Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Graham and McHugh.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 January 2025 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Chair informed the meeting that following this evenings meeting, committee will be receiving a briefing virtually on the Strategic Asset Management Plan with dates to be confirmed later.
 
Also an informal meeting involving officers, the Chair, Vice Chair and willing committee members is to be scheduled to draft recommendations ahead of the committee meeting on 17^th March. The draft recommendations will be circulated to Committee members, an opportunity to contribute ahead of the march meeting .

Also Chair informed meeting that he and Executive member Cllr Chapman and officers visited the Benham Community Centre , that a number of visits to other community centres was being arranged and encouraged members to attend when invitation is sent out. 

None

Committee received a presentation from Sal Waheed, Head of Property Services London Borough of Barnet (LBB). The following points were highlighted:

• L.B Barnet has 61 community assets which are occupied by Faith, Arts, Cultural organisations as well as Theatre and Sports.
• Barnet has adopted a new approach to the allocation of its community assets which provide valuable spaces for community groups to provide activities and support residents.
• Barnet has introduced new measures which will ensure the sustainability and upkeep of assets, a fairer, more transparent approach to the allocation, and maximises community benefit of these asset. 
• The new approach includes the introduction of a service charge applied to all community asset leases for repairs and maintenance; the establishment of a member-led Community Infrastructure Panel to ensure that asset allocation and discounts are made transparently and fairly and the introduction of a Community Asset Matrix that calculates discounts based on the societal impact and financial health of tenant organisations.
• The new approach by LBB aims to support community organisations while ensuring that its assets are managed efficiently and responsibly and this is guided by principles such as transparency and consistent processes; maximising utility of its assets; that it is for the benefit of the community and not as an income-generator for the council; a fairer distribution and allocation of assets; better monitoring and impact reporting and delivering value through activities that improve outcomes of our residents
• On the issue of service charge and repairs, meetingwas advised that previously leases placed the responsibility on tenants to keep property in full repair however it was noted that community groups don’t make the provision for repairs, so LBB has now proposed a new model of applying a ‘Service Charge’ on all its community assets to help with repairs and maintenance of our assets
• Repairs covered by the service charges will cover windows, structural repairs/roof, water Ingress/damp and plant upgrades.
• Meeting was advised that at the point of renewal or rent review, leases would need to be updated to include service charge sub-clauses

·       In response to a question , the Head of property advised that service charge is paid into a central fund by all tenants who are offered a discount on their community asset rent, that tenant will pay a fixed percentage of the market rent value, which would be indexed every year.

·       In terms of allocation of assets, meeting was advised that at the initial stage bids will be evaluated through a weighting system, based on key Council priorities.  In addition meeting was advised that across barnet, the property team is rationalising all its assets, looking at collaboration where 2 or more groups could occupy building.

·       In response to a question of stakeholder engagement and in particular resident engagement, meeting was advised that this is policed by the Community Engagement team, that leases are specific on the expected activities of which failure to comply could result in the Council ending or reviewing the lease.

·       On the issue of service charge levied to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

Committee received report on the use of Contractors and Agency in repairs from Michael Hall, Assistant Director Housing Property Services and the following points were raised:

·       The Response Repairs service was brought back in house in 2014 to create a DLO. This created a Repairs service that is delivered via an in-house team that is supported by agency staff and external contractors where appropriate.

·       The DLO at present delivers 86% or works raised via the in-house with the other 14% being delivered via contractors.

·       The service has a staff of 324 officers (99 agency staff) and have 15 contractors supporting the service.

·       Contractors support all trades and cover peaks in workloads, complex repairs, long duration and specialist works (i.e. fabrication and install UPVC windows/ doors, scaffold installs, asphalt works, metal works). These types of skills sit outside of the DLO resources and allow better time management on other work types.

·       Meeting was advised that to reduce contractor management costs, the Service has introduced corporate contracts with other sections in Islington to deliver works via a joint strategy (i.e. asbestos testing/ removal).

·       All contracts have a requirement to deliver social valve within Islington and this can be seen through supporting events at schools, training at our training centre for residents or funding apprenticeship posts in the service.

·       In response to a question meeting was advised that as a service there has always been an element of agency staff within the workforce as this allows flexibility that the service requires due to sessional conditions and types of work.

·       In addition to the above there is a requirement for agency to allow apprentices the opportunity to join the service on a permanent basis on completion of their apprenticeship.

·       In response to a question, the Manager advised that currently the agency spend £2.6 million out of a £10.9 million staffing budget.

