Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Richard Walker.

Other Forum members not present included George Ambrose and Dane Cummings.

Members to elect a Chair for the municipal year 2023-24

Isabella Luger 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 Isabella Luger was elected with 11 votes to Peter Wright’s 5 votes.

RESOLVED –

THAT Isabella Luger be elected as Chair of the Leaseholders’ Forum for the 2023/24 municipal year.

                               TO NOTE:              All

Members to elect a Vice-chair for the municipal year 2023-24

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

This was followed by a vote and Patrick Hagopian was elected with 9 votes to Peter Wright’s 6 votes.

RESOLVED –

THAT Patrick Hagopian be elected as Vice-chair of the Leaseholders’ Forum for the 2023/24 municipal year.

                               TO NOTE:              All

Members to elect a Communications member for the municipal year 2023-24

David Hart was nominated and seconded by Forum members for the role of Communications member.

In the absence of any other nominations, it was

RESOLVED –

THAT David Hart be elected as the Communications member of the Leaseholders’ Forum for the 2023/24 municipal year.

                               TO NOTE:              All

There were none.

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

RESOLVED

That the Constitution and Code of Conduct be noted by the Forum.

To consider and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 14^th March 2023.

·       Leaseholder satisfaction survey 2020 – verbal update CM

·       Master Key – verbal update CM/Joy

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting of 14th March 2023 and the actions arising from those minutes.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 14th March 2023 be approved as an accurate record.

Matters Arising from the minutes 14^th March 2023

In response to a Forum Member’s question about whether Liferay (the platform which stored all the Camden Account information) had access to all Leaseholders details, the Head of Leaseholder Services reiterated a previous response provided by the Council’s IT department that the Council does not share Camden Account users’ data with any other organisation.

Leaseholder satisfaction survey

Carolyn Morgan (CM) informed Leaseholders that the Head of Tenant and Leaseholder Engagement had promised to send a draft of the proposed questions that Leaseholders would be asked to consider as part of the satisfaction survey 2023. CM indicated that she would follow this up and as soon as a draft was received this would be circulated to Forum members for comment.

Master Key update

CM advised that she had a meeting with the Director of Property Management and Head of CASP on 14 March about concerns relating to Master Keys for street properties, including the high capital cost for the work .The options were being considered and it was hoped that the Director of Property Management planned to make a decision by the end of June 2023.

To receive a report from the Acting Head of Leaseholder Services.

Consideration was given to the Acting Head of Leaseholder Services Update report.

The Acting Head of Leaseholder Services informed the Forum that interviews for the Head of Leaseholder Services role had taken place in May, an offer had been made, the Council was waiting for references and it was hoped that the new person would be in post by the end of June or early July.

The new Head of Leaseholder Services would also be responsible for 2 other departments rent collection and rent setting. In response to a Forum member’s query for an explanation of why three departments were being merged, the Acting Head of Leaseholder Services advised that this should be discussed with the new Head of Leaseholder Services who would also be able to update leaseholders at the next meeting on what the plans for the service were going forward.

There was an interim Head of Repairs – Darren Smith who had taken over from Danny Waite who had left the Council. The Directors of Property Management and Housing were still in post.

Leaseholders indicated that it would be useful to have an organisational chart with contact numbers when officers were in place and in the meantime asked if a transitional organisation chart of the service areas with officer contact details could be provided.

ACTION BY – Acting Head of Leaseholder Services and Director of Property Management

A Forum member queried how the changes occurring in Leaseholder Services were communicated to hard-to-reach areas of the community including elderly, disabled and disadvantaged who could not use or access the internet. The Acting Head of Leaseholders would provide confirmation on how this information was communicated to disadvantaged groups.

ACTION BY – Acting Head of Leaseholder Services / Director of Housing

The Acting Head of Leaseholder Services highlighted that:

·       The total number of enquiries received for March and April 2023 was 1629 of which 1414 (87%) were responded to within 10 days.

