LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: Crawley Borough Council

Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) is a highly valued improvement and assurance tool that is delivered by the sector for the sector. It involves a team of senior local government councillors and officers undertaking a comprehensive review of key finance, performance and governance information and then spending three days at Crawley Borough Council to provide robust, strategic, and credible challenge and support.

CPC forms a key part of the improvement and assurance framework for local government. It is underpinned by the principles of Sector-led Improvement (SLI) put in place by councils and the Local Government Association (LGA) to support continuous improvement and assurance across the sector. These state that local authorities are: Responsible for their own performance, Accountable locally not nationally and have a collective responsibility for the performance of the sector. 

CPC assists councils in meeting part of their Best Value duty, with the UK Government expecting all local authorities to have a CPC at least every five years. 

Peers remain at the heart of the peer challenge process and provide a ‘practitioner perspective’ and ‘critical friend’ challenge. 

This report outlines the key findings of the peer team and the recommendations that the council are required to action.

Crawley Borough Council is a committed and ambitious council, as described in the Corporate Plan 2023-2027, which sets out six headline priorities for the borough. However, it is the expanding gap between average house prices and average wages, soaring demand for temporary accommodation, plus compounding factors of migration and water neutrality requirements that are presenting significant service delivery and financial challenges for Crawley, with housing defined as the council’s top priority.

Examples of the delivery of the council’s overarching ambitions can be witnessed through the wide ranging and well managed regeneration programme and associated partnership working that has enabled the council to successfully leverage external funding and inward investment, such as the Towns Fund (£21.1m) and the Crawley Growth Programme (£14.6m). These are contributing to the delivery of a vibrant town centre along with investment in skills infrastructure and growth industries.

Water neutrality restrictions affecting Crawley mean that any development requiring additional water use must find the equivalent saving in the existing water system. Peers were impressed with the council’s newly adopted Local Plan, which is the first to have been taken through examination under these, along with the innovative approach to generating water credits through the net zero retrofitting programme of Crawley Homes (social housing stock) which will unlock affordable housing development in the borough.

Whilst responding to housing challenges is noted by both the political and officer leadership as the council’s top priority, the peer team identified that despite this context it appears that true prioritisation is limited. At a time of significant financial challenges there is a need to develop a collaborative approach to political and managerial leadership, with clear priorities that are collectively owned and delivered.

CMT need to be freed from the operational detail and empowered to step into the strategic space alongside Cabinet, providing time and opportunity to build collective buy-in to the future direction of the council. Cabinet and CMT would benefit both separately and collectively from supported / facilitated team development, providing space to build relationships locally and increase strategic focus.

Crawley is a responsive council, with staff and partners alike describing how the workforce pulls together to respond to challenging circumstances. There is a clear focus on reconnecting communities in Crawley, building on the strong multi-cultural relationships across the town and effective partnership approach to community safety. However, there is a need for equality and diversity to be more explicitly embedded in policy development and decision making.

Crawley’s approach to performance management is shaped by the corporate plan, with an aligned performance management framework that is reported into the Corporate Management Team (CMT) on a quarterly basis and individually to portfolio holders. However, there is no ownership of the council’s performance beyond CMT as information is not shared collectively with Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny, or with residents, thus limiting transparency. The council’s corporate plan is underpinned by a number of key documents and projects, but delivery of the plan itself is not supported via a clear golden thread. It is therefore recommended that the whole council approach to performance management is refreshed, ensuring performance has a golden thread, is collectively owned, transparent and that it drives decision making and service delivery.

The council, which is Labour led, runs a Leader and Cabinet model. The relationship with the Conservative opposition is mature, with members working towards ‘what’s best for Crawley’. This has been a time of change at Crawley, with the current Leader taking on the role in 2022 and the appointment of the new Chief Executive in 2023.

Staff are passionate about working for Crawley and are committed to the town and its people. This view is echoed by partners including NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB), West Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and the voluntary and community sector who described the council’s ‘can do’ and positive approach. They highlighted good working relationships and respect for Crawley Borough Council, in particular for the Chief Executive and Leader. However, the town would benefit from the creation of a long-term place vision that is jointly developed and owned with partners and reflects the direction of the next chapter for the new town.

There have been good process improvements across risk management, complaints and the production of the annual governance statement in recent years. Peers received positive feedback from the externally commissioned internal audit service, with whom the council has good engagement.

There is a need for the council to review and assure itself that there is robust and rigorous governance. Peers identified a lack of Cabinet member involvement in some aspects of governance, such as the production of the Forward Plan, planning for Key Decisions and the development of Cabinet reports. Decision making outside Cabinet or Council is focused on the Leader and / or Portfolio Holder without transparent collective agreement and ownership. There is therefore a need to empower Cabinet to take decisions (such as rent setting) together, which will ensure clarity, transparency and build collective strength.

Whilst the induction for new councillors is comprehensive and ongoing, it was recognised by the council that member development needs strengthening to ensure councillors can fulfil their roles. This should include opportunities for formal mentoring arrangements, the introduction of performance development reviews to inform the creation of personal training plans for all councillors, and a more proactive approach to leadership development and succession planning utilising political group mechanisms to support members.

The current financial position at Crawley Council is challenging, driven by the rapid growth in demand and costs of temporary accommodation. This has seen the net cost of temporary accommodation increase from £262,000 in 2018/19 to an outturn position of £5.45m in 2023/24.

The impact of this can be clearly seen in the council’s overall financial position with a general fund revenue overspend of £2.6m in 2023/24 and usable reserves projected to reduce below the £3m that the council considers to be the minimum needed during 2024/25. Looking to the longer term the council’s medium term financial plan shows a deficit that increases from £2.5m in 2025/26 to £6.1m in 2026/27.

