Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor G Coates and Councillor N Arkney (Portfolio Holder for Infrastructure, Heritage and Local Economy).

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 25^th June 2024  were approved as a correct record.

(Moved by Councillor M Couchman and seconded by Councillor A Wells)

Councillor H Hadley declared an interest in item 9, and that she would not participate or take part in the vote on this matter.

The chair provided the following update in respect of the recommendations from the Committee that went to Cabinet on the 25^th January 2024.

Recommendation 1 –

To add additional resource to TBC repairs team; when a MLDINS code is inputted for a property a manual lookback at the history of repairs for that property be conducted to identify if this Damp and/or Mold has been a previous issue at the property, or for the tenant at a previous property.
A Business Case has been approved for the creation of a new administrative post for an initial period of 12 months within the Housing Repairs Team.
Amongst other duties linked to compliance and complaints will assist in reviewing property data and identifying trends in Damp & Mould at a property level.

Recommendation 2 –

That the Damp & Mould inspection process become part of the repairs policy.

A new, separate Damp & Mould policy has been produced that sets out the Councils approach to dealing with Damp & Mould. This is in line with the requirements of the Housing Ombudsman as set out in their Spotlight Reports. This includes the process and timescales regarding inspection and therefore sets out the commitments on rapid inspection and prioritisation of works. The main Housing Repairs Policy will reference the separate Damp & Mould Policy so that the Council’s approach to damp and mould forms an integral part of the Council’s overall Repairs Policy.

Recommendation 3

To ensure that vulnerable residents are prioritised when there are  damp and mould issues within the home.

The new Damp & Mould policy makes specific reference to addressing reports by vulnerable tenants. The policy reflects the requirements set out by Government in Awaab's Law in terms of timescales for inspections and the production of reports.

There were none.

There were none.

A motion was moved under rule 9.1.3 to change the order of business for the meeting so that the Update on the Strategic Leasehold Review could be discussed first.

(Moved by Councillor S Smith and seconded by Councillor A Wells)

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Housing, Homelessness and Planning)

The Portfolio Holder for Housing, Homelessness and Planning / Executive Director Communities introduced the report to provide an update on the review of Leaseholder charging undertaken by Campbell Tickel in response to concerns raised about the Council’s approach to leaseholder charging, thanking Cambell Tickell(CT)  for their report and acknowledging the work carried out by all those involved in this piece of work before handing over to the Executive Director, Communities and Assistant Director, Assets.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     Whether the Officers and Portfolio Holder endorse the recommendations from the CT report, whether there were any areas that they did not endorse, whether the recommendations refer to the findings within the original CT report and were there and proposed deviations to the finding in the report?

Officers confirmed that they broadly endorse the findings of the report and that the report summarises/paraphrases the finding of the CT report, which was also attached as an Appendix. It was highlighted that completing a repair on a property does not make the larger problem go away but just defers the matter.

It was highlighted from a finance point of view the Council they have not taken on board the full recommendations of the report such as offering a discount for early payment, as the Council would not be able to recover the full cost and this would fall upon HRA tenants, they were also not considering offering a loan scheme as there was no allowance for this within the corporate credit policy previous agreed, however anyone struggling to make payments could contact the Council to look at making a payment arrangement.

2.     Highlighted that the report suggests that communications had been poor in the past which has been stressful to those affected and that an apology was called for. It was highlighted that there was a recommendation some years ago that council review all communications, and do we use the plain English crystal mark in our communications?

It was confirmed that there was a new suite of letters from CT which still meet the legal requirements of the council but in a more customer friendly manner. There would also be better quality information available to those using the right to buy process and the website would be updated in a more customer friendly fashion. Future engagement would also be looked at as part of the policy alongside work on wider tenant engagement, but there would be resource implications to consider.

It was highlighted by the Committee that new suite of letters was still not customer friendly enough.

3.     What are the cost implications moving forward?

It was confirmed that there were hours remaining within the TC contract which should enable work to continue to produce a policy (aiming for April 2025). In terms of internal resources, they would be looking at priorities and existing commitments to meet this from the resource they currently have.

4.     What is the benefit to the Council keeping the leaseholds and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Chair welcomed the Assistant Director, People and the Leader of the Council to introduce the report to provide the Committee with an overview of Council performance for the first quarter of the 2024-25 financial year (April to June 2024). It reported the council’s position in relation to progress with strategic corporate plan projects and updates on the financial position, corporate risks, audits, information governance and complaints. Cabinet will consider the report on 29 August 2024. The Leader confirmed that the report looked different as work had been done to make the document more user-friendly.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     Within the highlights, t was great to see attendance on St Georges Day at 12000 and with reference to the £21000 increase in tickets sales, was this being tracked to see where we were against previous performance and where we could go in the future?

