Agenda item

Report of the Interim Head of Communities

The Committee received a report as set out on pages 43-61 of the agenda, which asked it to note its contents, agree that Fire Risk Assessments be carried out on a 3 year cycle, and subject to successful completion of negotiations, delegate authority to the Interim Head of Communities to enter into a new lease for a telecommunications aerial at Chartwell House.

Members expressed concern at the current trend of monthly increases in tenant arrears, and asked for assurance that the Council would still achieve its year-end target by March 2018. The Housing Services Manager stated that the Head of Communities was confident of meeting the target, but the situation was becoming increasingly challenging against a backdrop of national policy changes such as Universal Credit and the Welfare Benefit Cap. It was requested by Members that the arrears figures for the next three months be kept under review, and a further update be brought to the Committee’s next meeting in January if the figures were showing no sign of improvement.

Concerns were also expressed regarding the unprecedented number of homeless households in the Borough and the lack of available properties within which to house them, exacerbated by the issue of private landlords becoming increasingly unwilling to house tenants in receipt of benefits and seeking guarantors for their rent. Whilst it was acknowledged that many of the current issues appeared to be a direct result of national policy, Members stressed that a Borough-led solution would need to be identified, and as such requested a full report on homelessness be brought to a future meeting of the Committee, as well as a member seminar to be arranged to provide Members with a fuller understanding of the issues presented and the possible options for tackling them.

In relation to empty properties, Members welcomed the progress made in respect of the two properties detailed in the report, and asked what work was being done to assess other empty properties in the Borough, which were often an eyesore and hotspots for anti-social behaviour. The Environmental Health Officer confirmed that a working group continues to assess empty properties in liaison with the Council Tax section with the aim of bringing these properties back into use. Progress could be slow however due to the unwillingness of some owners to engage with the authority, and due to properties needing to be empty for specified periods of time. A question was raised regarding whether the Council was able to recover any of its costs in relation to the case of 114 Uplands Road, Oadby. The Head of Finance, Revenues and Benefits did not have this information to hand, but undertook to obtain the information and report back to Members. A further question was asked in relation to 37 Newton Lane, and the reference in the report to the possibility of applying for a compulsory purchase order (CPO), after Members had been under the impression that previous agreement had already been reached to apply for a CPO. The Interim Director of Services stated that he was not aware of such a previous agreement, but that funds were in place for a CPO to be applied for if this resulted in being the chosen course of action.

The Committee felt that the report contained at Appendix D in relation to the Lighbulb Programme was uninformative given that it did not include figures relating to income. The Interim Director of Services explained that the programme had only gone live on 2 October 2017 so it was too early to provide anything tangible, but undertook to look at the concerns raised and attempt to ensure that more informative details are presented to Members as the programme develops.

Members noted within the report that efforts to commercialise the Council’s Pest Control Service had received a limited response thus far, and a Member of the Committee suggested that the scheme should be abandoned if by the end of 2017 the Council was not on course to achieve its targets. It was explained by Officers that one of the main reasons for the lack of progress to date was due to the long-term sickness related absence of one of the scheme’s principal coordinators, and the Head of Communities was confident that the targets remained realistic.

In respect of the new Borough-wide cleaning contract, Members reported receiving a number of complaints from residents, and were unsure who or where to report such concerns to. The Interim Director of Services informed Members that the new contract is being closely monitored and has been made a priority item for discussion at the next meeting of the Senior Management Team, after which information will be sent to Members advising where to report their concerns to. In the meantime, it was suggested that any concerns could be logged as Member Enquiries.

UNANIMOUSLY AGREED THAT:

(i)          The contents of the report be noted by Members;

(ii)        Fire Risk Assessments be carried out on a 3 year cycle; and

(iii)       Subject to the successful completion of negotiations, delegated authority be given to the Interim Head of Communities to enter into a new lease for the telecommunications aerial at Chartwell House.