London Borough of Sutton – Progress Review

The council undertook an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) during 18 - 21 November 2024 and promptly published the full report with an action plan.

The Progress Review is an integral part of the CPC process. Taking place approximately ten months after the CPC, it is designed to provide space for the council’s senior leadership to:

• Receive feedback from peers on the early progress made by the council against the CPC recommendations and the council’s RAG rated CPC Action Plan.
• Consider peers’ reflections on any new opportunities or challenges that may have arisen since the peer team were ‘onsite’ including any further support needs.
• Discuss any early impact or learning from the progress made to date.

The LGA would like to thank the London Borough of Sutton for their commitment to sector led improvement. This Progress Review was the next step in an ongoing, relationship that the council has with LGA sector support.

The Progress Review at the London Borough of Sutton took place (onsite) on 18^th September 2025.

The Progress Review focussed on each of the recommendations from the CPC, under the following theme headings:

• Sutton branding and communications
  • Recommendation 1 - ‘Brand Sutton’
  • Recommendation 3 - Inward investment strategy
  • Recommendation 4 - Communication and engagement strategy
• Local priorities and outcomes
  • Recommendation 9 - Prioritisation and resource allocation
• Place leadership
  • Recommendation 5 - Community and Faith Sector (CFCS) and commissioning
  • Recommendation 8 - Residents’ survey
• Governance
  • Recommendation 6 - Governance and oversight of outsourced services and council companies
• Financial planning and management
  • Recommendation 2 - Financial resilience and reserves
  • Recommendation 10 - Housing Revenue Account
• Regeneration
  • Sutton town centre regeneration
  • London Cancer Hub progress
• Digital and transformation
  • Recommendation 11 - Development of the digital strategy
  • One Sutton transformation programme
• Housing
  • Recommendation 7 - Different operating models in housing
  • RSH inspection - findings and recommendations

For this Progress Review, the following members of the original CPC team were involved:

• Linzi Roberts-Egan, Chief Executive, London Borough of Waltham Forest
• Cllr Mark Hunter, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
• Mike Curtis, Executive Director of Resources (S151 Officer), Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea
• Harry Parker, LGA Peer Challenge Manager

Of the 11 recommendations made during the CPC, the council’s action plan shows that some progress has been made against all of them. Several actions have now been completed, while others - particularly those of a more strategic or long-term nature - were still in progress at the time of the Progress Review. 

Progress in implementing the council’s CPC action plan is monitored regularly, with actions integrated into the council’s performance reporting framework. Performance reports are presented to the relevant committees on a regular basis, providing member oversight and senior officer involvement in tracking and reviewing progress.

Following on from the CPC, the peer team observed that there remains a strong alignment between the political and managerial leadership at Sutton. The Strategic Team continues to operate as a cohesive unit, with good relationships and a clear sense of shared purpose and ambition.

The council Leader, now 16 months into the role, is increasingly established and confident in the position. During the Progress Review, peers consistently heard positive reflections on the Leader’s growing visibility and influence, both within the organisation and externally. It was clear to the peer team that the Leader is stepping more fully into the role of ambassador and champion for Sutton.

The council’s staff survey, conducted in June 2025, provided further evidence of a positive and inclusive organisational culture. An impressive 92 per cent of staff said they would recommend Sutton as a place to work, with scores above sector benchmarks across nearly all measures. Notably, staff rated highly the council’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (8.9/10), demonstration of the PRIDE values in daily work (8.8/10), and feeling fairly treated by their manager (8.7/10). While the overall picture was very encouraging, the survey also highlighted areas for further improvement, including strengthening staff understanding of and connection to the Corporate Plan vision (7.5/10) and improving the usability of internal systems such as the intranet (7.4/10).

