Issue - meetings

[Report of the Director for Housing, Regeneration and Planning.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for House Building, Place Making and Development]

This report seeks Cabinet approval to undertake a consultation with residents within the Stapleford North block to seek their views on the future of their homes.

Councillor Chandwani returned to the meeting room.

The Cabinet Member for House Building, Place - Making and Development introduced the report which sought approval to undertake a consultation with residents within the Stapleford block to seek their views on the future of their homes. For secure Council tenants this consultation would be a statutory consultation under the s105 Housing Act 1985. This consultation would present two options for resident feedback. The first option put forward was to seek to retain the block and refurbish it alongside the development of new homes. The second option was to rehouse affected residents (secure Council tenants would be rehoused in existing Council properties), demolish the block and include the site within the emerging design proposals for new homes.

It was important to note that the proposals did not affect all residents living in Stapleford and only affected flat numbers (flats 25-36 and 61-72). This was the wing section of Stapleford block, which is attached by a small bridge to Northolt block which is a block that has been previously agreed to be demolished. It was recognised that, during the plans for demolition works, this part of the Stapleford block would be in the middle of area full of dust and construction works. Therefore, it was important to seek the views of these 24 affected residents through a statutory consultation on whether they wanted the block to come down or have this refurbished. Once consultation was completed, a report would be considered by Cabinet in September.

The Cabinet Member provided assurance that, if the block were to be demolished , the Council would be extending the Rehousing and Payments policy to support these residents.

The Cabinet Member emphasised that the Council and Homes for Haringey were taking forward proactive contact with the residents in this block.

In response to questions from das Neves and Cllr Palmer, the following information was noted:

• There was a lot of engagement with residents affected and full understanding of the languages spoken, and translations needed. There was a sign language interpreter commissioned and Homes for Haringey were working with established interpreters in Turkish and Somali to ensure consistent dialogue. It was noted that Homes for Haringey were running one to one session with the resident housing team and also having drop-in sessions. There was also an independent tenant’s advisor available to tenants that wanted to speak with someone external to the Council.

• Although, the consultation was taking place over the summer period, the availability of residents had been ascertained to ensure that they were around to speak with housing officers about the consultation. There had been a lot of work to ensure connect and engage with people.

• Noted that this decision would be included in the overall ballot that the Council were running towards the end of the year.
• The Council were seeking to maximise the number of social housing units available on the estate and would replace those demolished with social rented units. They were also ensuring that there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 562