There is recognition of the financial difficulties facing the organisation by both officers and members. However, at the time of the CPC budget decisions for 2025/26 had not been made. It was therefore recommended that the council, by Christmas 2024, ensure that there was a collectively owned and agreed plan to set a balanced budget, which must be specific about changes to service provision and linked savings.

Moving forward it is important that Cabinet and CMT jointly own the budget and financial position and work collaboratively on delivery. This is particularly important as a more significant budget gap of £6.1m is currently estimated for 2026/27 and will require early work in 2025/26 to rectify.

The council’s Transformation Programme has successfully delivered £2.4m worth of savings, with a significant focus on channel shift, transformation of ICT and modernisation of workspaces. There is a need however, for a greater focus on benefit realisation to support the monitoring and delivery of savings, and to demonstrate the impact of service improvements.

Staff speak positively about the culture of the organisation, citing the supportive and collaborative approach and noting that it is a positive place to work, with a commitment to wellbeing evidenced by senior officers.

As part of the CPC, Crawley Borough Council asked the peer team to provide feedback on the housing challenges facing the borough and to provide a view on the council’s readiness to respond to the emerging social housing regulatory agenda.

In response to the challenge of homelessness, peers saw that improvements have been made to the speed and quality of decision making on homelessness applications, which has reduced the volume of individuals remaining in temporary accommodation inappropriately. The council has risen to the temporary challenge of the influx of the Chagossian community, working actively to support individuals and households and develop responsive community infrastructure.

To support improvements, the peer team recommend that the council take clear decisions to modernise housing policy. This includes exploring how to expand the use of private sector landlords to relieve the homelessness duty and developing partnership working with a broader range of stakeholders to prevent homelessness and meet housing needs.

Crawley Borough Council is a housing landlord (Crawley Homes) responsible for over 8,200 social housing units plus over 1,700 leasehold properties. There is a strong track record in building council housing with appetite to continue to do so.

Recent areas of focus include increased engagement with tenants and leaseholders to drive service improvement and development. Crawley Homes has reported good Tenant Satisfaction Measures, with outcomes in the top quartile of local authorities with an HRA.

Moving forward, peers believe that Crawley Homes should modernise the application of HRA service charges (there are currently minimal costs to tenants for electricity, heating and grounds maintenance) and keep the administration of the housing waiting list under review to ensure that resources are allocated most efficiently and effectively.

Crawley Homes is adapting to the emerging social housing regime, with a range of preparatory activity and development work. However, it is the view of the peer team that the readiness for and understanding of social housing regulatory requirements is insufficient, particularly the ability to provide a complete picture of the condition of the housing stock.

It is therefore recommended that compliance against the Social Housing Regulatory requirements is reviewed to understand the risks and that this is validated externally through a procured mock inspection. Moving forward there needs to be collective ownership of council housing provision, responsibilities and decision making across CMT and Cabinet, including ensuring that all parties understand the requirements, risks and their responsibilities in respect of the social housing regulations.

There are a number of observations and suggestions within the main section of the report. The following are the peer team’s key recommendations to the council:

3.1 Develop a collaborative approach to political and managerial leadership, with clear priorities which are collectively owned and delivered. 

3.2 In partnership, develop a clear and jointly owned vision for the future of Crawley, and work together to deliver it.

3.3 Review governance arrangements ensuring they are in line with good practice elsewhere, ensuring clarity and transparency, and to enable collective ownership and decision making.

3.4 Strengthen the approach to member development, including the provision of: 

• Professionally facilitated development for Cabinet.
• Formal mentoring arrangements for councillors alongside personal training plans and Group mechanisms to support members with leadership development. 

3.5 Develop the Corporate Management Team to enable collaboration with Cabinet and increase strategic focus.

3.6 By Christmas, ensure that there is a collectively owned and agreed plan to set a balanced budget. 

3.7 Review your compliance against the Social Housing Regulatory requirements to understand the risks. This should incorporate:

• The plan must be specific about changes to service provision and linked savings.
• Procuring an external validation of the self-assessment (mock inspection).
• Ensuring CMT and Cabinet understand the requirements, risks and their responsibilities in respect of Social Housing regulations.
• Learning from inspections already undertaken, including gaining insights and learning from officers and Portfolio Holder peers from other local authorities. 

3.8 Take clear decisions to modernise housing policy, including exploring increased use of private sector landlords to relieve the homelessness duty, application of service charges (HRA) and the administration of the housing waiting list. 

3.9 Embed equalities more explicitly within decision making and policy development to ensure equitable outcomes across the council.

3.10 Use data and insight to refresh the whole council approach to performance management ensuring performance has a golden thread, is collectively owned, transparent and that it drives decision making and service delivery.

The peer team

Peer challenges are delivered by experienced elected member and officer peers. The make-up of the peer team reflected the focus of the peer challenge and peers were selected by the LGA on the basis of their relevant expertise. The peers were:

• Chief Executive Peer – Helen Pluck, Ipswich Borough Council
• Lead Labour Peer – Cllr Richard Henry, Leader of Stevenage Borough Council
• Conservative peer - Cllr Dan Swords, Leader of Harlow District Council
• Finance peer - Nicci Mills, Director of Finance & Procurement – Canterbury City Council
• Housing peer - Michelle Dickson, Chief Officer Communities & Homes - Rugby Borough Council
• Shadow Officer Peer – Shakib Rahman, National Management Trainee  – Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames Council
• LGA Peer Challenge Manager – Rachel Robinson – Local Government Association

Scope and focus

The peer team considered the following five themes which form the core components of all Corporate Peer Challenges. These areas are critical to councils’ performance and improvement.