Since the CPC, Sutton has been subject to several inspections by external regulators:

• Adult Social Care was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in May 2025. At the time of the Progress Review, the judgement had not yet been published.
• In June 2025, Ofsted inspected Children’s Services and judged the service to be “Good” across all areas.
• In May 2025, Ofsted also inspected Sutton College, which received a “Good” judgement in all areas, an improvement from the previous “Requires Improvement” outcome in September 2022.
• The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) carried out its inspection in July 2025 – Sutton’s first inspection under the new regulatory framework. The judgement has not yet been published, but the peer team heard that the inspection process has prompted significant learning. Importantly, the council reflected that preparation for the inspection, and the steps taken since, have reinforced that housing responsibilities are a corporate endeavour and not solely the remit of Sutton Housing Partnership (SHP) or the housing service.

3.1 Sutton branding and communications 
 

The council has taken strides to strengthen and promote Sutton’s identity since the CPC. A brand narrative has been developed that seeks to promote Sutton as both a destination and a community, celebrating the borough’s strengths including education, green spaces, affordable housing, life sciences and community safety.

This work has been underpinned by market research and stakeholder engagement. The council has undertaken focus groups and user testing with residents, partners and businesses to better understand perceptions of Sutton and what makes the borough distinctive. Reflections from these engagements reinforced the peer team feedback from the CPC of the importance of celebrating Sutton’s achievements and being more vocal about its many assets. Insights from the 2025 residents’ survey should further inform and refine the council’s future branding and communications.

The council has recently approved its ‘In Sutton, South London’ destination campaign, due to launch later in 2025. This new campaign marks a change in how Sutton positions itself - now confidently asserting its place within London while highlighting its many qualities and strong local identity. The campaign aims to showcase Sutton’s proximity to central London and its appeal as a place to live, work and invest. The flexible “In [place], South London” model (for example, In Wallington, South London or In Cheam, South London) has been designed to be easily adopted by partners and businesses, helping to create a shared, recognisable identity across the borough.

Campaign materials are in development, including a dedicated website and a programme to promote local businesses as part of the wider campaign. Importantly, the destination campaign is being designed to align closely with the council’s new Economic Growth Plan.

The council has recently adopted its Economic Growth Plan 2025 - 2035, which sets out a strategic approach to harness Sutton’s strengths, attract inward investment and create opportunities for residents and businesses. The plan seeks to position Sutton as a key driver for growth in south London.

To help shape the plan, the council hosted an Inward Investment Summit in March 2025, bringing together investors, developers and businesses to showcase the borough and hear external perspectives. The summit highlighted Sutton’s strengths and reinforced confidence in Sutton’s investment potential. Feedback also identified areas for improvement which require focus and continued investment including around developing skills and labour, improving transport links and infrastructure to help realise the borough’s economic ambitions. 

The Economic Growth Plan identified two primary focal points for growth:

• The London Cancer Hub (LCH) – with expansion plans developed, plotting the ambition of becoming the global centre for oncology. The LCH represents a significant economic opportunity, expected to create an additional 3,500 permanent jobs over the span of the plan.
• Sutton Town Centre - a major regeneration programme including redevelopment of the St Nicholas Centre and Civic Hub, significant new housing delivery and improvements to the retail and leisure offer.

Beyond these two major programmes, the plan also recognises the importance of Sutton’s district centres and industrial estates in delivering economic growth. The peer team welcomed the intention to support all the borough’s towns and villages in a coherent and planned way, ensuring that the benefits of investment are felt widely. An example discussed during the Progress Review was the potential for a master planning exercise in Wallington, which could help unlock local opportunities and broaden the council’s economic focus beyond the major project focus of the Sutton town centre regeneration and the LCH.

The council has made a concerted effort to ensure alignment between its Economic Growth Plan and wider regional strategies, including the London Growth Plan (which highlights the LCH as a strategic asset) and the South London Partnership’s Growth Ambition Strategy.

