Agenda and minutes

To agree the procedures for the operation of hybrid meetings.

RESOLVED –

THAT the hybrid meeting procedure set out in the agenda papers be agreed.

To consider any apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Fatoumata Diallo (Co-opted Member) and Councillor Danny Beales, Cabinet Member New Homes, Jobs and Community Investment for items 8 and 9

There were none.

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair to announce the following: ‘In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.’

Any other announcements

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair announced that the meeting was being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and could be viewed on the website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts were archived and could be made available upon request. Those who had asked to address the meeting were deemed to be consenting to having their contributions recorded and broadcast and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.

Housing Revenue Account Budget item 11

The Chair advised the meeting that an addendum had been circulated in relation to this item.

There were none.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 12^th December 2022.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 12^th December 2022.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 12^th December 2022 be approved and signed as a correct record.

Requests to speak at the Committee on a matter within its terms of reference must be made in writing to the clerk named on the front of this agenda by 5pm two working days before the meeting.

There were none.

Report of the Director of Development

Camden’s Community Investment Programme (CIP) is one of the largest and most successful municipal housebuilding programmes in the UK. CIP has built over 1,000 homes in the last 10 years and is continuing to deliver more affordable housing in the borough as quickly as possible to better support the needs of local communities.

The 2022 CIP Annual report contains an update on progress on CIP schemes and an overview of the market.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Development, which was presented by Neil Vokes, Director of Development, who gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council engaged extensively with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and had in recent years secured significant grant funding to build affordable homes. In 2018 the Council secured £30.8M in grant funding to deliver 308 social rent homes. Of the 308 social rented homes, 101 had been delivered, 56 were under construction and 151 would be started within the 2022/23 financial year. All CIP schemes had a business plan and went through a rigorous scrutiny process to ensure they all delivered best value at each stage of the process. Project costs were benchmarked against other data from other local authorities using an industry standard approach. Camden was a founding member of the Beacon Partnership cost benchmarking club, where local authorities shared tender returns on a confidential basis, enabling club members to benchmark build costs across local authorities. Officers were not able to access data from private developers but would look into whether this could be obtained and used to compare against local authority data.  

·       All CIP schemes sought to follow the guiding principles which set out how the scheme would be delivered and how the decisions would be made. In the Agar Grove scheme, tenants wanted change as they were living in homes that were not fit for purpose as they were often suffering from damp, mould and living in overcrowded homes. The new homes built met the Passive House standard and tenants and residents there were already seeing energy bills being reduced by 70%. Tenants living on the West Kentish Town Estate had voted in favour of redevelopment because of poor living conditions.

·       Before September 2022, CIP’s target was to deliver 3,050 new homes, of which 1,100 would be social rented homes. Since CIP’s inception, the programme had made significant progress in meeting this target, delivering 1,290 new homes, of which 618 are social rented homes. In September 2022, the Cabinet agreed to extend the programme’s scale and ambition and a new target of 4,850 homes, including over 1,800 social rented homes, was set. To deliver on this target, the programme had sought approval of a number of large-scale projects. Phase 2a of Agar Grove and West Kentish Town were approved by Cabinet in July 2022, with Bacton Phase II and Camley Street being approved by Cabinet in September 2022. A Cabinet decision on the first phase of Small Sites was expected in 2023, which will be followed by a decision on Wendling and St Stephen’s Close in late 2023 or early 2024. The new targets represented a significant increase in the number of homes which would be delivered. As with previous CIP schemes, new ones would include a mixture of housing tenures, including private sale units to cross-subsidise the delivery of affordable housing, social rented units and a range of intermediate rent homes. In addition to homes, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of Cabinet Member for New Homes, Jobs and Community Investment

The lives of residents living in Cartmel, Coniston and Langdale on Regents Park Estate have historically been and continue to be disrupted by High Speed 2 (HS2) construction works, to the extent that the homes of residents living in these blocks have been made ‘virtually uninhabitable’.

After several years of campaigning and action by the Council, a funding deal has now been secured with HS2 to cover the full costs of decant to Coniston, Cartmel and Langdale, for both secure tenants and leaseholders. HS2 and DfT have approved this funding deal through their own governance processes and have confirmed to the Council that it had agreed a deal in principle.

The funding would be paid to the council in instalments, dependent on the number of homes vacated up to a cap of £29.2m. In return, the Council will commit to assume the obligations of HS2 under the E23 Scheme and Prolonged Disturbance Compensation Scheme (PDCS), and to discharge these obligations by using its reasonable endeavours to move residents from the three affected blocks.

The Council has negotiated the final terms of the Settlement and Indemnity Agreement (“the Agreement”) that will allow the council to receive the funding and enable all residents to be rehoused.

A consultation with residents has been completed, which shows that 70% of residents would accept the housing deal.

