Agenda and minutes

Resolved that –

The decisions of the meeting held on the 29^th November are agreed as a correct record.

None.

a)      Personal and Prejudicial Interests

b)      Whipping Arrangements (in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 17)

Councillors Rayner and Scannell declared a non-pecuniary interest in relation to Item Six as they were both private landlords.

Responses to public questions submitted in advance of the meeting are included in the supplementary agenda to this meeting and are available from the Council’s website.

None.

Derek Rust (Director of Operations – Barnet Homes) and Amanda Jackson (Director of Operations – Your Choice Barnet) presented a report to the Committee setting out the performance of the Barnet Group from April to September 2012.

Paul Shipway Head of Strategy & Performance Environment, Planning and Regeneration and Mathew Kendall, Acting Associate Director, Joint Commissioning, London Borough of Barnet were also in attendance.

The directors provided an overview of the Group’s performance for the period concerned and then provided responses and clarifications to the following issues raised by the Committee:

Leaseholder satisfaction – the Committee were informed that where leaseholders had expressed dissatisfaction this was in relation to the costs rather than quality of service.

Emergency accommodation budget – the Committee were advised that the cost of emergency accommodation was drawn from the council’s general fund rather than the housing revenue account with much of the cost met through housing benefit. 

The Committee were advised that due to inflationary pressures on rents in the private rented sector some housing was being procured with higher rental costs. To mitigate against this Barnet Homes have been set a performance target to reduce the number of properties which exceed the housing benefit subsidy.

The Committee were advised that in relation to the average weeks spent in emergency accommodation the figure of 27 weeks for Quarter Two was affected by the difficulty the service found in procuring permanent accommodation for households to move into which resulted in an increase in the use of temporary and emergency accommodation.

It was clarified for the Committee that the figure of 509 in emergency accommodation for Quarter Two related to households and not individuals.

The Committee were informed that in order for someone to come out of emergency accommodation they would have been either assessed as being not in housing need and given advice about their future housing options, they could be placed in more secure accommodation which could be in the private rented accommodation sector, they could be housed in Barnet homes own stock, housed through a housing association or through a long term lease agreement of some description.

Private sector accommodation – the Committee were advised that due to the current market situation private landlords could secure higher rents than would have previously been paid. Barnet Homes was attempting to attract private landlords through a range of services and incentives.

The Committee were advised that there was a significant differential between rents paid in the private sector and what could be paid at a housing benefit level.

It was confirmed for the Committee that it was difficult to find accommodation for large families requiring more than four bedrooms in the private rented sector due to the bedroom cap placed on housing benefit. 

It was confirmed to the Committee that there was an increasing pressure to look at housing affordability outside the Greater London area. The Committee were informed that there were strict regulations in place and that the Government were not encouraging this practice. However, there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Cllr Daniel Thomas, Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, alongside John Hooton, Assistant Director Strategic Finance, and Tom Pike, Head of Performance, presented the 2012/13 Quarter Two Finance and Corporate Performance results.

Pam Wharfe, the Interim Director for Environment, Planning and Regeneration was also in attendance.

The Cabinet Member and officers provided responses to questions and clarifications on the following issues:

MTB 7 – Percentage of council services rated as high performance/low cost – the Committee commended on the performance of council against this performance indicator which saw the council ranked fourth in London overall.

Objective setting processfor staff - the Committee welcomed the development of this collaborative format for delivering improved performance across the council.

Agency staff – the Committee were advised that a number of measures had been undertaken to reduce dependency on agencies including the utilisation of a market supplement during the current transformation recruitment process.

Procurement savings – the Committee were advised that the planned savings related to ambitious targets that were not always realisable nd were often ahead of national averages. The Committee were advised that the NSCSO contract when initiated would help realise these savings in future years.

The targets were set around corporate contracts and that individual services such as Adults Social Care Services realised savings that were not necessarily captured in the figures presented to the Committee.

The committee were advised that over a number of years savings targets had been set for corporate procurements. When these were not met the outstanding savings that had not been met were rolled forward into the following year resulting in a cumulative saving target.

Parking – in relation to parking revenue recovery plans the Committee were informed that the findings of the pilot undertaken in North Finchley would be used to guide future planning.

Cllr Thomas advised the Committee that were targets were not been met in relation to the recovery of parking revenue that members should take into consideration the broader national and local economic environment which made target planning difficult to set.

Presentation of results – the committee requested that officers when drafting the contents of reports, such as the control actions contained within the Corporate Risk Register, adopt the principles of using plain and simple English.  

Recycling – the Committee were advised that the introduction of the new single bin arrangement for general household waste recycling alongside the introduction of the food recycling bin would help improve the council’s performance. These new bins would be introduced in October 2013.

Street lighting – the Committee were informed that the legal issues related to the proposed reprofiling of the new column installation programme had been resolved and that subsequent savings would be realised next year.

Delay to the implementation of the restructure to customer services and registration – the Committee were advised that some issues relating to the retraining of staff and required up-skilling had affected the performance targets for the period concerned. Performance over the last two months had been monitored and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee considered the Forward Work Programme. The committee requested that an item on parking be taken forward from the work programme long list. The committee also requested that in light of the recent Government statement that councils in England could lose their powers over adoption services if they take too long to find adoptive parents that a report on Barnet’s adoption services performance be presented to the Committee as soon as possible.

The Committee requested that officers, if possible, present a report on outline proposals for Childs Hill and Grahame Park libraries at the March meeting of the Committee.

The Committee requested that the Chairman liaise with the Governance Service to consider how measures could be put in place to ensure quarterly performance is presented in a timely manner.

Resolved that-

1. The findings of the North Finchley parking pilot study be presented to the Committee

2. With regard to the Adoption Service  - the Corporate Performance team in conjunction with the Children’s Service present a report to the Committee on the services performance in meeting timelines for placements 

3. The Governance Service provides Committee Members with copies of the Quarterly Finance and Performance Reports when these are distributed for Cabinet Resources Committee.

None.