Cllr Lucia das Neves welcomed Cllr Mark Blake - Leader of the Council, and Andy Donald - Chief
Executive of the Council to the meeting.
Cllr Blake thanked the Committee for their invitation to the
meeting and introduced the session by making the following points
about the priorities of the new administration:
- The use of Exceptional Financial
Support (EFS) was a huge issue for the Council and he had concluded that this was
unsustainable and punitive. A call had recently been held with the
leaders and chief executives of 18 other local authorities,
controlled by various political parties, which were also receiving
EFS. They had similar views about the unsustainable and punitive
nature of the current situation and a
joint letter had been sent to the Secretary of State.
- The forthcoming Budget setting
process would probably be the most demanding in the history of the
Council as there was a risk of commissioners coming in to run the
Council. The process would need to be a consultative one and the agreement of more than one party would
be required due to the No Overall Control position.
- At the centre of the financial
challenge was that 80% of the Council’s budget was spent on
statutory duties and so there was also a message for central
government about how these markets were regulated.
- Performance improvement across the
Council was also required on issues including housing voids,
housing repairs, temporary accommodation costs and the handling of
complaints.
- In relation to manifesto commitments
to improve the lives of residents, the importance of the following
points was highlighted:
o
The forthcoming work of the new Popular Assets Commission
(PAC).
o
Addressing the challenges faced by residents in the Northumberland
Park area.
o
The Renters’ Forum which had been established the
administration’s commitment to engaging with impacted groups
to inform Council policy.
- There was ongoing work to improve
accountability and transparency in terms of financial and
performance information.
- As Council Leader he was conducting
a series of town hall meetings with residents throughout the
Borough.
Andy Donald then highlighted some key points
regarding the challenges with the annual budget and the requirement
for EFS, reductions in government grants over many year and rising
costs in areas such as housing and adult social care. It was noted
that performance management would be structured around the new
Corporate Delivery Plan (CDP) which was expected to be agreed by
the Cabinet in November. Andy Donald also referred to opportunities
to bring forward some major placemaking schemes including at High
Road West and at Wood Green as well as continuing to expand
investment in social housing.
Cllr Blake and Andy Donald then responded to
questions from the Committee:
- Asked by Cllr Cawley-Harrison about
his aspirations for the next 12 months, Cllr Blake said that
improvement in financial performance and on housing was
absolutely key. This included housing
repairs and voids. He referred to a recent meeting with the
Residents Association of Broadwater Farm which had been clear that
the Council needed to make decisions about the long-term future of
some housing because the repair issues were endemic. Cllr Blake
added that improvements were also needed in the complaints process
in terms of resolving issues and also in
how residents were communicated with.
- Asked by Cawley Harrison about the
expectations for the PAC, Cllr Blake said that a procurement
process was being worked through and that the approach was for the
Council to be an ‘enabler’ rather than a
‘blocker’ for positive change in local communities.
Andy Donald added that the first phase involved having a clear
shared understanding of what was trying to be achieved with Council
properties as community assets and then mobilising the organisation
around that.
- Cllr Cawley-Harrison commented that
a scheme similar to the PAC had been
developed in Woking but was necessary because there were
insufficient funds to manage the Council’s assets. He
requested further details on the financial approach in Haringey.
Cllr Blake clarified that the objective was to enable greater
community control and was not financially driven. He referred back to the example of Northumberland Park
where he said there was a sense that previous investment had not
impacted on the area as a whole and that assets such as the
Northumberland Park Resource Centre had not been fully utilised.
The PAC provided an opportunity to galvanise the local community in
a proactive way and it would also be
important to involve Councillors in that process.
- Cllr das Neves asked for further
explanation about what the organisation Abundance was being paid to
do in relation to the PAC. Cllr Blake said that he had not seen a
detailed brief for Abundance but that this could be provided to the
Committee. (ACTION) However, he explained that this involved
developing a pathway to enable implementation of the theory and for
civil society organisations to engage with the Council around
thriving local community centres. Andy Donald added that this work
would also involve reviewing and revising the Council’s
policy on community assets. Cllr Blake confirmed that Councillors
would be engaged with the process and that this should involve a
Members briefing at an early stage.
