Brent Borough Plan 2021-2022

Borough plan and priorities

Borough plan 2020-21

Cabinet members have agreed a refocussed plan for the borough following the global events of 2020. The plan sets out five priorities to improve the lives of those who live work, study and do business in Brent.

Partnership working is a key theme running through the plan, highlighting the importance of working across sectors and service areas. It builds on achievements to date, but with renewed focus and actions to tackle cross-cutting issues such as homelessness and health inequalities.

Brent aims to reduce inequalities, particularly for black people, as well as strengthen the economy, tackle the climate emergency and build on its positive work with partners. These aims will include the Black Community Action Plan and delivering on recommendations made by the Independent Poverty Commission to reduce poverty.

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As recent events have shown, it is our community that makes Brent a great place; we make a really positive difference when we work together. The impact of the pandemic and other challenges to the national and local economies will mean that resources will be tight. However, we are committed to improving the lives of those who live in the borough. This year will be a year of recovery and action to ensure a better, fairer and greener future for our residents.

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Cllr Muhammed Butt,

Brent Council Leader

The council’s response to the pandemic has included increased engagement with communities, supporting single homeless people, buying and distributing PPE, and providing food aid. Brent established a support fund for residents personally or financially affected by Covid-19, and reached out to local businesses to ensure that they were following Covid rules. The council also worked closely with community leaders trusted by their communities to help share vital public health messages, and who were able to ensure that hard-to-reach groups were getting the information they needed to keep safe.

At the cabinet meeting, members committed to reducing inequality, fighting poverty, and supporting employment and business. The cabinet voted to reduce fuel poverty, tackle homelessness, crackdown on crime, and work with the NHS to help people impacted by Covid-19.

Digital inclusion, celebrating local culture and building Brent’s network of community hubs are also included in the borough plan’s priorities.

Read the Brent Borough Plan 2021 - 2022

Read the Brent Borough Plan 2021 to 2022 (accessible version)

Building a fairer, more equal borough

Tackling poverty, inequality and the climate emergency are vital to success in addressing the five priority areas outlined in this plan. Recent events have proved beyond doubt that these have to be priorities for action by the council and for our work with partners.

Tackling poverty

Tackling poverty is a vital step to success across all this Plan’s priorities as made clear by the Brent Independent Poverty Commission’s recommendations. We will continue to take practical action to promote equality, particularly addressing the often complex, entrenched and interrelated issues behind inequality.

Inequality

Our Equality Strategy 2019-2023 sets out four objectives: understanding the barriers to equality experienced in Brent and acting to remove them; providing accessible information and services; tackling hate, harassment and victimisation and; leading the way in encouraging diversity to flourish in Brent.

Addressing inequalities in Black communities

Our Black Community Action Plan (BCAP) sets out actions across 10 work streams to address the inequalities and disadvantages Black communities too often face. The plan is community led, and is being delivered by the council and community working in partnership.

Tackling climate emergency

In July 2019, Full Council declared a climate and ecological emergency and committed to an overarching aim to ‘do all reasonable in the council’s gift to aim for carbon neutrality by 2030’. The council’s Climate Emergency Strategy (2021-2030), which has been developed through close engagement with local residents, sets out key themes and objectives.

Our priorities

The council’s Borough Plan sets out five priorities:

Every opportunity to succeed

Education is crucial to helping people fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions. For a number of years, the council has worked in close collaboration with local school-led partnerships to achieve continuous improvement in the quality of education; achievement in our primary and secondary schools is higher than ever. We will continue to make advances by drawing on their expertise and experience to drive school improvement, agreeing support and intervention where necessary. Our desired outcomes against this priority are:

Improvement in Key Stage results for boys of Black Caribbean heritage.
Improvement in Key Stage results for looked-after children and for care leavers.
High level skills achievement, increase in average wage.
Increased opportunities for children and young people to succeed.

A future built for everyone, an economy fit for all

We have made huge strides in regenerating the borough, with thousands of new homes, hundreds of new jobs, and much-needed growth in our tax base, not to mention hundreds of millions of pounds spent in the local and regional economy. This is improving the lives of our residents and we will invest further to rejuvenate town centres and achieve high-value employment. Our desired outcomes against this priority are:

Increased levels of labour market participation and training support.
Increase inward investment into the borough achieved via the council.
Adopt our new Local Plan, setting out our vision, priorities and areas for future development in the borough.
Increase in housing supply; reduction in number of households in temporary accommodation.
Reduction in the number of people who are homeless in the borough and effective support for those who are homeless.
Keep traffic moving and our roads and pavements in good repair.

A cleaner, more considerate Brent

The environment is a major factor in the quality of life for our residents, who have identified clean streets, parks and trees, and collection of waste and recycling, as priority areas. Tackling the climate emergency is a key area of activity going forward. Our desired outcomes against this priority are:

Considerable and measurable progress made in the borough’s journey to reaching net zero carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing fuel poverty.
A cleaner more attractive borough.

A Borough where we can all feel safe, secure, happy and healthy

It is vital for the council to support our most vulnerable residents - safeguarding children and young people and helping vulnerable adults to be independent at home. Reducing health inequalities is a key area of work during the lifecycle of this plan. Our desired outcomes against this priority are:

A reduction in anti-social behaviour, the risk of harm and re-offending and a reduction in violent crime, including gang and knife crime.
Support our most vulnerable adults, enabling them to choose and control the services they receive, remain independent and lead active lives.
To improve the health of Brent residents and reduce health inequalities.
Make Brent a place where culture is celebrated and vibrant.

Strong foundations

To achieve our goals we must continue to utilise new technology, reduce avoidable contact and put residents more in control of services, redefining the “front door” through which residents contact the council. We will continue to strengthen our community hub model working effectively with our partners and the voluntary and community sector. Engaging communities will continue to play a key role going forward. Our desired outcomes against this priority are:

Address digital exclusion and enable residents to get online
Making every pound count
Building services around residents and their needs
Increase in resident satisfaction
Increase in resident involvement