Meeting

NOTE: There will be prayers by Reverend Tony Palmer in the Mayor’s Reception Room at 1.45 pm for Members of the Council and Officers who wish to attend.

To receive any apologies.

To authorise the signing of the minutes of the Council Meeting held on 16 July 2025, attached.

Matters especially brought forward by the Lord Mayor and the Leader.

To receive any requests for Deputations, Presentation of Petitions or Public Questions.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Housing seeking approval to spend an already agreed Capital Budget as part of the Homelessness Prevention Transformation Project.

Report of the Leader of the Council detailing Southampton City Council’s Local Government Reorganisation proposal.

Report of the Leader of the Council, attached.

Motion (a) – Road Safety

Moved by: Councillor Shields

This Council is deeply concerned at the rising number of deaths on Southampton’s roads with a shocking total of 48 fatalities recorded between 2010 and 2023. Between 2009 and 2013 there were 10 fatal injuries on our roads yet in the 5-year period from 2019 to 2023 this increased to 23.

Council notes that the vast majority of road fatalities in Southampton are preventable. Meaningful local action is required to reverse a growing trend.

Council therefore welcomes Government plans to produce later this autumn a national Road Safety Strategy with a core aim to significantly decrease the number of fatalities and serious injuries on UK roads. The strategy is expected to include:

• stricter penalties for breaking road safety laws

• mandatory eye tests for drivers over 70 when they renew their licenses

• drink-driving limit in England and Wales lowered to align with Scotland's

• penalty points for passengers not wearing seatbelts

• establishment of an independent body to investigate road incidents

Council urges the City’s three local MPs to also press for other changes such as additional powers to local authorities to enforce action on pavement parking, cycling on pavements and other moving traffic-related violations.

Council further requests those Cabinet Members responsible for city safety and transport to examine the available evidence and to develop a comprehensive local policy for addressing road safety which is reflected in the next refresh of the Safe City Strategy and the Local Transport Plan. This policy should provide a forensic analysis of current road safety issues affecting the city’s residents and neighbourhoods together with evidence from elsewhere in the UK of interventions that have succeeded in reducing serious and fatal road casualties.

Motion (b) Budget and Taxation

Moved by Councillor Powell-Vaughan

This Council calls on HM Government, ahead of the October Budget, to ensure any future taxation changes support Southampton jobs, economic growth, and household stability.

Council further calls on Government to rule out Capital Gains Tax on the sale of primary residences and to avoid measures such as recent National Insurance increases, which contributed to redundancies, reduced seasonal or first job at 16 work, fewer employment opportunities, reduced pay awards by private employers and in many cases, real term cut to pay. Less investment locally, and increased levels of child poverty within Southampton under this Government. This has all been seen and felt in Southampton.

Council resolves to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP.

Urging her to prioritise stability, promote growth and protect Southampton; their employment, reduce child poverty, prevent health inequalities from continuing to rise. and safeguard confidence in Southampton’s housing market.

Motion (c) Migrant Hotels

Moved by Councillor Powell-Vaughan

This Council notes:

As a designated City of Sanctuary, Southampton is proud of its tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution. However, the unprecedented numbers of people arriving in the UK in recent months have resulted in the Home Office using hotels in Southampton for temporary asylum accommodation without prior consultation with the Council. This unplanned approach places additional pressures on our local housing, health services, infrastructure, and community cohesion.

Some councils, including Conservative-led Epping Forest District Council, have sought legal measures to limit or manage the use of hotels for asylum accommodation in their areas. These attempts are ongoing and have not yet been fully resolved by the courts, but they demonstrate the steps some authorities are exploring to protect local services, people, and ensure consultation with their communities.

Local communities face increasing pressures when hotels are designated for migrant accommodation without proper consultation or local input.

This Council believes:

Communities must be properly consulted before significant decisions are imposed that affect local services, housing, healthcare and community cohesion.

The use of hotels as long-term accommodation for migrants is not a sustainable solution and places disproportionate pressure on Southampton’s infrastructure, housing, education, and health services.

Southampton City Council, as the democratically elected voice of its residents, must have a clear role in decisions affecting local services and community cohesion.

This Council resolves:

1. To request the Chief Executive, in consultation with SCC’s legal and planning teams, to produce and publish a report for Members setting out:

?• the legal options available to the Council in relation to the use of hotels within Southampton for migrant accommodation:

?• the current planning and licensing status of hotels currently being used in this way; and

?• any changes in legislation or circumstances which could enable the Council to take further action in future to protect local housing, health, and infrastructure

2. To request officers keep the planning and legal status of such hotels under continual review and report through the appropriate committees to Members, whenever there is evidence of an unauthorised or authorised change of use which has not gone to PROW, or other grounds for enforcement action arising

3. To write to the Home Office expressing Southampton City Council’s concerns about the use of hotels within the SCC boundary for migrant accommodation, including the pressures on housing, health, and infrastructure, and to request full consultation with this Council on all future decisions

4. To write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government urging Government to clarify in law and policy that the use of hotels for migrant accommodation should require change-of-use planning permission before occupation

5. To call on Government to develop a sustainable, properly planned and community consulted approach to housing migrants that recognises the pressures in cities such as Southampton

6. To write to Southampton’s three Members of Parliament inviting them to support legislative measures, including but not limited to the Conservative draft Deportation Bill, aimed at tackling illegal migration and to lobby Government accordingly

7. To write to HM Government urging it to take stronger action nationally to control illegal migration and ensure that those with no right to remain are returned hastily, highlighting the impact current policy has on local services and vulnerable residents in Southampton.

Motion (d) Local Government Reorganisation

Moved by Councillor Blackman

Seconded by Councillor Peter Baillie

Council notes:

• The process initiated by the Government for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in December 2024 following the publication of its White Paper;

• The progress and hard work that has taken place in stabilising SCC’s financial position since 2023/24 and through the Transformation Programme;

• That while stabilised, SCC’s financial position remains precarious with a number of challenges.

Council believes:

• That the Government’s process for LGR has operated on a very short timetable;

• That there are potentially both advantages and disadvantages for the City of Southampton and its residents from LGR;

• That while the broad consequences and ramifications have been understood during the process, the lack of detailed financial information about the cost of implementing reorganisation is highly concerning. In addition, the possibilities for efficiencies in the longer and medium term through the creation of new authorities have not yet been adequately assessed;

• As such any assent to LGR is currently based on too many unknowns;

Council resolves:

• That any proposal submitted to central government be accompanied by an additional letter from the Leader of SCC outlining these concerns;

• That central government be requested to cover the cost of implementing LGR rather than leaving financing to the local authorities in the region, which would have the risk of depleting SCC’s reserves again;

• That the Leader of SCC issues a statement to the people of Southampton highlighting these concerns.

To consider any question of which notice has been given under Council Procedure Rule 11.2.

To deal with any appointments to Committees, Sub-Committees or other bodies as required.