Agenda item

(Report of the Director of Regeneration, Planning and Development. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement). The report seeks agreement to a multidisciplinary approach to tackling unauthorised living in employment areas and sets out the project management approach being adopted  to ensure proper governance and the timely delivery and reporting of project objectives.

Cabinet considered a report, introduced by the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement, which set out a proposed multi disciplinary approach to tackling unauthorised living in employment areas. It was noted that this was a growing problem, particularly in south Tottenham and that the Council needed to ensure that it had the right enforcement tools in place to address the issue appropriately.

In response to a series of points raised by Councillor Wilson the Leader noted that a multi disciplinary approach was required in order to respond to this complex issue. The Council recognised that there were a number of people working in creative industries, who contributed to the local community and who lived in this type of accommodation and that the intention was not to penalise them, but to ensure that people at the other end of the spectrum, who were often living in very poor conditions, were not exploited by rogue landlords.

It was noted that there were also significant health and safety issues attached to living in unauthorised employment areas that the Council had a duty to address and protect people against. The approach proposed provided a range of tools to address this issue in a way that recognised that there were many different groups of people and types of accommodation that fell into this category and that a range of enforcement tools were needed to tackle this.

RESOLVED:

1. That the multidisciplinary approach to tackling unauthorised living in employment areas as set out in the report be noted and;

2. That the project management approach that had been adopted to ensure proper governance and the timely delivery and reporting of project objectives be noted.

Alternative options considered

The possibility of an approach minimising enforcement action focussing on regularisation and management of existing uses on site was considered but was felt to be inappropriate, due to the complex planning and housing issues that present themselves, in particular with regard to the safety of occupants and departures from planning policy. The estimated rental income from these unauthorised uses is considerable, acting as a further disincentive to co-operate unless encouraged to do so through formal enforcement action. A more appropriate approach will include fraud investigation and close co-operation with external agencies notably the Fire Service and Police.

Reasons for decision

The existing unauthorised residential and live work uses are contrary to Planning Policy and continue to manifest themselves in buildings not intended for this use nor at the intensity is it currently present in the project area. The alternative option of managing this matter through regularisation through the Building and Housing acts is therefore considered to be undesirable.

Wide ranging enforcement action under the Planning Acts is considered to be necessary to not only require the cessation of these uses where they are inappropriate but to encourage dialogue and co-operation with the landowners with regard to future uses of these sites.

Given the complexity of this report and the associated issues that arises, the project will be required to be flexible and to be able to respond to change as and when it presents itself.  It is for this reason that the proposed project is multi-disciplinary despite its core planning and housing improvement focus.

The project ties in with key aspects of the Corporate plan and adds value to the existing Tottenham Regeneration Projects and the proposed additional licensing scheme.