Agenda and minutes

To agree that the DMC meeting be held as a remote meeting.

RESOLVED –

THAT the Chair be authorised to hold the DMC meeting as a remote meeting.

The ‘A’ list was noted. There was no ‘B’ list.

Apologies for absence were received from Jeremy Woolcock (50 Fitzjohns TRA), Hasan Shah (Burnham TRA), Jeremy Yankey (CASP), Jaman Hussain (Dorney TRA), Cara Paul (Studholme Court TRA), Ade Osinuga (Sydney Boyd TRA). Apologies were also received from Councillor Lorna Greenwood.

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no notifications of any items of urgent business.

To approve the minutes of the Hampstead DMC held on 22^nd September 2022.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd September 2022.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd September 2022 be agreed as a correct record.

The DMC is asked to note the progress on the action points arising from the previous meeting.

The progress report was noted.

Report of the Director of Housing and the Director of Property Services.

Due to the importance of the HRA Budget and Service Charge information, on this occasion the consolidated paper has been split into discussion and information items for the December DMC round of meetings. Discussion items on HRA budget and service charges, the impact of the inflation and rent levels on the repairs service and plans to transform Housing Management services will have officers in attendance to present those papers and answer questions, whilst the ‘for information’ listed papers provide background context to the discussion items but will not have specific officers attending to cover each issue.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Housing and the Director of Property Services.

Michael Webb, the Head of Finance (Supporting Communities), introduced the finance section of the report. He said that the old rent-setting formula of CPI + 1% would have led to an increase of more than 11% this year. Instead, the government was capping rent increases at 7%.

Mr Webb said that inflationary pressures on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), such as increased costs for labour and for interest payments, would amount to £7.7m. A 7% increase was modelled as raising £8.5m for the HRA, which would cover this and allow for increased investment in priority areas such as building safety.

He explained the DWP would be increasing benefits and pensions by 10.1%, but he acknowledged that some residents would be facing significant cost-of-living pressures. The Council would be using some funds, such as the underspend that had been returned to Camden from the North London Waste Authority (NLWA), to subsidise measures that would help poorer residents such as school breakfast clubs.

It was noted that 70% of council tenants received full or partial housing benefit or Universal Credit. For residents in receipt of full Housing Benefit, the whole increase would be covered by this.

Mr Webb highlighted that service charges would be increasing for those households that received the relevant service. More information would be provided to the joint DMC meeting on 11^th January 2023.

Attendees expressed concern that increased rents would lead to increased rent arrears. Officers said that they were doing their best to be supportive of tenants with rent arrears and arrange for payment plans for them to pay them off. The Council was also doing work to help people with income maximisation and ensuring that residents claimed all benefits and grants to which they were entitled.

Residents said that the Council needed to be more efficient in ensuring that communal lighting was only on when needed, as currently there were some examples of them wastefully remaining on at times when they were not required.

Concern was voiced about the slow pace of void turnarounds, which meant that the Council missed out on potential rents from properties that had not been let.

In order to encourage residents to be economical in their usage of energy in district heating systems, attendees said that they wished to see charges based on individual heat meters. The representative from Webheath said that meters had been installed in her block but that they were not connected. 

Councillor Apak said that the Council would be installing individual heat meters where there were district heating systems, but that this would be a long-term process.

Danny Waite, Head of Repairs and Operations, spoke to his section of the report. He said that satisfaction with the repairs service, as measured by the resident satisfaction surveys, was 85%.

He said that ‘channel shift’ had meant that many residents were using the internet, webchat and SMS to contact the Council.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Report of the Head of Landlord Services.

The DMC is asked to note the report and approve any new bids it considers appropriate.

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/district-management-committees.

Consideration was given to a report of the Head of Landlord Services.

It was noted that there were no new bids for consideration at this meeting.

The Chair raised concerns with regard to the delays in bids being processed by officers once they had been agreed in previous DMCs.

Sidney Boyd Court TRA had submitted a bid in January 2022 which had not been progressed for over 10 months, and a formal complaint had been raised by the DMC chair about this. The delay by the Council in sending payment to the contractor resulted in the original quote increasing and works being unable to begin until February 2023.

The Chair emphasised that such delay by the Council lacked consideration for the effort and all the work reps put in to submitting bids.

Glendine Shepherd said that the Council would attempt to rectify the way it handled bids and minimise delays in the process.

RESOLVED –

THAT the report and the comments above be noted.

To consider the paper from DMC chairs regarding the complaints panel.

The report was noted.

To consider a verbal report from the Cabinet Member for Better Homes.

Councillor Meric Apak gave a verbal report to the meeting. He spoke about the changes to the housing service that Ms Shepherd had mentioned in her report, and said he would be waiting to see how they bedded in and then asking DMCs to give their views on them.

He noted concerns that residents had about poor communication from the Council, and said he wanted to see this improved.

RESOLVED –

THAT Councillor Apak’s presentation be noted.

To consider any local issues raised by DMC representatives.

Anne Ward explained that her TRA (5 to 7 Belsize Grove) represented two old Edwardian houses which had been converted into numerous small flats. She said that they had poor energy efficiency and welcomed the Council’s plan to install better insulation there.

Nigel Rumble commented that the show flat in Taplow did not seem to be ready. He said that there were problems with the central heating and that the highest it could go was 21 degrees Celsius and this took 3 hours.

Nilva Thompson said that the show flats seemed well-presented to her. She said that representatives who wanted to visit could arrange this via Astrid Kjellberg-Obst.

The Chair said she shared some of Mr Rumble’s concerns and asked for information to come back to the DMC about the show flats.

ACTION: Project Director (Astrid Kjellberg-Obst)

Ubah Egal, from Alexandra & Ainsworth TRA, said that there needed to be CCTV installed on the “red brick” non-listed side of the estate. She highlighted that a young man had been murdered there in 2019 and this emphasised the need for proper CCTV in the area.

Councillor Apak said that a CCTV work programme was being put together and it would be sent to reps in the next few weeks.

                                                ACTION: Head of Security (Graeme Dyson)

Lynda Stuart from Webheath asked when the CCTV installation work would be undertaken on her estate. Councillor Apak said it was planned for the end of 2023.

There was a discussion on the councillor-led walkabouts for Templar House and Hillgrove. The Chair said they had identified a number of repairs issues, including a leaky TRA roof at Templar House. This still had not been repaired. Members said that it was important that progress from walkabouts be seen, as otherwise people’s faith in the process and motivation to undertake them would be reduced.

                                                ACTION: Head of Repairs and Operations

Given the autumn leaf fall, concerns were raised about guttering being blocked by leaves and the blocked gutters resulting in leaks. In some cases, this matter had been raised several years running. Mr Waite said this was a matter that a team in his section would be focusing on. Redfern House was highlighted as a block that particularly suffered from this.

The Chair announced that there would be a DMC Christmas Party on the afternoon of Sunday (11 December).

To note the minutes of the following group meetings:-

i)             Leaseholders’ Forum (available at: http://tinyurl.com/camdenlf)

ii)            Camden Association of Street Properties (available at http://www.camdencasp.org.uk/casp-meeting-minutes/)

iii)           Fire Safety Advisory Panel (available at https://tinyurl.com/camdenfsap)

Hard copies available on request.

The minutes were noted.

There was no other business the Chair considered urgent.

Dates of future meetings:

·         Wednesday, 11^th January 2023 (Joint Meeting)

·         Thursday, 9^th March 2023

Dates of future meetings:

·         Wednesday, 11^th January 2023 (Joint Meeting)

·         Thursday, 9^th March 2023