Agenda and minutes

The Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing (in the Chair) to announce the format of the meeting and welcome attendees.

Apologies for absence were received from Aldires Bugia.

The Chair of the 2018-21 Forum to outline how leaseholder representatives were elected to the new Forum (the process) and the outcome.

The Chair of the 2018-21 Forum provided a brief outline on how Leaseholder representatives had been elected to the current forum.

He highlighted that due to the ruling of the Leasehold Tribunal there was limited funding available for the election. Nevertheless, a process had been pulled together whereby Camden had published an article in Housing News inviting applications to become members of the Leaseholders’ Forum.

He informed members that the Tenant Participation Team had assisted with the initial paperwork, 22 applications had been received via the process and there had been sufficient representations from the districts process. 2 applicants had pulled out. 20 people had been elected of which 1 of the members had not yet been in touch. It had been a one-off process.

Responding to a question about a how a Leaseholder could become a member of the Forum, the outgoing Chair commented that the Leaseholder Forum Constitution set out what the process was if a vacancy occurred, there was a mechanism in the constitution how members could be elected/recruited.

Members introduce themselves (name and district represented)

All Leaseholder Forum members present in the room and joining remotely introduced themselves.

There were none.

To consider and resolve to adopt the ‘Process for Election of Chair’

Members to elect a Chair for the municipal year 2022-23

Forum members considered and unanimously agreed to adopt the Process for Election of Chair and Vice Chair (as appended to the Agenda).

RESOLVED:

THAT the process for Election of Chair and Vice Chair be adopted.

Carolyn Morgan and Peter Wright were nominated and seconded by Forum members for the role of chair.

They each gave a speech highlighting their experience and suitability for the role. This was followed by a vote and Carolyn Morgan was elected with 11 votes to Peter Wright’s 7 votes.

RESOLVED –

THAT Carolyn Morgan be elected as Chair of the Leaseholders’ Forum for the 2022/23 municipal year.

                               TO NOTE:              All

Members to elect a Vice Chair for the municipal year

Laureline Champion and Peter Wright were nominated and seconded by Forum members for the role of vice- chair.

Laureline Champion gave a speech highlighting the qualities she would bring to the role. This was followed by a vote and Peter Wright was elected with 11 votes to Laureline Champion’s 5 votes.

RESOLVED –

THAT Peter Wright be elected as Vice-chair of the Leaseholders’ Forum for the 2022/23 municipal year.

                               TO NOTE:              All

To note the Leaseholders’ Forum Constitution and Code of Conduct.

To consider the proposed revised Code of Conduct and to resolve whether to adopt it.

The Forum discussed the Constitution and Code of Conduct. It was noted in response to an earlier question from a Leaseholder that paragraph 2.7 of the Leaseholders’ Forum Constitution made provision in the event of vacancies for co-opting members for a period of up to a year.

In response to a question raised by Councillor Jirira about how representative and inclusive boroughwide the Forum membership was, the Chair proposed that the Leaseholders’ Forum Communications Officer collated data on the location and property type of current Forum members and where gaps were identified consideration could be given on how to invite suitable applicants to apply. It was proposed that this should be reviewed at the next meeting.

         ACTION BY: Leaseholders’ Forum Communications Officer

There was a proposal and agreement by the Forum that an informal meeting of the Leaseholders’ Forum be convened over the summer to consider amendments to the constitution.

Consideration was also given to revising the Forum’s Code of Conduct and adopting the current Camden Tenant and Leaseholder Engagement Code of Conduct. There was considerable debate amongst Forum members on whether to adopt the document. Some members were of the view that the document should be adopted and more time spent on dealing with urgent issues for leaseholders, while other members expressed concern at a Camden document being adopted for an independent group. It was decided that a working group be set up to look at the document outside of the meeting in more detail. This could be looked at the informal meeting which would also consider amendments to the constitution.

       ACTION BY:  Chair / Leaseholders’ Forum 

RESOLVED –

THAT an informal Leaseholders’ Forum meeting be convened to consider amendments to the Constitution and Code of Conduct.

                               TO NOTE:              All

To consider and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 28^th September 2021.

The Leaseholders’ Forum asked that the Finance and Income Manager who was standing in for the Head of Leaseholder Services pick up the outstanding action points intended for the Head of Leaseholder Services in his absence.

        ACTION BY:  Finance and Income Manager 

There was also a suggestion that the Clerk to the Forum add a rolling action points table to future minutes so progress could be followed.

       ACTION BY:  Principal Committee Officer

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 28^th September 2021 be approved as an accurate record subject to amending Item 7 (Leaseholders’ Forum Sub-Groups) 2nd paragraph, final sentence to read “It was reported that initial communications with the Head of Capital Works had not progressed as there was no response to emails and no-one from the Council was available for meetings”.

To consider a summary of the survey respondents key issues and to resolve follow up action.

Consideration was given to the Camden Leaseholders’ Survey carried out in 2020.

David Hart informed the Forum that it was worth highlighting the top issues of concern that had come out of the survey. The total response rate to the survey was 11% which represented 762 people out of a total of 6,542 people surveyed.

Some of the main comments related to Leaseholder Services not responding to calls or emails, difficulty getting responses from officers within a reasonable timescale. Leaseholders had requested that officers provide contact email address and job title that they could communicate with.

