Agenda and minutes

Cllr Aksanoglu, Chair of the meeting in Cllr Greer’s absence, welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Margaret Greer, Cllr Nawshad Ali, Cllr Kate Anolue and Cllr James Hockney. Cllr Greer was substituted by Cllr Nicki Adeleke. Cllr Ali was substituted by Cllr Ayten Guzel. Cllr Anolue was substituted by Cllr Nia Stevens. Cllr Hockney was substituted by Cllr Elisa Morreale.

Apologies for absence were also received from Cllr George Savva, Cabinet Member for Social Housing, and from Cllr Chinelo Anyanwu, Cabinet Member for Public Spaces, Culture and Local Economy.

Members of the Council are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to the items on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the minutes of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meetings held on

9 May 2023, 24 May 2023 and 21 June 2023.

AGREED the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings held on 9 May 2023, 24 May 2023 and 21 June 2023 be confirmed as a correct record.

To review the decision of the Executive Director of Housing, Regeneration & Development  taken on 14 August 2023 as a result of the matter having been called-in.

Details of the decision taken and issued on 14 August 2023 had been included on the Publication of Decision List No.14/23-24. The report also set out officer responses to the reason for call-in.

The decision had been called-in for review by 10 members of the Council: Councillors Lee Chamberlain (Lead), Hannah Dyson, Peter Fallart, Alessandro Georgiou, Adrian Grumi, Chris Joannides, Andy Milne, Paul Pratt, Ruby Sampson, and Emma Supple.

The reasons for call-in received from ten Members of the Council, together with officer responses to the reasons for call-in.

The reasons for the call-in were presented by Cllr Lee Chamberlain as Lead Member.

Cllr Chamberlain summarised the concerns in respect of the decision. The scoring of the tender submissions was questioned. There was concern that the recommended contractor’s bid may not be feasible or sustainable. There was concern that either the selected contractor would fail to deliver the safety inspections to the required standard, or that there would be further funding adjustment requests once the contract was secured. Assurance was sought that the service would be delivered within budget, and that proper inspections would be completed.

The Chair asked officers for their responses.

Joanne Drew, Strategic Director of Housing and Regeneration, provided context that the service would cover around 15,000 Council homes and was one of ten contracts this year for compliance services. The Council’s Housing function had a strong team for statutory compliance which performed very strongly. They worked with Procurement colleagues and used professional contractors.

Andrew Cotton, Interim Investment and Resident Safety Programme Director, responded in further detail to confirm that the successful bidder had confirmed compliance with the specification. He provided assurance that the bidder met the quality standard in this function. Quality control included that technicians held appropriate qualifications, the company performed quality control, there were test checks, and that there would be contract monitoring by Council officers. KPIs were agreed and specified in the contract. There were provisions for improvement notices and for contract termination. In respect of the pricing, this was broadly in line with pre-tender estimates. A clarification meeting had been held with the contractor, who advised that they used multi-skilled technicians, avoiding the need for revisits. They avoided use of sub-contractors. They successfully delivered services to other local authorities. The scoring and weighting within tender evaluations would be made explicit in future reports. The tender process had been reviewed, and it was supported by the external procurement specialists.

The Chair welcomed questions from other members of the committee:

Q1.  Which other local authorities worked with this contractor?

A1.  They included Lewisham, Greenwich and Camden boroughs, and Thurrock.

Q2.  Could officers give assurance that the budget would not be exceeded?

A2.  There would be effective contract monitoring. Regular reports were provided and there was robust monitoring of budgets and processes to manage any potential overspending within the Council. The risk of overspending had been examined: if there was a need for spending for safety that would be a priority for the Council and require re-budgeting, but this contract was for regular servicing so was quite predictable in respect of costs.

Q3.  Further details were requested on how the successful bidder’s tender submission had been evaluated.

A3.  Important aspects within the bid were highlighted.

Q4.  Why was the decision made to offer one contract for the whole borough?

A4.  It was considered more efficient to use one contractor for the whole borough.

Q5.  Further details were requested on the inflation allowance specified.

A5.  This was standard practice, and was averaged over the period  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The original decision documents

(This item contains exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person – including the authority holding that information) of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended).

The Call-in Lead, Cllr Lee Chamberlain, summarised the points made during the discussion, but considered that the underlying concerns had not been fully addressed particularly in respect of cost control and monitoring of quality. He called for the decision to be referred back to the decision-maker to be looked at again.

The Chair, Cllr Mahmut Aksanoglu, summed up the main points of discussion in the call-in and the officers’ response.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered the reasons provided for the call-in and responses set out in the officers’ report. Having considered the verbal responses from the relevant officers, the Committee AGREED to confirm the original decision made by the Executive Director of Housing, Regeneration and Development.

To receive the report of Matthew Watts, Assistant Head of Commercial Services.

(This item contains exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any person – including the authority holding that information) of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, as amended).

A confidential update report of Matthew Watts, Interim Head of Sports and Leisure, was received further to the report considered by Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 9 May 2023.

Cheryl Headon, Interim Director Parks, Leisure and Culture, summarised progress since May 2023 in respect of the future management of leisure centres.

Questions and comments were invited from committee members, and responded to by officers.

The report and appendices set out the draft work programmes for Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the seven standing Scrutiny Panels for 2023/24.

Claire Johnson, Head of Governance, Scrutiny and Registration Services, introduced the Scrutiny annual report for 2022/23 and the draft work programmes for Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the seven standing Scrutiny Panels for 2023/24.

Areas of duplications in work programmes had been identified and were resolved as follows.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee 14 November 2023 to consider Clinical Commissioning – Integrated Care Board (ICB) and how this will affect the local authority.

Environment and Climate Action Scrutiny Panel 24 October 2023 to consider Fly-tipping and enforcement.

Finance and Performance Scrutiny Panel and Housing Scrutiny Panel to consider Temporary Accommodation and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) as the panels’ focus differed.

AGREED that the Scrutiny annual report and the proposed work programmes for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Scrutiny Panels for 2023/24, subject to the above amendments, be recommended to Council for adoption.

To note the next business meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to take place at 7pm on Tuesday 14 November 2023.

NOTED that the next business meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee is scheduled to take place at 7pm on Tuesday 14 November 2023.