Westminster City Council – Progress Review

Westminster City Council undertook an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in February 2025 and promptly published the full report with an action plan. 

A Progress Review is an integral part of the Corporate Peer Challenge process and is designed to provide space for the council’s senior leadership to:

• Receive feedback from peers on the progress made by the council against the CPC recommendations and the council’s RAG rated CPC Action Plan. 
• Consider peers’ reflections on any new opportunities or challenges that may have arisen since the peer team were ‘on-site’ including any further support needs
• Discuss any early impact or learning from the progress made to date 

The LGA would like to thank Westminster City Council for their commitment to sector led improvement. This Progress Review was the next step in an ongoing, open and close relationship that the council has with LGA sector support.

The peer team were pleased to see good progress having been made by the council in relation to a number of the recommendations made through the CPC.

The Progress Review in Westminster took place on Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 January 2026. It focused on each of the recommendations from the Corporate Peer Challenge, which were as follows: 

Recommendation 1

Develop more collective and collaborative leadership focused on delivering the complex cross-cutting agendas facing the council and the communities of Westminster

Recommendation 2

Develop a longer-term plan for the borough in a context of the timescales involved in addressing the inequalities in Westminster

Recommendation 3

Evolve the annual delivery plan approach, involving increased collective engagement in drawing it together informed by the MTFS position, and ensuring it reflects an agreed set of priorities that, as far as possible, are consistently adhered to

Recommendation 4

Establish greater rigour in scoping initiatives before embarking upon them and increasing the collective consideration of them

Recommendation 5

Collectively consider where the council wishes to see community engagement operate in the space between representative democracy and participative democracy 

Recommendation 6

Revisit governance arrangements so that there is increased reporting to, and oversight from, Cabinet

Recommendation 7

Increase the opportunities for collective decision-making in public and build on recent developments enabling increased public participation

Recommendation 8

Reassure yourselves that the governance arrangements around the distribution of community grants is sufficiently robust and provides the necessary safeguards

Recommendation 9

Enhance the approach to casework management through utilising existing capacity differently, investing in a casework management system and developing a more strategic approach that positions casework as a valuable source of organisational learning and service improvement

Recommendation 10

Jointly clarify the role of the voluntary and community sector in delivering the ambitions for Westminster

Recommendation 11

Respond to the theme of ‘elected members as valuable assets’ and what is contained within that

Recommendation 12

Ensure work around reimagining the Westminster Way and organisational development addresses what has been highlighted around succession planning, supporting people in translating ‘purpose’ into ‘action’, skills and managerial and leadership development and sharing learning and collaborating across the organisation and that this operates in inclusive and equitable ways

The following formed the peer team for the Progress Review: 

• Andy Donald, Chief Executive, London Borough of Haringey
• Councillor Grace Williams, Leader, London Borough of Waltham Forest (Labour)
• Councillor Abi Brown OBE, former Leader, Stoke-on-Trent City Council (Conservative)
• Tim Borrett, Director of Policy, Strategy and Digital, Bristol City Council
• Rachel McKoy, Executive Director, Association of Monitoring Officers (AMO)
• Martin Hughes, Head of Neighbourhoods, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
• Chris Bowron, LGA Peer Challenge Manager

Delivery

Westminster City Council is operating in a challenging and constantly changing context, including a recent cyber-attack and the very significant immediate and on-going impacts of that; a greatly increased financial challenge; and the council elections in May 2026. The council continues to establish and deliver a lot, including:

• Achieved a C1 rating – the best possible level – under the Regulator of Social Housing inspection: the first local authority in London to achieve this level
• Continued roll out of Community Hubs, with new ones recently opened in Church Street, North Paddington and the Brunel estate – with the latter run by an independent operator.
• Launch of the Westminster Advice Services Partnership – working with the likes of Citizen’s Advice and Age UK to provide free advice on money matters, housing, energy, employment, immigration and family issues
• Investment in three ‘Community Champions’ programmes in areas of high deprivation to support health and wellbeing
• Enhanced anti-social behaviour measures, including investment to double CCTV coverage
• £4.5 million capital grant funding in North Paddington provided to seven third-sector organisations for improvements to community buildings and facilities 
• Establishment of a Serious Youth Violence Taskforce
• Creation of a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 
• Investment of over £170m to expand council-owned housing supply, including the acquisition of more than 350 homes to reduce dependence on the most expensive temporary provision
• Development of a new ‘Westminster After Dark’ Strategy
• Adoption of a new Air Quality Action Plan for 2025-2030
• Creation of a new Greening and Biodiversity Action Plan
• The council’s third annual Social Value Impact Report indicated council procurement has seen a £5.3m (47 per cent) increase in the proportion spent with local supply chains and businesses and £846,000 had been raised for community projects
• Climate Emergency UK ranked Westminster in the top 10 of UK local authorities, and top in the category of ‘Governance and Finance’, in its 2025 ‘Climate Action Scorecards’
• The 2025 ‘Our Voice’ staff survey saw:
• The joint highest ever response rate (70 per cent)
• 81 per cent overall engagement score – up 1 per cent  from last year (14 per cent higher than the local authority benchmark) 
• 89 per cent of respondents indicating they have a good understanding of the council’s purpose (12 per cent higher than the local authority benchmark)
• 82 per cent of respondents indicating that they are treated with fairness and respect by colleagues (13 per cent  higher than the local authority benchmark)

