Communities Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday 13 January 2026, 7:00pm - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Communities Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 13th January 2026 at 7:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Laura Kirman
  2. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  3. Cllr Rose Brookes
  4. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Cllr Stephen Murray
  2. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  3. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
  2. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  3. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  4. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  5. Dawn Harrisson
  6. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  7. Dawn Harrisson
  8. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  9. Cllr Rose Brookes
  10. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  11. Cllr Stephen Murray
  12. Dawn Harrisson
  13. Cllr Stephen Murray
  14. Dawn Harrisson
  15. Cllr Stephen Murray
  16. Dawn Harrisson
  17. Cllr Stephen Murray
  18. Dawn Harrisson
  19. Cllr Rose Brookes
  20. Cllr Stephen Murray
  21. Dawn Harrisson
  22. Keith Bowman
  23. Cllr Stephen Murray
  24. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  25. Cllr Mary Dadd
  26. Keith Bowman
  27. Cllr Mary Dadd
  28. Keith Bowman
  29. Cllr Mary Dadd
  30. Dawn Harrisson
  31. Cllr Mary Dadd
  32. Dawn Harrisson
  33. Cllr Mary Dadd
  34. Dawn Harrisson
  35. Cllr Mary Dadd
  36. Cllr Smruti Patel
  37. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  38. Cllr Maria Markham
  39. Dawn Harrisson
  40. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  41. Cllr Mary Dadd
  42. Dawn Harrisson
  43. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  44. Cllr Rose Brookes
  45. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  46. Dawn Harrisson
  47. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  48. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  49. Dawn Harrisson
  50. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  51. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  52. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  53. Dawn Harrisson
  54. Cllr Rose Brookes
  55. Dawn Harrisson
  56. Cllr Mary Dadd
  57. Dawn Harrisson
  58. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  59. Cllr Maria Markham
  60. Dawn Harrisson
  61. Cllr Maria Markham
  62. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  63. Cllr Jeane Lea
  64. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
  2. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  3. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  4. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  5. Cllr Stephen Murray
  6. Keith Bowman
  7. Cllr Stephen Murray
  8. Dawn Harrisson
  9. Keith Bowman
  10. Cllr Stephen Murray
  11. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  12. Cllr Mary Dadd
  13. Keith Bowman
  14. Cllr Mary Dadd
  15. Keith Bowman
  16. Cllr Mary Dadd
  17. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  18. Cllr Mary Dadd
  19. Keith Bowman
  20. Cllr Mary Dadd
  21. Keith Bowman
  22. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  23. Cllr Rose Brookes
  24. Dawn Harrisson
  25. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  26. Cllr Rose Brookes
  27. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
  2. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  3. Cllr Stephen Murray
  4. Dawn Harrisson
  5. Cllr Stephen Murray
  6. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  7. Cllr Mary Dadd
  8. Dawn Harrisson
  9. Cllr Mary Dadd
  10. Dawn Harrisson
  11. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  12. Cllr Mary Dadd
  13. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  14. Cllr Smruti Patel
  15. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  16. Dawn Harrisson
  17. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  18. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  19. Dawn Harrisson
  20. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  21. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  22. Dawn Harrisson
  23. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  24. Cllr Stephen Murray
  25. Dawn Harrisson
  26. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  27. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  28. Dawn Harrisson
  29. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  30. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  31. Dawn Harrisson
  32. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  33. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  34. Dawn Harrisson
  35. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  36. Dawn Harrisson
  37. Keith Bowman
  38. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  39. Cllr Stephen Murray
  40. Dawn Harrisson
  41. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  42. Cllr Smruti Patel
  43. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  3. Cllr Stephen Murray
  4. Dawn Harrisson
  5. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  6. Cllr Ken Williamson
  7. Cllr Stephen Murray
  8. Cllr Smruti Patel
  9. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  10. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  11. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  13. Cllr Jodie Lucas
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  1. Webcast Finished

Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:00:00
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1 WEBCASTING INTRODUCTION

