The meeting of Camden Council's Housing Scrutiny Committee on 12 November 2024 was scheduled to discuss a wide range of housing issues. The most significant items included an update on the Housing Transformation Programme, the latest developments in neighbourhoods across the borough, and progress on the council’s efforts to tackle rough sleeping. This summary is based solely on the information that was published in the meeting’s report pack, which does not tell us anything about what was actually discussed.

Housing Transformation Programme

A key focus of the meeting was an update on Camden Council’s Housing Transformation Programme. This ambitious programme seeks to transform the council’s approach to providing housing in Camden, aiming to address long-standing challenges and meet the evolving needs of residents.

The programme aims to respond to significant financial, regulatory and delivery challenges within the housing sector, with an overarching aim to make the Council's housing services ‘Relational – prioritising building trust with people the Council will have long-term interactions with’, ‘Accessible – ensuring services are responsive and designed to respond to people’s priorities with a focus on creating digital era services’, ‘Driven by data – using data to continue to improve – and continue to understand inequalities of access and outcome for Camden residents’ and ‘Connected to Camden tenants and their aspirations for their lives and communities’.

The Housing Transformation Programme will require significant corporate effort from across the council, with activity structured across six workstreams: Quality Homes, Housing Services, Resident-Centred, Living Within Our Means (Enabling Functions), Data and Digital (Enabling Functions) and The Way We Work In Housing (Enabling Functions).

One of the significant challenges facing Camden Council is the increasing pressure on the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which is the council’s ringfenced account that funds expenditure on council housing. According to the report pack, a number of austerity-driven policy changes, including government-enforced rent reductions between 2016 and 2020, have resulted in a cumulative loss in rental income of £135 million by 2023/24.

Further financial pressures arise from what the report describes as ‘emerging crises around fire safety and damp & mould’. Camden Council has spent £207 million of its own resources on fire and building safety capital works since 2017, with revenue budgets diverted from other activities. In addition, demand for social housing is reported to have increased as a result of the depletion of affordable private rental properties and poor private rental conditions, leading to a sharp rise in homeless presentations to the council, which are on track to have increased by 61% at the start of this year compared to 2022.

The report pack notes that work to develop an Asset Management Strategy has identified a significant financial gap between the investment needed to bring Camden’s housing stock up to standard and the resources available for the housing capital programme.

The programme has already achieved some notable successes, including streamlining housing service areas, slowing the rate of increase in rent arrears, improving the council’s approach to Domestic Violence and Abuse and establishing a cross-council approach to tackling ASB. The meeting was scheduled to consider these achievements, as well as the programme’s upcoming priorities.

The report pack also notes that a consultation has been launched on a proposed restructure of housing services within Camden, seeking to better support staff and improve working practices. This restructure is scheduled to be implemented from November 2024. The report details anxieties from staff during the restructuring process, with steps taken to support staff through training and one-to-one meetings with senior management. The report does not mention the results of the consultation or whether any staff opposed the restructuring plans.

Neighbourhoods

The meeting was also scheduled to hear an update on several issues affecting neighbourhoods across the borough.

One of these issues was Camden’s revised Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Policy. This policy, launched in September 2024, sets out the council’s commitment to tackling ASB, aiming to create an environment where residents can ‘live free from fear or risk of intimidation, harassment, and abuse’. Camden's ASB strategy focuses on early intervention, preventative measures, and collaboration with residents.

The new policy is described as having several key features, including a single point of contact for reports of ASB, defined response times, single named investigating officers who will manage cases, an action plan that sets out agreed steps and the frequency of communication with complainants/victims, accurate data collection, closure confirmations sent to complainants/victims and follow-up surveys.

The report pack notes that the council has also implemented a new Estates and Off-Street Parking Strategy, which was approved by Camden Council’s Cabinet in March 2023. This strategy was informed by a borough-wide consultation held in March 2023, as well as the results of a trial implementation of Traffic Management Orders on the Maiden Lane estate in 2020.

