Transcript

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to this meeting of the Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Obviously, Thursday, the 6th of June. Could I ask that all mobile phones are put on silent? There is no fire alarm expected. I'll leave it there without reading the rest of the stuff out. Just a reminder that the meeting is being recorded and live-stringed and can be looked at late. Later via the public eye webcast on the Council's website. Finally, usual procedures apply if anyone wishes to ask a question. Please, can they raise their hands? Questions will be taken from committee members first before any non-committee members. So, we'll move forward with the agenda. So, one public speaking. We do have a public speaker today, Mr. A. Bolling, who is the Vice Chair of London, Thorpe and Haraby Without Parish Council. Mr. Bolling. I think that's the right one. Very good. Good afternoon. I'd like to ask a question on behalf of London, Thorpe and Haraby Without Parish Council and their parishioners around an asset of community value that appears on SKDC's ACV Register. This is the former Blessed Humor playing site. In the public notes in the January meeting, there is a reference to building homes on this site and we understand the meeting has been held with ward Councillors in February who had no idea until that point that some detailed work had been instigated. Could the committee please explain why after years of work and financial investment by the parish council plus many hours of work by community volunteers, there appears to be a plan to presumably remove the ACV status in 2025, remove the covenant and take this valuable recreational area away from all the community. Could we see what is being planned and the details behind this plan? Thank you. Mr. Bolling, I'm going to hand over to the cabinet member for housing, the new cabinet member for housing, Council of Virginia Moran. As I've already told you, you do then have the opportunity for one supplementary question. Councillor Moran. Hello, Mr. Bolling. Thank you for coming and talking to us. My name is Virginia Moran and the cabinet member for housing. There isn't a plan as such. We're all well aware of the history of the landing question and the attempts have been made in the past to put housing on there and what have you. At this present moment in time, it is not on our list of places to develop. Because of the ACV and the covenant on various other reasons, it wasn't on our radar at all. What happened was one of the world Councillors came to us and said he'd like us to have another look at the site because the original plans that were done basically covered the site in houses which was completely unacceptable. Because he said he thought now is the right time where the sun development may be acceptable in exchange for enhancement of the rest of the site and greater protections on it. So we asked our planning people to have a look at it, see what they thought they could do on the site. They put some plans together and these were shown to the world Councillors. It wasn't to what the world Councillors had in mind at all and they asked us to go back. They wanted no more than 20 properties. They wanted bungalows because of the demographic that small bungalows were tracked and they wanted a landscaping and play park plan for the rest of the site. We went back and we did more plans where the actual development would replicate the street that's next to it, the layout of the street next to it. So it would be like a mirror image. There was 20 bungalows. It occupied about a period of the site. We're trying to get together with the world Councillors to put them to it bearing in mind that this site was still not on our pipeline because it was so early in the day. We haven't done any feasibility on the cost. We haven't looked into the issue of the SCV or we haven't looked into the issue of the covenant. We were just doing what the world Councillors had asked us to do. That meeting didn't take place and the decision was made between myself and the director of housing and the world Councillors that we would not pursue this any further. So the request was made by the world Councillor and the decision was jointly that we do not progress this site. We've got an awful lot of sites that are already in progression. We've got a full pipeline and that land is not on there. It's all right. Thank you Councillor Moram, Mr Bolin. Yeah I'd like to just read what it says in these documents because it does say the potential design and location of proposed scheme. So that suggests to me that quite detailed work has been done here and I'm very concerned because the war Councillors that we know that are involved with this particular part are all very clear that they had no idea that there was anything at all going on, no previous suggestions or anything that was happening on this particular plot of land. I have to say I personally try to break me back doing some of the stuff that we're working on on that area at the moment and I just can't believe that behind all the work that individuals have been doing and all the work to get there and the work that we've invested and spent in terms of building it up buying parcels of land just to the north of it to make it even better and the work in the pouring rain which we have done that we then find out this way. I'm absolutely shocked. I can't say anything more than that. Thank you. Councillor Meran would you wish to respond? Yeah, I'm sorry you seem to think that this is something that is set in stone. It's absolutely not. There's no sort of feasibility being done on it whatsoever. If what we were asked to do was that susceptible to the ward Councillors and it was one of the ward Councillors who asked us to do this, our next step would then have been to look at feasibility because it may not have been economically viable to do this and assuming it was feasible then we'd have proper plans drawn up. The ones we've got at the moment, you're absolutely basic. It's almost the equivalent of a drawing on a fat packet. It's not a plan. It's not a scheme and the other agreement we had with them was that nothing will proceed until the proper consultation with the residents that overlook the site and of course with yourselves and unless there was a majority agreement from all those parties it would not be going any further. It's just it's not happening. It's not happening unfortunately. I mean if you do want to scheme on there at some point that's fine but if you don't want to scheme that's fine too. Thank you. That's a very decisive answer so thank you very much for that and Mr Boling thank you for coming in and asking the question and I'd encourage you if you want to follow up to obviously contact Councillor MARAN via email. Full contact details are on the SKDC website obviously but thank you very much for coming in. Thank you. Okay so moving on then Lucy we go to apologies for absence. Thank you. Thank you Chairman. Apologies for absence have been received from Councillor Emma Baker who's being substituted by Councillor Harish business. Thank you. Item three disclosure of interest have usual question obviously. Have members anything to disclose in respect of any item on the agenda? Disclosures can be made during the meeting if members find that they have an interest in an item. Does anybody want to declare any interest at this point in time? No thank you very much. So moving on to item four minutes of the meeting held on the 21st of March 2024. Do members have any comments in respect to the accuracy of the minutes only? So before I take a vote on that does anybody wish to comment on the accuracy of the minutes? Okay thank you members. Could I have a proposal for those minutes please? Councillor Bailie. Thank you very much and Councillor Kelly, seconding. Thank you. Okay item five announced. I thank you very much. So we need to show of hands all those in favour any against any abstentions. Okay because those members were not hit. Well I don't. You don't need to tell me. So yeah so the minutes are passed. So moving on item five announcements or updates from the leader of the Council's cabinet members or head of paid service. Councillor would, I'm going to take the announcements first and then I'm more than happy to take your question. So first of all congratulations to Councillor Moran for your elevation to the cabinet. I've massively enjoyed working as your vice chair for the last year. Congratulations also. Congratulations to Councillor Dilks for hanging on to his position in the cabinet. Well done Councillor Dilks. Okay so I'll start with the new cabinet member Councillor Moran. I don't want to have any announcements at the moment. Thank you. The head of paid service has disappeared. Are there any other officers that have any announcements? Council, no? Okay. So Council of Wood, yeah please put your question. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I spoke to you about it. Obviously this is a scrutiny committee and I realise we're there to scrutinise things but I notice on the agenda a lot of the agenda items are for noting only which is okay if they are and I realise that some are but where the committee wants to query or make the recommendations, what's the procedure for doing that, what authority has this committee got? I mean for instance can we refer things to the cabinet or even to full council? So it's where we don't quite just want to note it, we want to go further and raise queries with it beyond this committee. Can we do that to the cabinet or could we take it to full council if we so if the committee is so minded? My understanding is that the committee can be minded to do what the committee wants to do but it would need a motion forwarding and obviously seconding and a majority vote to be sent forward. I think I'd invite any officers to come in and correct me on that but I think as straight forward procedure that's how it is, any officers want to comment? So is that, oh Alison? I mean what I would suggest if you want to refer something to cabinet or council that you put a report onto the forward plan we can then bring a report here with all the information with a recommendation that it then gets referred to cabinet for review approval. Thank you. Councilor Wood? Yeah I think that's okay but I think the answer is yes we can then can't we? If the committee was so minded and got a query on something we could say we'd like this referred to cabinet and if the majority of the committee agreed it would then go to cabinet wouldn't it? I agree with you completely. Yes, fine then. Thank you. Great, so moving through the agenda item six housing overview and scrutiny committee we now come on to Councilor Morin. I think you've been saying that a few times today on everything but what I wanted to do was to mark 12 months that this committee has existed and I thought it would be nice to look back on everything that the housing department and the committee have achieved over the past 12 months because it's quite an impressive list really. If you get bored just sort of you know give me a wind up if there's too many changes. Seeing as we were just talking about policies during the past year we have approved policies on housing repairs and maintenance, HRA disposal and acquisition, total housing compliance, private sector houses of multiple occupation licensing policy. Just got to be a short name for that one. Anti-social behaviour policy, tenancy management, estate management, total housing compliance and the housing allocations policy. During the past 12 months we've implemented the choice based letting system. It's a new system which allows applicants to play an active and engaged role in the allocations process, giving them the chance to bid for a property that suits them. They can access their accounts online, they can track their bids and they can see where they were placed on the property shortlist and be notified if and when an offer is made. It gives applicants a realistic view of the likelihood of having a successful bid. I think it's just such a good system because in the past you applied for a council house and you've no idea from one year to the next whether you were moving up the list or moving down the list or just where you should. Whereas now you've got choice of all of the properties as soon as they come available and it's down to you, it's a right move, that's care. To give it a snuckier name. We've also had a completion, the housing department managed to do a completion on 380 void properties. We're leaving it at 380, it may be a couple of more gone by in the last couple of days. As regards new bills, during the year 22 properties were purchased which includes 21 properties funded from the local authority housing fund. Nine properties are currently being purchased of eight of which are funded from the local authority housing fund. We've got commencement of new bill schemes at Swainsgate, Grampham and Elizabeth Rogg's Stanford which will deliver another 24 properties. We've also got planning permission for around 20 units gain at large schools in Grampham and last week or the week before 36. We had approval to purchase 36 units which I think we get over the next three years in Colby Glen. That's 112 new properties for our residents. I will just say to make a tiny political point, in the previous five years, five years, 47 is what was achieved in the last five years and we're on 112 for one year. So, goal team. The big thing that we had, of course, is the compliance. Phil Swinton, I said, Can you let me have some sort of numbers? I'll buy her Alison. I asked, Let me have some numbers on compliance. So, I'm going to take a very deep breath. We've done 259 asbestos inspections which are legally required. We've done 147 fire risk assessments on blocks and schemes within communal areas, again, a legal requirement. We've done 147 fire prioritization, two reports on those same blocks. We've done 147 compartmentation. That's a long word for Thursday afternoon, isn't it? 147 compartmentation service for fire service. This is in addition to what we're required to under compliance and the results of the both are directing the compartmentation program, which is now under there, under way, with the first 15 schemes due to complete later this year. On gas, this is a reported monthly position. There is a slight alterations to the papers that you have, which I'll do when we come to it, as we're just into having June figures, obviously. We've done lift inspections, lollars. These acronyms. We've done 26 inspections as each lift receives two inspections a year. Legionella is on the two-year cycle. This is a year off, and there's 33 locations where we'll be doing Legionella next year. I think that's it. That's not bad really, is it, for 12 months? All right. Thank you. It's an impressive list, Councillor. Thank you very much. Again, I'd like to really give my personal thanks to Councillor Dilks for all the work that he put in over those 12 months. Councillor Bishalcinge and then Councillor Wood. Thank you very much. I come in and make it. I come in and I'm happy to do a lot of things. Sorry. It's an impressive achievement over the last 12 months. Very fully welcome, especially when we are increasing our social housing stocks, you know, and it's very welcome and long may we continue with that. Just one of those two things I would like to ask, if you could explain for me, what is compartmentalizations? And second, is how many houses that was sold under the right to Bishq? How have we got to go? I want to transfer this question. Thank you. So, a fire compartmentation survey, it takes the basis of a fire risk assessment, which would look at the outside of the building and the general structure. It goes far deeper, so it goes into the, into the make of the building looking through the loft, looking for gaps and holes potentially in fire doors, fire breaches, and ensuring that we know where the gaps are so that we can then make it compartmented. It basically means that it's sectioned off and the fire safety is enhanced. So, it's looking far deeper than we maybe have done in the past at what we can do to enhance the safety in those buildings in relation to fire. It's an extended FRA of fire risk assessment. It just looks a lot deeper at the building and its make up. Councillor MARAN, do you wish to come back on that at all? I think Alison has, Alison, do you have the numbers for how many right to fire we've done this year? Last financial year we sold 25 properties under right to buy. Yes, come on then, Harish. Mr. Chairman, what I would like to know overall over the year since right to buy scheme has been in place, how many houses total that we are in deficit or we have sold that we haven't replaced? That goes back to the 80s of course, but that's one heck of a long time, but Alison. Thank you, Mr Chairman. I'll go away and speak to the finance team. We'll have to report back on that and we'll provide information for as many years as we can. Thank you. Councillor WOOD. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Councillor MARAN, I acknowledge the success on regulatory inspections. Obviously, that was good news to get out of that condition, but I'm left with a bit, and it might be, I stand to be corrected, but I'm left with the position that I don't think housing is still in a good position. Councillor MARAN has listed off of these things that we've actually achieved over the last 12 months, that's fair enough. But does Councillor MARAN actually think housing is a good position or not? I wish you could answer that yes or no. Could she actually tell us, we need to do constant improvement. Could she tell us the things the areas that need to be improved on? Now, what springs to mind to me are voids, housing repairs, and probably the projects we're doing, but I say I stand to be corrected on it, but my opinion is we're not in the position that we should be in, and there's quite a lot more work needed if we don't. Does Councillor MARAN agree with that or not? Thank you. Thank you. Councillor MARAN, you certainly don't have to answer just yes or no. Most things are a lot more complicated than yes or no. I don't do yes or no answers, Councillor Wood. You may be surprised to hear. Considering the state that the housing department was left in, but we inherited, it's a wonder we've made any progress at all. Housing is a huge oil tanker that was facing the wrong way of the Panama Canal, and you know how easy it is to turn stuff round in the Panama Canal. No, we're not perfect, not by long talk, but we're a lot more perfect than we were before we started. In first, Mr. Chairman, Councillor MARAN has not answered my question what things need to be improved. I mentioned to see agree with me about housing repairs, voids and the schemes that we're doing there. I don't know whether to do that. Give Councillor MARAN the opportunity to come back on that if she so wishes, absolutely. As I said, we're not perfect, but we're getting better across the board. If you've got a specific query, my email is always open to you, Councillor Wood, and I'll give you a personal response. Councillor KELLY. Thank you, Chairman. I just wanted to say that it is a really good thing that we have the Housing Committee, and it may be that in these meetings we receive a lot of things, and that is because up till now the Councillors have not been fully briefed on many, many things that happen within the Housing Department, and we gather these notes and we gather information and we gather knowledge, and I think over the last year a lot of knowledge has been dispersed and used among the Councillors. You yourself said thank you to the cabinet members and what have you for their work, but we've got to remember there hasn't been a housing officer for six months of this year, so I think the team out there been absolutely brilliant. They've kept it together. I know that they've been much encouraged by Karen Bradford, and I think there's a lot of strength shown, and as long as the answer every time