So good evening again everybody and welcome to community scrutiny committee Tuesday the 13th of
7 o 'clock in the council chamber.
Most of you know, my name is Councillor Jo De Lucas.
I'll be chairing this evening's meeting.
I have Councillor Jeannie Lee as my vice chairman.
To her right we have Laura Kerman
from Democratic Services this evening.
On the webcast we have Lou Baker
and we have to my left, we have Dawn Harrison,
Housing Service Director.
We also have Keith Bowman, another housing officer here this evening with us.
Online we have Nicholas Oyers from Legal Team and Jen Gould from Deputy Chief Executive
Officer.
We have some cabinet members here with us this evening.
Welcome everybody.
I would also particularly like to welcome Sonia to your first Communities meeting as
a co -operative member.
Thank you for being here.
We will move to our apologies for absence.

2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Laura Kirman - 0:01:30
Apologies for absence have been received from Councillor Yerrel and Councillor Shariff.
Substitute members?
Councillor Amos is a substitute member for Councillor Sharif and sorry
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:01:48
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:01:50
Councillor Newick is running a perhaps a bit late but I wasn't a meeting online
with him yesterday didn't say anything about not coming yeah no problem there
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:02:00
is quite a bit of traffic outside yeah we will note that declarations of
interest.

3 SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

4 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Before we move further on the agenda, I would like to clarify that we have received further
advice on the appendix item to the Council Housing Development Annual Report, which is
shown as Item 13 on our agenda.
It will no longer be restricted and can be considered in open session.
We will not need to exclude the public and press and the agenda will be republished without
that restriction. Councillor Murray. I'd be pleased to know that you've saved my very
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:02:42
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:02:47
first question of the night. Councillor Morgan. Apologies, sorry, my parish planning meeting
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:02:54
ran over. No problem. Do you have any declarations of interest? No declarations. Thank you. Notes

5 NOTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

of our previous meeting. So due to the timing of the extra meeting held just before Christmas,
I hope members will understand that we will have the notes at the next meeting to be agreed.
Is that okay?
Is that agreed?
Noted.
Thank you.

6 WORK PROGRAMME

Okay, so then the next main item on our agenda is the work programme.
The community's work programme for this and the next meeting was approved by Overview
and Scrutiny.
We are working our way through this year's work programme
quite nicely now.
Do members have any further comments
or proposed amendments to the plan?
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay, so we'll move on now to our housing performance

7 DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

and tenant satisfaction mid -year report,
which is pages six to 52 of our agenda.

