Major shake-up of Havant bin collections and street cleaning clears hurdle as services brought in-house

The future delivery of Havant Borough Council’s environmental services was decided at a council cabinet meeting on June 4, with contractor Norse being axed in favour of an in-house model.

Currently, Norse South East – a joint venture company between Havant Borough Council and Norse Commercial Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Norse Group – carries out waste collection, street cleaning, and grounds maintenance across the borough, which includes Havant, Waterlooville, Emsworth, Bedhampton and Hayling Island.

The transition is scheduled to begin from March 30, 2026, when the current service agreement with NorseSE is due to end, bringing the services in-house by April 1, 2028.

The cabinet agreed on the proposed recommendations to extend the current service level agreement with NorseSE for two years to ensure the continued delivery of service is undertaken, whilst a smooth transition of environmental services coming back in-house is achieved.

The current NorseSE cost for 2025/6 is £7.923, and then £7.362m for 2026/27 and £7.579m for 20227/28.

Cabinet commercial lead, Councillor Netty Shepherd (Green, Hayling East) said: “It is the most important decision we are going to make this year. NorseSE is the front face of Havant Borough Council to most residents. It collects their waste and is responsible for streetscene.

“Today, NorseSE largely performs well on collecting waste. But the streetscene and town centres are poorly managed with litter, dirt and signs of neglect that has been going on for a number of years.”

She said of the seven options on the table and before local government reorganisation – which is set to see Havant Borough Council abolished – reared its ugly head a different option may have been chosen.

“If we are not going to exist in three years’ time, setting up a new company would not be the smart thing to do,” she said.

Cllr Shepherd said the contract has been in place since 2016 and currently the council is only recycling 30 per cent of its waste. To help improve the service while bringing it back in-house a new service manager will oversee the service.

Cabinet members were concerned how NorseSE would be incentivised to meet targets for two years.

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Cllr Shepherd said it is hard to motivate a company that knows it won’t be working with you in two years’ time. However, she said the workforce will be transferred from NorseSE to the council so it was not in workers’ interest to be performing poorly because they would be council employees in two years’ time.

When asked, Cllr Shepherd said she did not know why the contract had gone wrong with NorseSE, it was “unfathomable.“

Councillor Philippa Gray (Lib Dem, Bedhampton) said it is a service of two halves and some are a shiny beacon of how to show off the best of NorseSE.Cllr Amy Redsull (Lab, Leigh Park Hermitage) said I am hopeful that things will improve over the next two years. In Leigh Park you can tell what part of the road has been done by Portsmouth City Council and what has been done by NorseSE. “It is actually quite upsetting and disheartening but I am cautiously optimistic,” she said.

Cllr Shepherd said: “ Havant, like all local authorities nationwide, is facing enormous financial challenges, and with the initial 10-year joint venture agreement drawing to an end, now is the right time for the service to begin the transition back to the council.

“An in-house service model will provide the council with direct control over the delivery of services that will enable us to flex the service and be responsive to our residents’ needs. It will also enable better alignment of the services with the council’s corporate priorities, including the Biodiversity and Climate Change strategies.

“NorseSE is the largest contract this council has, and the implications of this change are not insignificant. Extending the current service with them for a defined period will allow us to ensure the transition to an in-house service model is performed as effectively and efficiently as possible.”