Decision Making and Governance
The Council is currently composed of 50 Councillors, who meet together as The Council.
At the Annual Council Meeting, the Council elects the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The Council also appoints the Cabinet and Councillors to its Scrutiny, regulatory and other committees.
In an election year the Council elects the Leader for a four-year term.
What is the Cabinet?
The Cabinet is made up of 7 Councillors including the Leader and Deputy Leader. The majority of decisions are made collectively but the Leader can make decisions on their own.
You can find out more about Cabinet, committees, and the decisions they make in our democracy webpages [internal link].
Who is the Cabinet Member for Housing?
The Cabinet Member for Housing is Councillor Matthew Roche, you can find out more about Cllr Roche, including how to contact him here [internal link].
Which Scrutiny Committee is Housing Services part of?
Housing Services is part of the Health and Housing Scrutiny Committee.
Scrutiny is an important part of governance and helps to drive better services, ensures transparency, and provides Council Members with assurances that services are meeting the needs of tenants and regulatory requirements.
The Health and Housing Scrutiny Committee meets around 6 times a year to review performance and to consider any new strategies and policies.
Any policy or strategy that the Scrutiny Committee support is taken to Cabinet for a final decision before being implemented within the department.
You can find details of previous and future Health and Housing Scrutiny Committee meetings, as well as read copies of all reports here [internal link].
Code of conduct
All Councillors and Officers must adhere to the Corporate Code of Conduct [internal link] .
Tenants Panel Members adhere to the Tenants Panel Terms of Reference [link to follow].
Who makes the decisions?
The Council’s Cabinet is the main policy-making body of the Council and agree all Housing Services policies and strategies.
All Housing Services policies and strategies are considered by the Tenants Panel before being taken to Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet. We use legislation, regulatory standards and good practice to write our policies and strategies.
Some decisions such as the annual rent charges are taken annually by The Council.
Day to day decisions, and the processes we follow are generally made by Housing Managers or the Senior Management team.
How are tenants involved in decision making?
The Tenants' Panel is made up of volunteers from your community who represent all Darlington Borough Council tenants. They meet face to face around 10 times a year and are involved in making decisions about how Housing is delivered. They scrutinise performance and help us with our policies and strategies.
We also have a Digital Tenants Panel for those tenants who would like to be involved but cannot always dedicate to attending face to face meetings.
The Tenants Panel are consulted on all policies and strategies and Officers provide them with regular performance data so they can scrutinise us.
To help the Panel all members are provided regular training opportunities to provide them with the skills to make informed decisions.
Any Tenants' Panel minutes from meetings are published on our website for transparency and their comments are included on any reports we take to Cabinet and Scrutiny Committees.
The Tenants' Panel provide a regular full-page article in our Housing Connect magazine and are vital in scrutinising our performance and ensuring that our tenants' voice is heard.
You can find out more about how you can get involved and the Tenants' Panel in our Neighbourhood webpages [internal link]