Agenda and draft minutes

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Contact: Tracey Meadows Email: t.meadows@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

2.

Notes from previous meetings pdf icon PDF 220 KB

3.

Tenants Strategic Group - Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 334 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Terms of Reference

     

     

    The proposed Terms of Reference describe the role, aims, objectives and expected conduct of the Tenants’ Strategic Group and are to be adopted at the start of the Tenants’ Strategic Group’s formal existence. The Terms of Reference state that all tenant representatives will be appointed to the Group following election by all direct tenants of the Council. It is proposed that the election process will be carried out during the period from July 2020 and ending with the appointment of a new group in January 2021. More details are to follow on this.

     

    Members were asked to support the recommendation to approve the Terms of Reference for the Strategic Group.

     

     

    Comments made by board members included (responses in italic):

     

    ·       Item 1.7 states that group members will be expected to maintain close links with other elements of the tenant engagement structure at the Council, can you please explain? We have a Tenant’s Action Group, currently the acting Chair of the group is Wayne Hobson. They come together to look at the day to day operations. They provide us with feedback on how we are doing on the ground on a daily basis. The Chair has an opportunity to come and speak to the Strategic group to discuss their observations that they have made as there may be issues that are common across our service area that they are seeing routinely and may have views on raising them with the Strategic Group to get those matters addressed.

     

    Resolved that the group accepted the recommendation.

     

4.

Director of Housing and Communities update report pdf icon PDF 364 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Director of Housing and Communities update report

     

    The Director of Housing and Communities, James Barrah along with Simon Lewis (Assistant Director, Housing and Communities), Chris Brown (Assistant Director, Redevelopment and Regeneration) and Ian Candlish (Assistant Director of, Housing properties) updated the Tenants Strategic Group on key issues across the Housing and Communities Directorate since the last meeting and in particular to reflect on the Directorate response to the Corona virus pandemic. The report also raises some key issues forming the work plan of the Directorate over the coming weeks and months.

     

    Comments made by board members included; (responses in italic)

     

    ·       Regarding the reviewing of anti-social behaviour policies, what sort of urgency are you looking into this as I have an existing problem that has been made worse than it needs to by existing policies? We are looking into these policies right now, we need to make sure that our internal processes are efficient, we have a number of tools that we can use and probably need to be a bit quicker than we have done in the past. We need to make sure that when we have cases we need to have clear evidence to ascertain who is at fault. The policy will be updated over the next month;

    ·       Can you tell me when the emergency call line for repairs will be switched off? This issue has been picked today so we will rectify this;

    ·       If there is another flare up in the South West of Covid 19, will be have to renew our processes or are we ready for another local flare up? The situation in the South West is something that all parties have been watching quite carefully, you saw the reports of people hitting the beaches in high numbers which was not ideal in the circumstances and then just last week an illegal rave in Bath. Our location has meant that firstly our incident rate has been low compared to the National picture, also our location means that we will see an increasing number of people looking to travel to the area for a break, holiday or recreational purposes and second homes is another feature. The surveillance that is underway is keeping a careful eye on that. Our R rate was slow in coming down. The response to any local incident is driven by the County Councillors as a public health responsibility and all partners contribute to that, there is a local outbreak control plan in place it really depends on what happens, what the outbreak might be, what premises are involved and the impact on Somerset West and Taunton Council and depends on the local flare up or outbreak. A lot of these arrangements will be tested when there are local incidents. Information sharing nationally on outbreaks is continuous where we get information fed back to us from Government agencies and responsibility has now been handed to Localities to better manage local outbreaks which is a good thing as local mechanisms are closer to those communities  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Zero Carbon Affordable Homes Pilot Project pdf icon PDF 250 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Zero Carbon Affordable Homes Pilot Project

     

    Assistant Director Housing Development and Regeneration, Chris Brown inform the group of the Zero Carbon Affordable Homes Pilot Project;

     

    Stated that in 2019, the Council declared a climate emergency and committed to working towards achieving carbon neutrality and climate resilience by 2030. As a result SWT is developing policies and delivering actions to reduce the pace of climate change. In 2020 the Council agreed a Housing Revenue Account (HRA) 30 year Business Plan. This plan included an ambition to develop 1000 new affordable homes for the HRA over 30 years. These ambitions have been joined in this proposed pilot scheme to build up to fifty (50) zero carbon council homes and create a blueprint for future affordable housing developments in the District.

     

    Comments made by Board Members included (responses in italic);

     

    ·       Concerns with the displacement of existing parking provisions on garage sites that have been identified for housing; there are going to be displacement of vehicles parking on the streets. We have not yet had planning approval on each site and this may have a big impact on how many sites can be built out. Alternative garage space may be offered but may not be convenient to some of the users. The wider question is the car use, rural areas usage would be essential for a long time to come and many of us think that our cars are essential where ever we live. We need to think if parking is a requirement in the future. We need to challenge this and push more public transport. Planning permission will force us to address that point;

    ·       Good report and very ambitious and I am looking forward to it. What are the risks with this project once it is finished? We do not want tenants knocking the properties about. I suggest that a tenancy agreement is drawn up to stipulate to the tenant that no internal structural alterations are to take place in the properties. If we have that in our tenancy agreement that will safe guard our investment; there will be risks with the sites themselves, so achieving 50 homes is a risk after we look at all the services the parking challenges, the existing access and any ownership, these might whittle down a bit and we may not achieve the 50. There are risks with the procurement process, we need to make sure that contractors deliver our high standards. Speed is another risk with challenges on time and the planning process, change of blend of units, more 2/3 in bedroom sizes. And risk to Right to Buy, we need to make sure that we spend the money;

    ·       With difficulties in the planning process, is our planning department on board with what we want to achieve? We expect them to be positive about this as many of the things that they want we are proposing. The design guide talks about good space standard, good quality design and low carbon homes. This will be an area  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Forward Plan including future dates

     

    Future dates for 2020/21 – all meetings to start at 6pm

     

    21 September 2020

    23 November 2020

    25 January 2021

    22 March 2021

    24 May 2021

    19 July 2021

     

    Areas of discussion for future meetings;

     

    Housing Performance;

    New build council housing;

    Government White Paper – a new deal for Social Housing;

    Compliance, with a particular focus on fire safety;

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Forward Plan and future meeting dates;

     

    Future dates for 2020/21 will be as follows (all meetings will commence at 6pm);

     

    21 September

    23 November

    25 January 2021

    22 March 2021

    24 May 2021

    19 July 2021

     

    Areas for discussion for future meetings;

     

    ·       Housing performance

    ·       New build council housing

    ·       Government White Paper  - a new deal for Social Housing

    ·       Compliance, with a particular focus on Fire Safety