The peer team also heard that the council is exploring options to formalise a business partnership forum, building on the relationships and momentum generated from the March investment summit. Whether through this mechanism or an alternative approach, the council’s ongoing commitment to structured engagement with the private sector will be key to securing investment and turning strategy into delivery.

Since the CPC, the council has made some progress to develop its strategic communications and engagement approach. Work is underway to produce an overarching Communications, Engagement and Public Affairs Strategy.

The council has mapped out a set of external campaigning priorities for 2025/26, in line with the Ambitious for Sutton Corporate Plan. Themes include celebrating Sutton, standing up for Sutton (lobbying work), Greening Sutton (positive action on climate change), Helping Sutton (prevention work) all encompassed by destination Sutton (our place campaign). Each theme has a programme of activity scheduled across the year. 

The peer team heard positive examples of how the council is seeking to modernise and diversify its communications. This includes upskilling communications staff to use more creative and digital methods, such as video and short clips, and encouraging staff from across the organisation to contribute and develop content.

Local Committees

An internal review of the council’s community engagement approaches has been undertaken, including cross-party discussion at the council's Scrutiny Committee in December 2024. 

The borough has a tradition of partnership working and engagement with its communities but continues to face challenges such as declining attendance at Local Committees and ensuring engagement methods reach the full diversity of Sutton’s population.

The review produced a series of recommendations, many of which the peer team would endorse, aimed at broadening and modernising the council’s engagement offer. These included:

• Expanding the range of engagement approaches – exploring residents’ panels, citizens’ assemblies and participatory budgeting.
• Further collaboration with community-based organisations in the Charity, Faith and Community Sector (CFCS).
• Embedding co-production approaches, involving people with lived experience more directly in service design and decision-making. 

As part of the review, it considered the role and effectiveness of the Local Committees. While a consensus on the future structure of Local Committees could not be achieved, there was agreement to trial different approaches in some areas to increase their reach and impact. This includes testing more informal and interactive formats, inviting a broader range of partners (such as health, police and fire and the CFCS) and drawing on good practice from other councils.

The peer team would encourage the council to keep the effectiveness of the Local Committees under regular review, ensuring that the value they deliver is proportionate to the resources and costs involved. This will be particularly important in light of the Government’s stated intention, through the forthcoming English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, for all councils to move to an executive model of governance. Such a change would require Sutton to transition from its current committee system while also responding to the White Paper’s emphasis on strengthening neighbourhood-level governance and community voice. The legislation will likely necessitate a comprehensive constitutional review for Sutton, providing an opportunity to test and modernise all aspects of the council’s governance arrangements.

3.2 Local priorities and outcomes

As highlighted during the CPC, Sutton’s next Corporate Plan presents a key opportunity for the council to reaffirm its core priorities and focus its ambitions. The peer team would encourage the council to retain its strong sense of ambition, while ensuring that the next plan is proportionate to the growing financial and capacity challenges it faces.

Positively, the council has well-established governance structures for programmes that manage demand and expenditure within its most pressurised services. The four Financial Sustainability Programmes - covering Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Temporary Accommodation and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) - provide a priority focus within the council and it is right the focus on these pressured areas continues. 

The need for disciplined prioritisation is now even greater than at the time of the CPC. With the proposed Fair Funding reforms, it is inevitable that resources will become increasingly stretched. The council will therefore need to review the range and scale of services it delivers, particularly discretionary services, to determine which remain political priorities and which may no longer be affordable or could be delivered differently.

Encouragingly, the peer team heard there is an increasing recognition across the organisation that not all services need to be delivered directly by the council. The emerging prevention pilots and strengthened partnerships with the CFCS demonstrate how the council can work differently - empowering partners to deliver services in more sustainable and community-led ways.

Looking ahead, the peer team felt it would be valuable for the Strategic Team to hold focused development sessions following the May 2026 local elections, to map out and agree the council’s organisational priorities for the next four years. This exercise should form the basis for the next Corporate Plan.

