Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Moema and Deputy Mayor Clark.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under Item 15 below. New items of exempt business will be dealt with at Item 19 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

A Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A Member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 8.1-15.2 of Section Two of Part 5 of the Constitution  and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

All members declared a non-pecuniary interest is respect of item 13, as a fellow Councillor, Susan Fajana Thomas was listed for re-election as a School Governor.

On occasions part of the Cabinet meeting will be held in private and will not be open to the public if an item is being considered that is likely to lead to the disclosure of exempt or confidential information. In accordance with the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 (the “Regulations”), members of the public can make representations about why that part of the meeting should be open to the public.

This agenda contains exempt items as set out at Item [16] : Exclusion of the Press and Public.  No representations with regard to these have been received.

This is the formal 5 clear day notice under the Regulations to confirm that this Cabinet meeting will be partly held in private for the reasons set out in this Agenda.

Noted.

There were no questions/deputations.

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting of Cabinet held on 16 October 2019.

The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on the 16 October 2019, were approved as a correct record.

This report updates Members on the current position of the Capital Programme and seeks spending and resource approval as required to enable officers to proceed with the delivery of those schemes as set out in section 9 of this report.

The Mayor introduced the report.

RESOLVED:

  That the re-profiling of the budgets as detailed in para 9.2 and Appendix 1 be approved as follows:

That the capital programme adjustments summarised below set out in detailed in para 9.3 be approved accordingly.

REASONS FOR DECISION

The decisions required are necessary in order that the schemes within the

Council’s approved Capital programme can be delivered as set out in this report.

In most cases, resources have already been allocated to the schemes as part of the budget setting exercise but spending approval is required in order for the scheme to proceed. Where however resources have not previously been allocated, resource approval is requested in this report.

The Mayor introduced the report.

RESOLVED:

  That the re-profiling of the budgets as detailed in para 9.2 and Appendix 1 be approved as follows:

That the capital programme adjustments summarised below and set out in detail in para 9.3 be approved accordingly.

REASONS FOR DECISION

The decisions required were necessary in order that the schemes within the

Council’s approved Capital programme could be delivered as set out in this report.

In most cases, resources had already been allocated to the schemes as part of the budget setting exercise but spending approval was required in order for the scheme to proceed. Where however resources had not previously been allocated, resource approval was requested in this report.

This is the third Overall Financial Position (OFP) report for 2019/20 and is based on detailed September 2019 provisional outturn monitoring data from directorates. We are forecasting an overspend of £5,645k at year end.

Councillor Rennison introduced the report to Members.

The Mayor advised that there was an exempt appendix at item 17.  He asked members if they would like to move into an exempt session to raise any points of clarification on the exempt appendix. Members did not have any points of clarification therefor the meeting did not move into an exempt session.

RESOLVED:

  I.  To update the overall financial position for September, covering the General Fund and the HRA, and the earmarking by the Group Director of Finance and Corporate Resources of any underspend to support funding of future cost pressures and the funding of the Capital Programme.

  II.  To approve the recommendations for acquisition of the leasehold as set out in Exempt Appendix 1.

  III.  Subject to final inspection of the reconfigured works at Ivy House, 279 Seven Sisters Road, N4 for Temporary Accommodation by Property and Customer Services; to agree the lease rent of £1,090,007p.a. equating to £7,630,049 over the 7-year term and the management agreement fee of £204,376 p.a. equating to £1,430,632 over the 7-year term.

  IV.  To agree the settlement of the Landlord’s dilapidations claim in the sum of £789,000 arising from the lease dated 6 June 2013 for nil consideration.

  V.  To pay the stamp duty (SDLT) due for the 7-year lease less a day, is expected to be £81,750.

  VI.  To delegate to the Director of Strategic Property and the Director for Customer Services any variation to the rent and management agreement fee from any further reconfiguration of the units and any associated impact on the SDLT payment.

REASONS FOR DECISION

To facilitate financial management and control of the Council's finances and to approve the two property proposals.

Councillor Rennison introduced the report to Members.

The Mayor advised that there was an exempt appendix at item 17.  He asked members if they would like to move into an exempt session to raise any points of clarification on the exempt appendix. Members did not have any points of clarification therefor the meeting did not move into an exempt session.