Forum members agreed to establish a number of Sub Work Groups to address issues from the Survey.

These included:

Communication Sub-Group comprising – Carolyn Morgan, Martyn Swain and Clive Sneddon, the were tasked with facilitating contact with the recently appointed Director of Housing – Glendine Shepherd and Geraldine Littlechild. to determine how communication could be improved between the Council and Leaseholders and report back on progress at the Leaseholders’ Forum meeting in September 2022.

       ACTION BY: Communications Sub-Group

Repairs Sub-Group consisting of David Hart, Laureline Champion and Joy Palmer. The Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing was asked to facilitate contact between the Sub-Group and Danny Waite Head of Repairs. They were tasked with receiving feedback on how repairs were being handled and suggestions to improve the service to Leaseholders. The Sub-group was to report back on progress at the September Leaseholders’ Forum meeting.

       ACTION BY: Repairs Subgroup

Major Works subgroup comprising of Patrick Hagopian, Andrew Purves and Carolyn Morgan. The Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing was asked to facilitate contact between the Subgroup and Susanne Afra Head of Planned Capital Works. They were tasked with liaising with Leaseholders to identify issues with major works on estates including timescales taken to complete work, costs, quality and value for money and agree actions to improve all these.

       ACTION BY: Major Works Subgroup

Responding to a question from a leaseholder on the timescales for the subgroups providing feedback, the Chair commented that there was an expectation that each subgroup would meet in the next few weeks to agree key points and issues to raise with Camden officers and a way forward. The sub-groups would then aim to schedule a meeting with key Camden officers in July asking them to respond with a plan of action in advance of the Leaseholders’ Forum meeting in September.

Answering a further question about how the Leaseholders Forum would operate and communicate amongst Leaseholders, the Chair noted that the hybrid meeting format appeared to have worked well and with the agreement of the Forum would like formal Leaseholder Forum meetings to continue with this format. She also informed Leaseholders that David Hart was responsible for Leaseholder Forum communications and would continue to publish the Leaseholder Forum bulletin board. There were 1300 people on the mailing list, information and updates would continue to be sent to interested Leaseholders while Leaseholders that were not members of the Forum could send  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing to briefly explain the Complaints Process.

To consider improvements to the Complaints Process, its clarity and ease of use.

The Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing explained the Council’s complaints process.

The Forum was informed that Camden’s Complaints process was a 3-stage process, Leaseholders with individual complaints were advised to use the process.  The first stage of the process involved the complaint being dealt with by an officer in the department. If the complainant was not happy with how their complaint was dealt with it would go to a second stage which would be dealt with by an officer who was independent of the department. The third stage of the process involved an independent review by the Housing Ombudsman.

He highlighted that there was a new formal complaints on-line handling system and was of the view that it was a big improvement on the previous process. He also pointed out that it was worth noting the significantly enhanced role of the Housing Ombudsman which addressed individual issues and highlighted systematic failures of landlords. The complaints process also provided data to the ombudsman on how well the Council were handling its services. He encouraged Leaseholders with issues to use Camden’s Complaints System as the data provided could also be used to improve services and highlight issues. The data from analysing complaints could be shared with the Leaseholders Forum in future.

Responding to Leaseholders questions the Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing made the following comments:

In relation to how Leaseholders could find the place on the Council website to generate a complaint, he commented that they could go on-line and google Camden complaints. Alternatively. the information on how to access Camden Complaints process would be shared with Leaseholders’ Forum members and David Hart would circulate to Leaseholders via the mailing list.

       ACTION BY: Head of Tenant Participation and Sheltered Housing / David Hart

The complaints process and escalation to the Ombudsman can also be used by groups and organisations.

It could also be used as a dispute resolution mechanism. It was found to be a useful means of reporting data to District Management Committees.

To plan the work programme of the Forum.

To consider delegating to sub groups (group members tasked to formulate proposed terms of reference).

This had been covered with the establishment of the subgroups under item 9.

The chair informed Leaseholders who were not Forum members that If they wanted to suggest other work groups or topics this information should be submitted to David Hart (email to: camden@leaseholdersforum.org.uk who would share with the Leaseholders’ Forum.

None.

To consider and resolve whether to hold informal interim meetings for members on Zoom.

To consider provisional dates of future formal meetings and to resolve their format.

Proposed dates for future meetings are

·       2^nd August 2022

·       22^nd November 2022

·       07 February 2023

All on Tuesdays at 7pm.

The Forum agreed that the next two formal Leaseholders’ Forum meeting dates would be

Tuesday 20^th September 2022 – 7pm and

Tuesday 29^th November 2022 – 7pm

Rather than the provisional dates 2^nd August and 22^nd November previously advertised.

The date for the fourth meeting in this municipal year would be considered at a meeting later in the year.

There were proposals for Leaseholder Forum members to meet informally in the next few weeks via zoom to discuss the:

-       constitution/ code of conduct

-       working groups on Leaseholder Services, Repairs, Major Works

-       co-opting new members

A leaseholder congratulated the new Chair on the way she handled the meeting with tact and organisation.

Forum members expressed their gratitude to the previous senior leadership team of the Forum (consisting of the previous Chair Peter Wright and David Hart) for how they had kept the Forum going up to this point.