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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Zoe Crane  020 7527 3044

Items
No. Item

53.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

None.

54.

Declarations of Substitute Members

Minutes:

None.

55.

Declarations of Interest

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:

None.

56.

Minutes of Previous Meeting

Minutes:

 

RESOLVED:

That the signing of the minutes be deferred to the next meeting.

57.

Public Questions

Minutes:

Questions from members of the public were addressed during the relevant items. A member of the public who had questions about cycling provision was advised by the Chair that she could ask her questions to the Executive member when she attended the meeting on 12 May 2015. The Chair also stated that the Committee welcomed suggestions from members of the public for scrutiny topics for 2015/16.

58.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

None.

59.

Fuel Poverty witness evidence

Minutes:

Gareth Baynham-Hughes, Deputy Director, Fuel Poverty, at Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Steve Crabb, Head of Vulnerable Customers at British Gas gave evidence.

 

In the presentation and the discussion which followed, the following points were made:

·         The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000 required reasonably practicable steps to be taken to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016. Although fuel poverty initially reduced, in 2010 it was back to a similar level as in 2000. Professor John Hills conducted a review of fuel poverty and the 10% definition of fuel poverty (where households were required to spend 10% or more of their total household income to maintain an adequate level of warmth) was found to be unhelpful. A new indicator measured by households having low incomes and high energy costs was devised.

·         Following the review, the government changed the target to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016. It set minimum energy efficiency standards and dates for these standards to be met.

·         There were now fewer pensioners in fuel poverty and more working age people in fuel poverty than previously.

·         As energy inefficiency contributed to fuel poverty, energy bills fell in line with improvements.

·         Cutting the Cost of Keeping Warm – A Fuel Poverty Strategy For England put in place the following set of principles: 1) To support the fuel poor with cost effective policies; 2) To prioritise the most severely fuel poor; 3) To reflect vulnerability in policy decisions. It set out a number of challenges, broad policies to reduce fuel poverty and a series of commitments and outcomes. There would be regular reviews on the fuel poverty strategy and the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group would scrutinise progress. Annual statistics would be published.

·         Vulnerable Customers was a new team at British Gas. It worked to improve the company’s involvement with vulnerable customers.

·         Staff had to be alert to customers in vulnerable situations.

·         British Gas required by mandate to help reduce fuel poverty e.g. warm home discounts, however it had discretion about how to dispense funds. This year British Gas reached its mandated spend two weeks before the end of the specified time. Although it was not required to make payments past the agreed amount, it continued to do so.

·         British Gas undertook energy efficiency measures such as insulating cavity walls and loft space and applicants did not have to be British Gas customers. It also had a specialist debt team which referred people to Step Change Debt Charity, this year British Gas gave £75m to the British Gas Energy Trust and it conducted benefit health checks – on average those helped were entitled to £500 in unclaimed benefits. It worked with partners including GPs and councils which would engage e.g. Islington Council. Approximately 50% of councils would not engage and share data.

·         British Gas conducted free gas safety checks, offered a text phone service, large print bills and flagged customers with disabilities and long term conditions. Customer services agents had significant training and this included a four  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

60.

Communal Heating

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Garrett McEntee, Technical Services Manager, Capital Improvement Team, Bryony Willett, Head of Housing Partnerships and Communities and Andrew Ford, Energy Advice Manager, presented the report and answered questions.

 

In the discussion the following points were made:

·         In 2014, a pilot was undertaken to assess the impact of providing additional heating during cooler periods in the summer months. The service was now looking at the communal heating policy including heating during the summer and whether certain estates with poor energy efficiency should receive additional heating hours and not pay extra for this service. Residents would be consulted on this.

·         Since 2010, improvements had been made which meant some communal heating boilers could now turn on and off in response to outside temperatures.

·         The plant room water sensors would be repositioned where necessary to give the optimum reading of water temperature. This work would be undertaken under the existing contract responsible for maintenance and repair. This contract cost £1.5m per year.

·         When system and plant upgrades took place, existing controllers could be changed to 3G routers where appropriate. This would improve the communication with plant rooms to provide a more responsive service.. Funding was in place to progress this work to some of the blocks with a history of poor performance.

·         Work would take place to improve the Trend Building Management System and increase training for in-house staff if further funding was obtained.

·         The council had a different approach to calculate charges to tenants and leaseholders for communal heating. Tenant services were charged on a pooled basis so all tenants in the same property size paid the same regardless of which estate they lived on. Legally the council could not pool leaseholder charges so they were calculated by taking the yearly fuel costs of the boiler house which serviced each leasehold property and dividing this by the number of properties that received heating from that boiler. In practice this meant there was almost always a difference between tenant and leaseholder charges for heating.

·         Tenant charges were based on gas usage in the previous year plus an estimate of the change in the cost of gas. Leaseholder charges were based on the actual cost of gas from two years ago plus an estimate of the increase in the cost of gas for the coming year. In the financial year 2014/15 these timing differences meant that on average tenants were paying more than leaseholders. These differences were expected to even out in the following years when leaseholders charges were adjusted to reflect the actual increase in the cost of gas whilst tenant charges would not increase because they paid more in the 2014/15 financial year.

·         This year to date, tenants had paid more than the actual cost by approximately £100 and if this was still the case at the end of the financial year, they would be given a rebate. If the amount was smaller, it would be rolled forward instead.

·         The council had a policy to put all service charges together on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

61.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 58 KB

Minutes:

 

RESOLVED:

That the work programme be noted.