RESOLVED:

1. That the updated overall financial position for September, covering the General Fund and the HRA, and the earmarking by the Group Director of Finance and Corporate Resources of any underspend to support funding of future cost pressures and the funding of the Capital Programme be noted;

2. That  approval be given to  the recommendations for acquisition of the leasehold as set out in Exempt Appendix 1 of the report;

3. That subject to final inspection of the reconfigured works at Ivy House, 279 Seven Sisters Road, N4 for Temporary Accommodation by Property and Customer Services a lease rent of £1,090,007p.a. equating to £7,630,049 over the 7-year term and the management agreement fee of £204,376 p.a. equating to £1,430,632 over the 7-year term be agreed;

4. That the settlement of the Landlord’s dilapidations claim in the sum of £789,000 arising from the lease dated 6 June 2013 for nil consideration be agreed;

5. That it be noted that to pay the stamp duty (SDLT) due for the 7-year lease less a day, expected to be £81,750;

6. That authority be delegated to the Director of Strategic Property and the Director for Customer Services any variation to the rent and management agreement fee from any further reconfiguration of the units and any associated impact on the SDLT payment.

REASONS FOR DECISION

To facilitate financial management and control of the Council's finances and to approve the two property proposals.

This report asks Cabinet to approve the proposed variations to the Woodberry Down Principal Development Agreement (Phases 2-8). It also provides a summary of progress made since the last significant variation to the PDA in December 2014.

The Mayor introduced the report to Members.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

Authorisd the Group Director of Neighbourhoods and Housing to

approve variations to the Principal Development Agreement and for the

Director of Legal to complete such documentation accordingly.

Reasons for Decision

  I.  The reasons for the decision have arisen out of a need to ensure that the development at Woodberry Down continues to progress in line with the target programme, and that much needed, high quality housing continues to be delivere

  II.  The partners recognise that there are a number of issues in the current variation of the PDA. Firstly, the triggers for the submission of planning applications in the current PDA are out of sync with the triggers for submission of Reserved Matters Planning Applications as set out in the masterplan. In order to bring the two documents back into alignment, both the triggers in the PDA and the 2014 masterplan needed to be revised. The variation to the PDA has introduced an obligation for the developer to carry out and bring forward future phases in a timely manner, rather than wait until certain long stop dates are reached. The partners will also be carrying out a review of the masterplan that will commence as soon as practicable.

  III.  Secondly, in order for the regeneration to progress, each phase needs to be viable. Phase 3 has a high proportion of scheme costs attributed to it, including the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system and improvements to Seven Sisters Road. In order to make the phase viable, the revision to the PDA also includes an amendment to the overage clause to allow ‘forecast’ overage from the previous phase (in this case Phase 2) to cross-subsidise the next phase of development. This amendment, known as ‘Formula 4’, is intended to ensure the development can progress in line with the target programme, rather than waiting until the previous phase is fully complete before any overage can be drawn upon. To further support viability, a revised planning application which optimises Phase 3 has recently been submitted, and the remainder of the masterplan for Phases 4 to 8 will also be reviewed.

  IV.  Thirdly, it is recognised that the decision making and accountability for the project could be improved. The partners have therefore proposed the introduction of a Steering Group to ensure strategic issues can be dealt with in a formal and transparent way.

  V.  The last major report to Cabinet on the Woodberry Down PDA was in December 2014. It therefore considered timely for an update to be provided on the progress achieved on the project to date, in order to continue to adhere to the principles of good governance.

The Mayor introduced the report.

Reasons for Decision

1. The reasons for the decision had arisen out of a need to ensure that the development at Woodberry Down continued to progress in line with the target programme, and that much needed, high quality housing continued to be delivered.

2. The partners recognised that there were a number of issues in the current variation of the PDA.  Firstly, the triggers for the submission of planning applications in the current PDA were out of sync with the triggers for submission of Reserved Matters Planning Applications as set out in the masterplan. In order to bring the two documents back into alignment, both the triggers in the PDA and the 2014 masterplan needed to be revised. The variation to the PDA had introduced an obligation for the developer to carry out and bring forward future phases in a timely manner, rather than wait until certain long stop dates were reached. The partners would also be carrying out a review of the masterplan that would commence as soon as practicable.

3. Secondly, in order for the regeneration to progress, each phase needed to be viable.  Phase 3 had a high proportion of scheme costs attributed to it, including the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system and improvements to Seven Sisters Road. In order to make the phase viable, the revision to the PDA also included an amendment to the overageclause to allow ‘forecast’ overage fromthe previous phase (in this case Phase 2) to cross-subsidise the next phase of development. Thisamendment, known as ‘Formula 4’, was intended to ensure the development could progress in line with the target programme, rather than waiting until the previous phase was fully completed before any overage could be drawn upon. To further support viability, a revised planning application which optimises Phase 3 had recently been submitted, and the remainder of the masterplan for Phases 4 to 8 would also be reviewed.

