Agenda and minutes

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.

The Leader referred to agenda item 1, as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at the meeting and Members noted this information.

There were apologies for absence from Cllr Hearn and Cllr Ahmet.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items of Urgent Business will be dealt with under Item 16 below. New items of exempt business will be dealt with at Item 22 below).

There were no items of urgent business.

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.

There were no declarations of interest put forward.

On occasions part of the Cabinet meeting will be held in private and will not be open to the public if an item is being considered that is likely to lead to the disclosure of exempt or confidential information. In accordance with the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 (the “Regulations”), members of the public can make representations about why that part of the meeting should be open to the public.

This agenda contains exempt items as set out at Item [17] : Exclusion of the Press and Public.  No representations with regard to these have been received.

This is the formal 5 clear day notice under the Regulations to confirm that this Cabinet meeting will be partly held in private for the reasons set out in this Agenda.

There were no representations received at the agenda publication stage in relation to the exempt items on the agenda.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 17^th July 2018 as a correct record.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources and Insourcing queried page 3, paragraph 8 of the minutes, which set out the response from Mr Labbad to a question on asset transfer. The Cabinet Member queried whether this should indicate the 100% transfer of commercial assets to the HDV rather than Lendlease. Cabinet agreed this change to the minutes subject to review of the recording.

The remainder of the minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

There are no matters to report from Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

There were no Overview and Scrutiny matters for consideration  by the Cabinet.

A deputation had been received from Mr Paul Nicolson, representing Tottenham Residents, in relation to item 9 of the Agenda - Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

Mr Nicolson spoke as the representative of Tottenham Residents and firstly welcomed the implementation of the new Council Tax policy, as per item 9 of the Agenda. Mr Nicolson remarked that it was unfortunate this change would not take effect until 2019/2020although he recognised that half of the 6000 families with children claiming working tax benefits would be relieved not to get a Council Tax bill in April 2019. However, many would still have Council Tax arrears from previous years. Additionally, it was queried whether the 4000 working adults claiming benefits would still have to pay Council Tax from 2020.

Mr Nicolson continued to raise the following:

• The changes were a vital start to tackling the results of austerity. It would be used by campaigning organisations as an example to other Councils of what can and ought to be done.
• The national campaign against the Council Tax  was continuing as there were 289 out of 326 Councils in England yet to be persuaded.

• Regarding single-adult job seekers allowance, noted that it was valued at £73.10 a week, and equated to the incoming Universal Credit of £317 a monthwhich Mr Nicolson stated had been losing value since 1979 and had been frozen since 2011. In Mr Nicolson’s view, the value of single-adult job seekers allowance was not enough to pay for a healthy diet, water, fuel, clothes and transport or other necessities. Furthermore, since April 2013, the Job Seekers allowance had been paying a proportion of rent and Council Tax (plus enforcement costs) whereas, before April 2013, it was supported by 100% Council Tax and housing benefits. Mr Nicolson advised that this benefit can be stopped for one or three months with a benefit sanction by the Jobcentres and can be at the same time as the Council sending out the bailiffs to collect Council tax arrears, from a claimant with no income. This situation reflected that the benefit system was not supporting residents in most need.

Mr Nicolson advised that in 2013/14, the Council sent out the bailiffs 12,484 times adding to the arrears, (a) £125 court costs a time payable to the Council, and then (b) £75 a time payable to the bailiffs. A total of £200 a time had added to the arrears which added a total of £2.5 million to the cost of Council tax to Haringey Residents. Mr Nicolson referred to the Treasury Select Committee of MPs report “Household finances: income, saving and debt” published on the 26^th July which stated that people become over-indebted through arrears on bills, including those owed to central and local government, such as Council Tax. This report advised that public authorities often pursue debts over-zealously, uncompromisingly, and with routine recourse to bailiffs, which risks driving the most financially vulnerable people into further difficulty.

In conclusion Mr Nicolson emphasised the negative  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

[Report of the Interim Director of Finance. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance.]To agree the approach for a  potential revised Council Tax Reduction Scheme and required consultation.