·       Leaseholder Services continued to receive a large volume of enquiries which should have gone to other services such as Repairs, Complaints and Landlord Services. A Forum member queried what percentage were non leaseholder service enquiries. In response the Acting Head of Leaseholder Services advised that this information was not available.

·       The Council would continue to publish information on the Leaseholders page of website to encourage Leaseholders to use direct links to the relevant service area.

·       The ‘Information for Leaseholders’ page on the Council’s website had been redesigned to include links to various services so they were more prominent. The details were being finalised and it was anticipated that the updated page would be live within the next few weeks.

·       Complaints and member enquiries would be reported on a quarterly basis, the next update would be provided in Sept 2023.

·       During the first quarter of 2023 (Jan-Mar) Contact Camden received 5,725 calls from leaseholders most of which were received in March after the 2023/24 estimated service charge demands had been sent out.

·       79% of calls were about day to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive an update from the Energy Working Group:

The Vice Chair of the Forum gave a presentation on how heat meters worked and the potential savings for individuals by speeding up meter installation.

Details of the presentation had been included as part of the Supplementary Agenda.

He informed Leaseholders that it had been estimated that up to 15% energy saving could be achieved if the process of installing and activating individual meters could be sped up and by changing the formula for calculating individual bills so there was an incentive to have a meter and save energy.

The Cabinet Member for Better Homes commenting on the presentation thanked the Vice Chair of the Forum for bringing the issue to the Council’s attention informing the Forum that time was needed to discuss the issue in more detail with officers and leaseholders. He was happy for a working group consisting of the Cabinet Member for Better Homes, the relevant officers and the Forum Vice Chair to be set up to look at the issues in more detail, noting however that he was also mindful of not raising expectations as there could be caveats that were not known about that could occur in the future.

ACTION BY – Cabinet Member for Better Homes/Director of Property Management/Vice Chair Leaseholders’ Forum

The Director of Property Management agreed to provide the Cabinet Member for Better Homes with a list of officers’ names that could be part of the Heat Meters Working group

ACTION BY – Director of Property Management

Resolved

That the presentation be noted

To receive an update from the Repairs Working Group.

Consideration was given to the update from the Repairs Working Group.

The Group informed the meeting that there was not much progress to report. Whilst the Working Group had not met since the last Forum meeting, it had been following up by email the questions it had raised with the Head of Repairs. Regrettably no response had been received.

The Working Group would arrange a meeting with the new interim Head of Repairs to follow up on issues raised at previous meetings. Missed scheduled repairs appointments by M&E Contractors was still a significant problem.

The Director of Property Management responding to a question from Forum members advised that the issue of missed contractor appointments was a situation the Council wanted to improve and would ensure the Interim Head of Repairs and the Head of Property Customer Services and Engagement followed up the issues raised by the Repairs Working Group.

ACTION BY – Director of Property Management

A Forum member raised concerns regarding the repairs at 13,15 and 19 Parsifal Road and the need for officers to respond to the issues raised. The Director of Property Management informed the Forum that this would be picked up with the officer concerned and reported back to the Forum member.

ACTION BY – Director of Property Management

Another Forum member raised the issue of falling debris on Regent’s Park estate, resulting in several buildings being scaffolded with Leaseholders facing bills of over £13,000. The Director of Property Management agreed to provide a response to the Forum member.

ACTION BY – Director of Property Management

Disabled Facility Grant. 

A Forum member highlighted that six people had been waiting for 6 to 12 months for the Council to give approval for their properties to be adapted. This had been chased up but nobody had provided an answer. The Acting Head of Leaseholder Services informed the Forum that the issue would be raised with the new Head of Service.

Action By-Acting Head of Leaseholder Services.

The next meeting of the Leaseholder Forum is scheduled for Tuesday 19 September 2023 at 7pm

The next meeting was scheduled to take place on Tuesday 19^th September 2023 – 7pm in Committee Room 1 Town Hall Judd Street.