Organisational leadership

The corporate peer challenge recommended (recommendation 1) the development of more collective and collaborative leadership focused on delivering the complex cross-cutting agendas facing the council and the communities of Westminster. Informal Cabinet is now meeting more frequently – every three weeks – and is providing increased collective consideration of key strategic issues at an earlier point. Officers indicated that they find themselves, in attending this forum, now having whole-Cabinet input to matters much more at the outset of thinking around how the council can best approach an issue. Investment of time and effort has been made in the development of the managerial Executive Leadership Team, both individually and collectively, with external facilitation around this. Joint Cabinet and Executive Leadership Team development activity, including an away day that was also externally facilitated, has also taken place. It will be important that the council continues to refine this approach after the elections. 

Monthly ‘Leadership Team’ meetings are also now being held, with these bringing the Executive Leadership Team together with Directors. The anecdotal feedback we gleaned is that these are proving valuable, the approach is evolving and the scope exists to enhance them further. ‘Time to Talk’ sessions led by members of the Executive Leadership Team and the ‘Loop Live’ online session led by the Chief Executive, both of which are open to all staff, continue to be valued. 

Financial planning and management

The financial challenge for the council has increased greatly following the ‘Fair Funding’ review, with the financial gap over the medium-term having increased by £89m. The council has been lobbying hard, through both main political parties, on this outcome and faces a particular challenge in relation to how it approaches council tax going forward. Organisational understanding of the scale of the financial challenge is growing but this should be developed further for staff and elected members. Consideration also needs to be given to how the financial position is explained to residents and partner organisations.

The scale of the financial challenge represents an increased imperative for the organisation and generates the need for pace in addressing it. ‘Transformation’ represents an important strand of the organisation’s approach to meeting the financial challenge, with a target of achieving £30m savings through it over three years. This is prudent, both in respect of the financial quantum and transformation activity representing only one strand of the approach to addressing the gap and thus avoiding ‘all the eggs being put in one basket’. There is a shared desire across officers we met at all levels to see the approach to transformation being collectively and collaboratively developed in the organisation. The fact that the council has brought an experienced individual into the organisation to provide internal capacity to drive and lead the transformation, rather than seeking external consultancy support, is valued and strong leadership of the agenda is seen to be being shown.  

In seeking to address the financial challenge, whether through transformation, other savings initiatives or increased income, there is the opportunity for the council to learn from approaches elsewhere in local government. Many other councils have already wrestled with the types of initiatives Westminster will potentially want and need to consider over the coming months and years and learning from their experiences, both positive and less positive, can serve to expedite progress and see the objectives achieved more efficiently.

Organisational culture and development

The corporate peer challenge outlined the importance of work around reimagining the ‘Westminster Way’ and organisational development to enhance, amongst other things, collaboration across the organisation. This was recommendation 12. There is a sense of organisational silos having reduced to an extent during the intervening period. The response that has been seen to the cyber-attack demonstrates, albeit in extreme circumstances, the benefits of cross-organisational working. There is a strong desire amongst people we met to ensure organisational learning from the attack and the related response is maximised – both in relation to the fostering and cultivating of increased collaboration and strengthening business continuity arrangements. 

The strong organisational commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) has developed further, with people reflecting a broadened focus including men’s mental health, gender equity and neuro-divergence in the workplace.

The ‘Westminster Way’, as the council’s approach to organisational culture, has been refined in the period since the corporate peer challenge. It was formally re-launched late last year and there is good awareness of it within the organisation. With its purpose of ‘We act together to improve lives for a better Westminster’ and the three pillars of ‘Everyone has talent’, ‘Everyone is valued’ and ‘Everyone is a leader’ it provides a valuable guiding framework for the organisation. It is seen to be particularly beneficial in informing recruitment activity and processes, induction to the organisation for new starters and wider organisational development activity including the appraisal process.

