The Leaseholders' Forum met on 18 March 2025. A range of topics were included in the meeting pack, including an update from the Associate Cabinet Member for Leaseholders, Councillor James Slater, a report from the recently restructured Leaseholder Services Team, and a discussion of the ongoing Fire Safety Project.

Fire Safety Project

The meeting pack includes a significant number of questions from leaseholders about the Council's Fire Safety Project.

In particular, leaseholders attending the meeting had been asked to consider:

1. What the status of the programme was.
2. Who made the procurement decision to install 20-flat alarm units in street properties with only 2 flats.
3. What lessons had been learned from the programme to date.
4. Why leaseholders were being charged up to £1,000 for the fire safety programme when previous correspondence from the Council had promised £250 per property.
5. What the Council's plans for maintenance were and how the costs to leaseholders would be capped.

This topic had been raised repeatedly in the Leaseholders' Forum and elsewhere. For example, leaseholder David Augur had previously raised concerns in July 2021 about the Council's plans to install a single fire alarm system across multiple properties. He was quoted in a Camden Council press release as saying:

While this should have been done years ago and will cause huge disruption, the end result of a comprehensive fire alarm system across all blocks and estates should be welcomed and will make us all safer.

Leaseholder Services Restructure

The meeting pack notes that a restructure of the Leaseholder Services Team had recently been completed. The new structure is included in the meeting pack.

The new structure consists of three teams, reporting to the Head of Leaseholder Services and Housing Income, [Sean Scott], each with responsibility for a particular area:

• Leaseholder Income
• Leaseholder Services
• Major Works & Service Charges.

Update from the Associate Cabinet Member for Leaseholders

Councillor James Slater was scheduled to provide an update on the recommendations included in a previous report on improving services to leaseholders.

Proposed Amendments to Camden Leaseholders' Forum Constitution

The meeting pack contains a proposal to amend the Forum's constitution to allow the election of a Freeholder representative to the forum.

The relevant section of the proposed constitution reads:

2.4 In addition one representative who is a Freeholder can be elected.

Progress Report

A report was scheduled to be received that provided an update on the actions from previous meetings.

This included:

• An update on plans to set an annual measurable improvement target for Leaseholder Satisfaction surveys. This had previously been suggested by the outgoing Mayor of Camden, Councillor Nasim Ali OBE, at a previous meeting.
• A request for an update from Sean Scott on plans to improve Leaseholder Services.
• A request to note the completion of a previous action to ask a leaseholder, [Peter Wright], to send details of cases of leaseholders who had issues with their fire doors to the Council.

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