4. Thirdly, it was recognised that the decision making and accountability for the project could be improved. The partners had therefore proposed the introduction of a Steering Group to ensure strategic issues could be dealt with in a formal and transparent way.

The last major report to Cabinet on the Woodberry Down PDA was in December 2014. It was therefore considered timely for an update to be provided on the progress achieved on the project to date, in order to continue to adhere to the principles of good governance.

The Council’s Community Strategy 2018-2028 commits us to developing a new economic development strategy.  The extensive community dialogue which was carried out to inform the Community Strategy found, regardless of backgrounds and income groups, residents do not feel everyone here has benefited from or feels part of the economic growth that is happening around them; it also found that local people are very concerned about poverty and growing inequality in the borough.

RESOLVED:

1.  That the Cabinet adopts the Hackney Inclusive Economy Strategy 2019-2025

2.  That Hackney adopts the Fairer Hackney Business Toolkit that supports the objectives of the Strategy

Councillor Williams introduced the report to members, in doing so she thank Councillor Nicholson for all his hard work. The Mayor also echoed Councillor Williams’s comments and thanked the Officer who had worked on the report.

 RESOLVED:

1. For Cabinet to adopt the Hackney Inclusive Economy Strategy 2019-2025

2.  For Hackney to adopt the Fairer Hackney Business Toolkit that supported the objectives of the Strategy

Reason for the decision

Why we developed the Local Inclusive Economy Strategy

When we carried out extensive community engagement to develop a new Community Strategy for our borough, we found high levels of local concern about poverty and inequality in and around the borough. As a result, we made a specific commitment in Hackney’s Community Strategy to produce a new economic development strategy focused on increasing local prosperity and generating community wealth here in Hackney.

This new draft Inclusive Economy Strategy as our response. It set out in more detail our goals for economic and community development and place making in and around our borough, and it did this in ways that built on the strengths of the much valued existing community networks, local institutions and local businesses here in the borough.

This Strategy built on the work the Council had been doing since 2016 to actively intervene in our local economy to help make Hackney a more economically sustainable place and to drive the social and economic changes we wanted to see in the borough. It set out ways the Council was leading by example as a major local employer and also using local assets, the levers and partnerships we had to best effect to raise local prosperity and benefit everyone in our diverse community.

Our goal over the next few years was to harness the efforts of all of those involved in shaping our local economy to help create the right conditions for balanced and equitable economic development. This included those involved in education and skills, businesses, development, entrepreneurs and social enterprises. It was also essential that we drew on residents’ experiences to better understand the aspirations that residents of all ages had for their working lives and their aspirations for the area they lived in as well as for town and commercial centres.

Many of the challenges in the economy were beyond our direct control and were the result of globalisation and structural changes in the labour market. As part of our strategy we set out how we would use our influence and campaign and lobby to respond to the dynamics and opportunities that arose; maximising the opportunities of existing and further devolution. We were committed to building partnerships with other local public services, local partners, neighbouring boroughs, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority and authorities and partnerships in the wider South East to achieve this, as well as working with businesses, developers and landowners that operate across the wider region, but were active in Hackney.

The Fairer Hackney Toolkit had been developed alongside the Strategy. It set out our offer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Council has an ongoing statutory duty to review its conservation

areas and to determine whether any parts or further parts of their area

should be designated as conservation areas. This review of the

existing Lea Bridge Conservation Area proposes extensions to the

boundary along with an updated draft appraisal and management plan,

which replaces the 2005 appraisal.

RESOLVED:

Cabinet is recommended to approve the Draft Lea Bridge Conservation Area Appraisal & Management Plan (Appendix A) and Draft Lea Bridge Conservation Area Map (Appendix B) for a six week

REASONS FOR DECISION

  I.  This decision is required in order to ensure that the area’s heritage is recognised and a full and up to date conservation area appraisal clearly sets out the area’s qualities and identifies threats and weaknesses.

  II.  This decision is required in order to ensure that guidance is in place in the form of a management plan that provides ways to address weaknesses in the conservation area and add to its special interest and character.

  III.  This decision is required in order to ensure that the conservation area boundary accurately reflects the special character and historic context of this area and ensures that appropriate protection is in place.

Councillor Nicholson introduced the report to members.

