Agenda and minutes

(Director of Communities) To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor S Neville was substituting for Councillor S Heap.

(Director of Governance) To agree the notes of the meeting of the Select Committee held on 20 June 2017.

RESOLVED:

That the notes of the last meting of the Select Committee held on 20 June 2017 be agreed.

(Director of Governance). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a pecuniary or a non-pecuniary interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 9 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a non-pecuniary interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 9 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

Pursuant to the Officer’s Code of Conduct, R Wilson, Assistant Director – Housing Operations, declared a personal interest in agenda item 6, Review of Housing Allocations Scheme, by virtue of his two children being on the District Council’s Housing Register.

(Chairman / Lead Officer) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of this Committee. This is attached along with an ongoing work

programme. Members are asked at each meeting to review both documents.

(a)          Terms of Reference

The Select Committee noted their terms of reference.

(b)          Work Programme

The Select Committee reviewed their work programme and noted that:

·         Item 5, 6 month progress report on implementation of the ageing population – will now go to the November 2017 meeting;

·         Item 6, annual diversity report of housing applicants and lettings – will now go to the November 2017 meeting;

·         Item 7, annual report on the HomeOptions Choice based letting scheme – this will also now go to the November 2017 meeting;

·         Item 10, annual feedback on the success of the crucial crew initiative and proposal for future delivery – will now go to the November 2017 meeting;

·         Items 29 and 30 should have their dates swapped – item 29 will go to the November meeting and item 30 was at this meeting;

·         Item 32 and 33, Presentation from the CAB and Review of the funding to CAB for two debt advisors – it was noted that the current CAB District Manager had recently resigned and therefore there may not be a presentation in November depending on when they fill that vacancy. Also because of this the Committee agreed that a report asking for the continuation of the funding of the debt advisors be submitted directly to the Cabinet in order to meet the budget deadlines.

AGREED: that if the CAB could not attend the November meeting to give their presentation, the Committee agreed that a report asking for the continuation of the funding of the debt advisors be submitted directly to the Cabinet in order to meet the budget deadlines.

(Director of Communities) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director, Housing Operations, Mr R Wilson introduced the review of the Council’s Housing Allocations Scheme. The Council was legally required to have a Housing Allocations Scheme for determining priorities and the procedure to be followed in selecting a person for accommodation, or nominating a person to be a tenant for accommodation held by another Registered Provider of social housing.

Under Government Guidance, authorities were given powers to decide locally how accommodation should be allocated based upon local priorities and were empowered to allocate their accommodation in any way they saw fit, provided schemes were both legal and rational. 

The Committee was therefore asked to review the Scheme, in order to consider whether any further changes were required, and to submit a report to the Cabinet on the outcome of its review and any recommended changes. Before this, it was suggested that the new draft Scheme be considered by an external Legal Advisor, prior to the statutory consultation being undertaken and the Cabinet considering the final scheme. In accordance with legal advice previously received, the consultation period was required to be 12 weeks.

Items under review:

Residency Criteria - Under one aspect of the current Local Eligibility Criteria of the Scheme, in order to join the Council’s Housing Register an applicant must have been resident in the District for five continuous years. The initial views of Cabinet members was that this should be increased, with any new applicant who has lived in the District for less than seven continuous years immediately prior to their date of registration, not qualifying for inclusion on the Council’s Housing Register. 

Councillor Neville asked how 7 years was arrived at? The meeting was advised that, when discussing initial views, Cabinet Members considered a residency criteria of 10 years, but felt 7 years would be a compromise. However, it was for this committee to make a recommendation to the Cabinet. The Housing Portfolio Holder added that many of our residents were searching for housing, and we did not have enough and so we were protecting this limited resource for local people. Councillor C Whitbread commented the Council only manages to house a limited number of people a year and we should prioritise our residents. Councillor J H Whitehouse could see the reason for this but had concerns about people who moved away, say to university, for a few years and then came back. How would this affect them? And also, we needed to build more houses. Mr Wilson replied that the residency criteria had exceptions such as people in the armed forces, or people moving into the district for employment etc. there would be a number of exceptions around this criteria.

Councillor H Whitbread asked if family connections had been looked into and considered. Mr Wilson said that they had been considered and it was set out in appendix 3 of the report, although it was difficult to define ‘family associations’. Councillor C Whitbread said it could be set to immediate family, such as son  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

(Head of Transformation) to consider the attached report.

The Committee noted that the Corporate Plan was the Council’s key strategic planning document, setting out its priorities over the five-year period from 2015/16 to 2019/20. The priorities or Corporate Aims were supported by Key Objectives, which provided a clear statement of the Council’s overall intentions for these five years.

