Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Tom Thorn
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: 1.1 Apologies had been received from Cllr Rathbone. |
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Urgent Items / Order of Business Minutes: 2.1 There were no urgent items and the order of business was as laid out. |
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: 3.1 Interests were declared as below.
· In relation to agenda item 4 Cllr Lynch declared she was a Southern Housing tenant.
· In relation to items 5 and 6 the Chair and Cllr McMahon declared they were Council leaseholders. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: 4.1 The Chair welcomed the following guests for this item:
· Vicky Bonner, Director of Housing, Clarion Housing Group · Shani Denham, Head of Repairs and Maintenance, Clarion Housing Group · Gary Coultish, Head of Operations for response, Clarion Housing Group · Sean Kelly, Head of Property, Industrial Dwellings Society (IDS) · Ruth Davison, Chief Executive, Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA) · Kevin MacDermott, Director of Direct Maintenance North Region, L&Q Group · Chyrel Brown, Chief Operating Officer, One Housing Group · Sue Hanlon, Director of Maintenance Delivery Services, One Housing Group · Brendan Sarsfield, Chief Executive, Peabody · Alison Muir, Director Resident Services , Peabody · Deborah Shynn, Operations Manager, Sanctuary Group · John McKeon, Reinvestment Manager, Sanctuary Group · Michael Thompson, Head of Estate Services, Sanctuary Group · Cllr Sem Moema, Mayoral Adviser, Private Renting and Housing Affordability
4.2 She said that for its main review up to April next year the Commission would look at aspects around Housing Association performance and approaches.
4.3 Housing Associations played a vital role in the borough - managing around 24,000 homes. Good quality suitable housing was fundamental to people’s life chances and experiences, and far too many residents did not have this.
4.4 She hoped that over the next few months the review could identify what good performance by Housing Associations looked like in Hackney, and how the Council helped to support and enable good and effective practice. She suggested the Commission might explore areas including the contributions made by Housing Associations to meeting housing need, the ways that providers ensured homes were managed effectively, and the support they provided to enable vulnerable residents to take up and sustain tenancies.
4.5 Tonight’s item would be focused on repairs and maintenance. The Commission wished to explore how Housing Association partners monitored and reported performance on repairs and maintenance, and how they were ensuring responsive services for residents. She thanked guests who had provided papers for the item.
4.6 The Chair asked that one guest from each of the Housing Associations represented gave opening comments on where they saw repairs and maintenance performance for their organisation currently.
4.7 The Director of Housing, Clarion Housing Group made the following points: · Clarion had emerged three years ago from a merger of Circle Housing and Affinity Sutton.
· It had a stock of 125,000 properties nationally, including around 2,000 units in Hackney.
· They had a blended repairs and maintenance model. Most works were carried out by a Clarion-owned company; Clarion Response. Alongside this, there had historically been a number of external contractors.
· However, following concerns about levels of service from some contractors in some areas, Clarion had moved to bring the function for the North London region (which included Hackney) in-house. The rationale for this was that levels of customer satisfaction with the in-house services had been very strong, and higher than those with the outsourced elements.
· It was fair to say that the integration process was a complex one, which had had some impact on service provision. However - now one year in ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Update on review of Housing Services' Community Halls Additional documents:
Minutes: 5.1 The Chair welcomed the following guests for this item: · David Padfield, Interim Director, Housing Services · Gilbert Stowe, Head of Tenant and Leasehold Services, Housing Services · Sara Kulay, Project Manager, Housing Transformation, Housing Services · Philippa Newis, Senior Delivery Manager, Finance & Corporate Resources
5.2 The Project Manager, Housing Transformation and Senior Delivery Manager, Finance & Corporate Resources presented the slides which were available in the agenda packs. They made the following substantive points: · The Council had a manifesto commitment to improve access to community spaces (community halls and others) across the borough at no or low cost to residents and community groups. This was within an aim of supporting the valuable contributions made to social, cultural and economic life in the borough by community groups, residents, start-ups.
· ICT were co-ordinating the implementation of this commitment. It had started with engagement work with both people in need of space to deliver groups and activities, and others who had space to offer. This was within an aim of understanding the needs of both groups.
· A common perception had been identified among residents around community spaces being generally underused and difficult to access in some cases. Actions already taken to address this included work with staff in libraries to improve information on the spaces available in these, and to make the booking processes for them easier.