8 Housing Performance and Tenant Satisfaction - Mid-Year Report

And Councillor Patel will present the report.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:03:59
Right, I think I'm getting sick of my own voice in this chamber about housing,
but it actually shows all the good work that our housing officers are doing with regards to all the policy updates
and getting ready for our inspections as well.
So, for housing tenant satisfaction measures update, I've had a look at the ones we've done previously.
where possible, I'm going to try and give you information on what's changed and how
we're making it better. So at this community scrutiny committee on the 16th of September,
members were requested, members requested for future updates and the offices have done
so in this format. We are saying that the tenant satisfaction measures are a fundamental
part of how we're assessed as a social housing landlord by the regulator as well as a community
and it's likely that we are going to be inspected
this year as well.
So we're very keen on making sure that we know
we're ready for it as well.
We are hoping that the, well, the officers are hoping
to hold a webinar for all the members later on in the year,
hoping maybe around February, March,
where we'll encourage all the members to engage with us
so that they can understand what may be expected of us
in that inspection exercise as well.
So we'll run through the process.
The information contained in this report uses the end date of November data, wherever possible,
and since that was the most up -to -date information.
Along with the report, officers have included the survey company's report on the survey
outcomes.
We were going to do them in two waves.
The second and the final wave of surveys will be done in February 2026 and reported to this
committee later on again in the year as well.
So, overall, we've seen some improvements in key areas with overall satisfaction with
our services as a landlord, showing a very slight increase.
The report includes comparison with some neighbouring council landlords, which was also requested
at the September meeting, so we've tried to meet those requirements as well.
And you'll see that in Table 3 of the report, that we are performing very well compared
to other authorities, although we would obviously like to see us perform much better than what
we were doing currently as well anyway. Notably, the tenant satisfaction with our handling
complaints and cases of antisocial behaviour have gone down, so what we need to do is try
and understand why we've got that issue, and it's important that we use the indicators
that are coming out of the survey again to see how we can handle these cases rather than
the outcomes, how well we can handle cases rather than the outcomes. As well as levels
of satisfaction, I would also draw members' attention to Table 1 in the report where the
levels of performance on key safety features of our homes continue to be at the high level.
However, we're not reaching the 100 % and this is due to tenants not permitting access to
their homes. I have made a note for myself to have a chat with our housing director,
Dawn, to say if we can actually put out another comms to say if we can actually get that in
built where they say that if you don't give us access, maybe put it into the policy for
good behaviour or anything like that to see what we can do to try and improve access in
the future. Because things like safety cheques on electricity
shouldn't be gone unnoticed or things like that,
that we can't get done, which are statutory requirements
as a landlord for us.
So I'm going to make sure that we get to do those on time.
And also there's a great deal of information in this report,
and we've got our lovely two officers on hand as well,
if you've got any in -depth questions on those.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So we'll go to members for their questions and comments.
and the first is Councillor Lisa Morgan.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:07:57
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:07:59
Thank you.
Is there anything we can do about people not letting us in?
I know it's very, very difficult
because I know as an owner of electrical company,
people don't allow you in
and it does cause problems for us with the councils.
So what happens when it's a council property
and they're not letting us in
to do the electrical gas certificates?
I'm a bit concerned about this.
I'd like to respond.
Yeah, Dawn?
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:08:28
So you're right, it is a statutory requirement,
Dawn Harrisson - 0:08:31
but a man's home is his castle,
and we cannot force entry into any property.
We need to get a court order.
So we would either obtain objunctions
or get a court order to be able to do that.
And we do try to look at
where somebody's reporting a repair,
quality cheque the system to see
if they've got an outstanding compliance certificate,
for example, gas or electric,
and try to piggyback on the back of that.
and the housing teams do that as well.
So everybody's aware where there are outstanding compliance
certification required.
And that's the way that we have to proceed.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:09:08
And have we had to obtain any court orders
or have we not gone that far yet?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:09:15
We end up with a number of legal cases.
I don't think we've ever had to actually get some
the courts or the bailiffs to actually fall century
quite often we do get access before that actually happens.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:09:28
Councillor Murray, or was that relevant,
Councillor Brooks, was that relevant to that particular?
It is.
I just want to say how impressed I
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:09:36
am with the officers I've dealt with at the way
they try their very best.
You know, these people have big asterisks on your record,
and they often go in, make an appointment with the qualities
people to go, even on a Saturday morning,
to try and get entry when they're checking.