is better, how are we doing better than we were doing before? We are all going in the right direction. Thank you. Thanks for that, Councillor Kelly, and absolutely for the last year, Councillor Moran, Councillor Dilks, myself, have been thanking officers. I did exactly the same today in the pre-me, and I absolutely concur with your comments. It's the officers on the ground that made this success happen. Yes, I think it is just worth reminding ourselves once again that this committee has only existed for just over 12 months. Before that, housing was tagged on to the Rural Committee. Absolutely. Yes, thanks for that. I'd invite any last comments on item six, in other words, responding to Councillor Moran's verbal update. No, okay. Thank you very much, so we'll move on to item seven, mutual exchange procedure, and I'll hand back to you. You've got it, Councillor Moran. Hello, again. Okay, mutual exchange procedure. This report provides us a committee with details of the mutual exchange decision-making process, and outlines the circumstances in which mutual exchange can be refused. The recommendation is it is recommended that the committee notes the contents of the report on the mutual exchange procedure. Appendix two, provides details of the procedure the Council follows when processing mutual exchange applications. This procedure ensures that the Council has a robust processing place which will mitigate any potential issues with the mutual exchange process. Appendix three, provides details of the comprehensive checklist that the Council completes when inspecting properties which ensures that our properties are safe and that they meet the standards of repair required prior to the mutual exchange being approved. If repairs are identified during the inspection of the property, which are the responsibility of their going tenant, then the mutual exchange will not be approved until the repairs have been completed. Thank you. Alison, did you want to come in? No. Okay, sorry. Yeah, Councillor Bailie. Thank you, Chairman. Just a bit of clarification, obviously. We had this report at the last OSC where we deferred it. The last time this came to the OSC, we had the option to recommend to the cabinet the approval of the updated mutual exchange policy. But I know on this report, we're not actually making any recommendations to the cabinet. So I'm going to just understand what the change has been between last OSC and this OSC. Thank you. Alison. Thank you, Mr Chairman. To confirm that that report was written by a previous officer and the mutual exchange policy actually forms part of the tenancy management policy as referred to in Section 2.1 of the updated report. That policy was actually approved by cabinet on the 6th of February and will have come to this committee at a previous meeting. So the policy has already approved. This is simply the procedure that we follow when completing a mutual exchange that the committee had asked to be presented. Thank you. If you want to come back on that, Councillor Bailie at all? No, that doesn't. No. Okay, Councillor Wood. I mean, I know it can be quite critical, but I actually agree with this. So, I mean, it might not be a bad idea to tell the cabinet that the committee actually agrees with it, but I say anything is a good thing, so that I would take that as one of the good things we're doing. And I think we should probably tell, well, I know Councillor Moran and Councillor Dilsey are here, but I think we should make our views known. Your positivity is usually noted, Councillor Wood. Thank you so much. Councillor interjecting. You said that not me. What any of the members would like to contribute on this item? Councillor interjecting. Councillor Layton. Thank you, Mr Chairman. It's an incredibly complex document. So, thank you so much to the officers for putting this all together. It's an amazing job. I just had a couple of questions on things I've picked up on. One of the things was, in section 4.5.1, there was something about taking action and tenants for—sorry, this is when permission has been refused from mutual exchange, and I believe it's when tenants have moved in. The point 2 says, Taying action and the tenants return to their original property. I just wanted to ask, what circumstances would we find where the original property wasn't available? Because it says if it's available, please. Thank you. The only circumstance where the property wouldn't be—on a mutual exchange to household exchange properties with each other, the only time that property would not be available is if that tenant had obviously given up their tenancy on the property they moved into. Thank you. Councillor Bishnacke. Thank you, Mr Chairman. With regard to the mutual exchange, is the tenant leaving or vacating the property together in a—with those—the tenant that are accepting the property? Sorry. Is the tenant that's leaving the case certain defects have been found upon inspections? Is the tenant leaving given the chance of repairing? Yes, an inspection is completed on both properties. If the works are identified to have been completed that don't meet the Council standard, the decent home standard, then the tenant will be required to put them right before they can actually move out of the—for the mutual exchange can take place. How does a disclaimer work, and is it the accepting tenants that accept the properties? You can't—we can't disclaim against works that don't meet Council standard. So this is a specific test, for example, electrical tests that have to be completed before a property can be exchanged. If those electrics don't meet the Council standard, we can't disclaim against them. They need to meet the Council standard for the mutual exchange to take place. Any final questions or comments on this item before we move on? Okay, thank you. So we move on to item eight, change for links, Councillor MARAN. Thank you, Chair. The next report is a change for links update, with a recommendation to note the contents. The report aims to update you all on the current position to change for links service. The number of rough sleepers is increasing on a national level, and statistics for other similar local authorities are included in this report to illustrate that. The increase in rough sleepers is not to imply that it's a failure of the service. It is purely—it's not that we're not looking after as many rough sleepers. It's just more and more and more of them. In the past, we've had huge overspends on temporary accommodation, and have had to adjust the service to compensate for this in 23/24. However, this year, the budget has been refreshed, and we can now start to accommodate people on the short-term basis again. We're in regular contact with our D.L.U.H.C. advisor, and with his support, we hope we confirm that the service this year. Funding is secured until March 2025, and during the course of this year, we'll be working with colleagues in each district to establish whether or not we'd like to continue with the Joint Service or separate and bid for our own, rough sleep or initiative funding. But we'll come back to this committee when that's been decided or suggested one way or the other. Thank you. Could I ask on that? That last point you've made, Councillor Moran, and please don't feel pressured to answer. I know it's a lot of thinking. We'll be going into this. But is there a direction of travel on that issue at the moment, i.e. to change your weather to stick? Is there a direction of travel or not at this point? I think at present, this isn't Carlton Stone. It's just the impression I have, is that we probably prefer to have our own initiative on rough sleep as purely because of the massive area that the current initiative covers. It can make life really difficult, sorting it all out, and I think a more targeted area with our own budget would be a lot more effective. But as I say, it's just, it's an idea that's being floated at the moment, and we'll report back when we can. Thanks for the answer, and as far as I'm concerned, this becomes an absolute priority for this committee. You know, homelessness is obviously a huge, huge issue. Councillor Kelly, did I see you indicating? Yes, I was just wondering if there's any research on this and whether it's a fact that we seem to be the first station going north from counties like Combshire, Bedfordshire, where life is very much more expensive. Is that why we're picking up so many people in San Castevo? Sorry. Thank you, Chairman. Not really, there's not really any research to suggest that. Generally, the people that we're dealing with are locally, you know, local residents or former residents that have been in this area. There's nothing to suggest that the people are flocking to this area. As I said, and in the report, the numbers is a national picture, I think just generally, because of the cost of living crisis, the cost of, you know, rental options. It's just a situation that we have facing. No, nothing to suggest that. A huge thanks to you, Sarah, and all the work that your team is doing on this. Thank you. On a pretty similar vein, I just wondered whether our rural area had anything to do with it, as opposed to an urban district. Is there any reports on that, or is it mainly the towns that are leading or the countryside that are leading the numbers? Because we do seem to be quite a bit higher than some of our neighbours. And obviously, we're all increasing. But I just wondered if there was any reports on that element or the other. Thank you, Chairman. I don't have any specific reports. However, just generally, we usually find that the rough-sleeper numbers tend to be in the towns and the urban areas, purely because that's, you know, people can access food, shops and provisions such as that, whereas if someone is sleeping in a very rural area, it can be a lot more challenging to travel to get that provision. So, although, obviously, we don't want to see anybody on the streets, at least if they are in the urban areas and they're more populated, they can get access to that