Issue - meetings

Report of the Chief Financial Officer – To to present the findings of a review of leasehold services undertaken by Grant Thornton

The Chair asked for a brief introduction of the report.

The Head of Corporate Finance – Mr Bartle informed the Committee that a review had been carried out by Grant Thornton into the leasehold service charges made on Right to Buy properties and the final report from the auditors was attached.  Section 4 of the report set out the findings of the auditors following their review and conclusions and recommendations were contained within section 5 of the report.  Mr Bartle also advised that during the compilation of the final report Grant Thornton had discussed their findings with the Director of Urban Environment, and Homes for Haringey and taken on board comments made.  The Council had accepted the report and was in the process of pulling together an action plan to address the recommendations highlighted. This action plan will be brought to the next meeting of this Committee for final approval and subsequent monitoring of implementation.

The Chair thanked Mr Bartle for his introduction and asked if there were any points of clarification from the Committee.

Councillor Meehan commented that in his view the fact that the action plan needed to be reported back to the Committee the report as it stood was somewhat incomplete and therefore should not have been considered at this time.

Councillor Dobbie also commented that in his view the report did require a completed action to accompany the report before this Committee should have considered it. Also, he commented that in his view the issue of leaseholder charges was a poignant one and that a number of leaseholders got a poor deal.  He referred to a number of meetings with residents within his ward where the issue of charges had been raised.

In response Mr Bartle commented that the report issued by Grant Thornton was a completed report with clear findings and recommendations. An action plan would be responding to the recommendations as outlined to the next meeting.

Mr Hughes – Grant Thornton further advised that the report had had not been a detailed in-depth review of leaseholder charges but was an overview of how LB Haringey was doing in comparison to other Local Authorities.  The conclusion of the review had been that Haringey was by comparison doing as good as other Local Authorities and was positive in its findings. There had been a number of recommendations but overall the report had been positive and none of the recommendations were a high priority. In terms of the action plan Grant Thornton would be happy to comment on the action plan once completed.

Councillor Diakides commented that in terms of the dissatisfaction of leaseholders there had been considerable improvements in the past 2 years with increases in satisfaction rates and that the recommendations of the review were in his view sensible and that they were good steer for ensuring compliance. In respect of comparisons with other Local Authorities it was the case that the levels of incomes for a large number of leaseholders was actually lower in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 175