This report is coming to Cabinet to approve the terms of the Agreement and the re-housing offer to residents. It will seek to amend the local lettings plan and the VRS to allow Council tenants to be prioritised for homes within the Regent’s Park Ward and request approval to develop a bespoke share equity offer for resident leaseholders. In addition, it will also seek approval to bring forward an options appraisal to examine the future of the blocks, for both the medium and long term, as they will be largely vacant for the next 10 years whilst HS2 construction works are ongoing

Consideration was given to the report of the Cabinet Member, New Homes, Jobs and Community Investment, which was presented by David Burns, Director of Economy, Regeneration and Investment, who gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council would be helping leaseholders access their own property valuers to get a valuation on their property, and though not a formal Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) Scheme the Council was following the same approach when seeking to buy back these homes. Also when required the Council would be working with resident leaseholders to undertake a shared equity offer.

·       The vacated estates would not be fit for purpose for many years due to the on-going noise, vibration and daily disruption, so the Council would not be seeking to use these sites to house people even on a temporary basis. The Council was though considering whether the empty estates could be used during the day by arts projects or other community groups.

·       Officers were always seeking to get further resources from HS2 to compensate the local community and the Council in general for the disruptive works that were affecting the area.

·       Officers were working with private tenants living in the estates to discuss with them where they were going to move to, this would include whether they would be interested in moving to a Camden Living home. This offer may mean that they may have to move out of the area, and should this be the case then officers would discuss with them how they could be supported through this.

·       The Local Lettings plan to be adopted followed the approach being taken to the Community Investment Programme Local letting scheme plans. 

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living

Continued reduction in Government funding for the Council, coupled with rising inflation and cost pressures on our services means that the Council is projecting a budget deficit of approximately £40m by 2025/26. This report presents an overview of the Council’s financial position and our plan for providing financial stability and resilience for the local authority in a volatile wider environment.

This report sets out our assumptions and our understanding of how Government policy will impact our funding and spending over the coming years including updates from the Autumn / Winter 2022 spending review and the Local Government Finance Settlement that allocates funding to each local authority.  The recent draft financial settlement for 2023/24 provided an increase in ‘Core Spending Power’ (funding available for local authority services, which is predicated on a combination of government grants and increasing Council Tax and locally retained Business Rates) of 9.2% across England.  In Camden approximately 28% of the increase in ‘Core Spending Power’ relates to an assumed increase in Council Tax of 4.99%. Camden’s specific core spending allocation was lower than the national average and the fourth lowest in London at 8.2%.  This is against general inflation of 10.1% and ongoing demographic pressures in a number of services especially adult and children’s social care.

The report sets out our proposals for how we will change our organisation and our services to operate within our expected budgets in the medium term. These proposals incorporate outcomes-focused change, a focus on long-term change for improvement for the Council, and a continuing drive for the best and most efficient services. These proposals are detailed at Appendix 1.

This report also sets out how we will invest our resources and direct our services to support our ambitions for Camden set out in We Make Camden – our community vision for Camden as a fairer, more equal, more just and more sustainable Borough. This includes how we are investing resources to support families and households through the cost of living crisis, to address the harm of poverty and to support families to have economic security. It shows how we are continuing to play our part in climate justice and supporting Camden’s transition to be a low-carbon community. It shows how we are continuing to invest to give children and families the best start, and how we are investing to provide person-centred care for people with health and complex needs – and how we are working in our neighbourhoods to keep people healthy and well.

Some of our proposals for achieving financial stability will have an impact on staff, on residents and on the way that services are delivered. All proposals have been considered individually for their potential impact on residents as part of our commitment to equity. There is an overarching equalities impact assessment for this financial strategy included in this report. For those proposals that require consultation and/or equality impact assessments to be considered, whilst the associated budget  ...  view the full agenda text for item 10.

Consideration was given to the report of Cabinet Member for Finance and Cost of Living, which was introduced by Daniel Omisore, Director of Finance, and he along with Councillor Meric Apak, Cabinet Member Better Homes and Glendine Shepherd, Director of Housing, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       Part of the proposed savings proposals for the HRA related to the temporary removal of some of the spring clean budget, which would be reinstated at the end of the Chalcots Estates project. Also, the Better Homes works programme was still being taken forward.

·       The resources being used to help tackle rough sleeping and homelessness were fully committed, the only area where they were underspent related to the budget allocated to compensate private rented sector landlords to take homeless people and take households out of temporary accommodation as the market had dried up, so it was felt that the underspend should be put back to the centre to reduce the overall budget in line with recent spending.

·       Camden always sought to engage and support rough sleepers so that they were offered routes off the streets, however not everyone living on the street wished to be helped in that way. 

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Cabinet Member Better Homes

This report sets out how the Council intends to continue to invest in its housing stock and services despite the increasingly challenging financial climate that the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is operating in. It sets out a balanced budget and proposed levels of rent and service charges for 2023/24, which includes savings as part of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)

The report is coming to the Cabinet because the Council is required to set a balanced HRA budget for each year and set levels of rent and charges for the HRA. To balance the budget, a level of savings is required so this paper should be considered in conjunction with the Medium-Term Financial Strategy paper (CS/2022/20) also being discussed at January Cabinet 2023.