Phase one of the strategy’s implementation is scheduled to commence on 4 November 2024, covering nine estates across Camden: the Agar Grove estate, the Ampthill estate, the Bourne Estate, the Ossulston Estate, the Russell Nurseries Estate, the West End Sidings Estate, Harben Road and South End Close. Further phases are expected to follow as the strategy is rolled out across other estates in Camden.

As part of the strategy, a system of ‘protected bays’ will be introduced on each estate, with free parking permits issued to blue badge holders who live on the estate, with the intention of addressing concerns that disabled residents were losing out on parking spaces due to blue badge holders from outside the estates using disabled parking bays.

The meeting was also scheduled to consider a review of the council’s tenancy visiting programme, which is being redesigned to focus on residents who are considered to be a priority for a visit. These residents include those who are registered for an enhanced repairs service and/or who are over 65, residents who have had a damp and mould visit over 12 months ago with no further follow-up, and residents who have not reported a repair in the last 12 months.

Rough Sleeping

The report pack also included an update on the work being done to tackle rough sleeping in Camden. This included a progress report on the eleven recommendations of the Rough Sleeping Review, which was presented to the Housing Scrutiny Committee in July 2024.

The update details some of the key challenges facing the council in its efforts to tackle rough sleeping, noting that Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI) funding from central government is due to end in March 2025, with uncertainty remaining over whether funding will continue beyond this date.

Alongside this, the report pack notes that demand for the council’s rough sleeping services has increased as a result of cuts in funding from central government, which the report says has ‘adversely impacted our ability to better tackle rough sleeping in the borough’.

The report pack notes that the council is taking a number of steps to tackle rough sleeping, including securing funding for a new 16-bed hostel for people with multiple disadvantages and co-occurring needs on Gray’s Inn Road and developing a new Housing First initiative, which will provide 30 units of dispersed accommodation with wrap-around support for residents.

Camden’s Rough Sleeping Commissioner is currently reviewing the council’s rough sleeping interventions to assess their impact, relevance and value for money, seeking to ensure that the council’s resources are being used effectively.

Voluntary Community Sector

The meeting was also scheduled to receive an update on the council’s relationship with the Voluntary Community Sector (VCS), specifically the progress of actions 9 and 11 in the Homelessness Scrutiny Panel’s recommendations to the Housing Scrutiny Committee. These actions focus on the review of Voluntary Community Sector provision to alleviate financial pressures and improve service delivery and the effectiveness of the council’s out-of-hours service and its communications to residents about how to access this service.

The update details the council’s work with the Camden Advice Network (CAN), which includes 13 community providers that offer a range of advice and support services to Camden residents. These providers include: Citizens Advice Camden, Age UK Camden, Camden People First, Camden Community Law Centre, Mary Ward Legal Centre, Camden Disability Action, Hopscotch, West Hampstead Women’s Centre, London Irish Centre, Somers Town Community Association, Kosmos, Camden Somali Cultural Centre and the New Horizon Youth Project.

The update details that Camden Council is investing £1 million per year over seven years in CAN.

The council is planning a review of CAN in 2025/26, which will consider how the council can work more collaboratively with the network and think strategically about its resources and capacity, with a focus on how the network can help to tackle homelessness.

Cabinet Member for Better Homes

The meeting was also scheduled to receive an update from Camden Council’s Cabinet Member for Better Homes, Councillor Sagal Abdi-Wali, on several areas across her portfolio.

Housing Scrutiny Work Programme

Finally, the meeting was scheduled to receive an update on the Committee’s work programme for the 2024/25 financial year. The work programme was agreed at the previous meeting of the committee on 7 October 2024, but the meeting was scheduled to consider any proposals for items that should be added to it. The meeting was also scheduled to receive an update on actions arising from the previous meeting, including a request from members that officers provide a briefing note to the scrutiny committee about the current service offer for all people with disabilities, and how this could be improved going forward.