Issue - meetings

        Scrutiny

The Director of Housing Management presented a briefing on scrutiny arrangements in Homes for Haringey (HfH).  The panel noted that in addition to the Environment and Housing Scrutiny Panel, scrutiny is also undertaken by a number of HfH bodies which include the Performance Committee and the newly formed Residents Scrutiny Panel.

The Resident Scrutiny Panel aims to provide a residents perspective (both tenants and leaseholders) of the services being provided through Homes for Haringey.  The

          Resident Scrutiny Panel had completed a pilot review of the Winter Maintenance Programme and is currently assessing the Repairs Service (report 2013).

The Performance Committee of HfH meets five times per annum and has agreed to scrutinise one topic (central to its core business) at each meeting. In addition, a small number of topics will be looked at in greater depth throughout the course of the year.

The panel agreed that it would be helpful if the Chairs of all three scrutiny bodies were to meet in the near future as this would provide an opportunity to discuss and plan future scrutiny work plans.  The panel hoped that this would contribute to the development of a more coordinated approach to the scrutiny of housing issues in Haringey.  The meeting would also help to map out the areas of scrutiny responsibility of each body and which housing bodies are being held to account, aiming to learn more about the work of other panels and avoid duplication of effort.

Agreed: That the Chairs of each of the scrutiny bodies meet to discuss current and planned scrutiny work, housing bodies held to account and ways in which these bodies may collaborate in the future (February 2013).

The panel also agreed that it would be helpful to know the current membership of the Homes for Haringey Board.

Agreed:  That the membership of the Homes for Haringey Board is circulated to the panel.      

          Waste and recycling issues

The panel discussed the issue of waste and recycling collection on local social housing estates and measures that could be adopted to help increase recycling.  (This had been an issue arising from other work of the panel in respect of the new waste and recycling collection system).  From this discussion, there appeared to be two key issues:

§  Recycling rates were low (structural issues with estates);

§  The number of paladin bins on estates (there were perceived to be too many).

Single Front Line noted that the challenges of recycling on estates was widely recognised and that there was a need to increase the recycling participation rate and the amount of waste which households recycled.  Single Front Line also reported to the panel that:

§  There was a need to rationalise waste receptacles;

§  Increased frequency of waste collection would result in increased costs;

§  Capital investment was needed to upgrade container sites;

§  £600k had been received from Department of Communities and Local Government to roll out food waste collection on local estates.

It was noted that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7