Agenda and minutes

To consider any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Nasrine Djemai and Samata Khatoon and Vic Seedman (Co-opted Member).

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.

There were none.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th November 2023.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th November 2023.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 14^th November 2023 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 Executive Director Supporting Communities

The report provides information following the Investigation into Incident on Huntley Street on 10^th December 2023.

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Director Supporting Communities.

Councillor Pat Callaghan, Acting Leader, and Gillian Marston, Executive Director Supporting Communities, took the meeting through the report and they along with Glendine Shepherd, Director of Housing, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council recognised that the previous good work and trust that had been put in place regarding the way the Council had worked with rough sleepers had been undermined by the actions on 10^th November. The Council would be seeking to re-establish this trust and good working relationships by putting in place a protocol for working with other partners, particularly the police and how officers should escalate things up to senior officers. This work would be shaped by the review of the whole rough sleeper service that was being led by the Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Public Health, along with re-establishing the Homelessness Partnership Forum that would be chaired by the Cabinet Member for Community Safety. The review would be looking at the decision-making and escalation process and lessons learnt from the incident, to see what changes would need to be put in place to ensure that such an incident did not happen again. The review would also look into the roles the respective teams should play in future should such action be required again along with the communications around the Council’s role.

·       The Council had initially responded to the incident on Huntley Street based on the coverage that was being shown on social media, but without seeking the full facts. Once the position regarding the Council’s involvement was clear then the Council put out a revised statement accepting its role in the incident and apologising for the role it played.

·       The investigation into the Council’s role in the incident made it clear that though junior officers in different services were aware of and involved in responding to the proposed dispersal order at Huntley Street, senior officers took full responsibility for the incident. This was because there should have been a stronger framework in place for escalation and decision-making. Having a clear framework in place would have ensured an awareness of the need to escalate to senior officers and appropriate councillors when such work was being undertaken.

·       The Council recognised that the current approach to the gathering of data in relation to rough sleepers was flawed, but it was required to follow existing government methodology so as to allow a national picture to be established.

·       Officers would provide further information in relation to the Council’s own picture of the number of rough sleepers and specifically the number of women identified.

ACTION BY: Executive Director Supporting Communities  

·       After the incident on 10 November, the Leader (temporarily returning from maternity leave), the acting Leader, the Chief Executive, the Executive Director Adults and Health, and the Director of Housing, attended a community meeting convened by the Camden New Journal and Streets Kitchen (organised before the incident) to explain the Council’s role, apologise and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Director of Finance

This report provides an update on the HRA ahead of the January Rent and Budget Setting Cabinet report.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Finance.

Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, took the meeting through the report and gave the following key responses to questions:

·       Officers would provide a briefing note regarding whether tenants could be offered a pay as you go option when an individual heating system had been installed into a home, or customise existing heating system to allow for this.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management (SA)

·       Information would be provided to a future meeting regarding the position on rent arrears, but currently the Council had seen a small reduction on the level of arrears for the second month running.

·       The Council would be considering the results of the current stock conditions survey next year and this would be used to determine the way the capital programme should be shaped, with this time more emphasis on a targeted response to enable in-year pressures to be dealt with and preventative work, which in-turn would ease the pressure on the repairs budget. This though would be effected by the levels of resources available to fund such works.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted

Report of the Director of Housing

The report provides Housing Scrutiny Committee with information about the work undertaken by the allocations, sheltered housing, and rough sleeping teams within Housing Services. The report outlines the function of these key services and describes the current context within which they operate.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Housing.

Glendine Shepherd, Director of Housing, took the meeting through the report and she along with Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, Gerry Crowley, Head of Allocations, Lettings and Private Housing Services, Maria Jacobs, Head of neighbourhoods, and Simone Melia, Head of Housing Solutions, Katie Hawthorn, Strategic Lead, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       Officers would provide feedback to members of the scrutiny committee regarding the current vacancy rate in the Council’s sheltered housing schemes, and if available with comparative data from other registered providers of sheltered housing.

ACTION BY: Director of Housing

·       The Council was aware of the current vacancy rate in its sheltered housing stock and was looking at reviewing and re-branding its Sheltered Housing offer so that it was modernised, fit for purpose, changed the perception of the service offer and make it an attractive option. Dedicated officers were in place that were seeking to help match the person applying with the right home for them. The proposed changes would look at re-naming the service, lowering the age range of those applicable, and linking into the allocations scheme to provide an offer that could encourage people to downsize and free up more expensive to run family size homes. Also housing officers had been working on projects with adult social care about intergenerational opportunities. This would also include looking at the Council’s retirement living schemes for people with learning disabilities, and it had another project going on at the moment as well to look at expanding that.

·       The Council was reviewing its allocations policy and procedures to seek to ensure that they were more transparent, easy to use for councillors, tenants and staff, ensured that clarity of decision-making was provided, and would be people centred. Once the changes had been agreed there would be a communications campaign to highlight the changes so that the changes were widely shared and understood in the local community. The current demand for homes greatly outstripped the supply available with over 7,000 people on the waiting list and last year only 800 homes were made available. This was not going to change in the near future, meaning that difficult decisions had to be made to ensure those with the greatest housing need were prioritised for rehousing.