The findings from the borough-wide Residents’ Survey, undertaken in summer 2025, will also offer valuable insight into residents’ priorities and satisfaction levels, which can contribute to defining the organisational priorities.

3.3 Place leadership

Sutton continues to have a broad range of voluntary sector organisations, with more than 550 organisations operating across the borough and supported by nearly 15,000 volunteers. An independent review, Evolving our Ecosystem, jointly commissioned by Community Action Sutton and Volunteer Centre Sutton in April 2025, provided the first assessment of the sector in nearly a decade. The review mapped the breadth of activity across Sutton’s CFCS - from health and wellbeing to youth, cultural and advice services.

Working closely with the CFCS and health partners, the council re-established the cross-sector compact partnership meetings. This collaboration has led to the development of the Sutton Charity & Public Sector Partners Framework 2025 - 2028 - a new compact that formalises joint working between the council, health partners and the CFCS. The framework commits partners to fairness, inclusivity and transparency in decision-making, and to embedding co-production and prevention across the system.

As part of this renewed partnership, the council is in the process of commissioning a new infrastructure support contract to help fund training, governance support, volunteer recruitment and advocacy for local organisations. Sutton has also committed to developing a series of thematic forums to make it easier for smaller, grassroots groups to engage with the council.

The peer team heard positive examples of how co-production is becoming increasingly embedded in strategy development and commissioning. Notably, both the Joint Carers Strategy (2025 - 2030) and the Joint Dementia Strategy (2025 - 2030) were co-designed with CFCS partners, carers and residents with lived experience. These strategies are delivered through shared governance arrangements with the NHS and the voluntary sector and include shared outcomes frameworks. The co-production approach adopted in developing these strategies represents good practice and provides a strong model for how future strategies across the organisation could be developed.

The council conducted its first borough-wide Residents’ Survey since 2019 during summer 2025, with over 1,000 residents interviewed. The survey was based on a weighted representative sample drawn from all wards in the borough. The results were positive, with satisfaction levels across most measures exceeding both London and national averages. Headline findings include:

• 90 per cent satisfied with Sutton as a place to live considerably above the national and London averages.
• 74 per cent are satisfied with how the council runs things – unchanged from 2019 and higher than the London (62 per cent) and England (56 per cent) averages.
• 59 per cent agree it provides value for money (compared with 47 per cent in London and 36 per cent nationally).
• 66 per cent feel well informed by the council, up from 50 per cent in 2019.
• 86 per cent feel proud to live in their local area, citing respectful people, good transport, green spaces, and safety as key reasons.

The survey did, however, highlight that community safety after dark remains a concern, with only 60 per cent of residents feeling safe at night despite the borough having some of the lowest crime levels in London. The peer team would therefore encourage the council to continue working closely with partners to look to improve this perception and support people to feel safe in the borough.

3.4 Governance

The peer team heard that work was underway to support and upskill contract managers in line with the implementation of the Procurement Act 2023. Initial pilot training sessions have been completed, with a wider training programme to follow, supported by new guidance on social value and sustainable procurement.

As the council develops its member induction programme for the May 2026 elections, it will be important to ensure that members receive clear communication and training on the council’s varied delivery models – including shared service arrangements, council-owned companies and the arm’s-length management organisation (ALMO) for housing.

3.5 Financial planning and management

Sutton delivered an improved outturn position in 2024/25 compared with the previous year. In 2023/24, the council reported a total service overspend of £15.4m, whereas in 2024/25 this had reduced to £4.1m. After applying underspends within corporate budgets and utilising contingency provisions, the council achieved a final outturn underspend of £657k. Given the financial pressures faced by all London boroughs, finishing the year with a net underspend and contributing to reserves was impressive, demonstrating good financial management and control.

This discipline has continued into 2025/26, with the council forecasting a £3.6m service overspend at Month 4, which officers remain confident can be closed by year end. The council also reported good progress on delivering its £12m savings programme, with the majority of savings on track to be achieved.

