Agenda and minutes

The Chairman circulated a card for Members of the Forum to sign for the Divisional Director of Housing expressing their condolences for one of her relatives who had passed away.

Churchill Place Tenants’ and Residents’ Association

Eastcote Lane Tenants’ and Residents’ Association

Harrow Federation of Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations

Harrow Sheltered Residents’ Association

Harrow Weald Tenants’ and Residents’ Association

Kenmore Park Tenants’ and Residents’ Association

Little Stanmore Tenants’ and Residents’ Association

Weald Village Tenants’ and Residents’ Association

Residents from Honeybun Estate, Meadfield - Kings Road, Milan Close and William Allen House were also in attendance.

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note that no Reserve Members were in attendance.

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Forum;

(b)               all other Members present.

Agenda Items 7 – Head of Asset Management’s Report, 8 – Housing Complaints Handling, 9 – Cash Incentive Schemes for Council Tenants and 10 – Resident Services Manager’s Report and Feedback from Other Council Led Resident Involvement Activities

Councillor Mano Dharmarajah declared a non pecuniary interest in the above items in that he was a member of the Eastcote Lane Tenants’ and Residents’ Association.  He would remain in the room whilst these matters were considered and voted upon.

Councillor Kairul Kareema Marikar declared a non pecuniary interest in the above items in that she was a Council tenant.  She would remain in the room whilst these matters were considered.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 December 2012 and of the Special meeting held on 31 January 2013 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 19 December 2012 and of the special meeting held on 31 January 2013 be taken as read and signed as correct records.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents or organisations under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 51 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions were put, or petitions or deputations received at the meeting.

Report of the Divisional Director of Housing

An officer introduced the report which explained that the Localism Act had changed the way in which housing landlord complaints were handled from 1 April 2013.  The report set out the proposed next steps for the housing service to ensure that it met the requirements set out in the Act.  The officer made the following comments:

·                    from 1 April 2013, all complaints about housing landlord services would be referred to the Housing Ombudsman (HO) following completion of the landlord’s own complaints procedure;

·                    there would be a new role for MPs, local councillors and tenants panels as designated persons who would be able to have a role in resolving complaints;

·                    there had been ongoing discussions with the Forum, other social landlords and other local authorities;

·                    Appendix 1 to the report contained a new escalation paragraph example which would be sent out with stage 3 complaint responses;

·                    information on the new complaints procedure would be included in Homing In and briefings would be offered to Councillors;

·                    the Localism Act did not provide much detail on the role of a designated person and the HO had advised that they would not be providing any additional guidance.  The Act did state that a designated person might help to resolve a complaint in one of two ways; they could attempt to resolve the complaint by making a recommendation to the landlord or they could refer the complaint in writing to the HO;

·                    to date there had been no interest expressed by tenants in establishing a tenants' panel to act as a designated person.

Members of the Forum asked a number of questions to which the officer responded to as follows:

·                    the tenants’ panel would comprise of other tenants of the social landlord.  There was no requirement that they were members of a Tenants’ and Residents’ Association but they must be tenants of that particular social landlord;

·                    the Localism Act did not allow the social landlord to establish a panel, it was the responsibility of tenants to approach the landlord to be asked to be recognised as a tenants panel and as a designated person.  Landlords would support any tenants who approach them to be recognised as a tenants panel;

·                    the role of the designated person was to put forward recommendations to the landlord or complainant on how they should resolve the complaint and to act as an advocate;

·                    a Councillor acting as a designated person had two options for resolving a complaint, one was to make recommendations to the landlord or complainant and the other was to refer the complaint in writing to the HO;

·                    the designated person could be any of the 600 English MPs and any of the 63 Harrow Councillors;

·                    information about the new process would be sent to all Councillors via their group officers and briefings and training would be offered to Councillors;

·                    the Localism Act did not prescribe a minimum number of tenants for a tenants' panel.  The Council would work with and support any tenants panel;

·                    a progress report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 177.

