Agenda item

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

Tashan Bonner put forward a deputation to the panel on behalf of the TAG (Temporary Accommodation Group) Love Lane resident’s group. In addressing the panel he focused on concerns that the group had relating to transparency and mistreatment.

On transparency issues Mr Bonner said that, like many of the Temporary Accommodation tenants, they were not informed when moved on to the estate that it was a future demolition site and had received no indicative or definitive answer as to where they will be housed after demolition of the site. Residents are concerned that they could be moved into the private rented sector. With regards to mistreatment, residents felt that they had no housing security. Furthermore there were a number of families living in overcrowded spaces and unliveable conditions, including in housing that have problems with damp and mould.

Mr Bonner recommended that the Council should stop the practice of moving more Temporary Accommodation residents into the estate. This is continuing to make the situation worse as it meant that more people have the same insecurity and uncertainty and will also need to be moved out prior to demolition. He added that all Temporary Accommodation residents on the Love Lane estate should receive an offer of permanent housing.

In response to questions from Panel Members, Mr Bonner said:

• That the residents had been provided with a schedule of the proposed Love Lane estate redevelopment but no definitive information had been provided of where residents would be housed in future.
• That he had personally been living in Temporary Accommodation on the estate for three years but some of the other residents had lived there for significantly longer.

Another member of the delegation, Reverend Paul Nicolson, commented that there were 4,400 Haringey families currently in Temporary Accommodation, 3,200 of which were housed within the Borough with the reminder moved out of the borough. In response to a Freedom of Information request, he had received information that 671 families had been moved into the private rented sector which results in a significant increase in the levels of rent thereby causing poverty for families.

Another resident commented that a lot of people on the estate felt emotionally drained by their experience, by not knowing where they will eventually be moved to and by bringing up children in the current living conditions on the estate. These difficult living conditions included problems with anti-social behaviour on the estate such as drug abuse and prostitution. Lifts in the blocks were often out of service and sometimes hazardous as the lift car did not always line up with the floor when the doors are open. Water sometimes leaked through internal ceilings within flats.

Cllr Ruth Gordon thanked the delegation for attending the meeting and putting their concerns forward to the panel. She informed the delegation that, as a scrutiny panel, they were not a decision making body. However, the panel was able to take up questions on behalf of residents and investigate issues further as part of their work programme.

AGREED: That the Panel would:

• Consider investigating the delegation’s concerns as part of the Panel’s 2018/20 work programme.
• Raise concerns about the anti-social behaviour and the health and safety issues on the Love Lane estate with the relevant Cabinet member and invite members of the TAG Love Lane residents group to address the panel in future to ascertain whether these issues had improved or not.