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 Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Sarah Williams.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business (late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with as noted below).

None.

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.

None.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting. 

Referring to Item 16 of the minutes of the previous meeting, Cllr Gordon proposed that the topic of High Road West, which had been raised through the deputation, be taken on by the Panel as a full scrutiny review. Cllr Moyeed confirmed that this would go ahead and that the current intention is for the terms of reference will be submitted to the next meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 25^th November and that site visits to the Peacock industrial estate and the Love Lane Estate would take place within the next couple of weeks.

Referring to Item 18 of the minutes of the previous meeting, Cllr Hare said that comments made by Cllr Williams regarding the way that the content of planning applications are determined before being considered by the Planning Committee should be reflected in the minutes. The scrutiny officer said that the recording of the meeting could be checked and this detail added to the minutes. (ACTION)

Cllr Gordon referred to the response from an action point arising from the last meeting about the expected schedule for the redevelopment by Argent in Tottenham Hale. The response noted that there had been an archaeological find on the Welbourne site and that works have halted pending further investigations. Cllr Gordon asked what impact this delay is expected to have on the schedule for the redevelopment. Dan Hawthorn, Director for Housing, Regeneration & Planning, said that further details would be provided in writing. (ACTION)

AGREED: That the Panel proceed with a scrutiny review on High Road West with terms of reference for the review to be submitted to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 25^th November 2019.

AGREED: That, following a minor amend to Item 18 of the minutes of the meeting held on 12^th September 2019, the minutes can be approved as an accurate record.

DEFERRED FROM PREVIOUS MEETING - To provide the Panel with an update on the Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Health Check Report.

Rob Krzyszowski, Head of Planning Policy, introduced the report on this item which had been deferred from the previous meeting of the Panel in September 2019 due to lack of time. An overview of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) had been provided to a meeting of the Panel in January 2019 during which it was noted that a review of the management process of CIL was due to be carried out by a specialist consultancy in February 2019.

He said that the review was subsequently carried out by the independent planning consultancy Citiesmode in February and March 2019 which included workshops with senior Council officers and a review of policy and procedure documents. The final report was provided in May 2019 and the Council followed that up with an Action Plan. The report concluded that the Council has “systems in place which align with the principal legislative and regulatory requirement”, that “there are elements of good practice in the Council’s approach”, that the AD for Planning “maintains a good oversight of the systems”, but that “there are a number of deficiencies that reduce the efficiency, effectiveness and resilience of the service”.

In response to questions from the Panel, Rob Krzyszowski said:

• Asked about whether the Council had lost money as a consequence of not recording land charge data, he explained that the Council has a statutory role to keep land charges information so that when properties are bought/sold, a land search can identify whether there are any outstanding payments relating the property. CIL on a development is a land charge so anyone buying the land would have this outstanding charge flagged to them. The CIL report found that the CIL wasn’t always recorded directly onto the land charges so were not coming up in the searches, although it was always picked up later in the process. There was no financial loss to the Council as a consequence of this. The process has now been tightened up so the CIL is registered correctly and that this is picked up earlier through the searches.
• With regards to the RICS CIL index, CIL is indexed for inflation so that, in the time lag from when the CIL charge is set and the planning permission is granted, the value is retained. The BCIS index previously used had been problematic as it was not publicly available but the Government has recently replaced this with the RICS CIL index which is publicly available and will be simpler to use. Cllr Gordon asked about inflationary costs relating to the bus station in Tottenham Hale and Dan Hawthorn said that this is likely to be because the scheme is taking longer than originally anticipated rather that because of any miscalculation of inflation but that he would follow up with further detail on this. Cllr Gordon requested that this include details of full costings on what funds have been put into the Tottenham Hale redevelopment overall. (ACTION)
• On the back-up of CIL and S106 files,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

DEFERRED FROM PREVIOUS MEETING - To provide more details to the Panel about the £10m programme for social and economic support for businesses and residents to be provided by the developer Lendlease as part of the High Road West regeneration scheme.

Dan Hawthorn, Director of Housing, Regeneration & Planning, introduced the report on this item which had been deferred from the previous meeting of the Panel in September 2019 due to lack of time. He said that, in the context of the wider development agreement between the Council and Lendlease for the High Road West scheme, there was a commitment from Lendlease to commit £10m to a programme of socio-economic interventions in the local area in acknowledgement of the disruptions and opportunities associated with the scheme. This programme is structured around five thematic headings set out in paragraph 2.9 of the report. However, as the development scheme is currently being reworked, the work on the socio-economic programme has been paused so a greater level of detail on how the £10m will be spent is not yet available.

In response to questions from the Panel, Dan Hawthorn said:

·         That the use of the funding is expected to spread out over the life of the scheme at roughly £1m per year over 10 years.

·         That as this work is paused the Council does not want to make assumptions about what the scheme will look like as the scheme could change.

·         That as with any major development scheme there would typically be both significant S106/CIL contributions as well as direct investments in infrastructure and this additional £10m is part of the bidding approach from the developer as well as a recognition of the complex social and economic problems in Tottenham that would benefit from additional investment. It is important that this investment it spent in a way that aligns with the Council’s priorities and vision for the area and Lendlease have been happy to accept this.

·         The status of the scheme is that the development agreement between the Council and Lendlease has been formally agreed by Cabinet.

·         That he was determined that the £10m from the programme shouldn’t be used as part of the funding requirement for the extra Council homes on the site and that it should be kept for the purposes for which it was originally intended. That would be to mix the two things up and so the need for new Council homes should be met through the grant from the Mayor of London.