1. Local priorities and outcomes - Are the council’s priorities clear and informed by the local context? Is the council delivering effectively on its priorities? Is there an organisational-wide approach to continuous improvement, with frequent monitoring, reporting on and updating of performance and improvement plans?
2. Organisational and place leadership - Does the council provide effective local leadership? Are there good relationships with partner organisations and local communities?
3. Governance and culture - Are there clear and robust governance arrangements? Is there a culture of challenge and scrutiny?
4. Financial planning and management - Does the council have a grip on its current financial position? Does the council have a strategy and a plan to address its financial challenges? What is the relative financial resilience of the council like?
5. Capacity for improvement - Is the organisation able to bring about the improvements it needs, including delivering on locally identified priorities? Does the council have the capacity to improve?

As part of the five core elements outlined above, every Corporate Peer Challenge includes a strong focus on financial sustainability, performance, governance, and assurance. 

In addition to these themes, the council asked the peer team to provide feedback on housing, particularly the interlinked challenges of homelessness, temporary accommodation, migration and water neutrality - how these are driving the Councils financial position, including a view on efficacy and any missed opportunities. In addition, they asked the peer team to explore if there is sufficient focus and ownership of the emerging social housing regulatory agenda. 

Finally, with ongoing turnover of councillors being witnessed within both political groups, feedback and observations were sought regarding member capacity and development.

The peer challenge process

Peer challenges are improvement focused; it is important to stress that this was not an inspection. The process is not designed to provide an in-depth or technical assessment of plans and proposals. The peer team used their experience and knowledge of local government to reflect on the information presented to them by people they met, things they saw and material that they read.

The peer team prepared by reviewing a range of documents and information in order to ensure they were familiar with the council and the challenges it is facing. This included a position statement prepared by the council in advance of the peer team’s time on site. This provided a clear steer to the peer team on the local context at Crawley Borough Council and what the peer team should focus on. It also included a comprehensive LGA Finance briefing (prepared using public reports from the council’s website) and a LGA performance report outlining benchmarking data for the council across a range of metrics. The latter was produced using the LGA’s local area benchmarking tool called LG Inform. 

The peer team then spent three days onsite at Crawley Borough Council, during which they:

• Gathered evidence, information, and views from more than 42 meetings, in addition to further research and reading.
• Spoke to more than 100 people including a range of council staff together with members and external stakeholders.

This report provides a summary of the peer team’s findings. In presenting feedback, they have done so as fellow local government officers and members.

Crawley sits within the county of West Sussex, neighbouring Surrey. Established as a new town in 1947, the borough has a young and growing population, which is now home to more than 120,000 residents who live across 14 neighbourhoods. It is the most multi-cultural town in Sussex, and home to people from all over the world, with over one in five residents born outside of the UK. Crawley is the most deprived district in West Sussex, with two Super Output Areas sitting within the 10% most deprived nationally. However, lying at the heart of the Gatwick Diamond, the Crawley economy, at £6.2 billion, is one of the most economically productive areas of the UK outside of London. 

The council is committed and ambitious for Crawley, as described in the Council’s Corporate Plan 2023-2027, which sets out six headline priorities for the borough:

• Delivering value for money and modernising the way we work
• Delivering affordable homes for Crawley and addressing homelessness
• Enabling a sustainable economic recovery and improving local job opportunities
• Reconnecting communities
• Providing high quality leisure and culture facilities and supporting health and wellbeing services
• Protecting the environment

The expanding gap between average house prices and average wages, soaring demand for temporary accommodation, plus compounding factors of migration and water neutrality requirements are presenting significant service delivery and financial challenges for Crawley and lie at the heart of the Council being the first in England to declare a Housing Emergency in February 2024, with housing defined as the council’s top priority. MHCLG has undertaken an enhanced monitoring visit and praised the work of the council in responding to these challenges, identifying a number of areas of best practice. Insights from the peer team are incorporated as a separate section at the end of this report. 

The delivery of the council’s overarching ambitions can be witnessed through the wide ranging and well managed regeneration programme and associated partnership working that has enabled the council to successfully leverage external funding and inward investment, such as the Towns Fund (£21.1m) and the Crawley Growth Programme (£14.6m funded by the Coast to Capital LEP, Crawley Borough Council and West Sussex Council). These are contributing to the delivery of a vibrant town centre along with investment in skills infrastructure and growth industries. Examples of completed projects include the Crawley Innovation Centre, build of Crawley’s new Town Hall providing Grade A commercial space in the town centre, establishment of gateway improvements and digital infrastructure, and investment in sustainable transport. 

Economic recovery has been a focus since the Covid pandemic and the council works actively with partners, including neighbouring local authorities to maintain Crawley’s position as an attractive place to invest and ensure that local communities benefit from growth. For example, securing significant S106 monies via the Gatwick DCO (Development Consent Order) process and the positioning of the Invest in Crawley brand within the wider Gatwick Diamond brand. 

The town’s cultural offer represents a key area of focus for the future, with sustained investment in arts in the town following Crawley’s identification by the Arts Council as a priority area, including proposals for a ‘Cultural Quarter’ through the Towns’ Fund.

Water neutrality restrictions affecting the north of West Sussex (and therefore Crawley) mean that any development requiring additional water use must find the equivalent saving in the existing water system. This is impacting Crawley Borough Council in a myriad of ways, not least a reduction in the income from planning fees, the ability to progress with house building (both by private developers and to increase social housing stock) and a slippage in the capital programme. Peers were impressed with the council’s newly adopted Local Plan, which is the first to have been taken through examination under these restrictions and is a significant achievement. 

