Agenda and minutes

The DMC noted the list of registered TRAs and their representatives as at Appendix A and those TRAs whose membership had lapsed as at Appendix B.

RESOLVED –

THAT the list of registered TRAs and their representatives be noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Barbara Seckington, John Seckington (both Agar Grove TMO), Wolfram Westendorf (Godwin and Crowndale TMO) and Isabel Sanda (Bridgeway Street TRA).

There were none.

There were none.

There was no urgent business.

Report of the Director of Housing Support Services.

This report summarises the financial position of the Housing Revenue Account and the draft recommendations on rent and service charges to be made to the Cabinet in January 2019. The report also provides background information as part of the consultation with DMCs on the draft recommendations.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Housing Support Services, together with a presentation by Jason Blackhurst, Housing Revenue Account Strategic Accountant. A copy of the presentation was tabled at the meeting.

The DMCs were informed that the Council was required to agree a balanced HRA budget for each year. This year the budgetary context for the medium term was again challenging with the Council needing resources to meet three key priorities; 1) building homes; 2) maintaining high quality housing stock; and 3) delivering a new standard in resident safety. The Government had not responded sufficiently to these challenges, and since April 2016 had imposed rent reductions of 1% resulting in the need for savings, simply to balance the HRA Budget. 

District Management Committees (DMCs) were invited to express a view on the proposed 1% rent reduction; service charges; heating changes; a new CCTV service to be funded from a new service charge and any other proposals. These comments would then be reported to the meetings of the Housing Scrutiny Committee and the Council’s Cabinet.

He also advised the meeting that the 2018/19 week charge for the Responsive Patrol Service would be 61 pence and not the 53 pence indicated in the report.

Councillor Meric Apak, Cabinet Member for Better Homes, then thanked Jason Blackhurst for his presentation.

Councillor Meric Apak, Rhys Makinson, Director of Housing Support Services, and Jason Blackhurst gave the following key responses to questions:

-       The Council had been charging tenants on behalf of Thames Water but had not been making any profit through the provision of this service. Thames Water had now decided to take back this service and would be charging tenants directly from April 2019.

-       It was not anticipated that tenants water bills would change following this change, and Thames Water may have offers in place that would allow tenants to pay less than they were currently doing. Though this would now be up to individual tenants to engage with Thames Water on directly.

-       The Council had put in place provisions to help elderly and vulnerable tenants navigate through the change to ensure that they were not disadvantaged. Thames Water were also setting up a team to deal with telephone enquiries from tenants at the same time, and they would be sending out a letter to tenants directly on the service change.

-       Any tenants who were in credit in relation to their Camden water bill by the end of the financial year could receive a rebate of the amount on request.

-       The Council’s procurement strategy for gas supplies included buying gas in advance from the wholesale markets, to even out fluctuations in wholesale prices. The Council did this as part of a consortium of other local authorities, which allowed those authorities to get a better deal from the market. This had enabled tenants and residents to benefit from this arrangement and allowed on this occasion for the heating pool to have a surplus, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The DMCs will retire to the following rooms to discuss the budget proposals separately:

Gospel Oak               - Council Chamber

Hampstead               - Committee Room 1

Kentish Town           - Committee Room 2

Camden Town         - Committee Room 4

Holborn                     - Committee Room 5

The Chair summarised the issues raised in the report and earlier debate and highlighted that although the annual meeting was known as ‘rent-setting’, the Cabinet would make the decisions. In the past, it was felt the DMCs had been ignored but she commended Councillor Meric Apak, Cabinet Member for Better Homes, for trying to change this.

Responding to questions, Neil Simcock, Head of Finance – Supporting Communities, outlined that the savings outlined in the presentation had been agreed as part of the previous medium term financial strategy a few years previously and were essentially as a result of the forced reduction in rents.

The Chair remarked that in light of the current focus of works on fire safety it may be pertinent to consider a fire safety service charge. The Cabinet Member confirmed that the £80million grant from the Government was entirely to pay to replace the cladding and curtain walls on the Chalcots estate; this would not cover the replacement windows or the costs of the emergency evacuation.

The additional and separate £87million for fire safety works would cover new and additional fire risk assessments and any works arising from those. These would include street properties. The Head of Finance – Supporting Communities advised that the capital programme had shifted towards fire safety largely at the expense of the Better Homes programme, but the Council would be aiming to combine other fire safety works with other works as far as possible. It was agreed that officers would provide a response outlining who was responsible for undertaking fire risk assessments, whether internal, contractors or a mix.

            ACTION:       Andrew Butt, Head of Fire Safety and H&S Delivery

The DMC then discussed the rent levels and fees and charges proposed for 2019/20.

Decreasing rents by 1%

The DMC noted that decreasing rents by 1% for 2019/20 was compulsory under the Government’s rules, but there would be discretion for the Council in the years following.

RESOLVED –

THAT Camden Town DMC oppose the requirement to reduce Council rents by 1% for 2019/20.

Service charges

The Chair commented that it might be useful to combine all the relevant service charges into a combined resident safety and security charge to make it easier for people to understand how the service charges were being used towards matters concerning resident safety. Noting that a Responsive Security Patrol contract monitoring group had been promised and appeared to have been reneged on, and wider concerns about spending of Housing Revenue Account money on safety and security, the Chair proposed that the DMC’s recommendations on safety and security related service charges be subject to establishing a resident oversight panel to monitor expenditure.

RESOLVED –

THAT Camden Town DMC recommend that all safety and security charges be combined into a single charge with a resident oversight panel to monitor expenditure.

Caretaking – increase by 2.4%

The Head of Finance – Supporting Communities confirmed that the proposed increase was inflationary.

The Chair highlighted the ongoing caretaking review and encouraged DMC members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The DMCs will return to the Council Chamber to convey their comments to the meeting.

The DMC then adjourned and reconvened in the Council Chamber and the decisions of all five DMCs were noted and would be submitted to the Housing Scrutiny Committee on 14^th January 2019 and Cabinet on 16^th January 2019 for consideration.

Councillor Apak advised the meeting that having heard the concerns of tenants in relation to the changes to water charges he would hold a special meeting that would seek to address these issues. Officers would seek to ensure that a representative of Thames Water was in attendance to answer questions, along with having information on how the Council would be supporting tenants (especially the elderly, disabled and vulnerable) through the change.

This meeting would take place at the end of January or early February 2019.

ACTION BY:            Mary McGowan, Director of Housing Management

Councillor Meric Apak then thanked all the DMC representatives for attending the meeting and giving the Council their views.

There was none.