Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Centre, High Road, Wood Green, N22 8LE. View directions

Contact: Felicity Foley, Principal Committee Co-ordinator 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Filming at Meetings

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

 

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Noted.

2.

Apologies for Absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Hearn, Councillor Berryman attended as a substitute for her.

3.

Urgent Business

It being a special meeting under Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 17 of the Council’s Constitution no other business shall be discussed.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It being a special meeting under Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 17 of the

Council’s Constitution no other business was discussed.

4.

Declarations of Interest

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 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

5.

Deputations/Petitions/Presentations/Questions

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

6.

Consultation on Four Policies to Meet Housing Need pdf icon PDF 331 KB

The purpose of this report is to summarise the outcome of the consultation on four important policies to meet housing need in the borough; to explain how these policies have been developed in the context of a Fair and Equal Borough; and assess the degree to which these policies address concerns about housing disadvantage and social exclusion considered previously by the Committee.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair invited the Director for Public Health, Dr de Gruchy, to give a presentation on the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s work on social inclusion. This was followed by a presentation by Nick Smith Housing Strategy Officer, and Alan Benson, Head of Housing Strategy & Commissioning on the four policies on which the Committee’s views were being sought – the Homelessness Strategy and Delivery Plan, the Tenancy Strategy, the Allocations Policy and the Intermediate Housing Policy – and the responses to consultation on those policies.

 

Invited to introduce the four polices before the Committee and members of the Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel, the Cabinet Member for Housing, Regeneration and Planning set out that there was a close link between social inclusion and housing. In further discussion, Members noted the wider policies that interacted with the social inclusion agenda, and discussed that further scrutiny could be around crosscutting support for childcare in relation to job-seeking parents or the links between housing and educational outcomes, as examples. It was agreed that it would be helpful for social inclusion to be part of the information routinely provided to Scrutiny Panel Chairs.

 

Members asked about the robustness of the consultation findings, given the level of response and the application of general findings to a specific group. The Cabinet Member and officers responded that they were satisfied with the level of engagement with the consultation, and that there would be difficult in disaggregating demographic groups to identify specific views on a given matter. Officers also confirmed that the consultation was available in languages other than English upon request.

 

In response to questions on the increased level of rough sleeping observed in the borough, the Cabinet Member set out that the profile of rough sleepers had changed and become more complex, with a sizeable proportion being younger, able to work and effectively voluntarily sleeping rough. Officers also outlined additional sources of funding recently secured by the Council that could be used to tackle rough sleeping and would be available soon.

 

Members queried why ex-service personnel were given such a high priority under the allocations policy, which was part of the Armed Forces Covenant. It was noted that there had been a perception that a significant number of rough sleepers had served in the armed forces previously.

 

In relation to other priority groups, it was noted that a high proportion of rough sleepers had been in prison at some point. It was also noted that the age level for care-leavers treated as a priority was lower than practice in other contexts of support, and the lower age of 22 reflected Government policy. It was suggested that a needs-based assessment would enable better allocations decisions rather than age-based.  

 

Following a discussion on the application of an income threshold when considering renewal of a tenancy, particularly since the Government’s ‘Pay to Stay’ policy had been abandoned, Members agreed that could inhibit residents’ aspirations and should not be used. 

 

Noting the Government had recently announced further changes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.