Agenda, decisions and minutes

1.1   Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Joseph, Maxwell,Narcross, Race, Ross, Laudat- Scott, Webb and Young.

1.2   Cllrs Ozsen and Premru joined the meeting virtually.

2.1  There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 28 June 2022 were agreed as a correct record of the proceedings.

4.1  Stuart Thorn, Head of Human Resources introduced the report outlining

the draft 2023/24 Pay Policy Statement detailing the current pay practice

and reported that there had been no substantive changes to this policy

and no new policy principles. The report outlined the ratio of the pay of top tier officers from chief officer grades CO1-3 including the Chief Executive to that of the median and lowest-paid earner from spinal column point (SCP)3 and above. The ratio was currently 5.48, slightly higher from the previous year and based on two job evaluation schemes. The returning officer duties pay had been excluded from the Chief Executive’s total earnings due to no elections being held in 2021/2022, and TUPE staff had been excluded from the ratio as they did not fall within the Council's normal terms and conditions and salary scales. The 2022/23 Budget Report factored into the budget an assumption of a two per cent pay increase.

4.2   The Head of Human Resources responded to questions from Members as follows:

·  The pay award for local government workers was determined

nationally by the National Joint Council (NJC) for Local Government Services and the Council was bound by its decision. For the first time, the national employer had awarded a flat rate of 1925 with adjustments for London weighting and advised that next year’s pay award would remain a flat rate. This year the pay award had varied from 9.9 at the lowest spinal column point and 1.6% at the highest point;

·  The lowest-paid earnings started from SCP3 or scale 2, which

excluded contractors transferred under TUPE such as parking

contractors brought in-house in April 2022 as they had not been

included on the evaluated scales. Those TUPE staff would be included in the ratio for the 2024/5 statement. To prevent the erosion of scales 2 and 3 by 2026, the national employer had based the pay award on a fixed amount instead of a percentage;

·  With regard to having a ratio for assessing the equivalent of the LLW wage annual salary, as part of the council’s corporate agency contract agency staff were paid the rate that was equivalent to the job paid at the Council. Suppliers were not considered employees of the council;

·  As part of the Library restructure it had been agreed that library staff could remain on a casual rota basis without affecting redundancy payments. Staff taking redundancy could not return to local authority for a period of 31 days and in the case of voluntary redundancy it would for a period of 12 months;

·  The Head of Human Resources undertook to provide in future reports the figures over a period of years in relation to the ratio of Chief Executive and lowest and mean pay to enable members to identify any trends in pay gaps;

·  The Head of Human Resources undertook to add Chief Executive pay with comparable London boroughs in future reports and indicated that following the resignation of the former Chief Executive, Tim Shields, he had worked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

RESOLVED:

To approve the Authority Monitoring Report Financial Year 2020/21 (as set out in Appendix 1 of the report).

5.1   Katie Glasgow, Strategic Planning Manager, introduced the report seeking approval of the Planning Service’s Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) 2020/21 covering the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021. The report provided monitoring information on planning-related activity using the available data, monitoring performance and the effectiveness of planning policy. This year's AMR had been limited in data analysis as a result of missing data following the Council’s cyber-attack in October 2020 and the transfer of data to a new IT system. The data relating to planning permissions approved between 25 June 2020 to 31 October 2020 were in the process of being recovered and were expected to be verified in February 2023 and reported in the next AMR report.

5.2   The key findings of the AMR included Housing Completions, Local Plan for Small Site, Housing Approvals, Conventional housing delivery by area in 202/21, Housing completions on small sites (less than 10 units), Employment & Town Centres, Affordable workspace secured through s106 agreements, Communities, Culture, Education, Health and Open Space, Design and Heritage, Transport (figures pre-dating the pandemic), Planning Performance exceeding national and local targets for major, minor and other applications in FY 2020/21 and S106 & Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) contributions.

