Agenda item - ISSUES ARISING FROM THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

Agenda item

ISSUES ARISING FROM THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

6.1     SCRUTINY ANNUAL WORK PROGRAMME 2017/18

 

A report from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee is attached. (Non -key)

(Report No.49)

(8.20 – 8.25 pm)

 

6.2     HOUSING REPAIRS SCRUTINY WORKSTREAM

 

A report from the Housing Repairs Scrutiny Workstream is attached. (Non – key)

(Report No.50)

(8.25 – 8.30 pm)

 

6.3     CALL-IN: MERIDIAN WATER STATION UPDATE AND BUDGET (DECISION TAKEN BY CABINET ON 26 JULY 2017, PUBLICATION OF DECISION LIST NO.16/17-18 ISSUED ON 28 JULY 2017)

 

          To note, for information, that at its meeting on 14 August 2017, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered a call-in of the above Cabinet decision and, agreed to confirm the original Cabinet decision.

Minutes:

6.1     Scrutiny Annual Work Programme 2017/18

 

Councillor Achilleas Georgiou (Deputy Leader) invited Councillor Derek Levy (Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee) to present the report setting out the scrutiny annual work programme and work streams for 2017/18 (No.49).

 

NOTED

 

1.               That the number of Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings this year had been increased from 4 to 9 to enable more issues to be considered in greater depth.  More would be added to the schedule if necessary. 

 

2.               This year more joint meetings would be organised to focus on particular issues.  A joint meeting had been held earlier in the summer on the issue of knife crime and another was planned for health.

 

3.               The view of Councillor Levy that, because of the additional demands on scrutiny and the pressure on current officers to carry out more administrative tasks, an extra scrutiny officer was needed to add to the scrutiny research capacity of the Governance and Scrutiny Team.   Councillor Anderson supported the view that an adequate research resource was important to ensure good outputs. 

 

4.               The changes to work stream memberships. 

 

5.               The view of Councillor Levy that scrutiny chairs should take greater responsibility for ensuring that other members were involved, for carrying out research’ and for ensuring that the work streams moved forward. 

 

6.               More pre-decision scrutiny was planned.  A session had already been held on the new Housing Allocations Policy.  As well as some one day scrutiny events where one issue could be investigated in depth, over a whole day. 

 

Alternative Options Considered: NOTED, that no other options had been considered as the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was required, under the Council’s Constitution, to present an annual scrutiny work programme to Council for adoption.

 

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL to approve the proposed work programme and work streams for 2017/18 subject to the comments made at Cabinet, as set out above.

 

Reasons for recommendations: To comply with the requirements of the Council’s Constitution, as the work programme had to be formally adopted by Council. In addition, scrutiny was essential to good governance, and enabled the voice and concerns of residents and communities to be heard, and provided positive challenge and accountability.

(Non key)

 

6.2     Housing Repairs Scrutiny Work stream

 

Councillor Achilleas Georgiou (Deputy Leader) invited Councillor Derek Levy (Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to present the report (No.50) to the Cabinet.

 

Councillor Levy presented the report on behalf of Councillor Katherine Chibah who had led the review. 

 

NOTED

 

1.               That the Housing Repairs Scrutiny work stream was set up following reports to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee detailing concerns with the performance of the Housing Repairs service.

 

2.               A significant amount of work had been carried out.  It was found that the quality of work carried out by repairs and maintenance contractors was not always as good as it could have been, nor was the quality control exercised by council officers. 

 

3.               Councillor Oykener, Cabinet Member for Housing and Housing Regeneration, welcomed the report and acknowledged the good work that the scrutiny workstream had achieved together with housing colleagues. Historically the repairs service had not been good, but things were improving, and he was committed to supporting the report’s recommendations.  He had undertaken to look at other authorities to see how improvements could be made, including considering the pros and cons of bringing the voids and repairs and maintenance service back in house. 

 

4.               The Cabinet Member and Executive Director’s response to the recommendations set out in Appendix A. 

 

5.               The thanks of Cabinet to all members of the workstream and the officers involved for an excellent piece of work. 

 

DECISION

 

The Cabinet agreed to note the following recommendations as set out in Appendix A to the report, which had been agreed by the Cabinet Member and Executive Director:

 

·       The Council run a campaign using estate based communication such as Housing News to provide details to tenants of their estate managers. This information was also to be provided to Ward Councillors for use in their Ward Surgeries (paragraphs 7.5-7.7 of the report referred).

·       Clear communication protocols and procedures between the Council, contractor and tenant should form part of the action plans with each contractor (paragraphs 7.4 and 7.8 of the repot referred).

·       The Council consider phasing contracts in future to avoid all contracts starting at the same time (paragraphs 8.1 to 8.3 of the report referred).

·       The Council undertake a detailed risk analysis/feasibility study looking at the pros and cons of bringing the voids and the whole Repairs and Maintenance Service in-house including reviewing what other local authorities had done, what had worked and what had improved (paragraphs 6.1-6.7 and 8.4 to 8.10 of the report referred).

·       The Council run a communication campaign advising residents what to do and what to avoid in contributing to condensation problems (paragraphs 9.2 to 9.4 of the report referred).

 

Alternative Options Considered: None.

 

Reasons for recommendations: To improve further the Housing Repairs Service and to seek a long term solution on the delivery of voids.

(Non key)

 

6.3     Call-in: Meridian Water Station Update and Budget (Decision Taken by Cabinet on 26 July 2017, publication of decision list No.16/17-18 issued on 28 July 2017)

 

NOTED

 

1.       For information, that at its meeting on 14 August 2017, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered a call-in of the above Cabinet decision and, had agreed to confirm the original Cabinet decision.

 

2.       That reserved matters planning permission for the Meridian Water Station had been approved at Planning Committee on 12 September 2017. 

Supporting documents: