steps had been made towards it and progress made in that regard was highlighted, utilising as much grant funding as possible to move as close to that target as possible. Councillor Bobby Feeley thanked officers for the report and whilst acknowledging some positives she referred to many areas where performance had worsened and disagreed that performance had improved overall or stayed the same. She felt that certain services were lagging behind and struggling and asked whether anything could be done to try and improve the situation going forward and also sought an update on the transformation agenda and the involvement of scrutiny committees. In response to those comments and questions officers advised – · all members and officers on relevant corporate and governance forums were actively encouraged to scrutinise the relevant performance data with a view to improving services in challenging times and within existing constraints and there was also further opportunity for analysis during the annual service challenges · challenged the statement the Council was well behind where it should be with an independent report finding it was a good performing authority within the context it had to work. However, local government was facing acute pressures with social services, education and housing dominating spending with a need to prioritise those areas which meant diverting funding from other environment/placemaking services which would continue to struggle and not performance as well. The red areas needed to be understood in that context. The Leader added that such discussions had dominated the recent Welsh Local Government Association conference with all local authorities in a similar position · the transformation agenda aimed to address pressures and deliver more efficient services and the increased demand on services and progress with the transformation programme had been included in the documentation and was further elaborated on at the meeting; reference was made to the work of the Business and Transformation Board to oversee projects and planned work with the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice Chairs Group to populate scrutiny forward work programmes, and there had been various member briefings on both the topic of transformation and good outcomes in the Homelessness Service. Cabinet considered the recommended changes to the data by Governance and Audit and Performance Scrutiny Committees included in the report together with a summary of the discussion to provide context. Cabinet welcomed the feedback which was constructive and useful and thanked those Committees for their input. Councillor Rhys Thomas highlighted that the external Panel Performance Assessment report found Denbighshire to be a well-run Council that exercises its functions well and was self-aware of the challenges it faced. He added that it was a balanced report which sets out the difficulties but also emphasised the positives. RESOLVED that Cabinet – (a) notes the contents of the report, including the feedback from Committees summarised at Appendix V to the report; (b) confirms the content of Appendices I to IV for submission to Council in July for approval, and (c) notes the key messages arising from the Self-Assessment and the October to March Performance Update Report (particularly the improvement actions). At this point (11.35am) the meeting adjourned for a refreshment break.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that Cabinet recommends to Council that – (a) Second Homes and Long Term Empty (standard premiums) remain at current levels of 150% from April 2026; (b) premiums for Long Term Empty properties that have been empty for over 5 years are increased annually by 25% up to the maximum of 300%, resulting in current premiums of 200% rising to 225% from April 2026, 250% from April 2027, and so forth, and (c) introduce two new categories of premium relief within the S13a Discretionary Relief Policy as set out within paragraph 4.7 – 4.9 of the report.
Councillor Delyth Jones presented the report seeking Cabinet’s review of the existing Council Tax premiums and recommended changes to the policy. Some background was provided on the legislative changes introduced by the Welsh Government since 2017 allowing local authorities to raise Council Tax premiums on Second Homes (SH) and Long Term Empty (LTE) properties and the Council’s previous approvals of premium increases in that regard. The aim of the policy was to reduce the number of SH and LTE properties and increase affordable housing in the county. The report updated Cabinet on the latest review of those premiums to understand the impact of the current policy and recommended policy changes. The outcome of the review and recommended changes were set out. In brief – · numbers of SH had remained stable and not a concern in comparison with other North Wales Councils – it was considered too early to assess the full impact of the recent increases to premiums and therefore no change was recommended · early indications suggested the increases in premiums on LTE properties (standard) was having the desired effect with a reduction in numbers – therefore no change was recommended at this stage and it be kept under review · LTE properties empty for over 5 years had been more of a challenge and the Council had the joint second highest proportion of such properties out of 5 North Wales Councils – therefore it was recommended to introduce an additional 25% premium increase, year on year, on those properties from April 2026 · acting on feedback to support new owners of LTE properties where the relief discount had been used prior to their ownership, 2 additional categories of support had been recommended: General Renovation and Major Renovation. The Head of Finance and Audit added that the report would also be considered by Communities Scrutiny Committee prior to submission to Council for a decision and would ensure plenty of notice for those affected by any changes implemented. Cabinet discussed the report with the Lead Member and officers and was pleased to note the learning from the findings of the review which had resulted in tailored recommendations for Denbighshire, supporting new owners where appropriate and maintaining pressure on those LTE properties that presented the most persistent challenges. In response to questions