provision and food and sustain themselves whilst they are out on the streets. Thank you. Councillor Kelly. I beg your pardon. It was Councillor Lay and then Councillor Bishnell seeing apologies. Thanks, Chair. It says that the scheme is hosted by Salzka Stephen. Who is managing the fund? That would be me. Yes. So, it was a decision that was made, I believe, well, I know it was prior to my time in around 2020 when we had the first round of bidding. It used to be an annual bid that we put in to access the fund, and then it changed in 2021 when we put a bid in for three years' worth of funding, which we were grateful for to get that funding. Yes, so the decision was made back then that we would host that team. I, myself, managed that team, but obviously it's then that it does all the hard work. We have an outreach team, as I've mentioned before, that are out and about across all the four districts. As Councillor Moran has already mentioned, that's where the challenge comes in to try and cover that vast area. Don't get me wrong, they do a cracking job. They're absolutely fantastic, but as we said, I think if we had more focused provision within Salzka Stephen, and I think the other districts tend to be in agreement with this, it could, it has the potential to work a lot better. By all means. Sorry, can I ask then, do you still have enough money in that budget then, until, because it's not going to be in the region till March 2025? Yes, so we've managed the budget so that it will last until March 2025. So, as I said, we're given the budget to last for the three years, and through the course of that three years, we've been obviously heavily budget monitoring. We've mentioned the overspend of temporary accommodation, we had to compensate for that. So, yeah, absolutely, the budget's in place to keep the staff in place until March 2025, and then obviously we're dependent on what the future plans are for that funding. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Chairman, but I don't think this one is an appropriate forum to raise this, but I just would like some advice on rough sleepers that have already been housed. We know for a fact where they are housed, but then now they appear on the high street begging for money. Are there anything that probably the officers could advise? We could do for them, because they do very unsightly sides to see them. Sometimes they are where they have been sitting. They just say that the following morning they're still there, you know, sleeping there, even though they have got their place to go to. Thank you, Chairman. Yes, a good point that you raise, and it's important to note that difference between genuine rough sleeper and someone who appears in the daytime gives the impression that they're rough sleeping, but actually we know that they're not. So, it is a known issue. We do work with our colleagues in neighbourhoods and community service to try and help those people. We have, as I said, we've got our outreach team who do go out at night to find rough sleepers, but they do do daytime outreach as well to try and engage with those people and see if there's anything we can assist with, because we, yes, it is a challenge for us, because they appear to be rough sleeping, but we know that they're not, but we certainly engage partners to try and tackle that situation. Thank you. Are there any possibilities that probably we can leave is with the local law enforcement that are the police so that they can, because begging is illegal. Do I understand that right? Yeah, we do leave is with our police colleagues. I'm probably not the best to advise around the legalities of it, but we certainly, we know it's an issue and we do work with them in terms of what their enforcement powers are. So, yeah, it's something that's, as I said, it's an ongoing issue. It's not linked to what I'm reporting on here, but nevertheless, I know that it is an issue that we work with our colleagues in the police with. Thank you. Any final comments on this item? Okay, thank you. So, we'll move on then. Item 9 is the update on the social housing decarbonisation from wave 2.1, and it's Councillor Moran. Come on down. Yeah, this says it gave me an easy round, first meeting. There we go. Okay, your update, I believe this is a requested update on where we're up to with this. The report provides the committee with an update regarding social housing decarbonisation from the project to update you on council dwellings with energy efficient measures. The report is just for your information and recommendation. The council is responsible, as you know, for managing around 6,000 properties. The average EPC rating for these properties is currently D, but there is a requirement for the council to achieve an EPC rating of at least C by 2030, which this grant is supporting the council to achieve. The aim of the grant is to support local authorities and registered social housing providers to deliver warm energy efficient homes, reduce carbon emissions and fuel bills, which will assist in tackling fuel poverty. In paragraph 2, 4 of the report, there are details of the key objectives of the fund. Further along, in paragraph 2, 7, you'll see that the council has installed solar PV panels on 122 properties. We've completed 10 cavity wall extraction refills, 3 loft installation upgrades and 12 ventilation measures. These works have enabled the council to achieve the year 1 grant allocation spend of 1.192 million, which has meant no funding as needed to be returned. Phase 2 and 3 of the project have commenced and are detailed in the table in paragraph 2.6 and involve the installation of air source heat pumps at 180 properties, an external wall insulation at 39 properties. Paragraphs 2.8 and 2.9 of the report provide further details of these phases of work. One point to note is that today, 10 tenants have refused heating upgrades due to concerns over increased utility costs. So what we've done to try and re-inform the residents is we are arranging three resident engagement days, which have been being held this week for tenants. Sorry, it just occurs to me. I thought I was going to one of them, but obviously not. I'm here. Three resident engagement days have been held this week for tenants who are included in the scheme to attend and discuss their concerns, and answer any questions that the amount to have. Draft guidance has been released for wave 3 of the social housing decarbonisation fund. The deadline for submitting a funding application has not yet been confirmed, so we will ensure the committee is provided with more information as a future meeting. Thank you. Thanks, Councillor MARAN. Councillor WOOD. Thank you, Jim. I welcome this scheme, actually, as well. It's a good scheme, obviously. I've got one slight question on external wall installations. Wall installations to me seems quite a cost-effective way of doing things. Why is the number not greater than 39? I just thought it would be a good thing to do more, if we could. Maybe we can't. So my question is, why is the number only 39? Why aren't we doing more wall installations? Would an officer like to have a go answering that? Thank you. [end of transcript] [end of transcript] [end of transcript] [end of transcript] [end of transcript] [end of transcript] Thank you, Mr Chairman. So to confirm its external wall installation, so we've selected Turner Crescent in Grantham. Some of the properties on there have already benefited from EWI, so this will allow us to have a whole street approach on that estate, and we're also liaising with private owners on that estate, as well, where offering the fabric upgrade to them. But obviously that would be funded by themselves and not through this grant. Thank you. Councillor Callyen and Councillor MILMS. Can I just say it may cheer Councillor WOOD to know that very much of this outside cladding was done about 10 years ago, so I know a lot of the properties in Stumford have already got this thick exterior coat, so that's probably why there's less of it happening now. So it must have happened under a previous administration, Councillor WOOD. Councillor MILMS. Yes, I mean, could somebody just clarify that the breathability of the improvements being made, and do we need some sort of air exchange system to prevent mold? Thank you. [end of transcript] . . Okay, so thank you, Nick. So some quiet technical stuff here, which is great. But I would like to think this is a pretty non-controversial item, and move on, but I'm going to give anybody the final opportunity to ask anything or to comment. No, wonderful. Thank you. So we move on to item 10, which is housing compliance figures, maybe, just maybe slightly more controversial, but no, Councillor Mirehne. Thank you. The latest compliance figures, the areas of fire risk assessment, Legionella asbestos reinspection, and lifts remains to 700%. As previously reported, these focus on the communal areas and those which require little or no access to be granted by the tenant and are unchanged. As mentioned in the report, we have also provided gas and electric figures for May to update on the contractor related issues in these categories. Electrical figures, 92.48 for April, and a slight drop of 91.89 in May. The outgoing contractor, UK Gas, has failed to engage with SKDC, and as a result, a number of properties have not yet been visited – this has created a slight backlog, which the current contractors are working on as quickly as possible. It's possible we'll catch up this month, possible. As regards gas, the figures for gas serving in the appendix were up to April. April was 98.9. The May figure is currently 98. We have a slight improvement on that because we've just had June figures in, which are 98.21, so we're inching up. Of those, he says 91 non-compliant. That figures now are adjusted to 83, and 65 of those are newly non-compliant, so it's not 83 that have been hanging about for years. 