As part of the aspirations to protect the environment and deliver affordable homes, the council has embarked on an ambitious net zero retrofitting programme for Crawley Homes (social housing stock), with improvements made to over 1,000 properties. This has been utilised as an innovative mechanism to generate usable water credits, which will now unlock new affordable housing development in the borough. 

The council is currently in the process of updating its Climate Emergency Action Plan and peers were pleased to see that the council has a clear phased ambition for Net Zero and its associated commitments, defining what will be achieved by 2030 and 2045.  

The new Town Hall that opened in March 2023 is liked by staff that the peer team spoke to and seen as symbolic of the transformation journey that the council has been on. The wider Transformation Programme has helped the council to make £2.4m savings, driven significant channel shift across council services and transformed the council’s digital agenda and use of ICT.

As noted above, whilst responding to housing challenges is noted by both the political and officer leadership as the council’s top priority, the peer team identified that despite this context it appears that all activity and service delivery is a priority, which means that nothing is in fact prioritised. This in turn is placing increasing demands on the workforce, particularly senior officers, limiting their capacity to have a strategic focus, restricting the ability of back-office functions to coalesce around agreed areas of focus and crucially hindering the alignment of finance and wider resources to the delivery of priorities. At a time of significant financial challenges there is consequently a need to develop a shared understanding and agreement of clear priorities and outcomes between both the political and senior leadership at the council. 

The peer team saw limited evidence of the strategic use of data (quantitative or qualitative) to inform an understanding of current and future demand and needs in Crawley. To guide the identification of clear priorities, it is therefore recommended that a robust needs assessment is completed. This should also incorporate engagement with residents, drawing from the range of targeted consultation activity that the council utilises to seek feedback, such as the Financial Wellbeing Survey undertaken during September 2024 and the upcoming Budget Survey.   

Crawley is a responsive council, with staff and partners alike describing how the workforce pulls together to respond to challenging circumstances. For example, following the opening up of a new citizenship route, Crawley has seen significant Chagossian arrivals  (The community was forcibly removed from their homeland in the British Indian Ocean Territory to make way for the Diego Garcia air force base), totalling approximately two-thirds of the 3,500 Chagossians arriving in the UK. During early June 2024, 70 Chagossians arrived at Gatwick airport from Mauritius in one day, requiring the council to set up an emergency rest centre in a leisure facility for those assessed as not qualifying for emergency accommodation. The council continues to actively support these individuals and households and to develop the associated infrastructure necessary to respond to the needs of this marginalised community. 

There is a clear focus on reconnecting communities in Crawley, building on the strong multi-cultural relationships across the town and effective partnership approach to community safety. Partners, including the Police, spoke highly of the collaborative work that took place in response to the threatened riots following the murder of three girls in Southport in the summer of 2024. This incorporated the convening of a series of meetings with partners and faith leaders both pre and post the disturbances to listen to community concerns and provide reassurance, effectively dispelling tensions. The council followed this activity with a community unity event that took place in November 2024, bringing together representatives from across Crawley’s communities to pledge their commitment to solidarity and to celebrate the town’s diverse communities.

Whilst acknowledging the effective work to connect communities in Crawley, there is a need for equality and diversity to be more explicitly embedded in policy development and decision making, especially given the diversity of Crawley’s community. This should include for example the completion of equality and diversity impact assessments for all decisions. The Equality Framework for Local Government provides a useful tool for organisations to self-assess their position against the public sector equality duty.

Performance

To inform the Corporate Peer Challenge, the peer team considered the latest LG Inform Reports for Crawley Borough Council, which outlines key performance data and how this compares to the Council’s Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountancy (CIPFA) nearest neighbours.  

The socio-economic context of Crawley as a place shapes the borough’s position against some metrics, for example attainment levels are comparatively low and crime figures are high. Overarching analysis of performance metrics has illustrated the following themes: The data highlights the housing challenges facing Crawley, with the number of households in temporary accommodation (11.43 as a rate per 1,000 households in Quarter 1 2024/25) by some margin the highest amongst the comparator group and showing significant growth since 2022/23. This situation is mirrored by Crawley’s comparative position in relation to housing services expenditure, which at £99 per head of population is almost double the comparator group average. Crawley delivered 71 affordable homes during 23/24, below the benchmark average of 96 and a marked reduction on previous years, highlighting the development constraints linked to water neutrality requirements. 

Wider service-based data shows that Crawley’s comparative performance is generally in line with comparator averages for Planning. Waste service performance is mixed, with the proportion of waste collected (31% in 22/23) being particularly low, which the council attributes in part to the retention of weekly residual waste collection and the proportion of flats / communal blocks in the town.  

Crawley’s approach to performance management is shaped by the corporate plan, with an aligned performance management framework that is reported into the Corporate Management Team (CMT) on a quarterly basis and individually to portfolio holders. However, there is no ownership of the council’s performance beyond CMT as information is not shared collectively with Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny, or with residents, thus limiting transparency. Peers were informed that performance is investigated and responded to as appropriate by Heads of Service prior to the information being received by CMT, but there was limited evidence of performance data being used to drive improvement, or decision making, corporately. 

Whilst the framework itself is comprehensive in nature (incorporating 90 metrics), benchmarking data is omitted, and it is therefore recommended that an organisation wide approach to the use of comparative information is developed to inform an understanding of the relative position of the council and to make performance information meaningful.