RESOLVED:

That approval be given to the Draft Lea Bridge Conservation Area Appraisal & Management Plan (Appendix A) and Draft Lea Bridge Conservation Area Map (Appendix B) for a six week consultation with residents and other stakeholders.

REASONS FOR DECISION

This decision was required in order to ensure that the area’s heritage was recognised and a full and up to date conservation area appraisal clearly set out the area’s qualities and identified threats and weaknesses.

This decision was required in order to ensure that guidance was in place in the form of a management plan that provided ways to address weaknesses in the conservation area and added to its special interest and character.

This decision was required in order to ensure that the conservation area boundary accurately reflected the special character and historic context of this area and ensured that appropriate protection was in place.

DETAILS OF ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED

Consideration was given to extending the Lea Bridge Conservation Area to only include the Middlesex Filter Beds to the east of the River Lea. However, this was rejected as the Millfields Recreation Grounds to the west of the existing conservation were considered to be equally important in terms of historic interest and contribution to the open setting of the historic core of 19th century buildings.

The option of doing nothing was rejected as the 2017 Conservation Areas Review identified a need to review existing conservation areas where the special architectural and historic interest justified it, in line with national legislation.

The Council has an ongoing statutory duty to review its conservation

areas and to determine whether any parts or further parts of their area

should be designated as conservation areas. The proposal is coming

forward now following work undertaken for the Council’s 2017

Conservation Areas Review, which identified a number of workstreams

for review and designation of conservation areas within the borough.

RESOLVED that:

Cabinet is recommended to approvethe Draft Brownswood Conservation Area Appraisal & Management Plan (Appendix A), Draft Brownswood Conservation Area boundary (Appendix B) and proposed Article 4 Direction for a six week consultation with residents and other stakeholders.

REASONS FOR DECISION

  I.  This decision is required in order to ensure that the area’s special architectural and historic interest is recognised and a full and up to date conservation area appraisal clearly sets out the area’s qualities and identifies threats and weaknesses.

  II.  This decision is required in order to ensure that guidance is in place in the form of a management plan that provides ways to address weaknesses in the conservation area and add to its special interest and character.

  III.  This decision is required in order to ensure that the conservation area boundary accurately reflects the special character and historic context of this area and ensures that appropriate protection is in place.

Councillor Nicholson introduced the report to members.

RESOLVED:

That approval be given to the Draft Brownswood Conservation Area Appraisal & Management Plan (Appendix A), Draft Brownswood Conservation Area boundary (Appendix B) and proposed Article 4 Direction for a six week consultation with residents and other stakeholders.

REASONS FOR DECISION

This decision was required in order to ensure that the area’s special architectural and historic interest was recognised and a full and up to date conservation area appraisal clearly set out the area’s qualities and identified threats and weaknesses.

This decision was required in order to ensure that guidance was in place in the form of a management plan that provided ways to address weaknesses in the conservation area and added to its special interest and character.

This decision was required in order to ensure that the conservation area boundary accurately reflected the special character and historic context of this area and ensured that appropriate protection was in place.

DETAILS OF ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED

Consideration was given to extending the proposed Brownswood Conservation Area to include Blackstock Road. However, this was rejected as the buildings on Blackstock Road have undergone considerable alterations, particularly at ground level where there were no surviving historic shopfronts. Moreover, the boundary of the London Borough of Hackney and London Borough of Islington ran through the centre of the road, with no proposals for Islington to designate.

The option of doing nothing was rejected as the 2017 Conservation Areas Review identified a need to review existing conservation areas where the special architectural and historic interest justified it, in line with national

legislation.

RESOLVED:

That the Cabinet approved the following re-nominations as set out below.

Deputy Mayor Bramble introduced the report, she thanked all the School Governors for all their hard work.

RESOLVED:

That the Cabinet approved the following re-nominations as set out below.

There were no appointments to outside bodies.

To consider any items admitted at Item 2 above.

There were no new items of urgent business.

Note from the Governance Services Manager

Items 17 and 18 allow for the consideration of exempt information.

Item 17 is in relation to item 8.

RESOLVED:

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contain exempt information, as defined under paragraph, 3 & 5 of Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

Members did not have any points of clarification for items 17 and 18, therefore the meeting did not move into an exempt session.

Exempt Appendix in relation to item 8.

Members did not have any points of clarification.

Exempt Appendix in relation to item 9.

Members did not have any points of clarification.

To consider any EXEMPT items admitted at Item 2 above.

There were no new items of exempt urgent business.