5.3   The Strategic Planning Manager, Growth Team Manager, Development and Enforcement Manager, Senior Policy Officer and Senior CIL/S106 Officer responded to questions from Members relating to the AMR as follows:

?   In determining planning applications and pre-applications, material planning considerations were taken into account such as similar planning permissions within the immediate vicinity of the application site however this was one material consideration and all applications were considered on their merits and assessed against relevant policies and guidelines. There were circumstances when a proposal was similar or identical to a neighbouring extension but due to other considerations a different recommendation could result in a different outcome;

? There were currently no exact numbers recorded of the people using pre-application service but the service area was currently being restructured to improve performance and the monitoring of

pre-applications. Applicants were being encouraged to use the pre-application service to ensure greater certainty of a subsequent successful planning application as well as allowing officers to see proposals at an early stage and to make more detailed and quicker decisions once the application was submitted;

? The data relating to s106 and CIL were taken from the Infrastructure Funding Statement that was an annual legislative requirement and detailed the money at present that had been collected, spent and retained. The unspent £7m money had been allocated to a range of projects appended in the funding statement, however, due to the longer term nature of the projects some money had been spent on the capital programme and not all the money was expected to be spent within the reporting year;

? Planning held records of the planning applications determined from June to October 2020 during the cyber-attack as they had been automatically logged on the planning register but the main concerns related to the applications that were still live  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

RESOLVED:

To note the update and the level and scope of work being carried out to meet the requirements of the plan.

6.1   Gerry McCarthy, Head of Community Safety, Enforcement and Business Regulation introduced the report, which provided an update on the performance of the ‘Environmental Health Service against the Plan for the 2022/23 and to the end of Quarter 2’, and the work undertaken to improve the quality of food premises in Hackney to protect the health of the public, to assist businesses to comply with their legal requirements; demonstrated the impact of the Service in managing the services post Covid and the challenges being faced whilst at the same time meeting the needs of the regulators; the greater emphasis placed on driving up compliance through advice, education, inspections of establishments considered to be flouting the law, and the necessary interventions undertaken; and reflected on the service at the end of the 2021/22 financial year.

6.2   The report also outlined the work of Hackney Trading Standards for 2022/23 and to the end of Quarter 2 and the Service’s achievements and identified areas of interest for the future.

6.3   The Head of Community Safety, Enforcement and Business Regulation  responded to members’ questions as follows:

?  Confirmed that they dealt with letting agents in particular the return of people’s deposits and legal fees as well the quantity of estate agent boards. If there were any issues with estate agent boards members were encouraged to email him;

?  The Council licensed all premises to sell fireworks and all licences

were inspected from 15 October to 8 November and Chinese New Year unless there was an all year licence. Testing of the sale of fireworks to minors depended on the availability of cadets and no tests had been undertaken this year as it had coincided with school half term;

? Most of the work relating to scams and their victims were intelligence led and the council worked in partnership with the police and banks to encourage them to report any potential scams to the police and the Adult Safeguarding team to support the victims as many were older people. Officers attended Annual Winter Warmer events to raise awareness of scams including builder scams but there were areas such as Stoke Newington which were particularly vulnerable. The service also used the Council’s Communications Team to publicise and alert people to any increase in scams nationally;

? With regard to encouraging the food hygiene rating of 5, the Hackney Business Network provided support to small businesses and the council had also signed up to the Healthier Catering Commitment for London with a dedicated officer encouraging smaller businesses to offer healthy food. The council was attempting to engage with small businesses in various ways and a further 50 inspections had been undertaken under the waste reduction and food business in London;

? The Hackney Business Network targeted smaller businesses, which sometimes did not prioritise food hygiene and therefore had lower ratings. The service was engaging and encouraging businesses to join the Healthy Food Business Network. Many businesses that wanted to offer deliveries but had a rating lower than 3 had contacted the council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1  Members noted the Committee’s work programme and possible submission of next Authority Monitoring Report earlier in 2023.

RESOLVED:

The draft work programme for 2022/23 was noted.

8.1   There was no other urgent business.