Crawley Council has made significant investment in IT in recent years through the transformation programme, which should provide an opportunity to maximise the use of data to inform decision making. This could also incorporate the automation of performance information, which would provide a more efficient model moving forward and free up capacity, with the current approach to data collation and reporting being undertaken manually.

The council’s corporate plan is underpinned by a number of key strategies and projects, including for example the Transformation Plan and Economic Recovery Plan and individual service plans, but delivery of the plan itself is not supported via a clear golden thread. Progress is measured via the above discussed performance framework, RAG-rated updates against member priorities, periodic updates of key strategies and considered by the Corporate Project Assurance Group and Transformation Board. However, there is no overarching reporting of progress against corporate plan priorities, or assessment of the delivery of outcomes. It is therefore recommended that the whole council approach to performance management is refreshed, ensuring performance has a golden thread, is collectively owned, transparent and that it drives decision making and service delivery.

Staff are passionate about working for Crawley and are committed to the town and its people, a view echoed by partners who described the council’s ‘can do’ and positive approach. 

Crawley Borough Council has 36 elected members across 13 Wards. The council currently has a Labour administration with a majority of 25 to 11. Conservatives are the opposition, with no other party holding a seat at the time of the CPC. Voting patterns have varied significantly in recent years, with the council operating as ‘no overall control’ for a period during the pandemic. Both administration and opposition members have a good understanding of their Wards and Crawley as a place and care about it. They also recognised the dedication, commitment and hard work of staff.

The council runs a Leader and Cabinet model, comprising the Leader and seven Cabinet members. Members of Cabinet report that they work together well as a Team, with a collaborative approach. Peers saw that the relationship with the opposition is mature, with members working towards ‘what’s best for Crawley’, supported by the monthly briefing of the Shadow Cabinet.  

This has been a time of change at Crawley, with the current Leader taking on the role in 2022 and the appointment of the new chief executive in 2023, and it is recognised that there has been a period of ‘bedding in’. Member-officer relationships are positive and open, with mutual respect for their defined areas of expertise. Peers identified a need however, for members of Cabinet to step away from more operational matters and collectively drive the strategic agenda. Being member-led requires clear roles and responsibilities, collaboration, trust, strategic thinking and collective Cabinet and senior officer overview.    

As part of this and as noted in section 5.1, peers believe that there needs to be a shared strategic view for the future between Cabinet and senior officers, including clear priorities and outcomes that align to the Crawley Labour Group Manifesto. In developing this collaborative approach to political and managerial leadership, CMT need to be freed from the operational detail and empowered to step into the strategic space alongside Cabinet, providing time and opportunity to build collective buy-in to the future direction of the council. This is particularly important given the financial context and budgetary constraints that the council is facing. 

Feedback from the range of partners that peers spoke to, including NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB), West Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and the voluntary and community sector, highlighted good working relationships and respect for Crawley Borough Council, in particular for the chief executive and leader.  Examples of successful partnership working include the Access Crawley approach, which is driving the ICB’s model of Integrated Community Teams and seeking to collectively better support those with complex needs and vulnerabilities in community settings. Associated work includes the Crawley Programme, which seeks to utilise community assets and ambassadors to access marginalised groups and support a preventative community-based approach to health and wellbeing. The council is also the West Sussex Housing lead for the sub-region.  

Engagement with voluntary and community sector partners, including for example Crawley Community Action and Creative Crawley, highlighted that the sector in Crawley is keen to work proactively with the council in support of shared strategic objectives. It is recommended that the council explore the potential to commission support from the voluntary and community sector, and with partners, to support the delivery of priorities and services. For example, as identified by the council, a significant volume of temporary accommodation requests stem from parental eviction. The sector could be utilised as a mediation service to get upstream and help prevent the root causes of homelessness. 

Building on the recommendation to clarify the priorities and outcomes for the council, peers believe (and as acknowledged by partners) that Crawley would benefit from the creation of a long-term place vision that is jointly developed and owned with partners, which reflects the direction of the next chapter for the new town. This will provide a focus for partners to coalesce around and provide an opportunity for broader conversations, such as the role of the NHS in supporting the local economy. 

Whilst local relationships with key stakeholders are good, it is the view of the peer team that there is a need to consider opportunities to position Crawley regionally and strengthen the approach to place leadership. This is particularly important in the context of the expansion of the devolution agenda and the Government’s expectations linked to Local Government Reorganisation. A clear narrative and shared understanding of Crawley’s aspirations for the future will be beneficial in this regard.

Staff speak positively about the culture of the organisation, citing the supportive and collaborative approach and noting that it is a positive place to work. They also agree that the council is ambitious for the community.  Feedback about CMT was positive, with staff citing that the leadership were accessible and loyal. The positive results of the staff survey undertaken in 2022 have been largely reflected in the feedback shared with the peer team. For example, 91 per cent of staff agreed with the statement ‘I have confidence in the leadership provided by CMT’ and 93 per cent agreed that CMT treat all staff with respect. 

There have been good process improvements across risk management, complaints and the production of the annual governance statement in recent years. The strategic risk register is reviewed as a ‘live’ document on a quarterly basis by CMT and the Audit Committee, with the approach receiving a ‘substantial’ level of assurance by Internal Audit. 

The processing of complaints has been digitised, improving the availability of data and assisting the organisation to focus on learning from complaints. Accountability and transparency have improved, supported by internal audits of the complaints model that have seen the approach move from ‘limited’ to ‘reasonable’ assurance. Statutory officers, who meet monthly via the Corporate Performance Assurance Group, have strengthened the Annual Governance Statement, drawing from the CIPFA Good Governance Model.  