- Cllr Small requested further details
about the wider scope of the PAC and whether the sale of Council
assets would be frozen until the PAC was fully operational. He also
queried whether financial decision-making would rest with the PAC
or with the Cabinet. Cllr Blake responded that these points would
be developed as part of the process with Abundance and reiterated
the commitment to full engagement with Councillors. He underlined
again the need to utilise community assets more fully, particularly
in more deprived neighbourhoods. Andy Donald added that, until a
revised policy was established, the current policy would stand and
any changes to the disposal list would need to go through a formal
governance process.
- Asked by Cllr Cawley-Harrison about
transformation of services, Cllr Blake said that there would be
some recommendations in a forthcoming report from CIPFA who had
been conducting a review in Haringey. Andy Donald added that the
government had recently announced some additional funding to
support transformation work in adult social care, children’s
services and housing. This would include looking at how to prevent
or delay demand for crisis services, supporting people to live
independently and empowering the local community and voluntary
sector. The Council would also need to do more to speed up
back-office functions through the use of
technology to free up staff to be more front-facing.
- Cllr Small referred to housing voids
and noted the additional pressure on voids created by new builds
which meant that the Council’s 1% target was not reached.
Andy Donald explained that the Housing team were working with the
Cabinet Member for Housing on the options to reduce the number of
voids including the level of resource allocated compared to other
priorities such as repairs. There had been good progress in recent
months on Temporary Accommodation voids and the mobilisation of
additional resources to deal with voids in the Council stock which
were unacceptably high. Cllr Blake explained that there were
sometimes issues around verifying the information in relation to
specific voids.
- Cllr Small followed up the previous
point made about housing that was in an unsustainable condition,
such as at Broadwater Farm, and asked how families would be housed
if they were required to move out. Cllr Blake responded that it was
necessary to accept the situation and look carefully at the options
available given the shortage of housing supply and the ongoing
issues with repairs and to continue dialogue with residents. Cllr
das Neves suggested that Councillors could be asked about voids in
their wards and these details recorded. (ACTION)
- Cllr Gray highlighted the potential
role of community assets including day centres, food banks and
support networks in providing better access to Council services and
health checks. She suggested that models used for this in Camden
and Islington could be considered. Cllr Blake agreed with the
benefits of co-locating health and community activities noting that
this aligned to the current NHS locality agenda and was also
relevant to the dearth of primary care services in Tottenham. He
said that this issue was high on the Council’s agenda. Andy
Donald added that Haringey had secured the trailblazer status in
the North and West London area for the health neighbourhood work
which came with a commitment from health partners and some funding
support. This work would be overseen by the Health & Wellbeing
Board.
- Cllr Jenner requested further
details on the Leader of the Council’s approach to community
engagement, particularly in relation to the Council’s plans
and budget setting.
o
Cllr Blake replied that more face-to-face communications was needed
and that he needed to lead from the front on this. Two events had
been held so far at Broadwater Farm and at Northumberland Park with
other events to follow including in Crouch End. These events would
be continued on a longer-term basis and provided an opportunity for
Council officers to engage with local
residents and connect with the challenges they faced in the
community.
o
Cllr Blake also expressed the intention to engage more effectively
with service user groups and cited the model employed by the
Library Service with the Friends of the libraries as a positive
example involving a strategic focus and quarterly meetings.
o
Cllr Blake added that he had requested a paper on pre-scrutiny work
which would be considered by the Constitutional Working Group.
- Asked by Cllr Jenner about the
policy direction of national government, including on devolution,
Andy Donald expressed cautious optimism about the positive language
from government which could lead to more power for regional mayors
but added that it remained unclear how much devolution would be
pushed through to local government. There was also a debate to be
had about how Councils could have more influence in shaping
devolution in London, with examples including the employment &
skills agenda and the commissioning of services such as housing and
social care over a wider area.
- Asked by Cllr Jenner about the need
for cross-party support for the forthcoming budget setting process,
Cllr Blake acknowledged that this would be a challenging process
but that it was crucial to work together to agree a budget. He
highlighted the potential impact for residents of commissioners
coming into the Council and the importance of addressing budget
issues so that this did not happen.