Following the deputation, the Cabinet Member for Finance formally introduced the report which set out the process and content of proposed potential changes to the 2019/20 Council Tax Reduction Scheme. The report set out a series of options to amend the current scheme, with a preferred option highlighted as being a combination of increasing the maximum level of Council Tax Reduction from 80.2% to 100% for working age claimants with children and updating the CTRS to align with some national welfare changes.

The Cabinet Member emphasised the Labour administration’s manifesto commitment to ensuring fairness for all. Costs were continuing to rise but the Council was not able to respond with fair increases to collect what was needed to carry on delivering vital services. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that old commitments by previous local government administrations were sometimes not deliverable but the focus was to deliver key services for residents and to recognise the problems they faced. The Cabinet Member concluded his presentation by commending the report to the Cabinet for approval.

Following questions from Cllr Dennison, the subsequent points were noted:

• For working age claimants, the Council Tax Reduction Scheme had not been updated since 2013 but the new scheme would bring this up to date. The complexities involved in updating such figures under this scheme (going out to consultation) and working through quite prescriptive government guidance meant that this exercise was completed periodically.

• Whilst almost all of those affected by the Council Tax Reduction Scheme would be better off as a result of the preferred proposals, there was a small number of residents identified that would not be financially better off. For those identified, it was estimated that this would result in no more than a 95p increase a week and, although it was not possible to identify how many would be affected negatively, for most residents it was clear that they would gain from the revision.

• The Council Tax Reduction Scheme was aimed at helping the 6,000 most in need working age claimants, rather than all 10,000 working age claimants, because it was anticipated that this was as much as could be done within 2019/2020 budget. Nonetheless, this was an important step in delivering on a key manifesto commitment and a positive step in the right direction.

• With regards to funding the proposed changes to the scheme, this would be part of budget discussions that would take place later in the year.

• In relation to individual’s eligibility under Universal Credit being used as the basis for their entitlement for the Council Tax Reduction Scheme, it was acknowledged that there was a number of ways in which to deliver the Council Tax Reduction Scheme. This option was considered but was not a preferred method as Haringey Council was at an early stage of implementing Universal Credit. It was therefore decided that, at this time, it would not be appropriate to use this as the basis of any new Council Tax Reduction Scheme.

RESOLVED

1. To agree to go out  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

[Report of the Director for  Housing and Growth. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate Renewal.]

This decision is to award a contract to install a new permanent district heating system and works to provide temporary heating system until the permanent system is operational.

The Cabinet Member for Housing & Estate Renewal introduced the report which related to the medium-rise blocks on the estate that had failed a test relating to blocks with piped gas. It was noted that the only way to fully mitigate this risk was to remove piped gas to the blocks entirely. Homes for Haringey had already started the work to achieve this, and this report recommended the approval of a contract to carry out the next stages of the work.

Following questions from Cllr Dennison the subsequent points were noted:

• Regarding the discrepancy between 1.4 and 6.12 of the report, the latter paragraph was intending to indicate the lead in time from January 2018 to October 2018 for fitting temporary boilers.

• The Council would be providing financial assistance to residents who found their heating bills were higher as a result of the use of temporary boilers (as temporary boilers were oil fired which was more expensive than gas). It was the Council’s intention to make sure that residents were not worse off during the period of the temporary boilers. By phase 3, when gas boilers would be replaced by a district system, the Council would be acquiring gas at block prices and this would decrease the prices for residents.

Following consideration of exempt information:

RESOLVED

1. To approve the direct award of the works contract at an estimated value of £12.6m to Engie LTD (formerly Keepmoat LTD) through the LHC framework (N7 – workstream three) for the works required to install and commission a temporary heating system across Broadwater Farm and latterly install and commission the full energy system.

2. To approve as required by Section 1 – Financial Regulations paragraph 5.23 (b) the virement of £3.210m from the HRW leaseholder acquisition budget to the Broadwater Farm heating scheme.

