Cllr Ibrahim, Cabinet Member for Housing and Estate
Renewal addressed the panel about recent developments on issues
within her portfolio:
With regards to progress on the decant of Tangmere
block on Broadwater Farm, there are still some leaseholders and
tenants remaining in the block. The gas supply to the block has now
been switched off so the Council is paying the extra costs of
residents running electric heaters. It was not possible to provide
the panel with specific information about the residents remaining
in the block because there were so few that to provide much detail
could make them identifiable.
Leaseholders have all been offered a move to private
accommodation funded for at least 12 months and have also been
offered funded independent financial advice and payments for
reasonable costs associated with moving home. They have been
offered the market value of homes plus a Home Loss payments of 10%
for resident leaseholders and 7.5% for non-resident leaseholders.
Some non-resident leaseholders are reluctant to sell because they
do not wish to lose the income stream associated with the property.
All tenants have been offered alternative accommodation prior to
the gas being switched off. There are a number of reasons why some
tenants have not yet moved, such as decoration work being carried
out at the new properties before they move in.
In response to questions from the panel:
- Sean
McLaughlin, Managing Director at Homes for Haringey (HfH),
confirmed that there are some leaseholders and tenants who have
refused the offers made to them but that no-one was refusing to
move altogether. It is hoped that things will move a little quicker
now and a negotiated process is preferable but the Council is
looking at implementing Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) processes
and if this is required then the process could take many months. A
CPO would result in paying market price whereas the current offer
is market price + 10%.
- On the cost
of the rebuild, Cllr Ibrahim said that it was always known that the
cost of the rebuild would be more than the cost of strengthening
which had been estimated at £167k per unit, rebuild figures
of £200k to £220k per unit had previously been
mentioned. On timescales Dan Hawthorn, Director of Housing &
Growth, said that now that the decision had been made to demolish
the two blocks the next steps would be completing the rehousing of
Tangmere residents and beginning and completing the rehousing of
Northolt residents. In parallel with this the Council needs to
continue with the work on the district heating system and the
strengthening of the blocks that are remaining. Then there is the
demolition contract and beginning a conversation with residents
after the future design of the estate using the vacant plots of
land after the demolition. It is difficult to be specific about the
costs and timescale of such a project until that conversation has
taken place. Engagement with residents will be important in
achieving the quickest, best quality outcome and a commitment had
been made to hold a ballot of residents on the development plans.
All Tangmere residents are still within Haringey borough and the
Council is committed to involving them in the consultation
process.
- Dan Hawthorn
said that the redevelopment should not be looked at as a standalone
project but that what is needed is a single integrated plan for the
future of the whole Broadwater Farm estate. This is in the process
of being produced and it is hoped that this can be made available
in the first quarter of 2019/20. Cllr Ibrahim said that there are
no plans to demolish the estate.
- Cllr Ibrahim
confirmed that there are just over 100 units in Northolt block and
they are all 1-bedroom properties, some of which are overcrowded,
which creates challenges for rehousing and puts additional pressure
on the Council’s targets in reducing the use of Temporary
Accommodation. Dan Hawthorn said that the precise timing on
beginning the rehousing of Northolt residents had been delegated to
Helen Fisher, Director of Housing, Regeneration & Planning but
it was expected that this would start soon. Sean McLaughlin said
that the proposed approach is to put tenants into Band A of the
allocations process which would give them high
priority.
- Sean
McLaughlin said the Broadwater Farm estate had not previously had
the Decent Homes investment that it should have had. There was now
an intention to do that but the strengthening work has to be done
first. The estate service standards are not as good as they should
have been. A deep clean programme was being rolled out across the
blocks and the communal repairs were also being looked
at.
- Cllr Ibrahim
said that she was acutely aware of the challenges on Temporary
Accommodation (TA) and that the Purchase and Repair scheme was
aimed at bringing down the costs of TA. Dan Hawthorn said that the
Temporary Accommodation Reduction Plan aims to take a range of
actions including by improving our own supply of TA housing and
reducing reliance on expensive private rental sector accommodation.
Cllr Gordon suggested that the panel comes back to the topic of TA
in more depth at the next Q&A with Cllr Ibrahim in
March.
- Cllr Ibrahim
said that there is a report on the Wholly Owned Company for Housing
Development (WOC) going to Cabinet in February on the structure and
set up of the WOC including the Board of Directors. Since the
recent lifting of the HRA borrowing cap there are some things that
now can be done within the HRA that perhaps would have been done
through the WOC so there is a changed environment that it will be
necessary to adapt to. Haringey is currently only at 80% decent
homes and the manifesto commitment was to reach 95% so £250
would be invested in the Council’s stock over the next five
years. Dan Hawthorn said that the Board of Directors of the WOC
will be Council officers and the shareholder Board will be the
group that sets the parameters that the officers makes operational
decisions. The WOC will be a mechanism that allows additional
functions to be carried out but will not be a distinct organisation
in itself. The centre of gravity remains within the Council as
opposed to HfH which is an Arms-Length Management
Organisation.