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Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting was held remotely via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Stephanie Davis
020 8726 6000 x84384  Email: stephanie.davis@croydon.gov.uk

Note: Deferred from 27 April 2021 

Items
No. Item

12/21

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 212 KB

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 29 September 2020 and 2 February 2021 as an accurate record.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was agreed that the minutes would be deferred to the next meeting of the sub-committee..

13/21

Disclosure of Interests

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

Minutes:

There were none.

14/21

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

15/21

Investigation into conditions at 1-87 Regina Road, South Norwood and the Housing Service Improvement Plan pdf icon PDF 110 KB

To receive the Cabinet report of the investigation into conditions at 1-87 Regina Road and the Housing Service Improvement Plan.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Interim Executive Director of Place introduced the item and outlined details in a Presentation.

Following the presentation Members had the opportunity to ask questions.

Points of Clarification

  • In response to a question on whether the decision to extend the contract was a key decision or delegated decision. Officers said at paper presented to Cabinet was not a key decision paper.
  • Further clarification was sought on funding for services and Members were informed that services were funded through rent collection and is fed into the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), The HRA which was separate to the general Fund was not impacted by the S114 as it was rind fenced. The impact to the HRA fund had been the five year rent cap. HRA could be spent where it could have a wider benefit for resident. Whist some of the fund could be spent on staff if needed but most posts in the department was funded through the General Fund.

A Member questioned how long the issues with disrepair at Regina Road had occurred for as the ARK report provided a useful timeline and The Cabinet Member advised that it was one of the first questions that had been asked in trying to uncover what had led to the failings. A resident had advised that issues started on 2017 but was not to the extent that had been witnessed recently with the worst of the disrepair occurring in a matter of moth in the winter of the lockdown period. There had also been report of water leak through the electrics of the properties on February 2021.

In response to a question on current voids which was thought to be approximately 2% of housing stock and how this was related in terms of people in temporary accommodation, officers said that there was 1.8% of current stock that were voids. Only half were ready and available to let and the focus was to get all the properties back in use to alleviate the number of people in temporary accommodation.

A Member asked for clarification on the discrepancies between this paper and the Cabinet papers as the Axis contract average void turnaround days of 24 which was outside the 10 day target. Officers said that the figures presented in the Cabinet papers were the overall figures. The 24 day alluded to was the period the property was with the contractor, the overall period would be longer. Further details on this would be provided following the meeting. Details on the amount of voids would be circulated to members following the meeting

A Further question was asked on what that challenges were with re letting of properties. Officers said that when properties were handed over from the voids team as ready, they properties were places on the website and advertised for bidding. Following bidding, the person was invited to view the property, they then sign the contract.  The whole process adds to the turnaround time and for reporting purposes the total amount of days from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/21

16/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

Minutes:

This was not required.