Agenda and draft minutes

1.1.  Apologies were received from John Lumley, Jackie Moylan, and Joanna Sumner.  Apologies for late attendance were received from Cllr James Peters.

2.1.  There were no urgent items.

3.1.  Cllr Peter Snell declared a past interest; he previously worked for London Borough of Newham and had received a redundancy settlement in which London Borough of Hackney is noted.  Cllr Snell declared an interest as an Environmental Health professional.

4.1.  The Chair, Cllr Caroline Selman, introduced the item on proposals for 2016-2017 proposing to review proposals in the agenda reports for Private Sector Housing and Environmental Enforcement.  The Chair proposed to consider these service areas and proposals for next steps including the Enforcement cross-cutting review.

4.2.  The Director of Planning and Regulatory Services introduced the Private Sector Housing Report outlining the key themes and strategies.  The main areas of work regarding the mandatory scheme including the licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMO’s).  It was noted that the council has legal powers to charge for HMO registration although this is not the main focus for the service.  The Director of Planning and Regulatory Services noted the other licensing activities and the work to consider the feasibility of additional and selective licensing schemes across specified wards and across the whole borough are being considered.

4.3.  The Government is about to issue a consultation on proposals for the future of the Mandatory Licensing Scheme for HMO’s; the proposals may significantly increase the number of HMO’s the council would be required to licence along with the fee income received and associated costs incurred.

4.4.  The conclusion is that there is a lot of uncertainty and the service is not able to predict the financial outcomes, however, it is recognised that the service will have to be self-financing with full-cost recovery.

4.5.  The Chair thanked the Director of Planning and Regulatory Services for the presentation and wanted to understand how the service proposals relate to the wider cross-cutting review.  The Cabinet Member for Housing indicated that how they relate to the cross-cutting review is still to be clarified, however, proposals will have to be future proofed and meet rising demand.  The cross-cutting review is focused on future years.  Due to the uncertainty around the regulatory framework income forecasting is not possible at this time.

4.6.  A Member of the Task Group suggested that if the intention is to set up a scheme that has up-front costs including the recruitment of staff it may not be appropriate, in his view, to consider changes to the existing structure and is therefore not an area for consideration at this point.

4.7.  The Director of Planning and Regulatory Services suggested that it will become part of the wider cross-cutting review to consider resourcing; where income can be attracted and self-financing opportunities.

4.8.  The Cabinet Member for Housing noted that the HMO regulation changes are significant and that the Council is looking at how the law may change.  The Council is lobbying to improve the private rented sector (PRS) and educate landlords, within existing budgets.

4.9.  In response to a Member question the Cabinet Member for Housing indicated that the Housing Bill received its second reading today; the Bill does not make licensing any easier regarding landlord registration or data sharing; retaliatory evictions have to be dealt with through the local authority and are therefore time and resource consuming and may be of no immediate help to tenants.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1.  Minutes of the previous meeting were not discussed at the meeting and are to be considered at the next meeting of the Enforcement Task and Finish Group.

6.1.  There was no other business.