Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Champion and Hamitouche.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

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.

Councillors Convery declared a personal interest in relation to Angelic Energy as he is presently an existing customer. Councillor Khondoker declared a personal interest as she is presently employed as an Air Quality Policy Officer when the issue of air quality monitoring around schools was discussed.

Matters arising:

An omission was noted in the minutes. A member of the enquired about the Council hosting events regarding the Heathrow Runway expansion plan at the Islington Business Design Centre and the Town hall especially as this is contrary to the recent council motion on climate emergency.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 September 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings subject to including the omission noted above and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Chair noted that on Friday 27 September, school children in Islington had participated in a public protest about climate change which was addressed by Jeremy Corbyn MP, Councillor Watts, the Leader of Islington Council and Councillor Webbe, the Executive Member for Environment and Transport.

The Chair mentioned that he would be meeting representatives of Living Streets in the next week.

In response to a question on whether the Transport Strategy would be considered by the Committee before its adoption, the Chair requested the clerk of the committee to liaise with officers.

The order of business would be as per the agenda.

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

In response to a suggestion that Council reconsider its policy encouraging residents to switch their energy suppliers especially in light of the recent news about the financial difficulties being experienced by Robin Hood Energy, partners of Islington’s Angelic Energy, the Executive Member for Environment reiterated that irrespective of the ongoing issue with Robin Energy, the Council will keep highlighting the advantages of switching to other energy suppliers away from the ‘Big six energy companies. 

The Committee received a presentation on Behavioural Science from Professor Ivo Vlaev of Warwick University and Amy Jones of Ernst Young LLP.  A copy of both presentations are interleaved with the agenda.

·         Human behaviour greatly affects wealth, the environment and society and importantly in light of the current climate of financial insecurity, this adds another layer of complexity and challenge. In addition, the meeting was advised that unhealthy behaviours like smoking, obesity and healthcare associated infections are related to the choices people make.

·         A realisation of the need to influence behaviour change in all aspects of society has resulted in institutions and government applying behavioural insights to public policy around the world.

·         The art of influencing behaviour is nothing new and has been around for quite a while, for example coercion, however what is new in recent years has been identifying how best to do it. Recent research in  behavioural science indicates that approaches based on information and education do not actually work that well, but people are influenced in remarkably similar ways by the framing of a decision and by subtle contextual factors which are fast, automatic and largely unconscious.

·         Professor Vlaev informed the meeting that applying behavioural science has resulted in improving health outcomes in that, there has been a dramatic fall in levels of smoking across adults in the UK, although not in the case of the poorest members of the society. Members were advised that the behaviour changes of smokers was primarily due to a combination of factors such as price rises, social marketing campaigns and public smoking bans

·         Members were informed that although straightforward incentives in influencing behaviour has its appeal amongst policy makers, these  approaches are grounded in a neoclassical perspective which states that preferences are rational and reflective, with a bold assumption that self-interested individuals always make rational decisions.

·         Behavioural economics challenges the assumption that people are rational and utilizes a theoretical approach rooted in sound evidence based- theory. This theory involves understanding behaviour change and any intervention design should be informed by recent comprehensive models of behaviour and behaviour change.

·         According to recent and integrative frameworks for understanding behaviour and designing behaviour change , human behaviour is an interacting system in which capabilities, opportunities and motivations interact to generate behaviour therefore produce behavioural capability which in turn influences these components.

·         The three conditions necessary and sufficient for the performance of a specified behaviour are the skills necessary to perform the behaviour, an intention to perform the behaviour and no environmental constraints that make it impossible to perform the behaviour.

·         With regard to capability, the issues to consider are the level of knowledge, awareness and mental stamina to engage in understanding and reasoning. The question here is whether people will be able to understand, will they find it difficult and is there a role for tools to assist in understanding and reasoning.

·         In terms of opportunity, Members were informed of the importance of having environmental infrastructure and technology in place to support and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 317.

The Committee received a presentation on the 2018/19 Annual Report from the Executive Member for Economic Development. A copy of the presentation would be interleaved with the agenda.

In the discussion, the following points were made.

·         The Council’s Inclusive Economy programme follows on from Islington’s Fairness Commission which is based on a community wealth building approach and its focus on equality, social justice and prosperity for all. The meeting was advised that the Strategy is being drafted and will be shared with Members in early 2020.

·         1,352 Islington residents had been supported back into paid employment across the various groups. The Council continues to encourage local businesses to be responsible by taking on apprentices especially among local residents. Meeting was informed that through its ‘Team Islington’ approach it has been able to coordinate employment support which benefits the long term unemployed and those most in need.

·         The Council through its planning policy has been able to create a network of affordable works spaces for micro and small businesses such as tech and digital companies.

·         Members were informed that in March 2019, Employment month was celebrated at the Emirates Stadium to acknowledge the progress of this issue ever since the Employment Commission report was published.

·         Islington continues to commission affordable work space through developer’s s106 contributions. In Finsbury Park, an operator has recently been appointed with agreed targets to help local residents develop skills, get jobs and start businesses in tech.

·         Members were informed that the Service continues to work in collaboration with traders to develop a high quality marketing campaign for Fonthill Village, for example producing a Look Book, which enables local businesses an opportunity to show case their businesses.

·         The Council as an economic agent is developing an enhanced approach which ensures that it derives more ‘social value’ from contracts with third party suppliers and providing more opportunities to local small businesses. On Council’s plans to maximise social value, the meeting was advised that in the last 2 months, the Service has facilitated three workshops with Head of Services to co-produce a corporate social value strategy and a series of ‘asks’ related to council priorities which commissioners can use to secure social value. The Executive Member welcomed the visit from her counterparts from Manchester City Council who shared their pioneering work on social value in a most effective way.