Peers received positive feedback from the externally commissioned internal audit service, with whom the council has good engagement with. The service, which is two years into their contract, noted that Crawley has a high investment in audit days, with audit activity resulting in meaningful conversations and recent improvements.  

The culture of service and project delivery at Crawley is strong (as witnessed for example through the positive delivery of the Local Plan process and completion of regeneration schemes), despite some of the strategic challenges facing the council.

There is however a need for the council to review and assure itself that there is robust and rigorous governance. Peers identified a lack of Cabinet member involvement in some aspects of governance, such as the production of the Forward Plan, planning for Key Decisions and the development of Cabinet reports. Decision making outside Cabinet or Council is focused on the Leader and / or Portfolio Holder without transparent collective agreement and ownership. There is therefore a need to empower Cabinet as a whole to take decisions (such as rent setting) together, which will ensure clarity, transparency and build collective strength. Peers noted that the council’s constitution is clear but has a higher level of delegation to individual Portfolio Holders than normally found in District councils. 

Peers were informed that whilst regular meetings of Cabinet and Cabinet Briefing meetings, are attended by the council’s statutory officers and other CMT members on a topic-by-topic basis, at present Cabinet meet informally with and without officers only occasionally. It is therefore suggested that a “Policy Cabinet” that brings together CMT and Cabinet to discuss strategic issues and priorities could be beneficial.

There are however good examples of member working groups, such as that set up by the Overview and Scrutiny Commission to investigate the impact and requirements of the new social housing regulatory requirements, or the working group on economic regeneration. It is proposed that this approach should be replicated to support portfolio holders on strategic matters; the standardisation of back bencher engagement in policy areas will lead to shared ownership of challenges / opportunities and build further collective strength. 

It is the view of the peer team that the officer governance structure set up to monitor and aid the delivery of corporate programmes and projects, along with the transformation programme, may be too complex to be effective and agile and may benefit from review and rationalisation.  

The Audit Committee meets four times a year and maintains oversight of financial reporting and risk management, along with the work programmes of internal and external audit. An appointed independent member has been introduced to bring technical expertise and experience and help with the development of the committee.

Scrutiny is run on a pre-decision model allowing recommendations to be made on all reports being considered by Cabinet with the logic being that this enables more members to be involved in decision making. As noted above, a small number of wider reviews and task and finish groups are also undertaken into policy areas of significance. There is however an opportunity to strengthen the impact and effectiveness of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission, improving for example the feedback loop into Overview and Scrutiny from any recommendations made to Cabinet. There is also a need to consider the independence from Cabinet of committees such as Governance, ensuring that membership does not overlap. 

Whilst the induction for new councillors is comprehensive and ongoing, it was recognised by the council that member development needs strengthening to ensure councillors can fulfil their roles and be effectively supported. This should include opportunities for formal mentoring arrangements (with the role evolving into a buddy once the mentoring has concluded), the introduction of performance development reviews to inform the creation of personal training plans for all councillors, and a more proactive approach to leadership development and succession planning utilising Group mechanisms to support members. The LGA provides a comprehensive suite of tailored Leadership Essentials training / wider development opportunities for councillors, along with access to formal mentoring for senior members.

The current financial position at Crawley Council is challenging, driven by the rapid growth in demand and costs of temporary accommodation. This has seen the net cost of temporary accommodation increase from £262,000 in 2018/19 to an outturn position of £5.45m in 2023/24, equating to over £1 in every £3 of the Council’s total core spending power.

The impact of this situation can be clearly seen in the council’s overall financial position. With a net revenue expenditure of £19m, in 2023/24 there was a general fund revenue overspend of £2.6m, due an adverse variance of £3.2m in housing. 

This is in turn having an impact on the reserves position, with usable reserves reducing significantly in 2023/24. The council held £68.8m in usable reserves in March 2024 including £3.8m in general fund balances, £11.2m in ear marked reserves and £26.8m in housing revenue account (HRA) reserves and £27.1m in capital reserves. The 24/25 budget has a deficit of £1.2m, which will be charged to reserves and will reduce the general fund balances further to below the £3m that the council considers is the minimum needed. 

Looking to the longer term the council’s medium term financial plan shows a deficit that increases from £2.5m in 2025/26 to £6.1m in 2026/27. There is recognition of the financial difficulties facing the organisation by both officers and members, including an understanding that as unearmarked reserves have largely been used difficult decisions need to be made in order to set a balanced budget. However, at the time of the CPC budget decisions for 2025/26 had not been made. There was consequently low organisational confidence that a balanced budget would be set and with time running out this is leading to concern amongst the wider workforce.  

The council’s core spending power does not meet the cost of delivering its statutory services, which at £16.6m costs £2.7m more than the council receives in Government funding and Council Tax. The focus of the council to date has been to utilise a commercial approach to deliver against financial challenges. This strategy has served the council well, with good work on contracts and assets as a mechanism to reduce costs / increase income and provides a surplus of £9.5m. Examples include the waste and recycling contract with Biffa and leisure centre income. Other discretionary services, such as the theatre and major parks / zoo are delivered via a cost neutral, or self-financing model. There has also been a focus on efficiency, generating £2.4m via the transformation programme over the past five years. 

To inform budget decisions, the council has been developing it’s understanding of statutory and discretionary services (the council currently spends £9.4m on discretionary services that do not generate an income), with a range of savings options provided to members to consider their preferred approach. 

Given the timescales, there is a need for Cabinet to urgently make collective decisions about council priorities and impact on service delivery. It is therefore recommended by the peer team that the council, by Christmas 2024, ensure that there is a collectively owned and agreed plan to set a balanced budget, which must be specific about changes to service provision and linked savings. 