3. To approve as required by Section 1 – Financial Regulations paragraph 5.23 (b) the virement of £4.008m from the Building Regulations Review budget to the Broadwater Farm heating scheme.

4. To agree the budget of £13.0m for the Broadwater Farm heating scheme.

5. To agree not to seek to recharge leaseholders their proportion of the cost of these capital works linked to the provision of temporary heating systems and the full energy centre upgrade.

6. To note that unrecovered leaseholder charges will be no greater than £2m.

Reason for decision

The nine medium-rise blocks on Broadwater Farm (Croydon, Debden, Hawkinge, Hornchurch, Lympne, Manston, Martlesham, Rochford, and Stapleton) have failed structural tests for Large Panel System buildings with piped gas. A gas leak and explosion in one of these blocks could lead to progressive collapse of the building and significant loss of life.

The following steps have been taken to mitigate the risks arising from the findings of

the structural test

• The replacement of gas cookers with electric cookers in 464 flats in nine medium rise blocks (the remaining flats already had electric cookers)
• The installation of gas interrupter valves in all the 728 flats in nine medium-rise blocks which will switch off the gas if a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

[Report of the  Director for Customers, Transformation and Resources. To

be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Resources and Insourcing.]

The Shared Digital Joint Committee approved a strategy to consolidate the council’s wide area networks in October 2018.  This would provide the councils with a single high performing network provided by a single supplier.  This report seeks authority to delegate the award of the contract for this service to the Executive officer.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Insourcing introduced the report, which sought approval to delegate an award of contract for provision of a singlewide area network service.

The Cabinet Member explained that the Council relied on a wide area network to connect computers and other electronic devices across Council sites to allow the Council to perform its daily duties. The network also allowed the Council to establish connections with other third parties to carry out the daily requirements of the organisation. A third party provider was required to provide the service.

Following the Cabinet decision in July, the Shared digital model with Camden and Islington had reduced in scale and scope and so there would be some IT and digital functions that that the Council would take forward directly and under its own control. The shared digital model still allowed the three boroughs, the financial advantage, in a procurement process, of being in a better negotiating position and driving a better deal.

With this in mind, the report was seeking authority for Camden to negotiate and purchase a Wide Area Network system from a single provider but with the Council still able to subsequently manage its own network, depending on the degree of control required. This decision was connected to achieving efficiency and value for money and allowing Council to do its job well.

RESOLVED

To delegate to the Executive of the London Borough of Camden, authority to award a contract for the provision of network services to a single supplier on behalf of all three Councils.

Reasons for decision

The delivery of this procurement exercise was delayed whilst decisions were made over the future shape and focus of ICT services across the three Councils.

At the Cabinet meeting on 17July, the Council approved the new model for delivery of local and Shared Digital services and the SDJC has been disbanded. Under the previous terms of reference for the SDJC, the decision to award the contract for the Wide Area Network service would have been taken by the SDJC. This decision-making authority has been reserved for Cabinet until the new services agreement and TUPE transfer process completes in October 2018.

This report seeks permission to delegate the award of contract to the Executive of the London Borough of Camden ensuring that the contract can be awarded as soon as practical.

This decision will not affect the future delivery of networks services at a local level as the services can be delivered and managed as a sovereign service for each Council, but continuing the procurement jointly will generate savings and enable future transformation work to be completed.

For Haringey any further delay in undertaking the procurement could place delivery of the programme at risk as the refresh and move to a new service will take a significant time, perhaps as long as 18 months.

Alternative options considered

There are two options available currently: delegate the decision or retain individual Council approvals:

i) Delegate award of contract to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

[Report of the  Assistant Director for Commissioning. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Adults and Health.]

Report seeking approval to award contracts for adults advocacy services following the conclusion of Haringey-led Barnet, Enfield and Haringey tender exercise.

The Leader introduced the report which concerned the provision of advocacy under the Mental Capacity Act and the Mental Health Act, work which has been led by Haringey in partnership with Barnet and Enfield in light of our shared mental health provider the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust. Provision of advocacy under these Acts was statutory and required specialist arrangements to be in place given the vulnerability and the particular circumstances of the people affected.

