Agenda and minutes

Appendix A lists those Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations (TRAs), which have satisfactorily completed the registration process at the date of despatch of this agenda. It gives details of the representatives of those Associations to be co-opted onto the DMC, in accordance with the constitution, together with the names of the substitutes.

Appendix B lists those TRAs whose registrations have lapsed. If a TRA wishes to register it must hold an Annual General Meeting (AGM), open to all members, once a year (with an independent observer in attendance). The minutes must be sent to the Tenant Participation Team together with a membership list and a completed registered form.

The ‘A’ and ‘B’ lists were noted.

Apologies were received from June Dodds and Elizabeth Callaghan (Peckwater TRA), Petra Dando (CASP) and John Loughran (Ingestre Road TA).

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations of interest.

The DMC was notified that Rosemary Ibrahim would be making a submission to the meeting, further to her previous deputation on the Whittington Estate last year.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meetings of the Kentish Town District Management Committee held on 3^rd December 2019 and 8^th January 2020.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meetings held on 3^rd December 2019 and 8^th January 2020.

RESOLVED –

(i)            THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd December 2019 be approved as a correct record;

(ii)          THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th January 2020 be approved as a correct record.

The DMC is asked to note the progress of the action points arising from the previous meetings.

Consideration was given to the progress report.

A member from Maiden Lane said that there had been a delay in the process of consultation about Maiden Lane parking. She said that TRA members would be meeting Jayne Seaman (Estate Services Manager) at a future date. The Chair asked that he be notified when this meeting was.

There was a discussion about the collection of reps’ contact details and the request for a further meeting to follow up from the 14 November special meeting. Tenant Participation officers said they were still compiling a list of those TRA reps who would be willing to have their contact details circulated. The Chair offered the use of Kennistoun & Willingham TRA hall on a Thursday, if those members who wanted another special meeting wanted to hold it then.

A question was asked about when the new caretakers would start work, and members were informed that some would start from April.

RESOLVED –

THAT the progress report and the comments above be noted.

Report of the Director of Property Management.

The DMC Chairs have asked for a paper on the work to review the Capital Programme. This will be a discussion item at the March DMC cycle and there will be a short presentation and additional information provided by officers. This paper provides some background information for context.

Consideration was given to a report and presentation by the Director of Property Management.

Gavin Haynes, the Director of Property Management, delivered a presentation to the meeting and circulated the 5-year programme for planned works in the area.

Mr Haynes highlighted that the stock conditions survey had identified £516m of capital works that need to be done; however there was only £334m available. These figures were estimates and might be subject to change. Budget constraints would mean, though, that the Council would have to prioritise the most important work, to ensure that residents had safe and warm homes.

In discussion, Mr Haynes said that there had been workshop sessions held for residents recently. These had raised concerns about communications and quality control. Residents felt they did not receive good communication and some work done was of poor quality.

Mr Haynes said that £59m had been set aside for fire safety works. This would include the installation of 13,000 fire doors.

The Chair expressed concern at the lack of funding available for a proper cyclical maintenance programme. Some residents mentioned aspects of their flats and blocks which had not been renewed for decades.

A resident from Ingestre Road expressed concern that their block had not been included on the list. Residents there felt it had structural issues which needed to be investigated.

Other residents also highlighted blocks or estates which they felt should have been included on the list. Mr Haynes asked them to send him comments by the end of April.

                                                                        TO NOTE: All

The Chair asked if there were central government grants available to cover fire safety work. Mr Haynes said there was money available for the re-cladding of the Chalcots, but no other central government funding had been made available.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report, presentation and the comments above be noted.

Report of the Head of Resident Safety, Engagement & Strategy.

The report advises DMCs about the Council’s on-going Camden 2025 work to improve fire safety in Council homes and to prepare for the introduction of new fire and building safety legislation and on the work of the Fire Safety & Compliance Advisory Panel. The report also provides a commentary on the cost effectiveness of the Safer Council Homes survey and seeks the views of DMCs on the development of a Resident Safety Charter.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Resident Safety.