·       In terms of recruitment, meeting was advised that in more recent times the Service has had difficulty resourcing legal and diagnostic surveyors, that the demand on this skill set meant there were high demands to recruit to these positions, which also increased the pay being offered to these posts (currently 15 agency surveyors, 1 permanent surveyor)

·       On the issue of recruitment, officer advised that to encourage the surveying staff to become permanent the Service has carried out benchmarking with other local authorities, reviewed market supplements, re-advertised posts and now had the posts re-evaluated to a more competitive rate ready to advertise again

·       On the issue of rehousing tenants due to ongoing repairs, meeting was advised that this is a last resort by the Service and only employed in exceptional cases. There will be constant dialogue with the tenant and the repair service especially if the works required are complex and the need to move them out into temporary accommodation.

·       On the question of not using the council’s DLO service for repairs or expensive works, meeting was advised that it depends on a variety of factors such as specialist works and in some instances  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

Committee received a presentation on Rough Sleeping from Eleanor Greenhalgh Women’s Rough Sleeping Policy Manager Solaceand the following points were highlighted:

·       Ending violence against women is a priority for both the government and the Mayor of London and in recent years increasing attention has been brought to this issue in the media, though only a fraction of violence incidents against women are reported.

·       In 2022, a collaboration of organisations designed and delivered the first women’s rough sleeping census, a new methodology for gaining a more accurate and in-depth picture of women’s rough sleeping in each borough than what the existing methodologies could provide.

·       Islington has been at the forefront of this work, taking a leading role in the census every year since 2022, and experimenting with measures that can help women in this borough.

·       Islington has gone the furthest of any London borough in successfully and quickly recognising the issue, taking steps to investigate and understand it further and turning their data into action to improve services for women.

·       It is concerning that a number of London boroughs do not accept that women’s rough sleeping is a concern,that it needs to be addressed, or that even exists in their borough, and haven’t yet taken part in the census.

·       Islington has gathered local data from delivering three years of the women’s rough sleeping census, and in 2024, pushed this further by leading an Islington women’s rough sleeping pilot.

·       Islington has undertaken the census three times, each year gathering more data on the local picture, what needs to change, and what are the experiences of women locally. The census uses a gender-informed definition of rough sleeping to better reach women and understand their differing experiences.

·       Practitioners are concerned with women rough sleeping because they can't safely use or access their tenancy, noting that although it might look like they’re housed, but it’s not safe for them to go home.

·       Also there is a minimal range of suitable, single gendered accommodation options for women who have high-level support needs, that accommodation without suitable support can lead to repeat episodes of homelessness.

·       It was stated that it is very difficult to provide safe and effective support to women in couples where there is domestic abuse. Partners can disrupt the work that teams try to do, and women are likely to continue sleeping out with a partner if they can’t be housed together.

·       Islington managers and practitioners have wanted to act upon the information they gathered from the census in order to better support women and in 2024, they piloted a project designed by Solace and Single Homeless Project (SHP) so as to test changes to long-term practice and ensure that it will increase their reach and outcomes for women.

·       This has been an innovative, cross-sector piece of work driven from the ground up and has taken place thanks to hardworking practitioners and managers understanding the problem and wanting to make change, despite their increasingly heavy workloads.

·       Meeting was advised that due to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

Committee received an update on the Services performances on Asbestos and Complaints from Ian Swift, Director of Housing Operations and the following points were highlighted:

·       Members were advised that in light of the below than average performances highlighted in the quarterly reports presented at the last meeting, officers have brought back to committee an action plan to show how it is working towards driving service improvements.

·       On the issue of complaints, the Director noted that in quarter 2, Council reported an average of 21 stage two complaints per 1000 tenanted homes which indicates that this places the Council in the lower quartile and advised that by April 1 2024, there will be an improvement from the current position due to the housing management restructuring , one of which will be there will now be one housing manager managing 500 properties than the previous regime of 1500 properties .

·       In addition committee were advised that Service has set up a resident improvement group who continually analyse feedback, it has now employed the services of independent company Kwest to carry out residents annual surveys . In addition officers considers and analyses every RSL report produced by the Housing Ombudsman to learn lessons and internal staff have all received compulsory training and TMO’s have been briefed.

·       On the issue of asbestos removal, meeting was advised that it currently is 85% , however with the Action Plan performances will be 100% by 31 March .

·       In response to a request on how the service manages complaints, the Director stated that the Services Quality Audit checklist relating to complaints from Islington residents will be circulated to committee members

RESOLVED:

That the report and action plan be noted

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted

That officers have extended an invitation to one of the RSL’s in Islington to attend committee meeting in March or May, details to follow.