Agenda and minutes

The Chair, Councillor Margaret Greer welcomed all attendees to the meeting, which was being broadcast live online.

Apologies had been received from Councillors Charith Gunawardena (Substitute Cllr Daniel Anderson), Andy Milne and Mahmut Aksanoglu. Apologies had also been received from the Leader of the Council Cllr Nesil Caliskan and Sarah Cary, Executive Director Place.

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.

The Chair to introduce the purpose of the meeting.

The Chair explained that the purpose of this meeting was to look at the work programme and prioritise items for the coming Municipal Year. She advised that suggestions provided by both the Executive Director Place and the Leader with details of suggested topics including suggested timings for the panel’s consideration had been sent out to all panel members.

The work programme from last year had also been sent out to members to ensure that any areas from the previous year could be picked up as necessary.

To agree the minutes of the Regeneration & Economic Development Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 17 March 2021.

AGREED the minutes of the meeting held on the 17 March 2021, subject to two amendments for clarity.

It was queried where a summary of each scrutiny panels work could be found other than in the individual minutes of each meeting that details comments and recommendations made during the year. Members mentioned that in previous years a report on all the scrutiny panels had gone to Council on this. Officers agreed to look at this. The Chair confirmed that last year each panel had reported to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee on the work that had been undertaken during the course of the year

The Scrutiny Panel will hear from the Cabinet Member and officers outlining priorities and areas of challenge.

Cabinet Members and officers will be asked to leave the meeting at this point.

The Chair advised the Peter George, Programme Director Meridian Water is representing Sarah Cary the Executive Director of Place and to feedback to the Leader of the Council.

The Leader had advised that had she been able to attend she would have discussed the following areas:

• Lead the response to economic recovery after the pandemic, growth and employment
• Produce a new Local Plan for Enfield and deliver in major housing and regeneration programmes to shape the future landscape for the borough.

The following was highlighted by Peter George:

• The suggested items provided to the Panel by the Executive Director Place, broadly fall into the three categories that the Leader has suggested:
  • Focus on economic development in particular around the post Covid recovery. Business support item
  • Following the recent publication of the Regulation 18 Local Plan draft for consultation, it was suggested to look at Local Plan and also consider within the context on national planning reform. Related to this is the suggestion on the planning improvement plan. This will be looking at the operational side of the planning service at the work to improve efficiency of how planning applications are administered.
  • Third category is a focus on the housing pipeline. A number of suggestions relate to this; annual review of housing development pipeline. This will cover progress on the council’s housing schemes in particular on Housing Revenue Account land for example estate regeneration projects, small sites projects and where the council is with the GLA grant target; housing supply pipeline within this would cover bringing empty homes back into use, encouraging new homes into planning, pipeline or planning applications and how many homes have been contented within a given year against the target. There are also three Meridian Water items. Officers are working on a revised Meridian Water Masterplan it is hoped that this will go to Cabinet by the end of the year. It is suggested that this item comes to the panel for feedback before it goes to Cabinet. The revised plan will need to consider competing priorities such as the level of affordable homes, level of family accommodation, level of open space, level of employment space and building heights. They will be a consultation with local people in terms of how these should be prioritised. The Housing Infrastructure Fund work programme review, the Council was awarded a grant of £170 million and works must be delivered by March 2024 to comply with the grant conditions. Given the level of grant and the conditions attached, officers felt it is appropriate for this item to be considered at least annually so that members can feel assured of progress. Meridian Four is a huge project Cabinet has approved a scheme for 800 homes. This will be the biggest scheme that the council is going to be leading on a design and build basis. This means that the council will be taking on construction risk. As this is a higher risk in return for a higher reward. Officers are keen for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To agree and prioritise items for the new work programme.

The Chair opened discussions in terms of the work programme as to whether items should be grouped together, or individual topics taken.

The next meeting is scheduled for September the proposed timeline from the suggestions would be for annual review of housing development pipeline to come to this meeting. This item would include empty homes, Joyce and Snells estates and money from the GLA and the targets and potentially an element of Meridian Water, the revised Masterplan.

The scheduled meetings of the panel are September, November and February and it is important that there is information available for each of these meetings. Looking at the suggested dates they do not all fit to the panel meeting dates.

It was suggested that business support: Covid and post Covid could be taken in September. This could be wider than this and include the end of furlough and the impact of unemployment, changes to the business environment as more people are working remotely. A major change of the pandemic has been people working remotely, unemployment in sectors that you would not expect, the council’s strategy and planning around this. The impact on economy, what is the council’s response looking at remote working and strategy and planning.

Discussions were held on the most appropriate timings for items.

The following items and timings were agreed:

September’s meeting

Annual review of housing development pipeline

Business Support: Covid and post Covid, impact on the local economy, what will be and has been the response from the council, including remote working, unemployment impact, and strategy and planning

November’s meeting

Meridian Water Masterplan

Planning improvement plan (if agenda allows time)

February’s meeting

National planning reform and Draft Local Plan incorporating a report on town centres

Housing Infrastructure Fund work programme review

Meridian Four still needs to be fitted into meetings. It was suggested that Housing supply pipeline goes to the Housing Scrutiny Panel.

Progress reports and against key milestones for Housing Infrastructure Fund and Meridian Water were suggested to come to the November and March’s meeting. The dates for this are still to be determined.

To note, for information, the terms of reference of the Regeneration & Economic Development Scrutiny Panel.

The terms of reference were noted.

To note that the next Regeneration & Economic Development Scrutiny Panel meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday 9 September 2021.

The date of the next meeting was noted as Thursday 9 September 2021.