Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Customers, Transformation and Resources.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Transformation and Public Realm Investment]

Report to provide an update on the implementation of Fairness Commission recommendations and agree priority actions in the context of Covid impacts.

Note: Councillor Amin joined the meeting during this item.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Corporate Services introduced the report which set out the progress made in implementing the Fairness Commission recommendations to date; the plan to set out how Fairness Commission recommendations would be implemented as part of the Borough Plan refresh; and the proposal to consult Fairness Commissioners as part of the production of a forthcoming report in June 2012.

The Cabinet Member responded to questions from Councillor Emery:

-           Fairness Commissioners were not asked of any party allegiance when invited to join the Commission.

-           Haringey was one of eight London Boroughs to have failed the Housing Delivery Test.  It was important to note that this was a patently unfair measure of housing delivery, as it relied on developers building out on Planning Permissions which had been granted.  The test took into account a three year period which wasn’t reflective of the true picture of house building which was lumpy.  The Haringey Planning Department were one of the best performing planning services in London.

-           Part of the Commission involved reviewing significant evidence on different perspectives on economic models.

RESOLVED to

1.         Note the progress made implementing Fairness Commission recommendations to date (including as part of the Covid-19 response), including on the areas which have received particular attention as part of our response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

2.         Note the plan to set out how Fairness Commission recommendations will be implemented as part of the Borough Plan refresh, due to come to Cabinet for decision in June 2021.

3.         Note the proposal to consult Fairness Commissioners as part of the production  of June 2021 Cabinet report.

Reasons for decision

The Fairness Commission was established in July 2018, with the aim of better understanding the causes of unfairness in the borough through conversations with residents and other local stakeholders and developing practical recommendations for how the council and partners can tackle inequality and work to better support residents, communities and businesses in Haringey.

In its final report (February 2020), the Fairness Commission made a set of  recommendations to redress social, economic and political inequalities in the borough. A Cabinet report receiving the Commission’s report and recommendations noted the positive contribution evidence from the Commission had already made to informing on a number of important organisational agendas.

Within weeks of the publication of this final report, the UK went into the first national lockdown, and in the year since, the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on some of our residents has reinforced the need to address the injustices highlighted by the Commission, particularly: tackling poverty; prioritising equity and inclusion; and addressing structural inequality.

Learning from the Commission has helped shape our emergency response to the pandemic, including some of the ways we have worked differently with our communities and partners and in some of the new ways of delivering services. This impact is captured in a ‘Recovery and Renewal’ Cabinet report (December 2020), which is intended to inform the refresh of Haringey’s Borough Plan, 2019-23, in light of the impact of Covid-19 on both the borough’s residents and on the council, including the impact on council finances.

The refreshed borough plan will be published in June 2021 and will include detail on how Fairness Commission recommendations will inform how we deliver our priorities going forward. It will be accompanied by a detailed report setting out how recommendations will be implemented.

The purpose of this report is therefore to take stock of progress in implementation to date, as part of our response to Covid-19 (and more widely), with a focus on those themes from the Fairness Commission which have been particularly significant during the last year. 

An overview of progress in each of these themes is included in Appendix A. Detailed actions and deliverables for these will be defined in the June Borough Plan refresh Cabinet report.

Alternative options considered

None.