Cabinet meets Monday on a five-year housing strategy and council tax support. Schools Forum hears of a £65.6m SEND overspend. Every meeting, 12 to 15 October.

West Northamptonshire Council has four meetings with published agendas between Monday 12 and Thursday 15 October. A fifth, the Strategic Planning Committee on Thursday, has been cancelled.

The ones most likely to affect residents are Monday’s Cabinet, which is asked to put a new housing strategy out to consultation, and Tuesday’s Schools Forum, which hears how far the special needs budget is overspending.

Every entry below links to the council’s own papers. Each meeting page also carries the council’s attendance details.

Monday 12 October: Cabinet

6pm, The Forum, Moat Lane, Towcester. Agenda and papers.

  • Housing Strategy 2027 to 2032. Cabinet is asked to approve a draft strategy for a six-week public consultation. It has four themes: building the homes communities need, becoming a “high performing landlord”, independent living and homelessness prevention, and standards in private renting. The council is landlord of more than 11,500 homes.
  • Council tax support for 2027 to 2028. Cabinet is recommended to make no changes, so working-age claimants keep paying at least 20% of their bill. In June, 17,384 people got help, 10,038 of them of working age. The scheme is estimated to cost £21.6m this year.
  • Hardship fund. The same report says the council’s £100,000 council tax hardship fund had 450 applications by July, with 201 awards totalling £55,066.
  • Adult social care. A progress report on the improvement plan after the Care Quality Commission rated the service “requires improvement”. We reported the waiting list figures on Wednesday.
  • Council housing coming back in-house. A scrutiny panel’s midway findings on taking Northamptonshire Partnership Homes back into the council by April 2027. It says the second phase, transferring contracts, liabilities and assets, “would be significantly more complex” than the first.
  • Election printing. Approval to tender a contract for poll cards, ballot papers and postal vote packs from May 2027, estimated at £1.8m over up to five years.
  • A war pension disregard policy for housing benefit and council tax reduction.

Tuesday 13 October: Schools Forum

2pm, Council Chamber, The Forum, Towcester. Agenda and papers.

The budget monitoring report for the schools grant forecasts a £65.2m overspend this year, almost all of it on special educational needs:

  • the high needs budget is forecast to overspend by £65.6m
  • the council expects a £49.9m Government grant this autumn to clear 90% of its past SEND deficit
  • even so, the accumulated deficit is forecast to reach £70.7m by March 2027

The report says EHC plans have risen 88% since the council was created in 2021, “larger than most other councils nationally”. The council’s draft SEND strategy is open for comment until 21 October.

The forum also looks at consultation proposals for schools funding and early years funding in 2027 to 2028.

Tuesday 13 October: Adult Social Care, Health and Communities Scrutiny

6pm, One Angel Square, Northampton. Agenda and papers.

  • The Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board on GP pressures, and on planning health services for a growing population.
  • The Community Safety Partnership annual report for 2025 to 2026.
  • A verbal update on responses to the consultation on the council’s in-house care services.
  • A verbal update on the technology-enabled care and digital strategy.

Thursday 15 October: Place and Resources Scrutiny

6pm, meeting room G01ab, One Angel Square, Northampton. Agenda and papers.

  • Winter roads. A presentation on highways preparations for winter.
  • The planning service. A progress report on the planning transformation programme. It notes that Cllr Daniel Lister asked for a formal Councillor Call for Action on the planning service’s “performance, governance and administration”. The Monitoring Officer ruled that it did not meet the constitutional tests, but the report says the concerns are “relevant” to the programme.
  • Children’s care homes. A verbal update on £20m of capital funding for children’s homes.
  • Revenue monitoring and the medium-term financial strategy, and the governance of capital projects.

Cancelled

  • Strategic Planning Committee, Thursday 15 October, 2pm. The meeting page lists it as cancelled, with no papers.

What it means for you

  • Get council tax support? If Cabinet and then full Council agree, nothing changes for you in April 2027.
  • A council tenant? The housing strategy consultation, if approved, is your chance to comment on repairs and services as the council takes over from NPH.
  • A parent of a child with SEND? Tuesday’s report shows the budget pressure behind the new strategy. Comments on the strategy close on 21 October.
  • Want to go along? Use the agenda links above for attendance details.

Sources