There is seen to be a wide range of ‘corporate initiatives’ in the council, including the ‘Westminster Way’, ‘Fit for the Future’, ‘Fairer Westminster’ and ‘#2035’. There is a desire on the part of staff to see some simplification of this, with a potential opportunity to ensure transformation aligns very closely with the ‘Westminster Way’ as part of this, rather than coming to be badged and/or seen as an additional aspect of change.

Community leadership

The corporate peer challenge recommended (recommendation 3) that the council evolve the annual delivery plan approach and ensure it reflects an agreed set of priorities. It also recommended (recommendation 2) the development of a longer-term plan for the borough. The council’s response has been to extend the Annual Delivery Plan, with the ‘2030 Priorities Plan’ set to be adopted in March 2026.

Understanding within the council of the importance of engaging communities is increasing and there are good examples of co-production and co-design, including the three ‘Community Champions’ programmes in areas of high deprivation to support health and wellbeing; the work with third-sector organisations in North Paddington around improvements to community buildings and facilities; the work of the Serious Youth Violence Taskforce; the creation of a new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy; the development  of a new ‘Westminster After Dark’ Strategy; the new Air Quality Action Plan for 2025-2030; and the creation of a new Greening and Biodiversity Action Plan.

Staff reflected that the council “knows its communities but needs to better understand them”. As part of this, it is seen to be important to enhance co-ordination across the organisation of engagement with communities. The Communities Directorate is seen now to be playing a constructive role in this, shifting from a “function looking out with its back to the organisation to one that is fostering integration and join-up” in the council’s approach to communities. 

There is positive leadership by the council on community cohesion. Global and national tensions are playing out on the streets of Westminster, with it frequently being the geographical focal point for national protests and demonstrations. Officers and elected members are very aware of the complex environment they are operating in across Westminster’s own communities. Instances were highlighted, for example, of decisions around the letting of community halls and other council facilities becoming sensitive and profiled as different interest groups expressed differing views and perspectives on which groups access was provided to. People we spoke to value the support and guidance they have received from the council in these types of space. There is an opportunity and a desire for this to be extended to help them continue to navigate sensitive issues.

Governance

Much in this section of the report and the previous one on ‘Community leadership’ links to the recommendation (recommendation 11) and theme from the corporate peer challenge regarding ‘elected members as valuable assets’. 

A concerted effort can be seen in the organisation around engaging more with councillors, including at the ward level. The post-election period provides an opportunity to progress this further, founded upon a clear shared understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of elected members and officers.

Work on the induction arrangements for the new elected membership is underway. Scenario planning by officers in any council ahead of elections is important. One aspect of this is enabling the organisation to ‘hit the ground running’ in terms of taking forward the ambitions and aspirations of the Administration. Another aspect is anticipating any potential need to adapt governance arrangements in a context of the political make-up of councils becoming more diverse and complex.

The corporate peer challenge recommended (recommendation 9) that the council establish a system for managing elected member casework and enable it to be viewed as a valuable source of organisational learning and service improvement. In response, the council has drawn in learning on casework management systems in other councils, with options to be presented for consideration for adoption through the transformation programme. Our experience is that there is real value in having such a system, with it aiding prioritisation, tracking and the identification of strategic solutions to common or recurring issues.

The corporate peer challenge recommended (recommendation 8) that the council reassure itself that the governance arrangements around the distribution of community grants are sufficiently robust. An Internal Audit review of the approach provided ‘satisfactory assurance’. Maximising transparency around the allocation of grant funding is a sound guiding principle and strengthens safeguards for any organisation dealing with public money. A centralised system for the co-ordination of grant-giving by the council is in development through the Communities Directorate.

3.7      Voluntary and community sector

There is growing recognition within the council that the voluntary and community sector is more important now than ever. Following the corporate peer challenge recommendation (recommendation 10) to jointly clarify the role the sector can play in the delivery of the ambitions in Westminster, an internal review has been embarked upon to take stock of how the organisation interfaces with the sector. This has identified the potential to simplify the interface between the council and the sector, particularly around grant funding. We gleaned instances, for example, of sector organisations having engagement with multiple parts of the council as a consequence of them applying for and receiving grants from up to six or seven different funding streams. The internal review has also identified opportunities to support enhanced capacity building within the sector.

The LGA would like to thank Westminster City Council for undertaking an LGA CPC Progress Review. 

We appreciate that the senior managerial and political leadership will want to reflect on these findings and suggestions in order to determine how the organisation wishes to take things forward.

Under the umbrella of LGA sector-led improvement, there is an on-going offer of support to councils. The LGA is well placed to provide additional support, advice and guidance on a number of the areas identified for development and improvement and we would be happy to discuss this. 

Mona Sehgal, Principal Adviser for London in the LGA, is the main point of contact between the authority and the Local Government Association (LGA) and her e-mail address is [email protected]