48 of those have not had three access attempts, so they're not eligible for capping or court warrants, but all are booked for, well, were booked for an appointment this week. I'm sure enough is what they have to tell me how that went. 18, we've had to go to court with, unfortunately, for warrant approval, and approximately 20 will be eligible to cap in the next two weeks. Vulnerability assessment permitting, and all those vulnerability assessments are currently in process, because we won't consider capping anybody without that being completed. As noted in the report, the delay seen with gas appointments is a result of a lack of engagement by the outgoing provided liberty gas. We saw a dramatic fall in the number of appointments being kept, and a number we resheduled, more than once, up to the end of the contract, with no final visit being made. This left the council in a position with an increased number of appointments to attempt, but due to the resheduling on the part of Liberty, these properties have not received the required three attempts to gain access, which would then allow us to consider the capping going to court, rent rewards. The new contractor is working exceptionally hard to clear this backlog, and the housing team is making every effort to expedite this, but we anticipate that figures will remain below the 99% target until July, so not this month, it will be next month. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Councillor MURRAY. Phil, is there anything that you want to add at this stage? Thank you, Chair. I don't think there is really, just to say, the 83 number report obviously won't be in the report. That's part of the briefing note, but that is accurate as of an hour before I came in that it's now at 98.21%, so as Councillor MURRAY said, it is creeping up and we are hopeful that July will see us back to where we aim to be. Thanks for that, and again, thanks for all your hard work. Okay, members, any questions or contributions? Councillor Baille. Just a quick one, I did ask for this, the last meeting of the meeting before, is that some kind of graph that shows the performance over the year. I know we only see three months worth in the report, but I guess if we're looking at trends and improving performance or any areas of concern, I think we might need to look at, I guess, a wider picture, so maybe just to see the data over a wider span, just to make sure that we are kind of trending up and not down so we can take action if needed, so I can make that request if it's possible. I've got officers nodding their head at me, so, yeah, absolutely. If we could include some nice jazzy graphs in the next, the September meeting, is that okay, Councillor Baille? Brilliant, thank you, okay. Oh, sorry, Alison, yeah. Thank you, Mr Chairman. I think just to obviously provide further reassurance to the committee, Katie Askew, one of our officers, sat at the back of the Chamber, did go to court on Monday, and we were granted 15 warrants to access 15 properties to enablers to ensure we are completing as many gas compl- gas complies as we need to. Thank you. Thanks very much, okay, any more comments or questions on this compliance item? No, okay, thank you very much, we'll, we'll move on then. So, obviously 11, the one dear to my, very much dear to my, Art as the Ward Councillor, Earl's Field Grantham Project update, Councillor Moran. Thank you, Chair. Another regular report for you, today we have completed 49 properties on the phases 1 and 2 and works are currently progressing on the further 15. Appendix 1 will give you details of the properties that have been completed and properties where works are underway. As members are aware, the Council entered into a new contract with United Living. This commenced on the 1st of April, which includes a revised schedule of works. The new contract clearly defines the responsibilities of the contractor and of the Council. I know, Nick did a lot of work on making sure this contract gave us exactly what we need from these contractors and there's no worthy lines either. It's black and white. This is what you do. So, thanks for that, Nick. The project now has a dedicated tenant liaison officer, but we will deal with tenant queries where we're present when properties are handed back to tenants and take responsibility for resolving any issues that are identified. All the progress meetings are held with United Living to monitor the progress of the works, which will ensure the project is delivered by 31 March 2025. The KPANIS for the project is currently being agreed with United Living and will form part of this report of future meetings. Thank you. Thanks very much and just a purely personal comment, fantastic work on this project continues. Of course, there are some issues every now and then. Those issues are sorted out incredibly quickly and again, my personal thanks to all involved on that. Any comments or questions, please? Councillor Wood. Obviously, it's in your partnership, Mr Chairman. So, you should be fairly close to this scheme and I imagine you are. Obviously, in principle, the project is great. I support it totally beautifully, refurbishing the properties. It's got to be a great thing and it is a great thing. I just want to delve into a little bit further though. I think to scrutinise what's actually happened with the project, because it just strikes me as an outsider looking on, we wanted it, we wanted the work to be done, but has it been handled? I don't know whether it's the contractors' letters down or we've handled it badly or what. I know the chief phase is actually sitting at the back. I have to step in April 24 to ask meetings and sort it out. That would seem to indicate to me that there's been problems with the scheme and I notice we're over budget. We're probably done extra work and I don't know where the extra property is. We've now called it, I don't know what was in phase one, but we don't seem to have completed 45 properties in when it started the beginning of 23. It seems to have taken an awful long time. I'm not against the scheme, the scheme's great and we want it to work and we want it to continue definitely. It just seems to me things have gone wrong and I hope now, and maybe you or Councillor Muralen or Chief Executive can assure us it's back on track, but it seems to me it's gone off track, it's costing more the time scales and the budget's late, but it's taken an awful long while. If we're back on track now, if I could be reassured, if it's back on track now, that would be great. I'll leave it with that. I'll let the Chief exacting in a second, obviously. It's not off track. There has been bumps in the road as there's going to be with any major project as I've repeatedly said at this committee sitting there in the Vice Chair's seat. There have been bumps in the road. What has really pleased me, and I speak absolutely as the World Councillor in these comments, is that any concerns have been sorted out incredibly quickly. It's literally happened in the last few days. Yes, there's been an issue in one individual house. It's been sorted out within 48 hours and long may that continue. Chief Exet. Thank you, Chairman. Noting the comments that have been made today, I totally echo what you're saying. Things haven't gone wrong. When you are managing a capital project, which I'm sure the member realises from his own background, there's always going to be issues around quality, subcontractor management, site management. Yes, we did step in from Christmas last year, actually, around some of these matters. Myself and Nick regularly met with the managers from United Living. All of the issues that we had were sorted. As members were aware, we took a Phase 2 contract report, Cabinet. It was more costly, and the reason it was more costly, we were asking them to do more things for us. Therefore, it was more of a comprehensive contract. Relent through the FUSION contract for 70+ properties to be delivered in 24/25. They are on-track. We are meeting monthly and we even had the regional manager from United Living come to our meeting last week with Alison and Nick also attending. So, I am very assured that the quality has improved, that we're clear on what they should be delivering, how they should be delivering, and on what target. Believe me, it would be picked up in our monthly meetings if there was any deviation from that. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Anybody else want to comment on this? Again, I'd like to, the reassurance had been given. I'd like to think we can note it and move on, but the opportunity for any final comments or questions. Councillor HARRISON. Thank you, Chief. Speaking on behalf of Councillor Connington, who can't be here at the moment, the other ward Councillor for here, I think if we compare where we are now, where we were just over a year ago, it's phenomenal, which I've been in the right direction, I've been in the right direction, very quickly in the right direction. So, applause to everybody involved. Thank you very much. Nice for that. So, moving on there, item 12, build and acquisitions update, Councillor Moran. This is absolutely my favourite bit of housing. I love this. I love us buying new places usually for the bargain or building some, not so much of a bargain, but there we are. Swings around a bit, isn't it? So, I'm delighted to give an update to the committee regarding builds and acquisitions. Swangate. Demolition has been completed. The ground works are being undertaken on site by Linden's. The delays to the ground work starting, sorry, that rewind. The delay to the ground work starting with, no, it still doesn't make sense. The works on the facade have meant that the handover would be July 2025, with an additional cost of £60,000. However, we're a year away from it actually being completed and we're going to be looking at some value engineering or some tweaks to the actual development to try and drag back about £60,000, to take it back to the original contract sum. Elizabeth's thrilled, Stanford, on time, on budget, handover expected in August for four one bedroom apartments which are very much needed in Stanford. I think we'd all like a lot more