So they really do their very best.
So that 1%, 1 .5%, 2 % that we don't make it,
it's not through any efforts
that the officers aren't doing their very, very best.
Thank you for that contribution.
Councillor Murray.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:10:10
Yeah, I've got quite a few issues here.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:10:13
Madam Chairman, so if I just refer to our page.
This is obviously the first one of the survey and we will be reporting that.
Oh, Councillor Murray, would you mind to put your microphone on, please?
I think of some people who might think I shouldn't put it on, but maybe that's what I was thinking of.
Yeah, apologies Chairman, I should have put it on.
I've got quite a few questions and I'll just work the way through the reports.
On page 7, I picked up the fact that officers had acted on our request and we've got some
comparison with neighbouring authorities and thank you for that.
On page 8, I was just interested in something that was written on page 8.
Yes, we were talking about communal areas in the first bullet point and that was good.
We were going to target improvement and it said such as the work already done at Hornbeam,
I'm assuming that's Hornbeam Close or Hornbeam Road in Buckhurst Hill, East and Whitebridge
because that's the only Hornbeam I know.
could you just tell us a little bit about what work has taken place
as it's been particularly referenced in the report?
Don?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:11:44
So, we have changed the cleaning team over there
and we've received feedback from residents
that they're really impressed with the cleaning that's been happening.
There's been some work, I think, about in the bin stores
and we're about to engage in some further work
to do with the balconies on one of the blocks over there.
Thank you.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:12:01
On page nine, and that's why I didn't come in on the earlier discussion,
I did have a question about why people are refusing.
Do they just refuse, or do they give specific reasons why they're not?
What are the range of reasons that people give for not allowing entry?
Dawn?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:12:25
There are a multiple number of reasons.
Often we don't get given a reason by a particular resident.
They just may say...
They'll come out with all sorts of reasons
and there may be an underlying issue there.
So, for example, we've had a case where somebody had kept saying
that they weren't available, their parent was in hospital,
but actually there was a much more...
There was a different issue
when we did eventually get into the property
and it took us quite a number of months to be able to do that.
So there's normally an underlying issue
and it's not just because they, you know, don't want to necessarily...
They don't want to give access, but there is another reason behind it,
which could be hoarding, it could be a whole host of things.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:13:05
On page 11, maybe I was wrong to think this,
but I thought, and what I have written in my notes is,
antisocial behaviour is high.
Maybe it was the percentage of antisocial behaviour
that was mentioned on page 11.
Was it page 15?
I just thought that was quite a high percentage.
Did officers have any feelings about that?
It's not actually a percentage figure.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:13:42
It's the number of cases per 1 ,000 homes.
It's not overly high. It's kind of where we would expect it to be.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:13:54
On page 11 again, I was pleased to see the increase
in the better performances regarding emergency repairs.
That was noted.
That seemed to be quite a big improvement.
I thought on page 14, the reds were obviously of some concern,
I would hope that we will try and do something about that.
I don't know whether officers want to say anything about those two reds on page 14.
Dawn?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:14:40
One of the things that we've done, Councillor, in terms of keeping our residents informed,
is we've now got a text messaging service.
So, for example, if a lift goes out of service, we're able to text all residents in that block
to let them know that it is out of service and keep people updated in that way rather
than having to write letters or have an officer to drop by. That way we can keep more residents
informed and keep them abreast of the situation.
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:15:07
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:15:10
My last question, Madam Chairman, thank you. Page 19, and again it is a red, and it did
seem a proportion of respondents have reported they are satisfied with their landlord's approach
to handling antisocial behaviour.
And I know that's probably something
that is always going to be difficult
to get a high percentage of satisfaction on,
but I just wondered again what officers felt about that.
Keith?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:15:36
Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor.
Keith Bowman - 0:15:39
It is a worrying one.
I mean, this is specifically around the way
in which we handle cases as opposed to the case outcomes,
but of course the case outcome will always take people's view
of how well their case has been done.
We did attempt a survey of people who'd responded, but unfortunately we didn't get anything like
enough responses to this to make it worthwhile.
A survey of those people who'd given us a poor response.
So we're looking at opportunities when we get the second wave response, which would
that be carried out in the week commencing the 16th February, or from the week commencing
16th February.
So we should have the results by the end of the financial year.
And we're looking at how we can investigate the people who respond to the antisocial behaviour
question to get an understanding of what it is they are saying to us and to dig in deeper
to it.
We also want to make absolutely sure they are people who have actually had an antisocial
