Agenda for Housing Cabinet Member Meeting on Wednesday, 7th September, 2011, 4.00pm

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Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Hove Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Caroline De Marco, Democratic Services Officer 

Items
No. Item

16.

Procedural Business

    (a)   Declarations of Interest by all Members present of any personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Members regard the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.

     

    (b)   Exclusion of Press and Public - To consider whether, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, or the nature of the proceedings, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting when any of the following items are under consideration.

     

    NOTE:  Any item appearing in Part 2 of the Agenda states in its heading either that it is confidential or the category under which the information disclosed in the report is exempt from disclosure and therefore not available to the public.

     

    A list and description of the categories of exempt information is available for public inspection at Brighton and Hove Town Halls.

    Minutes:

    16(a)   Declarations of Interests

    16.1    There were none. 

    16(b)   Exclusion of Press and Public

    16.2    In accordance with section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (“the Act”), the Cabinet Member considered whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during an item of business on the grounds that it was likely, in view of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present during that item, there would be disclosure to them of confidential information (as defined in section 100A(3) of the Act) or exempt information (as defined in section 100I(I) of the Act). 

    16.3    RESOLVED - That the press and public not be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any items on the agenda. 

     

     

     

17.

Minutes of the previous meeting pdf icon PDF 64 KB

    Minutes of the Meeting held on 5 June 2011 (copy attached).

    Minutes:

    17.1    Councillor Farrow referred to paragraphs 3.3 and 3.4 relating to the cap on Housing Benefit.  He had asked officers to investigate and report back on this matter.  The Lead Commissioner reported that officers were in the process of preparing a report which would be presented to future meetings of the Housing Management Consultative Committee and Housing Cabinet Member Meeting to a future meeting. 

     

    17.2    RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Housing Cabinet Member Meeting held on 5 July 2011 be agreed and signed by the Cabinet Member.

     

     

18.

Cabinet Member's Communications

    Minutes:

    Maggie King  

     

    18.1    The Cabinet Member reported the sad news that Maggie King had died the previous night after a period of illness.  Maggie had been a very active tenant in the council’s tenant movement.  The Cabinet Member, along with councillors and officers stood for one minutes silence as a mark of respect.   

19.

Items reserved for discussion

    (a)   Items reserved by the Cabinet Member

     

    (b)   Items reserved by the Opposition Spokespersons

     

    (c)    Items reserved by Members, with the agreement of the Cabinet Member.

     

    NOTE: Public Questions, Written Questions from Councillors, Petitions, Deputations, Letters from Councillors and Notices of Motion will be reserved automatically.

    Minutes:

    19.1    RESOLVED – That item 28 be reserved for discussion.

     

     

20.

Petitions

    No petitions have been received by the date of publication.

    Minutes:

    20.1    There were none.

     

21.

Public Questions

    (The closing date for receipt of public questions is 12 noon on 31 August 2011)

     

    No public questions have been received by the date of publication.

    Minutes:

    21.1    There were none.

22.

Deputations

    (The closing date for receipt of deputations is 12 noon on 31 August 2011)

     

    No deputations have been received by the date of publication.

    Minutes:

    22.1    There were none.

     

23.

Letters from Councillors

    No letters have been received.

    Minutes:

    23.1    There were none.

24.

Written Questions from Councillors

    No written questions have been received.

    Minutes:

    24.1    There were none.

     

25.

Notices of Motions

    No Notices of Motion have been received by the date of publication.

    Minutes:

    25.1    There were none.

26.

Minutes of the Adult Social Care & Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 73 KB

    Minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2011 (copy attached).

    Minutes:

    26.1    The Cabinet Member considered the minutes of the Adult Social Care & Housing Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on the 28 June 2011.

     

    26.2    RESOLVED – That the minutes be noted.

     

27.

Minutes of the Housing Management Consultative Committee pdf icon PDF 88 KB

    Minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2011 (copy attached).

    Minutes:

    27.1    The Cabinet Member considered the minutes of the Housing Management Consultative Committee meeting held on the 13 June 2011.

     

    27.2    RESOLVED – That the minutes be noted

     

28.

Annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2011 pdf icon PDF 94 KB

    Report of Head of Housing and Social Inclusion (copy attached).

    Additional documents:

    Decision:

    (1)       That the Cabinet Member for Housing approves the annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2011 at Appendix 1 for publication and distribution to all council tenants and leaseholders.

     

    Minutes:

    28.1    The Cabinet Member considered a report of Head of Housing and Social Inclusion which requested approval of the final draft annual report to all council tenants and leaseholders for the year ending 31 March 2011 at Appendix 1, for publication and distribution to all council tenants and leaseholders with Homing In later in the month.     

     

    28.2    The Housing Stock Review Manager tabled the final version, with outstanding photos and some small corrections from the version previously circulated.

     

    28.3    As the first annual report last year was very well received, officers followed a similar plan and format for this year.  On 24 January 2011 the Housing Management Consultative Committee agreed the plan and timetable for involving as many tenants and leaseholders as possible in producing and scrutinising the report.   Details were included in the annual report itself and the cover report.  Final scrutiny was provided by the Housing Management Consultative Committee on 5 September, when the report was warmly received by resident representatives.  

     

    28.4    The report included in their own words and in pictures tenants’ and leaseholders’ own perceptions of the council’s performance and what resident working groups had achieved, working in partnership with members and officers.  It set out how the council performed in 2010/2011, how the council met its commitments made to residents in last year’s report and the council’s improvement plans for this current year.   Under the regulatory framework, landlords must meet the commitments they make to tenants in their annual report.

     

    28.5    Councillor Peltzer Dunn thanked officers who had worked in conjunction with tenants on producing an excellent report.  He commented that people who were interested in the subject would read the report.  However, he considered that the most members of the general public would not read the report in its current form.  He hoped that a shorter and more readable version of the report could be produced in future. 

     

    28.6    The Chair welcomed this comment and agreed that the council wanted members of the public to access information.  She suggested that in future, there could be two versions of the Annual Report. A full document and a briefer version possibly folded into A5.   

     

    28.7    The Head of Housing and Social Inclusion agreed that this would be possible.  He stressed the need to balance the requirements of the regulator whilst ensuring that the report was accessible.  Officers would investigate ways of producing the report for future years. 

     

    28.8    RESOLVED (1) That the annual report to council tenants and leaseholders 2011 as attached at Appendix 1, be approved for publication and distribution to all council tenants and leaseholders.

     

 


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