There were 50 actions in total for which progress updates for Q1 are as follows:

·         Achieved or On-Target:                        46  (92%)

·         Under Control:                           0    (0%)

·         Behind Schedule:                      3    (4%) 

·         Pending:                                                1    (4%)

Total    50  (100%) 

20 actions fell within the areas of responsibility of the Communities Select Committee. At the end of Q1:

·         18 (50%) of these actions have been ‘Achieved’ or are ‘On-Target’

·         0 (19%) of these actions are ‘Under Control’

·         1 (31%) of these actions are ‘Pending’

·         1 (0%) of these actions are ‘Behind Schedule’

It was noted that for the delivery phase 1 of the council’s Housebuilding Programme, to  provide 23 new affordable rented homes there were 12 properties that were now occupied and the rest would be available at the end of September.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee reviewed the first quarter (Q1) progress of the Corporate Plan Key Action Plan for 2017/18 in relation to its areas of responsibility.

(Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Committee noted that this new Corporate Plan will run from 2018 to 2023, and seeks to set out the journey the Council will take to transform the organisation to be ‘Ready for the Future’. This plan seeks to link the key external drivers influencing Council services, with a set of corporate aims and objectives, grouped under three corporate ambitions.

The success of the new Corporate Plan will be assessed through the achievement of a set of benefits, focussed on what the Council achieves for customers. These benefits in turn are evidenced through a set of performance measures.

This new draft plan was at this meeting for the Select Committees to review its layout and ease of understanding. It had also gone or will be going to the other three Select Committees, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, customers, partners, businesses and staff. This new Corporate Plan aspired to be written in a way that can be easily understood by customers.

RESOLVED:

Upon reviewing the benefit maps in appendix 2 the Committee thought that they were “too busy” to be easily followed and not easy to read. They would like it simplified and perhaps broken down in smaller sections and put into plain English.

(Head of Transformation) to consider the attached report.

The Committee noted that the Local Government Act 1999 requires that the Council make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions and services were exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

As part of the duty to secure continuous improvement, a range of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) relevant to the Council’s services and key objectives, were adopted each year by the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee. Performance against the KPIs was monitored on a quarterly basis by Management Board and Overview and Scrutiny to drive improvement in performance and ensure corrective action is taken where necessary.

A range of thirty-two Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for 2017/18 was adopted by the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee in March 2017. The KPIs were important to the improvement of the Council’s services and the achievement of its key objectives, and comprise a combination of some former statutory indicators and locally determined performance measures. The aim of the KPIs was to direct improvement effort towards services and the national priorities and local challenges arising from the social, economic and environmental context of the district, that are the focus of thekey objectives.

The overall position for all 32 KPIs at the end of the Quarter 1 was as follows:

(a)    27 (84%) indicators achieved first quarter target;

(b)    5 (16%) indicators did not achieve first quarter target, although 1 (3%) of KPIs performed within the agreed tolerance for the indicator.

Communities Select Committee indicators - Nine of the Key Performance Indicators fall within the Communities Select Committee’s areas of responsibility. The overall position with regard to the achievement of target performance at Q1 for these nine indicators was as follows:

(a)    9 (100%) indicators achieved target;

(b)    0 (0%) indicators did not achieve target, and

(c)    0 (0%) of these KPI’s performed within the agreed tolerance for the indicator

(d)    9 (100%) of indicators are currently anticipated to achieve year-end target.

RESOLVED:

That the Communities Select Committee noted the first quarter performance of the Key Performance Indicators within its area of responsibility.

To discuss the issues to be raised with the Essex Police District Commander who will be attending the 7^th November 2017 meeting of this Committee.

The Committee noted that the Essex Police District Commander would be attending their 7^th November meeting.

They agreed that the meeting should be held in the Council Chamber and that it should be webcast as there would significant public interest. All members would be invited to attend and ask questions.

An item will be put in the Council Bulletin.

Members of the public wishing to ask questions should route them through their district representatives to be asked on their behalf on the night.

If members had any questions they should send it to Adrian Hendry in Democratic Services who would co-ordinate with Safer Communities and relay the questions to the District Commander before the meeting so that an answer could be prepared.

To consider which reports are ready to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

The Chairman would give a general feedback to the forthcoming Overview and Scrutiny Committee on this meeting's activities, highlighting the Housing Allocations Policy and the upcoming visit of the Police District Commander.

To note the dates of the future meetings of this Committee; they are:

09^th October 2017 (extra meeting)

07^th November;

16^th January 2018; and

13^th March.

The Committee noted the dates of their future meetings.