This relates to the tickets being sold though the tourist information centre who have had some training on upselling techniques, and this is being tracked.

2.     Whether works on the Castle bridge would affect the fireworks?

It was confirmed that the works would not interfere with the display.

3.     Clarification around why Assembly Room performers costs were more than the budgeted costs (page 21)?

The Officers confirmed that they did not have the answer to this but would take this away and provide feedback to Members.

4.     Why the number of press releases for this quarter was lower at 40 and whether communications would remain a priority?

The Leader of the Council confirmed that communication was important and that they were having regular meetings with the Head of Communications and that they would look at why this had fallen and what can be done about this.

5.     There appears to be a shortfall in assembly room ticket bookings. Who is responsible for booking acts and making decisions around shows, and whether these were selling out?

The theatre manager works in conjunction with their team to monitor sales and look at past trends for ticket sales and what kinds of acts are successful. A piece of work is also being done by the Assistant Director to take stock of the shows and look at any recommendations for improvements.

6.     More information around ICT/audio visual technology particularly in the town hall and why this is still being used when Marmion House is more convenient/disabled friend/public friendly and has better parking?

It was confirmed that an item was going to be coming to the next Committee meeting to look at the reopening of Marmion House and moving committee meetings.

7.     Concerns around the number of Council tenants on Universal Credit and in rent arears, what was being done to get these down, and why the there was a disparity between rent and council tax arrears? How many of the tenants on universal credit are in 4 weeks of arrears which might be as a result of their universal credit payments being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

(Report of the Leader of the Council)

The Chair handed over to the Leader of the Council to introduce their reports advising members of the developing vision and corporate plan and update progress from the ongoing programme of consultation before handing over to the Corporate Project Director.

It was highlighted that –

Ø  The consultation plan is still evolving as more group and stakeholders are identified and will be ongoing until the end of August.

Ø  Casual staff from the Assembly Rooms have been supporting the Corporate Project Co-ordinator in undertaking public consultations and have met and engaged with over 200 people to date.

Ø  Following suggestions from Members consultations are taking place in the evenings.

Ø  As well as hard copies of the survey being available in the Assembly Rooms, hard copies have also been provided to local charity groups and organisations to make sure that have access to hard copies

Ø  It was anticipated that draft results will be available in early September.

Ø  There is still some engagement with key stakeholders including some social landlords outstanding.

Ø  There will also be engagement with Support Staffordshire, the Community Safety Partnership, Chamber of Commerce and the TCG in the autumn.

Ø  Some of the topics being seen are around social housing availability, particularly for young people, policing, potholes and road congestion.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     Clarification as at the last Committee meeting it was mentioned that a fully developed consultation would go to Cabinet.

Only an outline timeline went to Cabinet as they had still not confirmed everybody that they were going to be engaging with, and even now, new groups and representatives referred to them.

2.     The committee highlighted that terminology was inconsistent within the reports and suggested that this was address to make the process easier to follow.

3.     With regards to the Members workshop, was this always intended as this was not on the original timeline?

It was confirmed that this was always the intention, however that dates had not been confirmed. It was also noted that Member who had not been able to attend would be invited to a one-to-one.

4.     In the last meeting it was said that it was hoped that there would be about 700 responses from residents, where is that at?

It was confirmed that there have been about 100 hard copy responses, 30 one-to-one discussions and about 100 online response (last week) and that they were expecting those figures to have doubled. It was anticipated that they would be close to the figures expected at the end of the process.

The Committee acknowledge that they had considered the report in line with the recommendations.

A motion was moved under procedure rule 9.1.13 to extend the meeting until 8:45.

(Moved by Councillor M Summers and seconded by Councillor A Wells)

A motion was moved to adjourn the last two agenda items (14 and 15) to the next meeting.

(Moved by Councillor M Summers and seconded by Councillor T Jay)

To provide an update on any working groups

There were no updates.

(Discussion item – link to the Forward Plan attached)

Browse plans - Cabinet, 2024 :: Tamworth Borough Council

There were no items requested from the Forward plan.

(Discussion Item – to review the Committees work plan)

The Committee expressed concern at the amount of substantial items on the agenda and that they did not allow the Committee give each item the attention they deserve.

The Chair confirmed that the Committee were expecting the ICT Strategy update and the item that was to be added to the Forward plan around the front desk/committee meetings on the 5^th September 2024

To consider excluding the Press and Public from the meeting by passing the following resolution:-

“That in accordance with the provisions of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meeting and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, and Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public  interest in disclosing the information to the public”

This matter was not dealt with due to the motion to adjourn items 14 and 15 on the agenda.

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Infrastructure, Heritage and Local Economy)

This matter was adjourned.

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Infrastructure, Heritage and Local Economy)

His matter was adjourned.