Sutton’s reserves position remains low compared with most other London boroughs, continuing to present a significant financial risk. The council made a positive contribution to reserves in 2024/25, bringing the General Fund balance to £9.6m, equivalent to 5.2 per cent of the 2025/26 net budget. As highlighted by the external auditor and noted during the CPC, this leaves the council with limited capacity to absorb unforeseen financial shocks, heightening the need to minimise overspends and deliver savings.

The forthcoming Fair Funding reform is expected to have a material impact on Sutton’s financial position, with significant implications for the council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). Modelling by London Councils suggests that the proposed formula changes would have resulted in a reduction of around £9.2m (11 per cent) in Sutton’s grant income in 2025/26, excluding transitional protection. With further reductions anticipated over the following two years, the overall funding level for Sutton would decline year on year over the MTFS period. This would place substantial additional pressure on the council’s budget and likely impact front line services in future.

Updated MTFS modelling that incorporates Fair Funding projections indicated a £15.4m budget gap in 2026/27, rising to a cumulative £38m over the following two years (£11.7m in 2027/28 and £11.5m in 2028/29). These projections exclude potential council tax increases. The scale of the challenge means that difficult decisions will be unavoidable, and all savings, efficiencies and funding options will need to be fully explored to secure the council’s long-term financial sustainability.

Current options under consideration would reduce the 2026/27 gap to around £6m, through a combination of council tax increases, savings from digital transformation, and use of reserves. Nonetheless, a shortfall remains, and over the medium term the council is likely to need to identify in excess of £20m of further savings to maintain a balanced position. The peer team would encourage the council to act now to develop a broader and more ambitious savings programme, recognising that this will require service transformation at a greater scale and pace than in recent years. Peers would emphasise the importance of maintaining a shared understanding and collective ownership between officers and members in planning and making the decisions needed to meet this challenge. 

The council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) continues to face pressure as it seeks to balance multiple priorities such as meeting its landlord responsibilities, ensuring all homes meet the Decent Homes Standard, investing in decarbonisation and progressing new housing development and acquisitions. The council has maintained its good practice of annually updating its 30-year HRA business plan, which sets out the financing challenges and long-term investment needs of its housing stock.

The Government’s announcement of a 10-year Consumer Price Index (CPI) +1 per cent rent settlement provides welcome stability and will boost HRA income. Modelling of the impact of this increased income is underway and will inform future revisions to the business plan. The council is also planning to increase annual capital expenditure from approximately £14m to £20m, with a particular focus on accelerating delivery of the Decent Homes programme.

During the Progress Review, the peer team heard about the council’s recent decision to progress the Westmead Road development, a scheme where £8.2m of Greater London Authority (GLA) funding has been secured to deliver 34 new Passivhaus-standard homes. The project had been stalled for over five years, but following the council’s decision to bring it forward through the HRA, it will now deliver 100 per cent council homes, compared to the original plan for 20 per cent at council rent.

Sutton has also successfully secured external funding for its decarbonisation work, including approximately £1m through the London Councils’ Warmer Homes consortium for energy-efficiency improvements to 64 homes. This brings the total number of council homes benefiting from government funding via the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to more than 200 over the past three years.

While progress has been made, the long-term financial sustainability of the HRA remains challenging. Continued focus on prioritisation of spend, income maximisation and the proactive pursuit of external funding will be essential.

3.6 Regeneration 

Town Centre regeneration 

The Sutton Town Centre regeneration remains one of the council’s most significant and complex projects. The ambition to deliver a mixed-use redevelopment that revitalises the town centre, creates new homes and drives economic growth remains clear. The council has shown a commitment to leading regeneration with its own assets through the proposed redevelopment of the Civic Centre site and the St Nicholas Centre - with the intention that these schemes act as catalysts for wider private sector investment and development in the town centre.

The council remains committed to vacating the current Civic Centre site, which has been identified as a key location for housing intensification. Current plans propose around 740 new homes across the Civic Offices, Gibson Road Car Park and Secombe Theatre sites, with 50 per cent designated as affordable housing, including nearly 300 homes for social rent.

While the ambition remains clear, progress has slowed as a development agreement has not yet been reached. In light of rising costs and wider financial pressures, the council recognises that the viability and deliverability of large-scale schemes such as this will need to be closely scrutinised. 

The peer team would support the approach which closely monitors the accumulated level of risk the council is exposed to. Regeneration of the scale the council is aspiring for is a difficult and costly process. It is important the council does not expose itself to too great a level of risk and to ensure the regeneration schemes are phased at affordable levels.

The London Cancer Hub

Ambitious plans for the LCH continue to progress well and remain a cornerstone of the borough’s economic growth strategy. A major planning application for the next phase of development was submitted in May 2025 by the council’s development partners and is due to be determined before the end of the year. The proposed scheme covers approximately five hectares of land and is expected to attract around £700m of investment, creating upwards of 3,500 permanent jobs. Given the significance of the project, it is positive that the Mayor of London’s Growth Plan recognises the LCH as a key strategic site, aligning with Sutton’s ambition to establish the borough as the global home of oncology.

3.7 Digital and transformation 

One Sutton transformation programme

Sutton’s transformation programme has, to date, been primarily finance-focused, structured around the council’s four Financial Sustainability Programmes - Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Temporary Accommodation and SEND. This approach has provided focus on the council’s highest-risk and most financially demanding areas, looking to establish accountability for delivery across the organisation. While progress can be evidenced within these programmes, demand pressures continue to grow, particularly in social care and homelessness, underlining the need to broaden the transformation agenda.

There is a growing recognition that the council’s focus will need to shift to wider service redesign and organisational transformation. The recently adopted Digital and Data Strategies provide a platform for this enabling alternative approaches for how the council operates and delivers services.

Given the scale of the financial challenge - particularly in light of the forthcoming Fair Funding Review and expected pressures from 2027/28 onwards - it will be important for Sutton to accelerate development of a corporate transformation strategy, focused on redesigning services and reviewing the operating model to deliver good quality services more cost-effectively.

The council recognises the capacity constraints in delivering a large-scale transformation programme and is exploring the potential to work with an external delivery partner. The peer team would encourage the council to draw on best practice from elsewhere and ensure robust governance and programme management to maximise the impact of this next phase of transformation.

The council has developed and adopted a new data strategy which looks at providing a roadmap for modernising services, improving efficiency and embedding data-driven decision-making across the organisation. In preparing the strategy the council undertook an organisation-wide data maturity assessment that identified key challenges, including siloed systems, manual processes, inconsistent data quality and a risk-averse culture that has historically limited data sharing. 

The strategy includes a three-year roadmap of incremental digital improvements, such as developing a single resident view, strengthening data governance and ethics frameworks and establishing a data academy to build staff skills and confidence in using data effectively.

The peer team heard positive examples of digital innovation already being delivered, including the introduction of Magic Notes in Adult Social Care, which has reduced administrative workloads and saved practitioners an average of eight hours per week during the pilot phase. Other examples include redesigned online forms to improve accessibility at the Adult Social Care front door and planned automation of Council Tax processes.

The council has also partnered with Triple Value Impact (TVI) to develop digital business cases that contribute directly to the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). 

An area Sutton has made good progress in has been the council’s work to develop and embed the safe and ethical use of AI across the organisation. All staff now have access to Google Gemini and Notebook LM to support their daily work. In rolling this out the council has introduced some governance and guidance for staff to support them in confidently using AI in a responsible way.

The council has issued AI guidance for all staff, setting out a traffic-light system (green/amber/red) to indicate which tools are approved for use. Sutton has also developed a network of 20 AI Champions from across the organisation, who help promote the use of AI, provide peer support and have delivered live demonstrations to help train and upskill their colleagues. 