officers explained the definitions for the two new categories of support which had been prescribed in legislation with general renovations mainly relating to cosmetic works and major renovations to structural works, but the discretionary exemption would be applied on a case-by-case basis. Members were pleased that a common-sense approach was applied to the discretionary exemptions and referred to cases they were aware of where the approach had resulted in positive outcomes for residents. Cabinet hoped that implementation of the recommendations would have the desired outcome and the Lead Member confirmed the most difficult element related to the LTE properties for over five years where the proportion had increased hence the recommendation to increase the premium to specifically tackle that issue alongside the additional relief to assist new owners and encourage those properties back into use. Officers also reported on the collaborative process undertaken and targeted approach and signposting property owners to empty homes grant funding etc. to bring those properties back into circulation together with regional working across North Wales. Other local authorities in the region were taking a similar approach. The recommendations also provided notice of the Council’s intention going forward. Councillor Bobby Feeley highlighted the low percentage of SH / LTE properties in the county and felt the measures rather punitive. She also raised questions on the cost implications and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (WBIA) with particular pressure on owners of holiday lets and meeting the minimum occupancy of 182 days. The Lead Member and officers responded as follows – · the report did not specifically refer to the element of SH that were used as holiday lets and it was not within the authority’s gift to change legislation introduced by the Welsh Government regarding the minimum annual occupancy · the number of LTE (standard) properties had decreased hence no change was recommended and the situation would be monitored but LTE properties over 5 years showed an issue for Denbighshire (joint second for the highest proportion of such properties in the region) with those properties generally problematic within communities hence it was being specifically targeted for action · the WBIA reported a positive effect as the aim of the policy was to ensure homes of a good quality were brought back into use to benefit local residents · costs to date had been absorbed by the service but the introduction of the additional categorisations within the discretionary policy required an additional officer which could be funded from the additional income raised as a result of the changes; it was emphasised that the aim of the policy was not to generate additional income, but that income detail had been included in the report · any individuals experiencing hardship or difficult circumstances were encouraged to contact the Council directly to review their particular case and consider any discretion or support that may be afforded to them. Councillor Emrys Wynne supported the recommendations as a positive way, along with other measures, to help meet the acute local housing need. He added that the low percentage figure for LTE standard properties equated to up to 570 additional homes being available for let or sale in the future for local people. RESOLVED that Cabinet recommends to Council that – (a) Second Homes and Long Term Empty (standard premiums) remain at current levels of 150% from April 2026; (b) premiums for Long Term Empty properties that have been empty for over 5 years are increased annually by 25% up to the maximum of 300%, resulting in current premiums of 200% rising to 225% from April 2026, 250% from April 2027, and so forth, and (c) introduce two new categories of premium relief within the S13a Discretionary Relief Policy as set out within paragraph 4.7 – 4.9 of the report.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that Cabinet’s forward work programme be noted.
The Cabinet work programme was presented for consideration. Members noted the rescheduling of items relating to the Agricultural Estate Strategy Review and Future of Cefndy from July to September. RESOLVED that Cabinet’s forward work programme be noted.
RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the Press and Public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 14 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A of the Act.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED that Cabinet approve the issuing of an extension to the contract from 24 July 2025 to 31 March 2026 to allow time to undertake the work required to evaluate this provision and reach a decision on how this must be shaped and delivered in the longer term. The meeting concluded at 12.25 pm.
Councillor Elen Heaton presented the confidential report seeking Cabinet approval to extend the current work opportunities contract delivered by Cynnig. Cabinet had approved a 1-year extension to the contract in July 2024 (with the option to extend for a further 12-month period) to enable a review of the current methods of service delivery to be carried out ahead of any retendering exercise. Due to capacity issues work had not progressed as planned and therefore a short and final extension of the contract had been requested to complete that work. Details of the service provided, and the current contract had been set out. Officers responded to questions, elaborating on the work to be carried out over the next eight months in terms of options appraisals and cost benefit analysis. In addition to that work individual citizens who received services had annual reviews of their care and support plans demonstrating an ongoing dynamic process from both an individual commissioning basis and service commissioning basis. The Council needed to continually review all its services in order to be sustainable and provide cost effective and appropriate services to meet the needs of residents. RESOLVED that Cabinet approve the issuing of an extension to the contract from 24 July 2025 to 31 March 2026 to allow time to undertake the work required to evaluate this provision and reach a decision on how this must be shaped and delivered in the longer term. The meeting concluded at 12.25 pm.
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