The Leader confirmed that the two organisations named in the recommendations were London Living Wage employers.

In response to questions from Cllr Dennison, the following was noted.

• Assurance was provided that the Council would continue to monitor the efficiency of the services to ensure the required outcomes for concerned residents was being achieved. There was a Quality Assurance team in the Commissioning team that undertook outreach work that fulfilled this role and regularly monitored the quality of existing and new contracts.

• With regard to the withdrawal of the first ranked provider, considerable efforts were made to discuss their withdrawal, including face-to-face contact.

• In relation to the differences in scoring, this information was contained in the exempt part of the report and could not be divulged in the open part of the meeting.

Following consideration of the exempt information:

RESOLVED

1.1.       That cabinet approves the award of contracts in respect of the provision of Joint Advocacy Services for the London Boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey to Bidder B and Bidder C for an initial period of 3 years with an option to extend for a further period of one plus one year.

1.2.       Subject to approval being granted the London Borough of Haringey will enter into contractual agreements jointly with the London Boroughs of Barnet and Enfield, and award contracts to the successful bidders.

Reasons for decision

The current contracts for IMHA / IMCA and Care Act expire on 30th September

2018.

A full tender process was carried out for the services and the award of contract approved by Cabinet in February 2018. Following the Cabinet decision, award notifications were issued and the process for establishing contracts with the 1st ranked tenderer was commenced to ensure the start of contracts in July 2018.

This provider withdrew from the tender in May 2018 and as such officers have extended our current contracts for IMHA/IMCA and Care Act Advocacy services until 30th September 2018 with a view to ensuring enough time for effective transition arrangements to be put in place with the incumbent providers and incoming providers.

Cabinet is asked to agree to award to the 2nd ranked tenderers following the withdrawal of the winning tenderer.

Alternative options considered

Haringey to commission advocacy services independently:

This option was considered but it was deemed more beneficial to jointly commission the services with neighbouring boroughs in order to benefit from economies of scale associated with collaborative procurements.

Haringey, Enfield and Barnet to re-commission IMHA, IMCA and Care Act Advocacy services again via a new procurement process, extending  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

[Report of the Assistant Director for Strategy and Communications. To be introduced by the Leader of the Council.]

Report seeking approval of the street furniture contract. Following a tender exercise the Council would like to award the contract to the winning contractor, a sign on fee and annual return of revenue for the term of the contract has been agreed. This is for the 'on street advertising'.

The Leader introduced the report, outlining that the Council had a duty to communicate and engage with all Haringey residents. Part of that duty involved ensuring that residents are aware of services that are available, activity and events that were taking place in the borough and any key messages the Council and partners needed to convey.

One channel used for this communication activity was on-street sites such as poster sites. The existing contract, which had run for over 20 years and included 29 static single and double-sided poster sites, which did not offer best value for the Council or residents. It currently incurred cost for the Council to utilise these sites and was an outdated method of communication. Therefore, it had been decided to review the current contract and set out an invitation to tender (ITT) and procurement process to deliver not only a more current method of communication but also engage in a contract that could deliver a commercial return. The report set out the result of the procurement process.

In response to questions from Councillor Dennison, the following was noted.

• In relation to the potential £2.5m income over 3 years, this was a guaranteed potential income based on the sites that have been identified. This was at a minimum level, depending on success rate.

• Noted that the conditions of the new contract allowed the Council to review the contract implementation, once sites set out in report were implemented, and then take a view, based on assessment of delivery against the contract, on whether to increase the threshold for income.

• In relation to the collection of information from the beacons and forward facing cameras, the Assistant director for Strategy and Communications would provide a written response.

• The digital screens would be placed on existing Poster sites so there was no conservation assessment required. The successful bidder would be working with Highways Team to ensure installations were well implemented.