·       The Council sought to ensure that it invested in its housing stock and when necessary update its heating systems on estates. When looking at replacing the heating system for an estate, the council would consider the range of options available to it based on the resources available and seek to ensure the best approach for the tenant/resident and the Council. Communal heating networks would still be part of the solutions available for consideration, though the energy being provided could come from communal heat pumps or different renewable energy sources in the future.

·       The Council recognised that sometimes that tenants and residents were not kept updated when things were happening on their estates and were seeking to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Report of the Director of Property Management

This report looks at the options for the procurement of property related capital works such as Better Homes works, fire safety, mechanical and electrical schemes such as heating and lifts, retrofit projects and school improvements.

The Council currently has a Camden-led works framework which is due to expire in 2024.

The report recommends that the Council continues with a flexible strategy that will see the procurement of a new Camden-led framework. This will incorporate learning from the current framework and look to secure the specialist support the Council needs for areas such as fire safety and retrofit.

This proposed procurement approach would cover the period 2025/26 to 2028/29, the total value of which is estimated as being £300m. To provide maximum flexibility, the contract notice advertising the framework will include a maximum potential value of £500m.

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Property Management.

Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, took the meeting through the report and he along with Susanne Afra, Head of Capital Works, gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council had learned a number of lessons from the existing procurement framework that it had now put in place in the proposed new arrangements. This should help in relation to market volatility, value for money, better social value requirements, and improved contract delivery. One of the changes to the framework, related to the greater use of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) to deliver more of the works. As part of its seeking to make the framework work better, the Council had sought to test the use of SMEs to deliver works outside of the existing framework arrangements, and due to the success of this approach the Council had encouraged these SMEs to bid to be part of the new framework arrangements.

·       The new framework would have in place an updated set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that would enable the authority to better hold the contractors to account. In future should a contractor not meet the required KPIs then they could be rested from the framework for a period of time during which they would not be able to bid for any work.

·       The framework would ensure that appropriate guarantees and warranties were in place with contractors. Contractors would not be paid the full amount unless they provided all of the relevant paperwork.

·       Leaseholders would be formally consulted when the framework was put together. Once observations had been received and considered, then the tenders would be pulled together. Leaseholders would again then be consulted before the framework contract was awarded, and be advised of the contractors and how the process would work.

·       Officers would provide a briefing note regarding the role DMC representatives, TRAs and residents generally could play in the tender evaluation and specific work schemes.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management (SA)

RESOLVED –

THAT the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Property Management

This report provides the December 2023 update on fire risk assessments (FRAs), FRA actions and the installation of CO and smoke detection where required to tenanted homes.

The work outlined in this report supports a number of the ambitions set out in We Make Camden, in particular making sure Camden has safe housing to support its communities

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Property Management.

Gavin Haynes, Director of Property Management, took the meeting through the report and he gave the following key responses to questions:

·       The Council was working through the regulatory notice action plan that had been agreed with the Housing Regulator as set out in the appendix to the report. The Council was making steady progress in reducing the number of overall overdue repairs actions and it was hoped that the overall numbers would reduce by springtime next year, though it should be noted that it was possible that new actions could then become overdue which in-turn would impact on the overall figure.

·       Officers would ensure that the monthly update would identify the new actions coming in separately from the existing actions. Along with providing the trends as a graph.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management (HAF)

·       Officers would also provide an update regarding the BS9997 audit when available in the spring next year.

ACTION BY: Director of Property Management (HAF)

RESOLVED -

THAT the report be noted along with the proposal that:

(i)             Future monthly reports on FRA actions would be issued as a memorandum to members of the Housing Scrutiny Committee and the Housing & Fire Advisory report; and

(ii)            The monthly updates would be posted on the Council’s website

Report of the Director of Property Management

This report suggests a possible work programme for the scrutiny committee

Consideration was given to the report of the Director of Property Management.

The meeting was advised that the work programme should be revised to add for the February meeting a report on the new procedure for Neighbourhoods re housing & domestic abuse. Also the report on Tenants Satisfaction should contain information regarding the performance of Housing Repairs Call Centre and the review of Rough Sleeping Service would be added to the work programme.

Programme of meetings (new items in bold)

JANUARY 2024

·       HRA rent setting (Cabinet report)

·       Tenancy arrears and rent collection

·       Cost of Living update

·       Ombudsman Report

·       Work programme

FEBRUARY 2024

·       CIP annual report  

·       Report of Cabinet Adviser: Leaseholder billing and service charges

·       Homelessness Scrutiny Panel (provisional date)

·       New procedure for Neighbourhoods regarding housing and domestic abuse

·       Cabinet Member Better Homes annual report

·       Work programme

Yet to be programmed

·       Tenants Satisfaction Regulatory Survey (including the operation of the Housing Repairs Call Centre), when it was available.

·       Update reports regarding the Cabinet Adviser reports on Supporting Rough Sleepers, Estates Mission and Tenants Participation.

·       Review of the Rough Sleeping Service

RESOLVED –

THAT the report work programme be revised as outlined above.

There were none.