Moving forward it is important that Cabinet and CMT jointly own the budget and financial position and work collaboratively on delivery. This is particularly important as a more significant budget gap of £6.1m is currently estimated for 2026/27 and will require early work in 2025/26 to rectify. 

When exploring future savings requirements, it will be important for every part of the transformation programme to have a financial and performance improvement target associated with it, along with an understanding of benefits realisation, which at present are not always captured. It is also the view of the peer team that there are opportunities to drive cost reduction through data analysis and optimisation of strategic assets that have not yet been taken. This could include for example the transfer of community assets to the community and voluntary sector. 

Positively, the HRA is in a strong position, with a new business plan being developed to reflect potential condition challenges within the stock, which has been supported by an independent consultant. However, despite the surplus, Crawley Homes believes that is it unable to finance everything that is needed for the service. 

The council has a dedicated new finance team, which has recently reached full capacity and has strong ideas for improvement. A key focus for the service is the finance system, which needs replacing to enable a modern approach to financial management. This will support the provision of more regular monitoring reports, as the council is currently carrying risk by not reviewing financial data on a monthly basis for the whole organisation (aside from the Temporary Accommodation position, budget reports are only being received by CMT on a quarterly basis).  As the council responds to the budget position, it will be imperative that more fit for purpose financial updates, including progress against the delivery of savings, are received to provide assurance and opportunity for timely responses if needed. 

This is particularly important as due to the national circumstances affecting the sector’s local audit system, Crawley’s External Audit provider are going to disclaim the 2022/23 accounts (and will be likely to disclaim the 2023/24 accounts too). Whilst the council is not alone in this position, it does present a financial risk to the council as there is no assurance over its opening balance sheet position for 2024/25. 

The officer culture at Crawley is a strength, with staff that the peer team spoke to keen to stress that Crawley has a very welcoming, caring, friendly and supportive culture. As noted in the 2022 Staff Survey, 86 per cent of respondents felt that the council cared about their health and wellbeing. Organisational culture and a commitment to staff wellbeing are key priorities for senior officers and recognised as a driver to successful workforce retention and recruitment. 99 per cent of staff are aware of the council’s values and behaviours and 94 per cent believe that these are demonstrated by people in their team. 

Staff spoke positively about the range of internal communication methods that are employed by the council, with examples including the regular chief executive question and answer sessions that are viewed as open and honest, supplemented by newsletters, such as the Friday Flyer. 

Communication with residents is also an area of attention, including the production of a resident’s magazine that is sent out to all households quarterly and with plans to enhance the use of social media and video capabilities. A new communications strategy is currently being created.  

As already noted, the council’s Transformation Programme has successfully delivered £2.4m worth of savings, with a significant focus on channel shift (25 per cent of transactions are fully automated and a further 32 per cent are available online), transformation of ICT and modernisation of workspaces. There is a need however (particularly in light of the council’s financial challenges), for a greater focus on benefit realisation to support the monitoring and delivery of savings, and to demonstrate the impact of service improvements. 

Partnership working is prioritised to deliver enhanced outcomes for the people of Crawley. Peers were particularly impressed with the structured partnership approach to community safety, with weekly meetings between key agencies that have resulted in successful action in relation to serious violence, county lines, modern slavery and the night time economy. Interactions also incorporate a specific focus on community tensions and cohesion issues.

Innovative thinking is embraced at Crawley, as shown via the approach to tackling the challenge of water neutrality by the generation of water credits through the retrofitting of social housing stock. 

Peers strongly believe that the council’s capacity to improve would benefit from the identification of clearer priorities, allowing a focus (people, resources, assets and finances) on the things that matter most. As already stated, to assist with this it will be important for Cabinet and CMT to develop a collaborative approach to political and managerial leadership. Cabinet and CMT would benefit both separately and collectively from supported / facilitated team development, providing space to build relationships locally and increase strategic focus. This is something that the LGA can assist with through a tailored ‘Top Team’ development programme.  

The peer team heard that senior officers are overloaded and whilst staff hold a great deal of respect for CMT, the range of pressures that they carry (particularly the operational detail and volume of business-as-usual work) prevents them from always being responsive, or able to take forward strategic developments. Senior officers therefore need space to develop and modernise services that meet the future needs of Crawley. The implementation of a formal members enquiry system would assist in this regard, having the potential to free-up CMT capacity that is currently spent responding to queries from councillors. 

More widely the peer team were informed that high workloads are contributing to sickness absence levels; again, pointing to a need to ensure that organisational priorities are clarified and acted upon. 

Workforce planning will be key for Crawley Borough Council in the coming years due to the age profile of the current workforce, with a large proportion approaching retirement age. This presents an opportunity to grow more local talent, especially from minority communities, through apprenticeships, or internships, etc and could also be explored as an avenue to tackle recruitment challenges in areas such as strategic housing.

As part of the CPC Crawley Borough Council asked the peer team to provide feedback on housing, particularly the interlinked challenges of homelessness, temporary accommodation, migration and water neutrality - how these are driving the Councils financial position, including a view on efficacy and any missed opportunities. In addition, they asked the peer team to explore if there is sufficient focus and ownership of the emerging social housing regulatory agenda. The following section provides an overview of the insights and recommendations made by the peer team aligned to these areas of focus. 

Homelessness is viewed as Crawley Borough Council’s single biggest challenge, with over 520 households (and 1,300 people) in temporary and emergency accommodation, with spend rising twenty-fold over the last five years. As a consequence, the pressures on the Housing Options Service are significant, but there have recently been significant improvements in the speed and quality of decision-making on homelessness applications driven through a programme of staff training and supported by the introduction of a robust performance management framework. This has reduced the volume of individuals remaining in temporary accommodation inappropriately. 