John Brett, the Director of Resident Safety, presented the report. He said that a targeted survey of residents had been carried out and achieved an 11% response rate (which was high for online or postal surveys). This had identified residents’ concerns about safety.

The Council was planning to introduce a Resident Safety Charter. Mr Brett said keeping to this charter would help ensure compliance in 6 key areas of resident safety. He said he was keen to take the Charter to the Fire Safety Advisory Panel as soon as it was ready.

Mr Brett informed attendees that the government was drafting a Fire Safety Bill and a Building Safety Bill. Camden wanted to be an “early adopter” and so try to meet those standards before they became law. The Council had met with officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to discuss being an early adopter.

Mr Brett said that the legislation would be likely to impose special rules for buildings which were more than 18 metres high. This would have implications for new-build properties that Camden might be involved in constructing via the Community Investment Programme.

There was a discussion about smoke detectors. Mr Brett said that the Council intended to install hard-wired smoke detectors in tenants’ flats. In the meantime, he urged elderly and disabled residents to contact the London Fire Brigade to take up their offer of free stand-alone smoke alarm installation.

Members also expressed concern about carbon monoxide, and if the Council could ensure that carbon monoxide detectors were available for tenants. Mr Brett said he would check about the Council’s approach with regard to provision of these.

                                                            ACTION: Director of Resident Safety

With regard to fire safety checks, residents said it would be beneficial if a noticeboard could be placed in each block stating when it was last checked.

A resident commented that he had received a letter from a Council contractor, Cadence, saying they would do work that would require turning off the gas supply. He had received this letter in November but no work had been done. He saw this as an illustration of poor communication by the Council and its contractors.

A resident from Kenbrook House said he was concerned about the windows facing onto balcony walkways in that block not being fire safe.

There was a discussion about whether the firefighters attending incidents had access to information about where fire hydrants were, and whether fire hydrants were the Council’s or the Fire Brigade’s responsibility. Mr Brett said he would check to see whose it was.    

                                                            ACTION: Director of Resident Safety

Councillor Apak said he would like to take this opportunity to thank residents who were serving on the Fire Safety Advisory Panel.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report and the comments above be noted.

Report of the Head of Landlord Services.

In line with the DMC funding guidelines, TRAs will be asked to provide an update to the meeting regarding the progress of agreed bids, including an update on the associated spend. TRAs are invited to circulate any relevant information in advance through the clerk.

TRAs are encouraged to submit bids as soon as possible, so they can be properly assessed and prepared by officers, ready for submission to the DMC. TRAs are reminded that verbal bids cannot be accepted at DMC meetings as, in line with the guidelines, officers need to be able to assess bids before passing them to the DMC.

For more information on DMC bids, please see our webpages: www.camden.gov.uk/dmcbids.

Consideration was given to a report of the Landlord Services Manager (South).

Kieran Waller, Neighbourhood Housing Manager, presented the report. He reported that there was about £14,000 left in the budget for 2019-20.

With regard to the Kenbrook bid, members queried whether the Council’s public liability insurance would cover them – and so they did not need to purchase further insurance. The meeting was informed that they had been advised that the gym equipment was ‘high risk’ and so needed separate insurance. Stanton La Foucade said that that he would clarify whether the Council’s public liability insurance for TRAs covered gym equipment and what the restrictions on it were.

                                                                        ACTION: Tenant Participation

Members voted to agree the bids.

RESOLVED –

THAT the following bids be approved:

Report of Landlord Services Manager (South).

This report provides an update of recent news within the Kentish Town DMC boundary since the last meeting.  As previously requested, TRAs are asked to submit items for inclusion in the report that they wish to share.

Consideration was given to a report of the Landlord Services Manager (South).