one bedroom places and particularly bungalows wherever we live. I think that's a sort of priority really because we're getting more and more people, more mobility issues. People are living longer, you know, we all know the reasons why we want bone beds. Anyway, Elizabeth Road is for one bed. The council is also in the process of purchasing two more properties in Stanford, a one bedroom house and a two bedroom flat to add to the stock. Large cloths in Grantham, that's a currently a 21 unit development which was included in the pipeline for this year. This has been procured and a decision to award a contract. We'll be coming up to cabinet shortly, probably not the next one, probably the one after. Welling to weigh Markey Deeping, obviously as this is in my ward, I've been working with the scout group on this scheme, unless you know Deeping at all, in the middle of the scheme is a pot that dates back to World War II. If not before, it's currently occupied by the local scouting guide groups and is used by approximately 320 children every week. They've got troops of kids that I've never even heard of, like squirrels, which is four year olds in scout uniforms. It's great, isn't it? I love it. I keep me now, I started in one school and I have a squeeze at them. So I've been working with them so that the scout hook can continue to operate effectively, but we can also build the housing that we're desperate for on the rest of that site. It's been really good meetings, really useful, good conversations, battles and forwards. And we're nearly there on that, we're nearly on the next step. Plans of also are in the process of being finalised for Gore's rise and born and close to earth. Every application advice is awarded for a scheme like Stephen Road in Stanford. I've already mentioned in the review about the 36 affordable units in Corby Glen, which is really good. This is a 6.5 million investment by the council, which doesn't mean, as I was asked on social media, that we've paid 180,000 for a one bedroom flat. There are some quite a few larger properties in that, but in our fabulous negotiators, we actually paid 30% less on those properties than anybody else would get them for. Well, it's a binding bolt, you see. That's what does it every time. So there's a lot going on. We're building a bind unit. We've got lots of information, if anybody's got any queries. In my position as cabinet member, it's my intention that as soon as a new development comes onto the pipeline, I want to be able to go to the war of members and talk to them first, because they're the people on the ground, you know they're people, they know the area, and I want to bring them in at the beginning. So hopefully, as we're moving along, myself and probably Sunil, probably drag me along as well, if you've got a new development and you're interested in it, just give us a shout and we'll come along, we'll talk to you, we'll talk to you, a term council or parish council, whoever, so that all our developments, people are happy with them for a start. Thank you. Thank you for many thanks to that fallen open offer, council and Iran, so lots of schemes going on there, so any questions or points? Councillor BAILEY. Thank you, Chair. Obviously delighted to see Swangate on the report. I was expecting I have to say a much bigger number for hard work than 60,000, so I'm sure there has been some hard negotiations by the officers with Linden on that one. I do obviously look at this project with gritted teeth in terms of something that in March 2023 was 3.5 million and we now, I think over the 4 million pound mark, 600,000 more than when we originally planned it, obviously things happen, but I do kind of look at this in terms of have we provided value for money for a residence when we're going to end up with 20 units averaging you know 206,000 per unit. That particular obviously area had a quick look on right move and there's a one bed flat on the corner on the market for 97,000, a three bed flats house for 147,000, so I think lessons could be learned in terms of this project to make sure that we perhaps have some better control when things start to kind of creep up from what the original quotes perhaps was. I'm sure that if for example with the depot we've been you know somebody comes asking for another 600,000 we would be up in arms, so I'm just making sure that we don't kind of blindsided by housing projects which increase quite dramatically in cost and we don't get to scrutinise that and talk about it as a committee, thank you. Thank you Councillor Bally. Debbie, do you want to comment on that at all? You don't have to. Please don't feel pressured to. Alison, sorry. Thank you Mr Chairman. I think at the one point I'd make about when we look at properties on the open market we do need to also inspect the level of work that needs to be completed on them to ensure they meet the council's decent home standards because often they can run into tens of thousands of pounds, so the price you see isn't necessarily the total cost to the council overall. Thank you Mr Chairman. Councillor Bally, please come back. Sorry, I forgot to say and how dare I miss this particular point as it regards the marketplace. Obviously the delays will of course have an impact to the parking available for obviously watergate car park. Obviously we've been reduced I think 44 spaces from 100. Just you know when I had lunch today I walked past that car park and it's obviously at capacity. We can't get any more cars into that car park which I know we do have other car parks, Conduit Lane is also obviously at capacity at the moment but obviously these delays do hit us financially. We are losing money because the car park is obviously closed off. So I think we just have to bear in mind that obviously there are consequences inadvertently because of delays like this certainly to our revenue and obviously impacting how many people can park and get to that market from the north end of town. Very fair point, Councillor Moran. Councillor Bally, I think it's worth repeating what I said on the phone to you. I think it has become patently apparent to this council that if we're going to develop a site, if it's got a heritage building on it, don't. It's resulted in on St Martin's Park, was trying to do the right thing and save the facade and it's cost us a fortune and the same has happened on Swinegate. By the same token, if you averaged out how much we've actually spent on properties and divided it by the number of properties, I don't think there's any of them that aren't considerably under a market price one way or another. I certainly can't be encouraging anyone on the housing team to be looking at anything that involves a building with any heritage whatsoever because we're no good at it and we have to hold our hands up and say we can't do this. I'll see you on the project once a minute, really, thank you. Love you, directness as ever, Councillor Moran. Any other comments or questions? Yes, a fairly general question, really. I mean, do we have any safeguards regarding the right to buy issues on these new properties in three past years' time? For example, they're going to be very attractive, aren't they? No, unfortunately, not a bit. For the first 10 years, we apply a cost floor to them, so we would recover whatever had been spent on the property, so the development cost of it. Thank you. Sorry, Councillor Moran. Oh, that's something up, I'm all my liquor. Penny, I think the three years that you're referring to, you're referring to the properties that we bought with the funding from the government. No, no, no. I thought it was three years in the property when you have the right to buy. Right, okay. Yes. Can I let Alison come in at this stage, just to clarify that, please? Thank you, Mr Chairman. Yes, so to confirm, you would be eligible for right to buy, but we are able to apply a cost floor to it, so therefore, we'd be able to recover all of the development costs. It's only after 10 years when we no longer apply that, so we would recover our costs within that period. So you are right, they would be eligible for right to buy, but they wouldn't be able to before the discount was provided, we would then recover all of our costs first. Yeah, thank you. Councillor Kelly and then Councillor Bischnell Singh. So basically, if we bought some new properties, we bought at a very good discount and somebody either went in for a mutual exchange with a person who'd been in the property not very long, or they already had 10 years behind them, they could come into that property and buy it almost immediately, could they? So they got the discount by living somewhere else and then they went into the new property. Would they then reaper house at an under amount bought? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. No, for the first 10 years of the Council owning that property, we can recover the costs of that property through the right to buy. Yeah, that particular property, yeah, we've got 10 years, yeah. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt, Chair, but when Councillors are speaking, if they turn away from their microphone to speak to the person behind them, eye to eye, we can't hear anything on this, so I don't know what your question was at all on it, because I couldn't hear it because you were facing towards Alison. Sorry. Okay, well, with respect, let's not have a repeat of the question, because if we can sort that out of the meeting, that'd be great. Arish, you're doing very well for a substitute on you with questions, but please go ahead. So, Chairman, just asking, what I've just been saying, with regards to under the right to buy, how many years must a tenant be in the property before it qualifies to buy, and what is the maximum discount? Is that dependent on the number of years, or what is the minimum discount? It's available. Chair, for a sec. Thank you, Chairman. This seems to be a lot of questions, isn't it, today, about right to buy? Would it be worth, in September, is having a paper at the committee around what the right to buy legislation is, and the categories around that, and it might actually help the lot members of the committee to fully understand the right to buy scheme? Indeed, and I can't resist saying this, there may or may not be a new government by that point, that may or may not be reviewing the right to buy policy. I'll leave it there. Councillor Wood. Well, I feel I must come in on this, because I think I understand the situation. We have a cost floor that people, if somebody wants to buy is on a right to buy. There is a cost floor, which is the minimum that they've got to pay, which is to cover our costs. But presumably, that means somebody could trigger a right to buy and buy one, so long as it didn't go along the cost floor, couldn't it? So, they could buy them pretty much straight away, but there is a cost floor, so we would recover our costs. Is that right? Allison is very much nodding in agreement. I thought she was stabbing me in the back, actually. Councillor Wood, I think we know that that was meant as a joke, but I would respectfully say, just be a little bit careful. All right. Some people might not take that sort of thing as a joke. Okay. I want to move on. Are there any final comments on this item 12 building acquisitions update? No, thank you very much. So, we'll move on to item 13, Integrated Housing Management Systems Implementation Update. No prizes for guessing who the report's by or being delivered by. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't touch left to run at all these. Okay, Integrated Housing Management System. This report provides a committee with an update of the implementation of the system. It's just for noelting, it's just to let you know the progress that we're making. The implementation of the IHM system has been split into two phases. Phase one of the project went live in two stages also. The first stage was on 22nd of January 24th and the second stage on the 26th of February 24th. In your report, paragraphs 25 and 26 provide further details regarding the modules that were implemented and the tasks that were completed. Issues have been experienced with creating the reports that are required from the system due to the level of knowledge that is required to design and create reports in the reporting tool power by. The reports that are required have been prioritized to ensure that the more urgent reports are produced first. Regular meetings are held to monitor the program progress of the creation of the reports and to identify any issues which need resolving. Phase two of the project has now commenced. Under paragraph two nine, you'll see further details regarding what this phase of the project includes. Thank you, Councilor Moran. Again, I really would like to think that this is a non-controversial item for noting, but as ever, of course, please feel free members to comment or ask any questions. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Just a question for officers that are using the new system, really, to understand that we didn't really have visibility of the old system. Are you finding that it is making your lives easier? To confirm, I don't actually use the system, but the point of this system is to streamline all the processes, so trying to move away from paper, getting everything electronic, so a good example would be tenancy sign-ups, where at the minute we have to take a paper pack out, that phase two of the project will be purchasing tablets, and then we can actually sign tenants online, and then we can upload the information into the system, which will then save hours and hours of officer time in processing bits of paper for us. Thank you. Anything else? Members? No. Thank you. So we can go on to item 14 corporate plan KPIs. I see it was Councillor NOL's. Councillor Moran, are you delivering this as well? No? No? As far as I'm aware, Chair? I'm not a little brief on it. Debbie, beg your pardon. Thank you, Debbie. Thank you, Chairman. Councillor NOL sends his apologies and has just asked me to do a brief introduction on this item for you. So this report outlines South for Stephen District Council's performance against the previous corporate plan. That's the corporate plan 2020 to 2023, and the KPIs for quarter four, which presents a full summary of overall performance of the life cycle. There are two parts of this report, a retrospective look back over the past four years now that we've reached the end of the corporate plan 2020 to 2023, and the Q4 for 2324 report. The corporate plan lists 10 actions under the priority housing that meets the needs of all residents, and these actions set in the Council's agenda for the life of that plan. The first round of the performance reporting in 2020-2021 introduced a series of criteria of what successful delivery would look like. This criteria has been used to measure and judge the Council's overall performance stated against these actions. The SKDC achieved four of the 10 stated actions under the priority, five of the 10, however, were substantially or significantly outside of the Council's control of the five actions directly within the Council's control. SKDC achieved four and has made good progress in delivering the fifth, which was the new HRA pipeline for housing. Performance against seven actions were presented for the Q4 data. Three of the actions are rated green, which are on or above target. Four are rated amber, which are currently below the plan target. Zero are red, but obviously the new KPI suite to reflect to the new corporate plan was approved by the committee back in March and the first report of these new KPIs will be presented in Q3. Thank you. Thank you very much for that, and I'm sure you're happy Debbie too have field any questions. So would any member like to ask any questions of Debbie or make any comments? No. Final opportunity? No. Okay. Thank you very much. We'll move on then to item 15, which is the empty homes strategy. This will need proposing and seconding and a vote. This is definitely you, Councillor Moran. It is. And of all my reports, this is the longest. So buckle up. Okay. The report presents the updated empty home strategy. The strategy was initially published in 2022. In February 24, the strategy was reviewed and updated alongside a multi-service working group. The revised strategy is intended to replace the previous one. There is no requirement for us to have an empty home strategy, but this is regarded as good practice. The strategy is intended to provide a framework and an approach to dealing with long-term empty homes. Long-term empty homes referred to in the strategy are those that have been empty for over two years. In addition, the strategy covers residential empty homes only. Whilst the majority of empty homes are privately owned, a small number are owned by SKDC. Looking at the most recent figures from 28th of May 24, there were 154 long-term empty properties within South Casteban. 15 of those, just 15, are owned by South Casteban district council. Of the 15 long-term empty properties owned by SKDC, the responsibility for returning the properties to use within the council on stock sits within the voids team. These properties are not within the scope of the strategy as the tools available within the strategy are not applicable to council on stock. So that's the official legislation that covers empty homes does not apply to our council properties, therefore our fault us to deal with. But we've included these so that you get a true picture of long-term empty homes within the district. The number of empty homes within SKDC is just below the national level, the national level being 1.02% of properties that have been empty for over six months. In South Casteban, apart 0.99% have been empty for over six months. This strategy focuses on homes that have been empty for two years or more. As properties that have been empty below this time, often have reasons as to why they are empty, but they are still subject to some of the enforcement tools available within the strategy. For properties that have been empty for two years or more, it is intended that those properties are RAG rated. So that's your red, your amber and your green rating. And this will be reviewed against service interactions to create a priority list of properties that are having the most impact on our communities. An approach of advice and guidance is preferred. However, the strategy also sets out the enforcement tools that are available if we need them. The updated strategy has been revised. However, the priorities listed have not changed since its initial publication in 2022. Alongside streamlining some of the sections, the changes within the 2024 strategy include the following. Further details have been added about the benefits of bringing empty homes back into use and about the concerns that may result from long-term empty homes. The figures have been updated to ensure the current picture is reflected both locally and nationally. And there is updated information about some possible enforcement options. Should there be required? And they are included at appendix two in the legislation table. On the 15 properties that are ours that become within the figures, I'll have this piece of paper instead of the other one. One of the offices has collated for me, the 15 empty council properties. And they all have legitimate reasons for being on the list. Some of them are part of a wider redevelopment scheme. The majority are being used as decamp properties, which are properties used when we need to work on a tentative property. Very similar to oil's field. We've got decamp properties to take people out. Our repairs are done. And people can be moved into these properties as well as the works are ongoing. A couple of them appear to have recently been re-led. So I think that figures are going to change very shortly to 13 from 15. So that's just for your information, the empty home strategy. Thank you. Thank you very much. But it's fine. We do have to, we're debating and voting on whether to endorse this strategy and approve it. Well, send it to cabinet for their approval. So just to be clear. So obviously I would invite any comments at this stage. Councillor Bailie. Thank you, Chairman. Just picking up a few points on this report, I think in 2.10 it says this working group. It doesn't explicitly tell me who's in this working group. I think I would just like to understand which parts of the council have actually been involved in devising this strategy. I think that's one of the things that I just wanted to. I think there's a few working groups across the council that I don't actually know who's part of that working group. So that visibility I think would would be great. I noticed as well that I was actually, when it said a kind of comparing, I think the 22 report to the 24 report, I was expecting a couple of red lines. This is a brand new policy. I think we've gone from 15 pages to 10 pages. So it's quite a drastic, I think, change in policy. I know that the council member, cabinet member, mentioned streamlining it and cutting out some parts. But I do notice it is quite a difference from 2022. Thank you. Yeah, great. I'm very fair question, Councillor Baille. I really would appreciate if you could tell us the composition of this working party and then any of the comments that you choose to make. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, just probably it's a terminology issue. It's an operational group of officers across the council in the service areas that are affected by empty homes who work together in partnership operationally to try and resolve any issues that there are in relationship properties. So it's an officer working group at operational level. It's not working group. We usually associate with member groups. It's not a member group. It's an operational officer group. Thank you, Chairman. Do you want to come back at all, Councillor Baille? I just think it should be, I think, made clearer in the report that it is an officer made of kind of group, because, yeah, like the terminology is sometimes difficult in the chamber. Thank you. No, Tid. I mean, I did think when I read this, well, I'm not on that group. I'll be honest. So no, Tid, thank you. Anybody else want to comment? Councillor MOUS. Well, I'd just like to comment that I think this is a very good thing to take forward. Particularly on possibly compulsory purchase, I know we have one case that's been profiled recently, been empty for 22 years. It's degraded very badly to the detriment of close neighbours. I accept being privately owned. We have to jump through loads and loads of hoops. It's not a good look, isn't it? And there's loads of good positive reasons to do this policy that will make it worthwhile at the end of the day. So I think I'm all in favour of this, and I think there's plenty of regulation here and legislation that we can use as well. So, yeah, good move forward. Thank you. So to sort of cut down on time, because my brain is slowly shutting down after an hour and a half, is there anybody that wants to speak against this? I think if we're all in favour, we can go ahead and get it proposed, seconded and voted on. So, go on, Councillor Bishna, I think. Thank you, Mr Chairman. It is a very good policy to take forward, because I know in my own area we've got quite a few long-term work on empty homes. But if, Councillor Milne, I'm quite happy to second that to go forward. Councillor Milne, are you happy to propose? I'm happy to propose, yes. Thank you, and Councillor Bishnaussing is seconding. That's right. Thank you very much. So, unless anybody else wants to comment, I'm going to go to the vote, if that is okay with the committee. So, all those in favour, please. That looks unanimous. Thank you very much. Okay, so we've nearly finished. How exciting. So, we move on to the work programme item 16. On page—well, I'm looking at a paper copy in fairness, but on page 124 of my paper copy of the agenda. There is the set-out future items for the work programme, set-tempt coming up to the meeting for the 19th of September 2024. I believe that we hope to have—I'm going to second, Councillor Wood—I believe that we hope to have an item on the riverside flats. Is that doable offices? So, we're very much adding that to that meeting. Obviously, I'd ask if any members have got anything else that they'd like to see. So, Councillor Wood. Yes, thank you, Chair. I'd like to add, if we could put voids on the report on voids, I know, Alison's talking about this movement and progress on it, but I'd like a report on the voids, really, please. Yes, absolutely, no problem. So, riverside flats and voids have been added. Chief Exek. Right by, as well, as we heard earlier discussed, as well, so we'll bring a report on that one. Fantastic, and speaking off the top of my head, you know, in some time during the autumn, I think it might be—I think it might be a good thing to have a workshop on right to buy, especially with that potential change of government. There's been a lot of questions on right to buy today. I think it's very much in the front of all of our minds. The workshops that Councillor Meran put on were very successful, and I'd like to see those workshops continue personally. Councillor Meran. Yeah, thank you on the workshops. I think they're really good things to do. I would just point out to Councillor Wood that the—I think the void workshops are already on the programme for the September meeting. No, I apologize. I can't see that to be fair. No, we had one now. It's been pulled on. No, we have one in March. Yeah. Yeah, you're another one. Councillor Bish, now sing. Super-sub. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I'm just trying to sort of add to it. I would very much like to see if, and then a report could be added on some of our very older properties that are probably listed properties, i.e. like Lumviz Terrace in Stanford. No, but what is the policy on that in terms of bringing them into—because they need considerable amount of repair and things to be done to them. And I would like to see if we've got a policy on that, or this is something that we could add to formulate a policy on it. I'm going to ask the officers how viable that is, because I'm being serious now, with the greatest of respect to you, you're not a member of this committee. And I don't want officers being overloaded, and I've got the Chief Exact wanting to come in. Thank you, Chairman. Yes, you've got quite a heavier gender already for September, haven't you? But I think, as Mr, as Councillors now sing, knows that this is a very sensitive issue, that we are dealing with at Lumviz Terrace down in Stanford, and the team are, you know, they met with the residents last week, and they are meeting with them every six weeks, and there is a program for the site to improve it, and also relocate some of the tenants if they so wish to be relocated. So I think we just need to be quite sensitive around that one scheme, as we sit here today. Councillor CASSIDY, thank you very much, Chairman. On the minutes that we approved today, one of the items that we haven't covered that we asked to go forward was private sector housing enforcement policy, and I can't find that on the September list. Is Alicia, sorry, Alicia. Again, just to stay, there's an enforcement policy that I'm coordinating that's across all service areas, so that part will come in as of an appendacy to the overarching enforcement policy, so that's the plan going forward. No, it won't be September yet. Thank you, Chair. Regarding the Lumviz Terrace, thank you to FEXAC for your comments, and she is correct. The tenants have had communication from the housing team. I raised the query myself, and the residents, they were reached out to the very next day, so thank you to the team for doing that, and they're happy with their communication. I think that's what they need, just constant communication, and you've been fulfilling that commitment, so thank you very much on that front, and I think you have meetings set up with them to my understanding, so I think that is resolved as much as public at the moment. Thank you for that. Are there any final comments on the work programme, Alison? Thank you, Mr Chairman. Could we add the change for links to the September meeting, please, because we obviously need to review what's going to happen with that going forward, and also we need to refresh the complaints policy, so I think it would be in line with the new Ombudsman code, so I think it would be good practice to bring it to this committee. Thank you. By all means, and I think again that makes it a pretty full September meeting. Councillor amounts. Sorry, yes, I was just wondering on the garage site updates, is this restricted to the ones we're developing, or will we have some form of update on all the others that have either been demolished or in a terrible state and causing problems? Debbie, are you the most appropriate person to come back on that? Initially the report that we brought was around the sites that we wanted to develop that were suitable for potential housing schemes, but I think we could probably work with Nick and Mark around a wider report that encompasses some of the works to the existing garages or what we're going to do if we're looking at disposal. Thank you. Do you want to come back Council Mills? I mean, yes, would it be helpful if we inputted which sites in our wards are particularly of concern? I will, yes, I would encourage you to make direct contact with the officer. Okay, thank you. All right, I'm going to move on then. That means it's a packed, pretty packed agenda again for the September meeting, so any of the business, well, nobody's spoken to me before the meeting, so really, as far as I'm concerned, there is no any of the business, but if anybody's absolutely desperate, I will allow it. Anybody got any incredibly urgent any of the business? I can fill the tolly with calling me with a pint with my name on, so is there any of the urgent business? There isn't, so I declare the meeting closed at Thank you very much. [BLANK_AUDIO]