Further to considering the exempt information:

RESOLVED

To approve the request for the Council to enter into a contract with Supplier A for the Provision of Digital Street Advertising in accordance with CSO 9.01.1 (Tender Process) as permitted under CSO 9.07.1(d) (Award Process) for a period of 10 years from I October 2018 – September 2028 for a contract income value of £2.05 million. There is an option to extend for a further 5 years for a total contract income value of £3 million.

Reasons for decision

The current contract will soon expire and there is a requirement for the Council to

use all possible channels to communicate with residents.

The Council is increasingly seeking opportunities to generate income and therefore contribute towards achieving the savings targets set in the medium term financial strategy.

The appointment of the Supplier (Supplier A) will allow the Council to achieve the

aims set in 4.1 and 4.2.

Through the new contractual arrangement, the Council will receive an expected income of £3 million over a 15-year period. This is in contrast to the current contract,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

[Report of the Interim Director for Finance. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance.]

To agree the approach for revised Unoccupied and Unfurnished Property Discounts.

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the report, which summarised the proposed cessation of two of the Council’s discretionary Council Tax discounts related to (i) unoccupied and unfurnished properties, and (ii) vacant properties requiring or undergoing major repair or structural alteration.

The Cabinet Member for Finance continued to outline the manifesto commitment to redistribution of the Council Tax burden. This included exploring discretionary relief and targeting support for residents in particular need. Over the last 4 years the Council had managed to maintain a balanced budget in a difficult financial context and these financial pressures were likely to continue. The cessation of two of the Council’s discretionary Council Tax discounts would also mean that the Council joined the pool of neighbouring boroughs that had already abolished this discount.

In taking forward this decision, Cabinet were aware that Council services need to be run and properties in the borough benefit from these services, including those that were vacant. The cessation of these discounts would enable the Council to raise money to mitigate the cost in supporting families most in need.

The following information was provided to questions from the Leader and Cllr Dennison:

• The cost of not abolishing these discounts sooner was more than £1m to the taxpayer over the last 3 years.

• In relation to homeowners of vacant properties which were undergoing major repair and restructure being deterred from bringing their home back into use, due to additional expense of the Council Tax payment, the Cabinet Member contended that the property would still benefit from Council Services and house price rises and therefore this was a fair charge.

• With regards to a Housing Association being deterred from updating properties or bringing them back into use by these discounts, the Cabinet Member responded and advised that Housing Associations had their own business model and would likely be able to take account of these additional charges.

• With regards to getting more empty properties back into use, and the suggestion to increase the liability of the home owner on a month-by-month basis, this would be considered going forward.

• Noted that there was a high degree of description, contained within government guidance, on what the Council could do with discounts and the report was seeking to operate within these descriptions, whilst seeking to bring properties back into market as soon as they can be included.

RESOLVED

To recommend to Full Council to cease two of the Council’s discretionary Council Tax discounts from 1 April 2019, namely for:

• Unoccupied and substantially unfurnished properties; and
• Vacant properties that either require or are undergoing major repair work to render them habitable; that have undergone such work in the past six months; or that are undergoing structural alteration.

Reasons for decision

The two Council Tax discounts are at the Council’s discretion. The administration has indicated a desire to appraise the existing fleet of discretionary powers given the continuing need to make savings to the wider budget.

Abolishing the two Council Tax discounts would generate an estimated saving of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

To note the significant and delegated actions taken by directors in July.

RESOLVED

To note the  significant and delegated decisions taken by Directors in July.

To consider any items admitted at Item 3 above.

None

Note from the Acting Democratic Services &Scrutiny Manager

Item 18, 19, 20 and 21  allow for the consideration of exempt information in relation to items 10, 12,13 &  3 respectively.

TO RESOLVE

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contain exempt information, as defined under paragraph, 3 and 5,  Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

RESOLVED

That the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting as the items below contain exempt information, as defined under paragraph, 3 and 5,  Part 1, schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

As per item 10

As per item 52.

As per item 12.

As per item 54.

As per item 13.

As per item 56.

To agree the exempt minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 17^th of July 2018.

RESOLVED

To agree the exempt minutes of the meeting held on the 17^th of July 2018.

To consider any items admitted at Item 3 above.

None