Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED –

THAT the ‘A’ and ‘B’ lists be noted.

Apologies were received from Jeremy Woolcock (50 Fitzjohn’s TRA), Annie Ward (5-7 Belsize Grove), Nafisa Ali (5-7 Belsize Grove), Brian Richardson (Arkwright Mansons), Casey Okezie (Blashford TRA), Nigel Rumble (Bray TRA), Deborah Killingback (Spedan Close TRA), Lynda Stuart (Webheath TRA).

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no notification of urgent business.

Report of the Director of Finance.

This report summarises the financial position of the Housing Revenue Account and the draft recommendations on rent and service charges to be made to the Cabinet in January 2023.

The report also seeks the views of the DMCs on the draft recommendations.

The DMCs will retire to the following rooms to discuss the budget proposals separately:

Gospel Oak            - Council Chamber

Hampstead             - Committee Room 1

Camden Town        - Committee Room 2

Kentish Town          - Committee Room 3

Holborn                   - Committee Room 5

At 8.00pm the DMCs will be recalled to report the outcomes from their respective meetings if they wish.

Passing of Lidia Venegas

The meeting held a minute’s silence for Lidia Venegas, a homeless person who had sadly died in Kentish Town.

Joint session

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

Emma Cardoso, Team Leader (HRA and Capital Projects) took the meeting through the report and supplementary information as part of a briefing for all DMC representatives.

The DMCs then met separately to consider the recommendations in the report.

Hampstead DMC session

Members discussed the proposals in the report and noted that the inflation rate (as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)) was 11%. The Government had capped rent rises at 7%, and the Council was proposing that rents increase by this amount. 

Some members welcomed the fact the proposed rent rise would be less than inflation, as the old rent-setting formula would have led to an increase that was greater than the CPI.

However, members noted that many people – particularly those in low-paid jobs – would not be getting pay increases of 7%, and that other costs were increasing sharply. There was concern that rent, service charge and heating pool increases would put residents who were “just about managing” into more difficult situations.

The Chair noted the statistics from the report which said 70% of council tenants received full or partial housing benefit. However, she emphasised that the Council should have regard to the 30% of tenants who did not and so would have to meet their whole rent out of what were often quite modest incomes. It was also noted that there was already a situation where there were significant rent arrears across the borough as a whole.

A representative from Alexandra & Ainsworth pointed out that housing benefit would not cover prior rent arrears, and so residents would find it difficult to pay those down. Additionally, some residents were on zero-hours contracts or had variable incomes in other ways. They often fell into the 11% of people who received partial housing benefit and, in those cases, their housing benefit might be overpaid or underpaid initially, while the DWP was processing data on changes in their earned income, and this could cause debts and arrears to develop.

There was a discussion about the service charges, and some members were reluctant to see them increase when there were concerns about the quality of the service. Others said that they did not want to see the service deteriorate, and so would be willing to see service charges increase if this was necessary to safeguard the service.

Members highlighted cases where they thought there was waste that the Council could tackle to reduce costs. An example given was where there were repeated visits from contractors who did not have the expertise or equipment to fix a repairs issue; and the representative from Hillgrove said that repairs costs could be reduced with a more comprehensive in-house repairs service and less reliance on contractors. Others referred to communal lights which were left on even during daylight hours.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

There was no other business.