Kieran Waller spoke to the report and highlighted that the new Landlord Service had been operating for 9 months in the north of the borough and 6 months in the south. He said the Council was keen to hear views on what had been working well and what had not.

Members noted the updates on DMC schemes. Given the different views on having a communal entry system for Denyer House, attendees were made aware that it might not end up being installed.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Update from the Cabinet Member for Better Homes.

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Better Homes.

Councillor Apak highlighted the Council’s intention to seek bulk agreements with service providers over wayleaves for high-speed broadband provision. Members asked questions on this and Cllr Apak clarified that this was separate from the issue of mobile phone masts. He was also asked about whether wayleave agreements would apply to street properties. He said he would seek further information on this.

                                                                        ACTION: Councillor Meric Apak

Councillor Apak said that there were about 1000 calls a day to the Repairs call centre. This was too high a volume for the operatives to be able to deal with promptly, contributing to long wait times and call delays. The intention of the Council was to modernise the IT system to enable more repairs requests to be logged online. This would need to wait for a decision to be made on Camden’s long-term housing IT needs, however.

Attendees praised the ‘Clean Camden’ app and wanted to know if it could be applied to repairs issues. Given the greater complexity of repairs, it was thought that this would not be possible.

Members expressed the view that a large proportion of the repairs calls were due to failure demand. They said if contractors had done the job right first time, then there would be fewer calls from discontented residents to the call centre who needed a repeat visit.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report and the comments above be noted.

To consider the DMC work programme.

Consideration was given to the DMC work programme.

Councillor Apak said the idea of a DMC work programme had been proposed at Joint Chairs. To have this as an item on DMC agendas would enable members to feed into the agenda-setting process at an early stage.

The Chair asked that members who had suggestions for future items should let the Head of Tenant Participation know.

One item that people asked to be added to the June agenda was an update on the Whittington Estate.

                                                ACTION: Director of Property Management

RESOLVED –

THAT the work programme be agreed, as amended above.

To note reports on:

- Tenant Participation Officer Patch Summary

- Tenant Participation Training

- Tenant Participation Steering Group & Strategy update

- DMC Elections and Procedures

- Tenant and Leaseholders Code of Conduct

- Grants, Equipment and Loans

The report was noted.

This report is to inform the DMC about the statutory consultation on additional Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) Licensing within the private rented sector.

The report was noted.

This report provides information about the action taken by the planning enforcement team on short term lets.

The report was noted.

Rosemary Ibrahim addressed the DMC on problems with the Whittington Estate heating system and the impact on her property. It had been a year since the TRA had made a deputation to KT DMC highlighting their concerns.

The Council or its contractors did not carry out any further work until November 2019. However, the noise from the heating unit was such that it made it very difficult for her and her son to sleep. In addition, the problems remained with low water pressure, water turning cold mid-flow and so forth. Repeated visits by contractors had failed to solve the problems. She wanted to know in writing what the Council was going to do to resolve the issues she faced and what the timescale for this was. Contractors had told her that they would need to do intrusive works involving removing pipework and she did not wish to agree to such disruptive works in her home unless it was clear that it would rectify the problems.

Members expressed their sympathy with Ms Ibrahim and other Whittington Estate residents who had faced disruption and problems as a result of the heating system. The view was expressed that this raised systematic issues as to Camden’s choice of contractors and of a heating system. They were of the view that Housing Scrutiny Committee should investigate the matter.

The dates of future Kentish Town DMC meetings are:

·         Tuesday, 16^th June 2020

·         Tuesday, 8^th September 2020

·         Tuesday, 1^st December 2020

·         Monday, 11^th January 2021 (joint meeting)

·         Tuesday, 2^nd March 2021

It was noted that the dates of future meetings were:

·         Tuesday, 16^th June 2020

·         Tuesday, 8^th September 2020

·         Tuesday, 1^st December 2020

·         Monday, 11^th January 2021 (joint meeting)

·         Tuesday, 2^nd March 2021