behaviour case that they've been involved in, so that they've actually raised one with
us.
So you're absolutely right, it is worrying and it's not something we've been able to
understand so far so we're delving into ways of trying to do that. That's good to
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:16:48
hear and then and presumably the results can be shared with certainly the
portfolio holder and maybe us at some stage. Thank You chairman that's me done.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:16:58
Thank you for all of those questions Councillor Murray. Okay and Councillor
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:17:06
Dant. Thank You chairman actually Councillor Murray has raised the same
questions I wanted to, but some of mine are slightly different. First of all, it was very
interesting seeing how it compares with other authorities. I'm wondering if you can say,
were you unable to get information from the neighbouring authorities that we are likely
to go in with our reorganisation. For example Chelmsford, Maldon and Brentwood. I think that
would be quite relevant. Thank you chair. Thank you councillor. We can get that information.
Keith Bowman - 0:17:45
There's a degree to which I was trying to put something on the page that was going to
be readable, a table that was too wide. A number of these were ones that were mentioned
specifically last time and rather than shying away from comparing ourselves with some of
ones that are closer into London and things like that to make sure we were including them.
But certainly for future ones, yes, that's exactly what we could do and we can incorporate
those as well.
And if you wanted that information, I could produce a further table with those authorities
added in, if you give me a few weeks to do it.
I was only thinking going forward and whether there was a reason why, because Harlow is
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:18:20
the only one that we are likely to know that we're going to be...
They were ones that were referenced in the past and so I incorporated those within us.
Keith Bowman - 0:18:27
That was the focus.
Thank you.
Another question really is about the communal areas.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:18:35
In my ward, I have tried to go to all the inspections.
And quite frankly, I was quite appalled with the state
of the ones in Shelley.
And I'm wondering whether you've got a list of works that need
to be done for each of those.
And are you going to bring up to scratch,
because the floor coverings, it wasn't just dirt, it was the floor covering and everything
else really and quite demoralising. I don't know if Shelley is different to other areas
or not. Thanks, Councillor. I mean, Shelley shouldn't
Dawn Harrisson - 0:19:15
be different to any other area. What I'll do is I'll get an update from the State's
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:19:23
Officer and come back to you on that. And my other question really was related to
anti -social behaviour. Again, I've had a few residents who are concerned about anti -social
behaviour and they are frightened of actually saying anything and there are people, well -established
people in some areas that are causing problems and I think it would be really good if you
can, what else can we do apart from working with other portfolio holders, what about the
police, community people as well because it's not some of the antisocial behaviour, it is
criminal behaviour.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:20:03
Thank you, Councillor. I mean the antisocial behaviour cases and the investigations are
actually managed by the community safety team and the housing team carry out any enforcement,
but I know that they do work closely with the police and other partners and are doing
what they can do, but it's really quite difficult to get an eviction for antisocial behaviour.
there is a lot of work that goes into that. The housing team and the
teams that do the investigation do work closely to bring those to
conclusion. We do know there are huge backlogs at the moment at the
courts in terms of getting evictions and then getting bailiffs involved.
A case today for rent aries, for example, and we have an eviction date
in June. So we know that these things do take some considerable time to come to fruition.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:20:53
Last question, if I may. Just for clarification, I mean, thank you very much for these tables.
Some of them have got percentages, some of them haven't. I know it might be a typo in
some, but for example on page, I don't know where it is now, page 10, number of stage
one complaints received per thousand homes and then you've got 48 .2, which is not a whole
number. Is that supposed to be a percent or an actual number and why is it not a whole
number? And there's another place I think where there was a similar thing per thousand.
Again, they're not percentages, it's the number of cases per thousand homes, so sometimes
Dawn Harrisson - 0:21:38
we will end up with a non -round number or a non -full number.
Thank you.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:21:45
So in the comments we've got the national average is 49%, I think that's what's probably
confusing people.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:21:53
So if we do it one or the other, then that's fine.
Thank you.
Thank you, that does make sense.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:22:02
Is that all of your questions?
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Dadd.
Councillor Markham.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Maria Markham - 0:22:11
Firstly, just to, on a positive note, just it's great to see that there are some statistics
that EFDC are sort of above the ratio of the other regions.
So we're doing quite well in some areas.
So well done to everyone involved there.
My, what I really wanted to touch base was
is what Councillor Dada and also Councillor Murray
has already mentioned and that's the antisocial behaviour.
So I know you've already touched base on this
but I think it's really important.
