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’.

There were no apologies for absence

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).

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.

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

The Panel received a public question from Mr John Poulter, relating to housing disrepair claims. A summary of the key points of his question are set out below:

• What is the Council doing to ensure Council Taxpayer’s money was being spent wisely and that value for money was being achieved when an increasing number of Housing disrepair claims were being taken out against the Council by leaseholders and tenants.
• The Council was failing to carry out repairs and major works and these properties were then deteriorating, to the point of significant legal action being taken by the tenants and leaseholders.
• The situation was being exacerbated by poor communication from the repairs team and a more general failure of different Council departments not talking to each other.
• The issue was disproportionately affecting elderly, frail and otherwise vulnerable tenants.
• There was a failure of contract management in order to get the repairs done.
• The questioner received an FOI response that identified that there were 4753 outstanding legal disrepair claims against Haringey Council.
• The questioner suggested that the Council should set up a dedicated panel to review these cases and get the repairs issues resolved before the situation was escalated to the point of legal action being taken.

In response, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, Cllr Sarah Williams, thanked Mr Poulter for coming along to the meeting and putting his points across. The Cabinet Member set out that the Council would encourage residents not to go through the legal process, as this often made the repairs process lengthier and more difficult to resolve. Instead, the Council would prefer residents to report repair issues to us directly. It was suggested that ultimately, the only winners of legal disrepair claims were solicitors. The Cabinet Member noted that this was not such a significant industry for disrepair lawyers, there would be much more money for repairs and improvement programmes. In addition, it was commonly known that these solicitors work under a success fee arrangement, where they will take a portion of tenant compensation, in addition to serving a large bill on the Council. The Cabinet Member commented that this represented a poor use of public money and ultimately deprives Council tenants of their own resources for almost no additional benefit.

The Cabinet Member advised that the Council was obliged to follow a particular process once a legal claim has been received. This involved disclosing records to the solicitor, arranging for an initial inspection and agreeing upon the scope of works based on that report. It would then be necessary to code and issue that work to a contractor and complete the job. Unfortunately, the legal process, particularly when litigated can significantly slow down the process of completing repairs, causing greater frustration. The Cabinet Member set out that, in response to increased levels of disrepair claims, significant progress has been made to adequately resource disrepair works. The Council has a robust process in place for the completion of works and the Cabinet Member commented that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 217.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting. 

Cllr Bevan advised that he had arranged to meet with Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing before Christmas, but that Clarion had failed to respond to his requests for a meeting.

Cllr Bevan also requested that the Member contact sheet around housing association contacts should be formatted in such a way as to allow the contact details to be cut and pasted from the document.

The Panel requested clarification about the frequency that the £20 meal allowance was paid to tenants who were residing in hotels. (Action: Jahedur Rahman).

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting on 5^th November were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

To consider and make recommendations to Cabinet on the Draft 2025/26 Budget proposals relating to the Council’s Housing Revenue Account.

The Council sets a business plan for its Housing Revenue Account (HRA), every year. This business plan considers projected income and expenditure over a 10- and 30-year period and the income generated from tenants and leaseholders is used solely for the purpose of investment in its homes, in delivering new council homes, and providing good quality services to its tenants and leaseholders.

The Panel received a report which set out the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan and Budget 2025/26 proposals relating to the HRA. The report was considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 10^th December. It was noted that Every year, the Council set a business plan for its Housing Revenue Account. This business plan considered projected income and expenditure over a 10-year and 30-year period. The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is the Council’s record of the income and revenue expenditure relating to Council housing and related services. Under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the HRA is ring-fenced and cannot be subsidised by the General Fund. Since April 2012, the HRA has been self-financing. Under self-financing, Councils retain all the money they receive from rent and use it to manage and maintain their homes. Setting a medium-term and long-term business plan for the HRA allows the Council to plan for investment in its housing stock, investment in building new council housing for the borough and to ensure that services for tenants and leaseholders continue to be delivered.

The report was introduced by Kaycee Ikegwu, Head of Finance and Chief Accountant, as set out in the agenda pack at pages 19-40. Cllr Carlin, Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services was present for this item, along with Cllr Sarah Williams, Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning. Jahedur Rahman, Director of Housing was present along with Hannah Adler, Head of Housing Policy & Strategy, and Robbie Erbmann, AD for Housing. The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Panel sought clarification about the key drivers of the in-year budget position as at Quarter 2, which was projected to achieve a surplus of £4.365m against a budgeted surplus of £8.603m (an underachievement of £4.238m). In response officers advised that the three key drivers were: A rise in disrepair cases, which included settlement costs and also the costs of undertaking repairs; an increase in damp and mould referrals – a dedicated team for damp and mould along with a dedicated hotline had been established to tackle the increased number of cases; and additional costs arising from having to place families in hotels. The service was working to try and reduce this cost through use of temporary decants, were possible.

b.    The Panel sought clarification about the figures in the report for a reduction in the discount caps for Right to Buy. Officers confirmed that the discount caps would no longer be indexed in line with inflation and would revert to 2003 figures, which was £16k, rather than the recent maximum sum of £136,400. In relation to a follow-up about the financial impact of this reduction, officers advised that they expected that the number of RTB applications would fall and the Council would keep more of its tenanted stock. However, there would be less money generated from Right to Buy receipts and this tended to be used for acquisitions. Officers advised that there had been a large increase in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 219.

To consider any items admitted at item 3 above.

N/A

6^th March 2025

6^th March