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Agenda and minutes

Items
No. Item

46.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillor Kay (for lateness)

47.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

None

48.

Declarations of Interests

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a)     Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d)      Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

Minutes:

Councillors Andrews, O’Sullivan, O’Halloran declared an interest as they were Members of the GMB Trade Union and Councillor Doolan declared an interest that his wife was a caretaker in relation to agenda item B10

49.

Minutes of Previous meeting pdf icon PDF 160 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That subject to the following amendment to minute 41 – bullet point 5 of the addition of the words – and provision made for estates, especially larger estates, where there was no TRA, the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 2 December be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

50.

Order of Business

Minutes:

The Chair stated that the order of business would be as per the agenda

51.

Public Questions

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedure for dealing with Public questions and filming and recording of meetings

52.

Chairs Report

Minutes:

Welcome to new Members/Protocol for co-opted Members

 

The Chair welcomed Rose Marie MacDonald and Jim Rooke, the newly co-opted Members of the Committee to the meeting and that a protocol had been laid round in this regard.

 

Scaffolding site visit

 

The Chair stated that a visit to 4 sites in the borough had been arranged for 12 February in connection with the scrutiny review on scaffolding and that details would be circulated to Members in the near future.

 

The Chair added that it was proposed to invite the Chair of the Islington Leaseholders Association, Dr.Brian Potter to the next meeting of the Committee to give his views and also a representative of the Half Moon co-operative.

 

Circle 33

 

The Chair stated that unfortunately Circle 33 were not able to be present that evening but hopefully would be able to attend the next meeting of the Committee. He added that there had been recent articles in the Housing press relating to Circle 33 and he would arrange for them to be circulated to Committee Members.

 

 

 

53.

Registered Social Providers - Presentation

Minutes:

The Chair stated that Circle 33 were unable to attend the meeting that evening and hopefully they would be attending the next meeting of the Committee on 2 March

54.

In house repairs service - Presentation

Minutes:

Matt West, Head of Repairs and Maintenance, was present and laid round a presentation, copy interleaved.

 

During the presentation the following main points were made –

 

·         The in house Gas repairs went live in June 2014 and the in house repairs service in August 2014

·         There were 50,000 works orders per year and 200 plus staff had been transferred under TUPE arrangements

·         There are 30 specialist and overspill contractors

·         The stores has been established and stock catalogues are being developed

·         Performance data is starting to be available but at present needs validating

·         The benefits of an in house service include the service being more customer centred, multiskilling, a training centre, materials supply, direct control and digital integration

·         Current challenges include – IT systems, reporting, productivity, the roofing supply chain where a new tender process was being prepared and call volumes

·         Current challenges – recruitment,24/7 cover, managing installation contractors, developing staff competence, incentive/bonus scheme, online appointment booking

·         Current work in progress – reorganisation, local employment and apprenticeships, fleet and management review, new IT systems, and reviewing contract arrangements

·         Concern was expressed that Members still could not see performance data in order to ascertain whether repairs were being carried out effectively. It was stated that the new system would be able to identify cases repairs that had not been dealt with satisfactorily and repairs outstanding for a long time

·         In response to a question it was stated that appointment slots were being looked at to make them more realistic and convenient for tenants and there was a Repairs Reference Group set up that would be discussing such issues with residents

·         In order to offer the repairs service to leaseholders and RSL’s etc. it would be necessary to ensure an efficient and reliable service was in place and appointments offered to fit in with customers lifestyles

·         A Member stated that it was important that different parts of the Council worked together as when she had recently moved into a flat it had taken 4 days from her getting the keys to having her gas connected. The Head of Repairs and Maintenance stated that this should not have taken as long as this and if details were supplied to him he would investigate, however wherever possible services were integrated

·         It was noted that the repairs service would continue to be a regular agenda item to ensure the Committee could  ensure the service was working as effectively as possible

·         A Member raised the issue of outstanding estate repairs and stated that there was a need for data to be available together with other KPI’s

·         In response to a question it was stated that the repairs service was 100% customer focused and that the focus was on developing this not just only for tenants but also leaseholders

·         It was stated that in order to develop services for disabled residents and to understand their needs better discussion should be held with the Disability Panel

·         Members were informed that one of the benefits of an ‘in house’ repairs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

55.

Executive Member Housing Presentation

Minutes:

Councillor James Murray, Executive Member Housing and Development, was present and made a presentation to the Committee, copy interleaved, during which the following main points were made –

·         It was noted that the availability of numbers of 4 BR and 5 BR properties was decreasing and under occupation moves were also decreasing

·         Across North London there are almost 12,000 households in TA and Islington has 959 the second lowest number behind Camden

·         Nightly booked is the most expensive TA and causes overspends since it costs the Council more than it is able to rcoup in rent. The overspend for 2014/15 is likely to be £2m. The plan is to reduce the number of households in nightly booked TA to reduce this overspend and every week between 10 and 20 households to be booked in so substantially more than that have to be moved out

·         In 2014/15 to date the numbers reduced in nightly booked temporary accommodation from 527 to 477.A reduction of at least 150 is planned during  2015/16

·         There are around 18,000 households on the housing register, of which 4,200 are Council tenants registered for a transfer

·         For 2014/15 it is projected there will be 1,300 lets a 20% drop in available properties

·         The social lettings agency will be launched in 2015 to offer a fair deal to  private renters and also a service to landlords

·         Responsive repairs, gas and voids services have now been brought back in house and are located at offices in Brewery Road and Northway House for gas and there are a number of challenges that are being looked at

·         99.7% of rents due for 2014/15 have been collected and the LBI collection rate is lower than Partners (PFI) collection rate

·         Average re-let time for voids for LBI is 19 days and for PFI is 24.3 days

·         Concern has been raised by Members and Residents about PFI performance, especially around lifecycle repairs and a number of actions were being taken to address these concerns

·         Islington remains committed to delivering affordable new homes to its residents and between 2015-2019 plans to deliver 2000 new units and as part of this the Council is planning on developing 500 new units of housing similar to the development at Vaudeville Court

·         A Member enquired how may points were required for a next generation tenant to get a property and it was stated that this was dependent on a number of factors but without new generation points being applied these people would not be able to be rehoused

·         In response to a question it was stated that a review of allocations policy would shortly be taking place, however if new generation points were increased this would be at the expense of other people in need not being rehoused as there was only a limited amount of properties available

·         It was stated that in relation to the social lettings agency that the Council did have a small lettings agency at the moment called Islington Residential so the Council did have limited  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

56.

Estate Services Management Scrutiny Review - Witness evidence -to follow

Minutes:

David Salenius, Housing and Adult Social Services and Garry Harris, GMB Trade Union were present for discussion of this matter.

 

Members considered a laid round report from Garry Harris, copy interleaved.

 

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         In response to a question it was stated that a number of agency staff had been appointed to permanent posts and all agency staff were encouraged to apply, however some were not successful at interview. There were currently 7 vacancies and a recruitment process was currently in operation

·         Members were informed that agency staff could not be assimilated into permanent posts but had to undertake a recruitment selection process in accordance with the Council’s Human Resources procedures

·         Members were of the view that it would be advantageous if consideration of the report should be deferred to the next meeting in order that the Director of Housing and Adult Social Services could respond to the points raised in the laid round submission

 

RESOLVED:

That consideration of the report be deferred to the next meeting of the Committee in order to enable a response to be considered in conjunction with the response from the Director of Housing and Adult Social Services

57.

Proposed site visit - Scaffolding - Verbal

Minutes:

This matter was dealt with under Minute 52 above