Report of the Divisional Director of Housing

An officer introduced the report which set out a range of information and discussion items for the Forum’s attention.  The officer made comments including the following:

·                    a meeting with the Fire Service Borough Commander had taken place on 12 February 2013.  One of the immediate outcomes of the meeting was that smoke alarms would be fitted in the properties of vulnerable people;

·                    further consideration had been given to tenant inspectors carrying out inspections on completed repair and health and safety works.  Discussions had taken place with the Senior Professional – Communities and Investment, as trained tenant inspectors had been used for Estates Services;

·                    it had been decided to establish a training programme for any tenants or leaseholders who were interested in undertaking an inspector role.  Anyone who was interested should approach the Head of Asset Management or the Head of Resident Services;

·                    the overarching commitment of Asset Management in their service plan would remain the same as last year.  It was proving challenging to measure success against the commitment.  It was suggested that the measure of a first class asset management service be based on a combination of value for money, quality performance measures and customer satisfaction measures.  A first class service would be dependent upon Harrow rating in the upper quartile for all the key performance indicators for the measures;

·                    Quality Heating, the gas contractor had indicated that they would be willing to take calls for heating and hot water breakdowns direct from tenants.  There were a number of advantages including a faster response, a dedicated Resident Liaison Officer for Harrow, longer telephone opening hours and specialists answering calls who may be able to diagnose the issue immediately;

·                    the new service from Quality Heating would be delivered within existing resources and the only cost would be for an IT upgrade to allow the contractor to feed in to the Council’s system in real time.  This cost would be a one off cost and would be funded from within existing budgets;

·                    performance data on the proposed new arrangements would be reported to the monthly contract appraisal panels.  There would be intensive management of the new scheme for the first 3-6 months to ensure that the service was operating well;

·                    there were risks associated, such as call centre staff shortages and IT failures but to minimise these Quality Heating would be required to confirm that suitable procedures were in place;

·                    works had commenced on the Repairs MOTs and 5 had been completed.  It was anticipated that 15 would be completed by the end of February.  The target groups were the 100 most prolific callers to the repairs system and elderly and disabled tenants.  It was expected that this work would be linked with the gas safety inspections;

·                    the recharge procedure for voids had commenced on 1 January 2013 and it was focused as a preventive measure to encourage people to leave properties in a good condition.  £6706 had been raised as recharges in January;

·                    it was proposed to go live with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 178.

Report of the Divisional Director of Housing

An officer introduced the report which explained that social housing stock in the borough of Harrow was limited and in increasingly high demand.  The report outlined some ideas on a variety of schemes which could help to free up properties in the Council’s housing stock by offering cash incentives to tenants to move elsewhere.  Funding for the schemes had been allocated within the HRA budget and MTFS for the period 2013-14 to 2016-17 approved by Cabinet on 14 February 2013, and within the HRA business plan to 2018?19 subject to Cabinet approval.  The officer made comments including the following:

·                    cash incentives were one way to achieve the best use of limited social housing stock and they would also offer options to be tenants whose 5 year fixed term tenancy were not renewed;

·                    the cash incentives would only be paid to tenants who met certain criteria and who left vacant possession of a Council property;

·                    the benefits of a cash incentives scheme included realising family-sized accommodation for re-letting, encouraging under-occupying tenants to downsize and increasing the options available to council tenants;

·                    there was currently a scheme which offered incentives for under-occupying tenants to downsize to another social housing property.  Tenants had their removal costs covered and were paid £1,500 per under-occupied room in their home when they downsized.  The maximum amount which would be paid was £4,500 and the average payment was £2,400.  There were approximately 30 tenants a year who downsized under this scheme;

·                    the current scheme could be enhanced by increasing the financial incentive offered per bedroom or the additional services offered.  In addition, the scheme could be extended to include tenants wanting to move to social housing outside of London;

·                    an incentive could also be offered to households which would be affected by the ‘bedroom tax’ from April 2013;

