Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED –

THAT the ‘A’ and ‘B’ lists be noted.

Apologies for absence were received from Arun Kumar (Abbey Green Estate TRA), Brian Richardson (Arkwright Mansions TRA), Nevenka Martin (Taplow TRA), Caroline McHugh (Studholme Court TRA), and Hasan Shah (Burnham TRA).

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no notifications of urgent business.

To approve and sign the minutes of the Hampstead DMC held on:

(a)  8^th December 2022

(b)  11^th January 2023

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meetings held on 8^th December 2022 and 11^th January 2023.

With regard to the 8^th December minutes, the representative of Sydney Boyd Court said that the gate had subsequently been fixed before Christmas, but had now stopped working again.

RESOLVED –

(i)            THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th December 2022 be approved as a correct record;

(ii)          THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 11^th January 2023 be approved as a correct record.

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

The progress report was noted.

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

The DMC is asked to comment and feed back on items of interest in the consolidated report.

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

Graeme Beedham, the Head of Tenant Participation and Leaseholder Engagement, introduced the report. He reported on housing contractor performance and clarified that GEM and BTU were the contractors for the Council’s Mechanical & Electrical work.

With regard to the Landlord Services update, it was reported that officers were progressing with the tenant visits programme. About half of all tenants they had visited had said they were in financial hardship.

Mr Beedham informed the meeting that there were changes to the social housing regulatory framework. The regulator would be consulting on consumer standards. As part of the regulatory framework, social housing providers would be asked to conduct annual surveys of their residents and report the results.

The Vice-Chair, Annie Ward, asked about how the survey would be conducted and who would be undertaking it. The Head of Tenant Participation said that it would be conducted by an organisation called Housemark. He also said that Camden might be asking extra questions in the survey, beyond those required by the regulator. Ms Ward said she had experience in market research from her previous employment and would like to be involved in the survey design.

Members raised concerns about maintenance issues. The representative from Hillgrove Estate said that internal lights were not working in one block and so the stairwells were dark after dusk and this caused a trip hazard.

Susan O’Hara, Caretaking Manager, said her service would action this.

ACTION: Susan O’Hara (Principal Caretaking Manager)

Queries were raised about lifts not working or frequently breaking down in Sydney Boyd Court, Taplow, and Webheath.  Danny Waite, Head of Repairs and Operations, said that there had been delays in obtaining spare parts for lifts, particularly during the pandemic. There was a particular problem for “closed protocol” lifts and so the Council was asking contractors to install “open protocol” lifts when they were installing new ones.

The representative from Abbey Road Housing Co-Op asked how long the policy to have open protocol lifts had been in place, and if the lifts in his estate were open or closed protocol. Mr Waite said that approach had been in place for approximately the last two years and that he would check if the Abbey Road lifts were open or closed protocol.

ACTION: Danny Waite (Head of Repairs and Operations) 

The Chair reported that when people phoned up to report a lift that was not functioning, they were sometimes told that this had not been reported before even if it had. Her concern was that lift repairs requests were being noted against flat numbers rather than against the lift itself, so if residents from different flats reported a lift fault it might not be clear to operatives that it was the same lift.

Danny Waite said that lift repairs should be logged against the block, but that there was sometimes a lag in data from the out-of-hours service being available  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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

Consideration was given to a report of the Cabinet Member for Better Homes.

Councillor Apak highlighted the impact of the pandemic and its aftermath on Council services. He said there was also increased inflation and energy costs following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He added that there had been a long-term impact on the HRA from the mandated rent reductions of the early 2010s, when central government had been mandating local authorities reduce their rents in order to reduce housing benefit expenditure.

Councillor Apak added that local authorities had new duties regarding fire safety and damp and mould which could have significant long-term pressures on the budget.

Councillor Apak welcomed the channel shift in reporting repairs. He said 70% of repairs were now logged online, which freed up phone lines for those who needed to use the telephone.

He said that the common denominator of many problems he had come across in his casework was poor communication. He wanted to see that improve.

Members highlighted instances of poor communication they had received from the Council. They said that the speed of response to emails needed to be improved.

The Vice-Chair said that her estate had not had a housing officer for months, so residents did not know who to contact.

Officers said that the restructure of the service was in a transitional stage and they were looking to recruit new housing officers. The establishment of dedicated rents and home-moving teams would mean that other housing officers would have more time to speak with tenants with other queries.

Residents said that it often was not clear to them how to escalate queries, particularly if they were not receiving responses from some officers or the responses were inadequate.  

RESOLVED –

THAT the report and the comments above be noted.

Report of Head of Programmes, Housing.

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

Consideration was given to a report in the supplementary agenda from the Head of Programme, Housing.

Members agreed to consider the Blashford bid without an introduction from the TRA, as Casey Okezie was unable to stay logged in to the Zoom meeting due to IT difficulties.

The Blashford bid for £3785 to cover the purchase of flowers and plants to improve the aesthetics of the area was agreed.

Mary Ryan, the representative from Sydney Boyd Court, highlighted that the problem mentioned at the last meeting of delay in the actioning of their bid was continuing. Residents felt frustrated and disrespected by the long delay.

The Chair, Toyin Majiyagbe, said that residents were dissatisfied with the bids process. She had raised a complaint about the delay in the Sydney Boyd bid but the works had still not progressed. She said that residents had been given incorrect and conflicting information by council officers on the progress of bids. Reps had to face residents and answer questions from them about what was happening with regard to bids, when the cause of delays sat with the Council which needed to release the funds and instruct the contractor to carry out the works. She said this showed a lack of respect and consideration from the Council for TRA reps and the voluntary work they did.

Members asked that the works requested in that bid be progressed.

ACTION: Neighbourhood Housing Manager

RESOLVED –

THAT the following bid be agreed:

To consider any local issues raised by DMC representatives.

Queries were raised about the Hilgrove and Templar House walkabouts. Stanton La Foucade said there was one action outstanding on each of the walkabout action plans.

Residents raised matters relating to CCTV. Some representatives from estates without CCTV said they would like it installed, in order to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour.

A resident from Mortimer Crescent said that there had been a number of break-ins in the estate and there was no CCTV. The Sydney Boyd Court representative said she was disappointed her estate was not included in the CCTV upgrade programme.

Residents said they would like to see the criteria used to decide whether an estate should be prioritised for CCTV.

Residents also raised concerns about places where CCTV had been installed but was not operational. A resident from the Rowley Way side of Alexandra & Ainsworth said that they were being charged for CCTV but there was no CCTV on their half of the estate.

Graeme Beedham said that it was possible for residents to request a service charge refund if they were charged for CCTV and the service was not being provided. He would send further information about this to the Chair.

                                                            ACTION: Graeme Beedham

Councillor Eddie Hanson said that it was planned to install CCTV in the Rowley Way part of the Alexandra and Ainsworth estate in the summer.

Nilva Thompson, Neighbourhood Manager, said that the Council had 250 winter warm packs to distribute to vulnerable tenants, and asked reps to inform other residents of this.

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 dates of future meetings are:

·         Thursday, 22^nd June 2023

·         Thursday, 21^st September 2023

·         Thursday, 6^th December 2023

·         Wednesday, 10^th January 2024 (Joint DMCs)

·         Thursday, 14^th March 2024

The dates of future meetings would be:

·         Thursday, 22^nd June 2023

·         Thursday, 21^st September 2023

·         Thursday, 6^th December 2023

·         Wednesday, 10^th January 2024 (Joint DMCs)

·         Thursday, 14^th March 2024