·         That it is a fundamental principle of the Council’s approach to the scheme is that it should be based on and constantly refined as a result of engagement with residents and the wider stakeholder community while being balanced with the Council’s priorities as defined in the Borough Plan. This is a long-term commitment to recognise a range of different perspectives with the ‘stakeholder community’ including people who are resident in the area, people running businesses in the area and people who use services and businesses in the area.  

·         That it is reasonable to look at the scheme in the context of the Council’s approach to business support and community wealth building and this will need to be an element of the work to ensure that the Council’s priorities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

An opportunity to question the Cabinet Member for Housing & Estate Renewal, Cllr Emine Ibrahim, on developments within her portfolio.

Cllr Emine Ibrahim, Cabinet Member for Housing & Estate Renewal, responded to questions from the Panel on issues relating to her portfolio:

·         In response to a question from Cllr Hare about the ongoing problems with maintenance on social housing estates in Borough, Cllr Ibrahim said that she recognises the challenges. Up to last year only 75% of Haringey’s social housing met the Decent Homes standard and the communal areas are also a huge challenge. There is a financial commitment to bring 95% of homes up to the decent homes standard by 2022 and also funding has been made available through the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to go a step further to work towards Decent Homes Plus which covers the area from the kerb to the property so that communal areas are covered. Members should receive emails about major works that take place within their wards. Members who wish to receive more information about work in their ward can also write to Cllr Ibrahim as Cabinet Member. Cllr Hare requested a written briefing for all Panel Members from Cllr Ibrahim on Decent Homes Plus including details of the expected timescales. (ACTION) Cllr Gordon requested that Decent Homes Plus be added as an agenda item to a future Panel meeting. (ACTION) Cllr Ibrahim said that she was well aware of the challenges and historic perception about the issue of repairs and that the funds in the HRA must be used responsibly. Some cases come to the attention of Members because a resident has raised it directly with them but it was also important to be conscious of the cases that do not get directly raised with Members or that affect the most hard to reach residents. This includes residents for whom English is not their first language and local authorities do not have the same resources for translation services that they used to. Recently the Council retendered the floating support contracts for local community organisations with a focus on independent housing related advice including those that deliver services for communities identified as having a high level of need. Asked by Cllr Hare how these services are monitored for performance, Cllr Ibrahim said that this falls under the remit of Gill Taylor and a briefing on this could be requested for a future Panel meeting. (ACTION)

·         On a request from Cllr Gordon for an update on the Broadwater Farm estate, Cllr Ibrahim said that all 90 secure tenants have now moved from Tangmere block and accepted alternative accommodation. With regards to the 24 leasehold properties, 12 properties have been acquired from Newlon Housing Trust, there are sales of 6 further properties expected to complete by November and negotiations are ongoing with the remaining 6 leaseholders. Of those 6 leaseholders, only 3 still live in the block. In Northolt block there were 83 secure tenants of which 54 have now moved. A further 9 have accepted an offer and are expected to move out in the next few weeks. The remaining secure tenants were being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

To update the Panel on progress towards the new draft Housing Strategy which is expected to be presented to Cabinet in early 2020.

Alan Benson, AD for Housing, presented the reports for both items 10 and 11 together as they were linked. He said that the Council’s current Housing Strategy had been published in December 2016 and had been due to run until 2022. However, there have since been changes in national housing policy, in regional policy from the Mayor of London including funding to build Council housing, and in local priorities as the Housing Strategy still refers to the Haringey Development Vehicle and does not include the housing targets that are included in the new Borough Plan. The Housing Strategy will therefore be rewritten with the top priority being the target to build 1,000 new Council homes and will also include homelessness, rough sleeping and the quality of the existing housing stock. There is a Members engagement process which takes place before publishing a draft of the new Housing Strategy, and this involves a Members steering group chaired by Cllr Ibrahim which has met three times already. The aim is currently to bring the draft Housing Strategy to Cabinet early in the New Year, which will then be published for consultation.

On the delivery of new Council homes, Alan Benson said that the report focuses on the Council’s progress towards delivering its target of 1,000 new Council homes. Council housing hasn’t been built on this scale in Haringey since the later 1970s/early 1980s when there were around 22,000 Council homes. There are now only 15,000 Council homes in Haringey as a result of the Right to Buy programme. However, the Mayor of London has recently allocated funding to enable the building of new Council homes across London. The new Haringey Cabinet agreed in 2018 to set up a Wholly Owned Company (WOC) to deliver new Council homes as this would enable borrowing outside of the government restrictions imposed on Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing. However, later that year, the Government lifted the cap on HRA borrowing so the WOC route was rendered unnecessary.

Alan Benson continued by saying that the report covers the three main areas required for the delivery of Council housing which are land, funding and capacity within the Council’s team. There are 60 sites that have been identified for development in the first stage and work on these is underway. Another group of sites will soon be identified and reported to Cabinet, probably in January. Significant funding of £62.8m has been provided to Haringey from the Mayor of London although this is not enough in itself to finance the building programme and so further funding will be required through HRA borrowing. There has been extensive staff recruitment to support the programme and there are now 18 people in the Housing delivery team. The Council is currently on track to deliver to its milestone target which is for 500 Council homes to have planning approval and for 350 Council homes to have started on site by May 2020.

In response to questions from the Panel, Alan Benson said:

·         That most  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Paper to follow.

See item 32. The Housing Strategy item and the Council Housing Team capacity building item were taken together.

·         16^th December 2019 (7pm)

·         3^rd March 2020 (7pm)

·         16^th Dec 2019

·         3^rd Mar 2020