·                    incentives could be offered to tenants wanting to move to an assured tenancy in a privately rented property .  This might be appropriate for older tenants wanting to move to an older persons’ housing scheme.  It was proposed that the incentive could be up to £20,000 dependent upon the size of the property being vacated;

·                    consideration could also be given to paying an incentive to tenants seeking to downsize to a property with an affordable short hold tenancy of at least 2 years in some exceptional circumstances;

·                    cash incentives could be offered to tenants wishing to move outside the UK.  The proposed incentive would be up to £20,000 depending on the size of the property being vacated.  There would be a limited application of this incentive and the Council may not be able to stipulate the type of tenancy that was taken overseas.  Tenants would be made aware of the potential insecurities of their tenancy if they moved abroad;

·                    tenants could be offered an incentive to move into a shared ownership property.  A lump-sum cash payment of £12,000 would be offered, dependent on the size of the property being vacated, which could be used to cover a deposit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 179.

Report of the Divisional Director of Housing

The Forum agreed to consider the report as a matter of urgency in order to receive the most up to date information.

An officer introduced the report which set out a range of information for the Forum’s attention and provided feedback to the Forum on a wide range of Council led service specific and service wide resident involvement activities.  The officer made the following points:

·                    since 1 April 2012, 13 properties had been sold under Right To Buy and 10 more were likely to be completed by the year end;

·                    MyHarrow accounts were being developed for leaseholders and it was anticipated that these would be live by the start of the new financial year;

·                    notification of Ground Rent due would be sent to leaseholders within the next month, this was not a request for payment but a legal requirement;

·                    leaseholders would be billed shortly for their contribution to the cost of a number of major works schemes.  Surgeries would be held by the Leasehold Team to discuss individual payment options;

·                    there had not been a seasonal increase in rent arrears over Christmas and the total rent arrears for February of £382,654 was the lowest ever;

·                    350 tenants who would be affected by the bedroom tax had been contacted and encouraged to attend an event to consider the implications;

·                    a third direct debit payment date would be introduced from 1 April 2013;

·                    officers were meeting with the Credit Union to help develop information to support tenants with their budgeting skills;

·                    work had commenced on the tenancy agreement review and the alterations would include the tenure changes from the Localism Act and new clauses about keeping animals and succession rights.  Consultation with staff and the Harrow Federation of Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations would commence by the end of February and tenant consultation would take place from the beginning of March 2013.  It was anticipated that the new agreement would be in place by the middle of June;

·                    the Tenant and Leaseholder Scrutiny Panel was considering new tenant 6 week visits as its first item.  The progress reported to the Panel was good and 100% of visits had been achieved.  The Panel would be making recommendations to the Forum in due course;

·                    a mutual exchange event was being held on 23 April to help those affected by the bedroom tax to downsize their accommodation.  The Sheltered Housing Team would be attending the event;

·                    Barnet Homes had visited the Council to discuss good practice regarding how to manage tenancy fraud and it was hoped that following the success of the meeting, further meetings would take place;

·                    a bid had been submitted to the Department of Communities and Local Government to develop the tenancy fraud team.  Over the last 2 years the Council had recovered almost one property per month following a fraud investigation;

·                    during December 2012 and January 2013, 3 out of 4 stage one complaints were responded to on time but 3 stage 2 complaints had been received;

·                    work to implement the Sheltered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 180.

The dates of meetings of the Forum for the Municipal Year 2013/14 are as follows:

The Forum are asked to consider the start times of the meetings for the Municipal Year 2013/14 and whether they should continue to alternate between a 2.00pm start time and a 7.30pm start time

The Forum agreed that the start times of the meetings for the Municipal Year 2013/14 should continue to alternate between a 2.00 pm start time and a 7.30 pm start time as listed below.

RESOLVED:  That the start times for future meetings of the Forum be agreed.

The Chairman advised that any suggestions should be sent to the Head of Resident Services.

Wednesday 19 April 2013 – 2.00pm

Wednesday 24 April 2013 – 2.00 pm.