Having spoken to several residents recently
regarding neighbours' antisocial behaviour.
It's becoming really distressing to some,
and even when they're reporting it,
they're not really getting a lot of feedback or compassion.
Some struggle with their mental health,
so it's quite upsetting for some residents,
and they don't know which way to go.
And I think the communication level maybe should improve
to give them some sort of understanding,
not just sort of, you know, they feel like it's just washed aside and nothing's being done about it.
So is there anything we can do to improve obviously on the, as I see the ratio on the
satisfaction for keeping people informed on things that really matter to them is really low.
So I think we need to sort of look at trying to improve on that and as I said the communication
is really important for people especially if they're vulnerable and in need and live on their
own, it's really upsetting.
So I think the 50 % is not good enough, and I think we really need to work on our vulnerable
and people that just don't know how to cope with stuff like this.
It's quite upsetting, and it's very upsetting for them, and especially if they're in this
sort of position and they're vulnerable.
So can we just look at something, even if it's a communication level, even if someone
goes to visit them or goes to visit the neighbours, to see what's going on?
I mean there's things like floorboards where people just stamping around and just stamping
and doing it on purpose because they know it's winding their neighbours up.
It's not part of their tendency to have wooden floorings or they should have carpets but then
they'll say well it was already there before we came in. So how do they stand on that and then
they just come and get into the brick wall. Well they've said that the wooden flooring was already
there before they took on the tenancy. There's lots of different things and the construction
of some of the blocks of flats is pretty horrendous and there's just noise levels that are just,
you can hear conversations, laughing, stamping and if it's raised with the neighbour then
they just do it on purpose more to antagonise the neighbour thinking, oh well we don't care
and they've even heard them say, well you know, sob them basically and laughing. So
I think we just need to sort of target this a bit more
and really take it seriously
and approach the neighbours as well,
not just let it go on and on for ages,
monitoring them over three weeks with schedules.
So I think if someone can sort of look into that
and take this a bit more seriously,
I think I would really appreciate that
and so would the residents.
Thank you.
Thank you for that, Councillor.
I mean, I agree people experience antisocial behaviour
Dawn Harrisson - 0:25:33
is absolutely awful,
but I will take away your comments
and have a discussion with the community safety team.
As I say, the housing team do the enforcement,
but that's on the basis of what the community safety team
disclose in terms of their investigations.
But we do need to do something
because clearly the satisfaction levels
aren't where we want them to be.
Thank you.
Thank you, appreciate that.
Councillor Dadd.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:25:57
Yes, mine was actually on the same that
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:26:02
When you answered about eviction, it would be useful, I think, to counsellors to know
what happens if somebody reports antisocial behaviour.
You mentioned the community safety team, but, you know, what steps are taken.
I think that would be quite helpful to know, and also that would also go as feedback.
But I think the other thing is that some people are worried about reporting it because of
repercussions if they're known to have been the person to report it, even if they are
reporting an antisocial behaviour that affects several people.
Dawn?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:26:44
I'll get that circulated for you to let you know what the team do and how they progress
cases.
Councillor Brooks.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:26:51
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:26:54
Can I ask a question that's to do with antisocial behaviour?
because I know what the Tenant book says but I know in reality, particularly weed
and other stuff, is much more commonly used than it was 30 years ago and that's
been an issue that people have brought to me that they've got neighbours that
are constantly, particularly at the weekends, you know, sitting out in the
garden with weed and that it's such a pungent smell but it just seems that the
I'm not talking about individual housing officers,
I'm talking about the community safety.
My experience over the recent years is that
unless they think someone's dealing,
they're not that interested.
We did have some initiatives in the Broadway
where probably people weren't necessarily living there
but were going to have weed in the stairwells,
which they did clamp down on that recent programme that we had
up there, but it is a problem, particularly for people who don't particularly want to indulge in it.
And also the way it affects people's behaviour,
which does have an impact on other people. And I would totally endorse what
Councillor Dada said, that I've come across cases where people are afraid of reporting it, because they just feel
intimidated by the neighbours on the Oak Wattle Estate or whatever.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:28:23
Dawn Harrisson - 0:28:26
What I would say, Councillor, is drugs in any form are a criminal matter
and needs to be reported to the police because they are the ones that are able to enforce in that regard.
But I appreciate that people don't want to report people because they are afraid of repercussions.
But unless people do something, then it's very difficult for any action to actually be taken.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:28:53
Sonia, would you mind to just pop your microphone on? Thank you.
So this is in regards to antisocial behaviour, sorry.
Is that better?
Can I ask, how do residents...
How are residents informed of, say, for example,
