Council Plan 2023 to 2027

The borough is home to people from a range of backgrounds and communities. It has some of the richest areas in the country and some of the poorest. We want to do what we can to make life fairer for people who face the greatest disadvantages and challenges, so that everyone, regardless of who they are or where they live, has opportunity and can make the most of what the borough has to offer. To do this, we will build on our close ties with businesses and partners and target our services to those who most need them and do more to connect people across the borough. Building on the skills, expertise, and passion of our residents.

Becoming fairer as an organisation means listening to our residents and acting with care. We will continue to improve how we communicate with residents, ensuring that when people tell us something isn’t working, we listen and learn. It also means making sure equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of what we do, so that services are designed to meet the specific needs of residents and can be accessed in different ways. We know that giving children the best start in life, from pregnancy to five, increases their ability to fulfil their potential and ambitions and that helping people who need support early, at any stage of life, makes a difference. We will make it easier to access advice and support in the community, acknowledging the work of the voluntary and community sector and committed residents who volunteer.

Becoming the best Council also means creating the conditions for the borough to be a thriving place where all residents can enjoy beautiful and welcoming spaces and live well. People live in and visit the borough because of our heritage, world famous places and shops and restaurants. We want to invest in our borough and its destinations, including through our own capital programme, to ensure visitors keep coming to spend time and money here. This work ranges from promoting and supporting al fresco dining to working with landowners to create new and exciting places that add to and capture the essence of Kensington and Chelsea. Investment and visitors create employment and opportunities for our residents. As a critical part of central London, we must do all we can to provide more housing, particularly for the elderly, disadvantaged and those with complex needs alongside creating more and better jobs across sectors and skills levels.

Housing

We will:

• Prioritise social housing for those that need it most, with a new Housing Allocations Scheme in 2023, further work to crack down on tenancy fraud, and helping people to downsize where that suits them.
• Continue our work to build 600 new homes in the borough, with at least 300 for social rent. The first new homes built by the Council will be ready to occupy in 2023.
• Place a high priority on providing a wider choice of good quality specialist housing for older people and people with disabilities through building more extra care facilities, including through new extra care accommodation at Lots Road.
• Deliver key worker housing, to support key workers to live and work in the borough.
• Be a good landlord, investing in and maintaining our social housing and targeting more services in areas like health and employment support to people in social housing or on the housing register.
• Learn lessons from our pioneering Lancaster West Neighbourhood Team on the Lancaster West Estate, to pilot a similar approach on other estates with locally accessible staff, joined up services, advice and guidance, and job opportunities for residents. Our aim is to start with the World’s End Estate.
• Improve the standard of rented housing owned by others – including social and private landlords – by making full use of our regulatory powers.
• Prevent homelessness and rough sleeping wherever we can, including by combining housing advice with other support from the rest of the Council and beyond, and providing more focused support for households who are placed in temporary accommodation.
• Involve residents from start to finish in the decisions we make about housing, including through the Tenants Consultative Committee for council tenants and through our new Residents Reference Group for people in temporary accommodation or with other experience of our housing services.

Advice and support

We will:

• Work with our partners to provide ongoing support to bereaved and survivors from the Grenfell tragedy and those most affected in the local community beyond the end of the Grenfell Recovery Programme in 2024.
• Ensure that residents who most need our support, including those who live in social housing and temporary accommodation, feel the full benefit of our services and investment.
• Trial ‘no wrong front door’ approaches so that our services are focused on people and residents don’t have to speak to lots of different departments.
• Create more hubs for people to access the support they need, like advice and employment support, and council services near where people live, for example, in libraries or community spaces or housing estates.
• Build a world-class facility to support adults with learning difficulties, co-designed with the North Kensington community, which will also provide shared community space at Maxilla.
• Continue to offer the right care for adults, at the right time, in the right place to ensure we promote independence. 
• Continue to give priority to early years services, including funded placements for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds, providing combined health visiting and parenting support through our family hubs and enabling residents to maximise the use of our children’s library services.
• Support the most vulnerable with the rising cost of living by keeping Council tax low, providing 100% Council Tax support for those who need it the most and investing £8 million, including providing funding to all primary schools to help children with the rising cost of living and a £100 rebate on Council Tax for those currently not receiving support in Bands A-D.
• Transform how people can access advice across the borough and continue to support our community centres, faith centres and charities and voluntary and community partners.
• Make it easier to do things online with the Council through more improvements to our website or an app.
• Create more opportunities for residents to share their views and hold the Council to account, and ensure staff are able and ready to act on what they hear, so more residents feel listened to and cared for.

Celebrate, promote, and improve Kensington and Chelsea

We will:

• Celebrate and improve our high streets and markets working with Business Improvement Districts, business forums and our market traders.
• Support events that celebrate the borough's diverse culture and improving access for everyone to world class culture, such as the Leighton House Museum, K&C Festival and Notting Hill Carnival.
• Invest in our borough, with 600 new homes, green spaces, employment opportunities and improved public realm at Lots Road, Portobello Road, Bute Street and Cremorne Wharf.
• Deliver opportunities in Earl’s Court and Kensal Canalside, supporting new homes and jobs which respect and enhance the borough's existing neighbourhoods.
• Pioneer the use of social investment leases for our properties to ensure there is maximum benefit to local people.

Education, economy, and employment

We will: 

• Continue to develop links between local businesses, schools, and colleges so that our children are encouraged to be ambitious for their future and that all young people are attending education, employment, or training post 18.
• Support our schools to deliver an excellent education and continue our high level of Special Educational Needs provision, including the new special school, Kensington Queensmill, opened in September 2021.
• Create an environment where entrepreneurs, social enterprises and business can flourish. Businesses and employers provide vitality and investment in our town centres and high streets, we will support our businesses and employers with recruitment and supply chain opportunities.
• Tackle unemployment, underemployment, and low pay by working in partnership to provide training and support to those who need it alongside other support, in ways and places that make sense to people.

Fit for youth

The Council are helpful in many ways, for one we’re able actually be outside, deliver to the community and help those in the community.

Christopher Herbert
Founder and CEO of Fit For Life