· In the summer, the focus had moved onto Community Halls. Work between ICT and the Housing Transformation Service was complementing the Community Halls Project which was already underway. One point of clarity was that of the 87 assets defined as community halls, around 27 were actually community rooms and community flats.
· This project was looking at all of Housing Services’ Community Halls, some of which were managed by TRAs and Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs) rather than the Council.
· A key initial focus was on reaching a fuller and more advanced understanding of the assets; in regards to cost, levels of usage, condition and their geography in relation to one another. Another aspect was identifying the management arrangements in place, which could differ according to the party managing them.
· This work might be described as the discovery phase of the programme of work. Findings of this were now available.
· These showed Community Halls to be quite evenly spread around the borough; while there was a greater concentration of halls in some areas, mapping the assets had shown that most households were based within 10 minutes’ walk of a hall.
· A physical visit had been carried out to each asset within the delivery phase. This had provided real clarity.
· In relation to the 60 conventional Community Halls in the borough (where the potential for use as community spaces was greatest), the service had aimed to group them into different categories. These were:
o The largest halls which could be described as multi functional halls. These were often built over more than one storey. Some could accommodate over 100 people, with a range of different spaces within them ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Housing Services support of resident engagement - update on review Additional documents: Minutes: 6.1 The Chair welcomed the following guests for this item: · David Padfield, Interim Director, Housing Services
· Gilbert Stowe, Head of Tenant and Leasehold Services, Housing Services
6.2 The Head of Tenant and Leasehold Services, Housing Services presented the paper for this item, which was available in the agenda packs.
6.3 This provided an update on his service’s approach to supporting engagement and participation by Hackney Housing’s tenants and leaseholders. This included responses to the 11 recommendations made by the Commission in a letter of reference to the Cabinet Member for Housing Services, following an item in its July meeting. The letter and recommendations had been very useful in helping to shape the review of the Resident Participation Team.
6.4 The service had commissioned the Tenant Participation and Advisory Service to assess the service’s performance on engagement and participation of those living in Council-managed homes. The findings of the review were available in the agenda packs.
6.5 These findings along with the Commission’s recommendations and other feedback would now be used to help inform a new Resident Engagement Strategy for Hackney Housing for the next three years. Alongside this, the service would be implementing the new Resident Engagement Team’s structure following the review which had now been completed. Full implementation was targeted for April 2020.
6.6 In response to a question, the Head of Tenant and Leasehold Services, Housing Services advised that post-restructure the Resident Participation Team would be formed of 11 Officers, compared to 13 prior to the review, and that three of the 11 posts were vacant currently. The vacancies were managerial-level posts.
6.7 The Chair mentioned comments received in advance of the meeting from the Chair of the Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Panel, Muriel Gordon MBE. This set out the Panel’s views on changes needed to improve the Resident Led Improvement Budget (RLIB). She felt these to have been very sensible. She asked how they were being taken on board.
6.8 The Head of Tenant and Leasehold Services, Housing Services agreed that the comments had been useful. One had been around the current timings of the inspections which helped to identify areas for investment from the RLIB. He agreed that they needed to be timed earlier in the year. Holding them in the lighter, spring and summer months enabled participation by more residents. It also allowed for more effective procurement, and earlier delivery of works. He was going to work with Muriel Gordon to ensure that this was taken forward.
6.9 A Member noted from the report that the Community Development Fund was being marketed to groups other than TRAs, as well as TRAs. She asked how it was being advertised and what the current level of take up was.
6.9 The Head of Tenant and Leasehold Services, Housing Services confirmed that information on the fund was available online. However work would be done to improve this. The fund was also being advertised in an upcoming newsletter. He did not have take-up information to hand, but would ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Council and partnership response to escalation in serious violence review - draft report Additional documents: Minutes: 7.1 The draft report from the Commission’s review around serious violence, was agreed. This was subject to Cllr Wrout being given an additional 24 hours to review it.
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Minutes of the Previous Meeting Additional documents: Minutes: 8.1 The minutes from the Commission meeting of 30th September were agreed as an accurate record. |
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Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission- 2019/20 Work Programme Additional documents: Minutes: 9.1 The work programme was noted. |
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Any Other Business Minutes: 10.1 There was no other business. |