- Asked Cllr das Neves about the
Council’s relationship with Tottenham Hotspur, Cllr Blake
acknowledged that there had been disquiet locally in relation to
the non-footballing events arising from a planning agreement in
2024. His view was that this had been a good deal for the Club but
not for the local area and so he had asked officers to consider how
this could be challenged. He had been told that there was little
leverage in challenging the planning agreement and so he wanted
officers to consider conducting a review of the local impact, for
example of the impact of traffic, crime and anti-social behaviour
arising from large events. Cllr Blake referred to his party’s
manifesto which expressed the view that the Club should voluntarily
establish an endowment fund from the profits made from events.
He’d had one meeting on this with a follow-up meeting due in
October.
- Cllr das Neves requested further
detail about the approach to the Council house building programme,
Cllr Blake expressed the view that council housing was one of the
best investments that the state could make. He explained that there
were issues with slippage on the programme which were being worked
through, but that the administration was supportive of the
programme. He had recently visited one of the schemes near Seven
Sisters Road and had been impressed by the quality of the new build
housing.
- Cllr das Neves asked for a view on
the trade-offs involved with big-picture decisions on resources and
priorities. Cllr Blake said that the new Corporate Delivery Plan
(CDP) would set out more detail on priorities. Andy Donald added
that the Budget would be a financial manifestation of the CDP and
that, while there were always tricky conversations to be had when
there was not enough money, this should be guided by the CDP.
- Asked by Cllr das Neves about how to
reduce overspends in the non-demand led service areas, Cllr Blake
agreed that there was a need to improve the recent 60% success rate
on savings plans. Andy Donald added that departments were largely
performing well on this but that the area that particularly
required improvement was the cross-cutting savings. Full Council
had agreed to establish a cross-party group to hold the
organisation to account on savings delivery, which Andy Donald
chaired, and the aim of this was to ensure that there was
sufficient challenge, support and accountability in this area.
- Asked by Cllr das Neves and Cllr
Cawley-Harrison how financial governance and oversight was
currently operating in the absence of a CDP, Andy Donald explained
that the process went through Cabinet and the Corporate Leadership
Team (CLT) on a monthly basis and
reports on budget progress were discussed. The future governance
model had not yet been established and so the existing governance
model was being used.
- Cllr Cawley-Harrison requested
further details on accountability in areas of long-term
underperformance including savings delivery, customer experience
and housing repairs. Andy Donald explained that there were clear
targets and accountability mechanisms on the officer side with
robust conversations about what hadn’t worked and what
further support was required when targets had not been achieved. On
the political side, Cabinet members were held to account through
various means including scrutiny processes. Cllr Blake reiterated
that he was committed to greater transparency on performance
management and financial information that was made available to the
public. This could include a performance and financial bulletin
included with every Council Tax bill for example. He also spoke
about taking accountability through his leadership role when things
went wrong in individual cases and working with officers to address
the problems. He noted that the aforementioned
CIPFA report would include measures on accountability and
that he would also welcome any suggestions from the Committee.
- Cllr Small commented that
performance management information should also set out the context
within which officers were working because of the immense pressures
that they were often facing.
- On a point raised about Council Tax,
Cllr Blake commented that, while he did not blame the overall
financial position of the Council on previous administrations, he
did feel that previous Council Tax freezes had a negative impact on
the Council’s finances and reserves.
- Cllr Small asked if a freeze to
leasehold service charges would be a political priority and when
this might be implemented. Cllr Blake confirmed that this was a
manifesto commitment but could not give an absolute promise due to
the very challenging budget process. Cllr Small commented that the
manifesto committee was itself the promise. Cllr Blake expressed
the hope that this would make it through the budget process.
- Asked by Cllr Small about his
position on school ‘academisation’, Cllr Blake said
that his administration opposed academisation but that this was
being pushed by national government and would create real
challenges in areas such as transfer of assets and was in the
context of falling school rolls across London.
Cllr das Neves thanked the Leader of the
Council and the Chief Executive for their attendance and looked
forward to further details being presented in
the near future on the new CDP.