Other efforts to promote AI use include the ‘AI Fest’, held in June 2025, which showcased practical applications of AI and digital tools. This built on the success of the previous year’s ‘Ideas Fest’ which is a good example of the council looking to encourage innovation across the organisation. 

The council anticipates that digital transformation, including through the use of AI and emerging technologies could generate up to £1m of savings in 2026/27, alongside wider efficiency and quality benefits. The peer team considered Sutton to be ahead of most comparable councils in developing and applying AI responsibly, demonstrating good practice that others could learn from.

3.8 Housing

The RSH carried out its first inspection of SHP under the new regulatory framework during July 2025. The inspection report is expected later this year, and both the council and SHP have already begun preparing to develop an action plan in response to its findings. Planned for improvements and recommendations from the inspection should form the basis of this action plan, with progress overseen by the SHP Board and reported regularly to the Housing, Economy and Business Committee.

The peer team heard that SHP continued to perform well in key areas of housing management. Since the CPC, the SHP Board had been strengthened with new, experienced independent members and compliance with health and safety requirements remained high, with only a small number of properties not currently meeting the Decent Homes Standard (1.2 per cent fall below the standard, better than the peer median of 7 per cent).

The Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSMs) for 2024/25 found that Sutton had continued to perform above national and peer benchmarks for its core functions such as building safety, repairs and maintenance. The TSMs found that:

• Overall satisfaction with landlord services is at 69.9 per cent, slightly down from 71.7 per cent in 2023/24 but above the peer median of 62.1 per cent.
• Repairs services are improving, with satisfaction at 69.9 per cent, ahead of the peer median (64.3 per cent).
• Homes well maintained: 66.5 per cent, slightly below last year (70.0 per cent) but above peers (62.9 per cent).
• Safety of homes: 73.3 per cent, steady year-on-year and above the peer benchmark.
• Respect and fairness: 73.6 per cent, above the peer median (72.2 per cent).
• Areas for improvement include (all below peer benchmarks):
  • listening to tenants (57.2 per cent)
  • satisfaction with complaints handling (30.6 per cent) – below internal target of 37 per cent
  • handling of anti-social behaviour (61.4 per cent)

In response to the 2024/25 TSM findings, an improvement action plan has been developed with targets set for improvements with repairs, complaints handling, damp and mould and stronger resident engagement. Examples of SHP’s approach to tenant engagement were shared with the peer team, including its ‘You Said, We Did’ communications approach, which shares examples of actions taken in response to tenant feedback across social media, SHP’s website and its Homefront newsletter.

To strengthen co-ordination and leadership across housing and homelessness services, the council appointed a dedicated Director of Housing in March 2025. Introduced following the insourcing of Encompass, this role is intended to provide greater strategic oversight and alignment between the council’s housing functions, SHP and homelessness services.

In line with the CPC recommendation to review delivery and operating models, the council has undertaken a review of the Housing Advice Service following the Encompass insourcing. The review recommended a restructure to improve service delivery, clarify decision making processes and help with strategic planning. A business case for the restructure has been approved and is currently out for staff consultation.

Positively, the council is also benchmarking its delivery approach for its housing services against comparable authorities, including those operating with ALMOs, to identify good practice and potential efficiencies.

The LGA would like to thank the London Borough of Sutton for undertaking an LGA CPC Progress Review.

We appreciate that senior managerial and political leadership will want to reflect on these findings and suggestions in order to determine how the organisation wishes to take things forward.

Under the umbrella of LGA sector-led improvement, there is an on-going offer of support to councils. The LGA is well placed to provide additional support, advice and guidance on a number of the areas identified for development and improvement and we would be happy to discuss this.

Mona Sehgal, London Principal Adviser, is the main point of contact between the authority and the LGA and their e-mail address is [email protected].