·         The Council remains committed to meeting its commitment to provide 100 hours world of work for young people. The Executive Members acknowledged that although there is a recognition that career support is inadequate there are plans to scale up business engagement with schools in order to prepare young people for future careers. A key programme is to be launched in November at the Institute of Physics to raise the profile of this manifesto commitment.

·         Usama Mohammed, an Apprentice Site Manager with Osbourne Group recently won the Apprentice of the year (Supply Chain) award. The Executive Member acknowledged the efforts of iWork and the Jubba Youth and Community Association and in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 318.

Councillor Shaikh, Executive Member for Economic Development presented the Q1 Performance Indicator Report.  A copy of the presentation would be interleaved with the agenda.

In the discussion, the following points were made:

·         Members were informed that the number of residents supported back into work through its Employment Partnership was 244, against the profiled target of 200. The Partnership aims to increase employment for Islington residents by co-location and sharing information on vacancies and other local opportunities.

·         The Employment Partnership strategic approach ensures that employment provision in the borough meets the needs of identified priority groups such as parents of those aged 0-18, people with disability or long-term health conditions, young aged 18-25 and BAME.

·         Engaging with unemployed young adults aged 18-25 remains a challenge as there is no accurate statistics for employment rates for this group, however Council services and partners aim to support at least 396 young people aged 18-25 into employment this year. In addition members were advised that at the end of Q1, the Council had 93 outcomes against a profiled target of 40 which represents an improvement on last year outcomes.

·         Members were advised that 2 Islington residents had been supported into Council’s apprenticeship in Quarter 1 and the Council’s HR Service leads the in house programme. 19 apprentices will commence work within the Council during the autumn and placed in Business Administration, Housing & Property Management, Accounting, Data Management and Project Management.

·         Members were advised of the 1,497 learners that had enrolled during the 2018/19 academic year, less by 100 compared to the previous year, a reflection of the national trend. Officers noted that engaging more learners remains one of the over-arching priorities of the service in 2019/20. In addition the Executive Member informed members that five weeks of the academic year will be used as ACL learning weeks, an opportunity for the team to promote the service in libraries and Bright Start centres and to attract new learners and deliver short community learning based provision.

·         Meeting was advised of the enormous work carried out by key internal partners such as Bright Start, iWork, communities and libraries and each area allocated ACL leads. ACL will be delivering an accredited Level 1 Fashion course at Durham Road Community Rooms in Finsbury Ward.

·         The Executive Member recognised the efforts of both ACL and iWork in developing additional courses with Health and Social Care employers to as a route into work for residents who are looking for a career or a pathway into that field.  Members were also informed that the newly recruited Head of Service will be in post soon and will be looking at ways of improving the offer.

·         Meeting was informed that by the end of June 2019 there were 263,359 visits to Islington Libraries, slightly above the figures of visits in the first quarter of 2018/19, slightly below the profiled target set for Q1 2019/20. Members were advised that some of the libraries had been renovated and invited to view and visit it.

·         Members were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 319.

Councillor Webbe, Executive Member, Environment and Transport presented the Q1 Performance Indicator Report. The following points were highlighted :

·         Islington Council working in conjunction with North London Waste Authority has set up its first low Plastic Zone and in comparison to 7 London authorities, Islington has the largest number of businesses sign up’s for the initiative. The Executive Member indicated that the decision by over 50% of shops and businesses to take steps to reduce the use of excessive and unnecessary and plastic was welcome and rebuts the view that there is a lack of appetite amongst businesses to change their behaviour.

·         Meeting was informed of the incredible efforts of the Energy and Efficiency team in ensuring that Islington Council is rated the first local authority to address fuel poverty and reduce fuel bills among its residents with initiatives such as the Bunhill Heat Network, SHINE and Angelic Energy.

·         The Executive Member welcomed the success of Islington Bloom which was held recently and noted in particular for attracting the highest number of entries for the first time. The Executive Member for Environment acknowledged the excellent work carried out by Parks, Green and Open Spaces Team in organising the event.  The Council will be participating in both the London in Bloom and Britain in Bloom events, a testimony that despite Islington being a small inner London authority, with few and small parks has the ability and capacity to showcase the excellence of their parks.

·         In response to reports of Ofgem plans to revoke Robin Hood’s licence, partners to Islington’s Angelic Energy, the meeting was informed that the situation is presently being monitored and any difficulties would not impact Angelic Energy or its customers. Members were advised that Energy regulators have in place robust procedures to protect Angelic Energy and that there will no impact on tax payers.

·         In response to the fall in household recycling rates, the Executive Member for Environment and Transport acknowledged the challenges in raising the recycling rates, however members were reminded that Islington remains the fifth highest recycling authority among the twelve inner London boroughs.

·         On the suggestion of removing the air quality measure from the suite of indicators, the Executive Member for Environment acknowledged that considering all the schools have monitors outside the school, this could be an opportunity to consider other measures.

·         In response to a request that any anomalies from the monitoring tube be reported, meeting was reminded that data will still need to be verified by the office of the Mayor of London so data would be out of date.

·         On the issue of contamination, the Executive Member agreed that more needs to be done with regards to nappies and the Council in conjunction with North London Waste Authority and the consortium continue to look at ways of highlighting this issue among its residents.

RESOLVED:
That the report be noted

RESOLVED:

That the work programme be noted.