As already highlighted, the peer team believe that the council has risen to the temporary challenge of the influx of the Chagossian community, working actively to support individuals and households, and develop appropriate community infrastructure. There are, however, two areas that peers believe that the council could explore to assist with the challenges brought about by homelessness.   

Firstly, at present Crawley Borough Council only has five units of private sector leased accommodation, which is limited to two and three bed houses. There is therefore a need to explore how to extend the use of private sector housing as a mechanism to relieve the pressure on temporary accommodation and bring it in line with good practice elsewhere. This could incorporate engaging with private sector landlords to encourage them to onboard their properties by offering repair grant loans, providing nomination rights and arranging tenancy sustainment (mechanisms to support tenants who may need additional support and help with their finances). 

Secondly, there is also limited evidence of partnership working with a broader range of stakeholders to prevent homelessness and meet housing needs. For example, strategically engaging with registered housing providers to explore options for closer working to reduce demand on temporary accommodation, such as the provision of income maximisation advice to would be tenants struggling to meet affordability criteria and therefore enable successful tenancy starts. The community and voluntary sector could also be commissioned to deliver preventative services that tackle the root causes of homelessness, such as mediation to reduce parental eviction. 

Crawley Borough Council is a housing landlord (Crawley Homes) responsible for over 8,200 social housing units plus over 1,700 leasehold properties. There is a strong track record in building council housing with appetite to continue to do so, along with a significant net zero retrofitting programme that has already improved over 1,000 homes. 

Recent areas of focus include increased engagement with tenants and leaseholders to drive service improvement and development, for example through engagement events in neighbourhoods, an annual tenant conference and the Tenant and Leaseholder Action Panel.

Crawley Homes has reported good Tenant Satisfaction Measures (for example, 74.2 per cent of respondents report that they are satisfied with the overall service from the landlord), with the outcomes placing Crawley Homes in the top quartile of local authorities with a HRA. 

There has been significant improvement in the handling of housing complaints over the last year following a series of learning sessions and debriefs with staff. During 2023/24, just 48 per cent of stage 1 and 95 per cent of stage 2 complaints were completed on time. By quarters 1 and 2 of 2024/25 this had increased to 80-90 per cent for stage 1 and 100 per cent for stage 2 complaints. 

Crawley Homes currently charges minimal service costs to tenants for electricity, heating and grounds maintenance. It is recognised by officers that there is a need to review the approach to service charges and bring them in line with standard practice across the sector. Consideration needs to be given to modernising this policy in order to reallocate resources to where it would make the most difference.

In a similar vein, there are over 2,700 households on the housing waiting list, over 900 of which are in priority bandings (which as a rate per 1,000 is just below the CIPFA comparator average. The number of households on the housing waiting list (40.1 per 1,000 households) is just below the comparator average (45.2) and significantly lower than the national average (82.0). However, peers were informed that there are large numbers with limited likelihood of being housed by Crawley Homes, but as they are on the register require the administration of their applications. Peers suggest that the Housing Allocations Policy is kept under review to ensure that resources are directed efficiently and effectively.  

Crawley Homes is adapting to the emerging social housing regime, with preparatory activity including the completion of a self-assessment against the consumer standards, setting up of a Compliance Board, reinforcing staff teams to ensure that there is capacity to respond to regulatory expectations and consolidating IT systems into a new CRM system. It is the view of the peer team however, that the readiness for and understanding of social housing regulatory requirements is insufficient. 

This is particularly in relation to the ability of Crawley Homes to provide a complete picture of the condition of the housing stock, which at present dates back to 2009, therefore the decency of housing stock is unknown. Whilst measures have been put in place to review all properties, this programme of work will currently take three years. It is therefore recommended that stock condition surveys need to be expedited, not least to meet regulatory requirements, but also to enable informed financial planning for any associated repairs that need to be undertaken. 

It is therefore recommended that compliance against the Social Housing Regulatory requirements is reviewed to understand the risks and that this is validated externally through a procured mock inspection and responded to via a coherent plan. 

Moving forward there needs to be collective ownership of council housing provision, responsibilities and decision making across CMT and Cabinet, including ensuring that all parties understand the requirements, risks and their responsibilities in respect of the social housing regulations. Learning from inspections undertaken to date, along with gaining insights from officers and members that have already been through the process, will be invaluable in this regard.

It is recognised that senior political and managerial leadership will want to consider, discuss and reflect on these findings. The LGA will continue to provide on-going support to the council. Following publication of a CPC report you need to produce and publish an Action Plan within five months of the time on site. As part of the CPC, the council are also required to have a progress review and publish the findings from this within twelve months of the CPC. The LGA will also publish the progress review report on their website. 

The progress review will provide space for a council’s senior leadership to report to peers on the progress made against each of the CPC’s recommendations, discuss early impact or learning and receive feedback on the implementation of the CPC action plan. The progress review will usually be delivered on-site over one day. 

The date for the progress review at Crawley Borough Council is yet to be confirmed but is likely to take place during October 2025.

This Corporate Peer Challenge took place shortly before the English Devolution White Paper was published by the Government on 16^th December 2024. The reforms in this white paper will have a significant impact on every council and community, particularly the operating context for many councils. It is therefore recognised that Crawley Borough Council will be fully considering the recommendations made as part of the CPC in light of this changing context.

In the meantime, William Brooks, Principal Adviser for the South East, is the main contact between your authority and the Local Government Association. As outlined above, Will is available to discuss any further support the council requires and can be contacted via [email protected].