Consideration was given to the report of Cabinet Member for Better Homes along with the addendum regarding the heating pool proposals and the views of the Housing District Management Committees (DMCs), which was introduced by Councillor Meric Apak, Cabinet Member Better Homes, and he along with Glendine Shepherd, Director of Housing, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council wanted to ensure that the views of tenants and residents were considered before the Cabinet determined the proposed rent, service charges and heating pool increases, and the DMCs were Camden’s vehicles that enabled these views to be brought forward. 

·       The resources provided by the Government to fund the removal of the cladding on the Chalcots Estate would not cover the whole cost of the works being undertaken there, along with the costs associated with the evacuation of the buildings and the support costs attached to this. The Council was also having to find resources to meet the new Building Safety Act requirements as these were not being funded by Government.

·       The Welfare Rights Team provided a valuable service to tenants and residents, who sought to ensure they were able to access as much benefit as they were entitled to. The team would signpost people to appropriate support when people were referred to them. The Council also had an advice bus that would go out to neighbourhoods and provide support and advice to people who visited them.

·       The specific income team that had been set up would work with individual tenants to ensure that they were able to pay their rent, which would include making a specific repayment plan if necessary.

·       The Heating Pool budget was a ring-fenced budget that historically had run a surplus, that was either given back to tenants or reinvested into energy efficient measures. Though it was hoped that heating charges would come down, the current proposals for the heating pool budget meant it would be running a deficit that still needed to be paid off and this was unlikely to happen in just one year.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Executive Directors

This report provides an update on service performance in Quarter 2 (Q2) 2022/23 drawn from a broad range of measures from across each directorate and division in the organisation. Individual services have provided a narrative covering key performance challenges and areas of positive improvement. 

This report is divided into three sections: the individual service data and narrative that seeks to identify key challenges and emerging issues over the next 6 months (i.e. looking ahead to Q3 and Q4) that could have negative impacts on service delivery and performance; the ongoing cost of living crisis; and new emerging issues and organisational health issues i.e. cross-cutting challenges in which corporate services play a key role HR, communications, strategy, finance, legal etc. 

Taken together, these sections are intended to help the organisation understand the general position and outlook for core service performance and take decisions about any further remedial or improvement activity required over and above activity already underway in services

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Directors, which was introduced by Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, and he along with Councillor Meric Apak, Cabinet Member Better Homes, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       Officers recognised that better communications needed to be undertaken in relation to when damp and mould work would be undertaken for tenants individually, and appropriate measures would be put in place to ensure that this was done. Each case would be surveyed, assessed, prioritised and then included in the appropriate programme of works.

·       Officers would provide an update regarding whether the outcomes of damp and mould visits were captured as part of the feedback evaluation, along with any developing themes.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management (SR)

·       Most of the survey work regarding damp and mould was now being undertaken by an in-house team, with external surveyor’s only being used for more specialised cases.

·       The aim of the work that was being undertaken regarding damp and mould cases was to ensure that the route course was dealt with.

·       The estates walkabouts taking place before each Housing District Management Committee cycle would continue to be undertaken.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of Director of Property Management

This report provides an update on the programme to renew the CCTV network across Camden’s estates, the operation of its Responsive Security Patrol (RSP) and its approach to tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) on estates.

The work outlined in this report supports a number of the ambitions set out in We Make Camden, in particular making sure Camden has enough decent, safe, warm, and family-friendly housing to support its communities.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Property Management, which was introduced by Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, and he gave the following key responses to questions:

·       Officers agreed to provide an update regarding the position on Westcroft Estate regarding CCTV installation, progress on the Responsive Security Patrol seeking additional powers, and whether Origin Housing in Phoenix Road had appropriate CCTV in place.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management (GD)

·       The Council still had in place a number of CCTV cameras that were old and needed to be replaced, and often these only recorded information locally and were not part of the overall network. The CCTV renewal programme would change this, so cameras would be part of the boroughwide network, provided a higher quality image, and could be reviewed and checked by the control room. 

The scrutiny committee welcomed the proposals regarding the renewal of the CCTV network across Camden’s estates and the work being done by the Responsive Security Patrol.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Housing

This report suggests a possible work programme for the scrutiny committee

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Housing

The Chair advised the meeting that the following item should be added to the agenda for future meetings:

February 23

Cabinet report – the Small Site Phase One

Programme of meetings (new items in bold)

21st February 2023

Draft agenda

-          Annual portfolio report: BetterHomes

-          Report of the Cabinet Adviser (Rough sleeping: homelessness prevention, temporary accommodation, and the review with public health of homelessnessprovision)

-          Report of the Cabinet Adviser (EstatesMission)

-          State of the Borough report

-          Cabinet report – the Small Site Phase One

-          Work programme

Yet to be programmed

·       Allocations Policy (Policy review and serviceredesign)

·       Leaseholder services

·       Landlord Licensing Schemeupdate

·       Camden Housing Strategy

·       Housing Transformation Update

RESOLVED –

THAT the report work programme be revised as outlined above.

There were none.