Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Deputy Henry Jones and Antony Llewelyn-Davies.

Gareth Moore declared an interest as a tenant of the Golden Lane Estate.

The Terms of Reference of the Sub Committee, as agreed at the 20 April 2012 Community & Children’s Services Committee meeting were received.

To elect a Chairman pursuant to Standing Order 29.

The Sub Committee proceeded to elect a Chairman in accordance with Standing Order No. 29. A list of Members eligible to stand was read and Deputy Billy Dove being the only Member expressing a willingness to serve was duly elected Chairman for the ensuing year.

The Chairman thanked the Members of the Sub Committee for their support.

To elect a Deputy Chairman pursuant to Standing Order 30.

The Sub Committee proceeded to elect a Deputy Chairman in accordance with Standing Order No. 30. A list of Members eligible to stand was read and Virginia Rounding being the only Member expressing a willingness to serve was duly elected Deputy Chairman for the ensuing year.

To agree the public minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2011 (copy attached).

The public minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2011 were approved.

Matters Arising

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and Capital Budgets 2011/12 and 2012/13

Members were informed that the final settlement figure to buy ourselves out of the Government’s Housing Subsidy system was £10.912million.

Presentation from the Head of User Involvement and Policy Development, Community & Children’s Services.

The Sub Committee received a presentation from Carla Keegans, Jacquie Campbell and Karen Tarbox outlining the three key priority areas for Housing, namely, responding to national reforms, technical services and estate services.

A number of questions were asked and the following points were noted:

Due to the new Welfare Reform Act, from April 2013, housing benefits would be paid directly to the tenant rather than the Housing Department. This could result in an increased level of rent arrears.

Any savings made within the HRA were legally ring fenced and would not be pooled with the City of London Corporation’s savings and/or budgets. A report to clearly show where the savings had been spent would be produced and circulated to tenants as well as officers. There was a legal requirement to balance the HRA. There were various options to explore in terms of what the HRA surplus could be spent on in the future for the Sub Committee to consider at a later date.

If a vulnerable tenant were to fall in to rent arrears or face eviction, one of the tenant support officers would be assigned their case and work closely with the tenant and other outside agencies that may already support the tenant. If a tenant was evicted from one of the City of London housing estates situated in another borough, the borough in which they resided would become responsible for them.

We are shortly to inform all our tenants about changes to the legal Right to Buy scheme but will not be actively promoting it due to our small housing stock and the corresponding negative effect on the HRA business plan that increased sales would bring.

Short term tenants were often reluctant to engage with the local community but investigation could take place in to an estate network

There were no questions.

There were no urgent items.

MOTION - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act as follows:-

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RESOLVED - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act as follows:-

Item No.                      Exempt Paragraph(s) in Schedule 12A

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