their case has been dealt with by the community?
How is that information fed back to the residents
so they have an understanding of what's going on
regarding their complaint?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:29:16
So the community safety team are the point of contact.
That's who the residents actually liaise with,
the community safety team in terms of their cases.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:29:24
It's referred over to housing for enforcement
against any alleged perpetrator.
So, but how is that communicated?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:29:31
How are residents kept informed?
This is one I'm trying to understand.
I will find out from the community safety team
and feedback to the committee.
I would be really grateful.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for that question.
Councillor Morgan.
Thank you.
you'd be pleased to know this is about antisocial behaviour.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:29:54
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:29:56
With the government and their removal of the section 21,
the no fault eviction coming in on,
I actually looked it up for the actual date, 1st of May,
is that going to cause us any problems with people
with the antisocial behaviour?
Because that is not our fault.
Does that cause us an issue, actually,
on any of our evictions that we have?
Or have we not got that far yet with?
It's quite a new thing, isn't it?
It is a question I have asked the tenancy team myself and I have been told no because
Dawn Harrisson - 0:30:25
we don't do assured short -hold tenancies and actually somebody committing antisocial behaviour
that is a fault and there is a ground for eviction under the Housing Act for antisocial
behaviour and breaches of tenancy.
Lovely, thank you very much.
Councillor Brooks.
Just one more question really.
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:30:51
Paige, it's about the increase in households in temporary accommodation, which we've touched
on other areas of the council over the last few months.
And it's something that I do feel very, very much that we should try to – Norway House
is teeming, Hemlow House is full – to try to find other suitable accommodation if at
all possible.
because I think this problem is going to grow rather than reduce.
And anyway, you could always put a building to another use.
I know the officer explained to me that they try to get people out of Norway House
into a non -secure tenancy that's one bedroom less than their needs.
You know, if a flat comes up that's suitable, they do that.
But, I mean, the increase was from 117 to 163.
Yeah.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:31:46
The team are currently working on alternative options and ways to increase temporary accommodation
stock, either through our own stock or through other leasing methods. We know that temporary
accommodation requirements are going to increase. That's partly due to the reduction of the
private rented sector and landlords not wanting to rent any longer, also for domestic abuse
cases so the numbers are going to go up and we are already looking at ways to
mitigate that.
Councillor Dadd.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:32:18
Sorry on this on that matter how many are having to be housed outside our
district?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:32:27
I think when I last reported on this I don't think we'd actually had to
rehouse, do you mean permanently or just the temporary accommodation?
temporary accommodation. I don't have the exact numbers it's not as many as we
probably think but I will come back to you with the exact number.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:32:49
Okay is there any further questions? Councillor Markham. Thank you Chairman.
Cllr Maria Markham - 0:32:54
Just one more question from me regarding the housing situation on temporary
accommodation. I've had a few residents contact me in despair because they're
having to be put in temporary accommodation a long way away such as Ilfed and away from
their support network. Is it because there isn't any temporary accommodation more local
to the district from where they're from? Thank you.
Councillor, that's absolutely right. There is very limited amounts of temporary accommodation.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:33:21
If we can house people in the district then absolutely that is always the first port of
call and if we can't then we have to look at alternative options.
One more question on that. Once they've gone to the temporary accommodation out of the
Cllr Maria Markham - 0:33:34
district, would they still be entitled to accommodation back into the district as a
permanent basis? Yes.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:33:46
Cllr Jeane Lea - 0:33:51
Brilliant, thank you. Is there a time limit for them to come back in?
I will double cheque and come back to you.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:34:01
Okay, I do not see any further indication of questions,
but I would just remind members that there was a few questions there
on anti -social behaviour and we have got the Community Safety Partnership
scrutiny meeting coming up, so it would be a good opportunity to ask those questions then.
But thank you for your questions and contributions on this particular report.
And I've just asked members to note those comments.
Thank you.
Okay, so our next item is the housing tenancy succession
and assignment policy, 2526 to 2930.
And again, I'll ask Councillor Patel

9 Housing Tenancy Succession and Assignment Policy 2025/26 to 2029/30

to introduce this item.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:34:45
With this policy, what we're doing at the moment
is updating the current practises
by removing any obligation that we have currently
for discretionary successions beyond statutory requirements.
While we are aware that we will have to allow them
in exceptional cases where it comes to preventing homelessness,
if you're preventing homelessness, yes, we'll take a second look at them.
It also clarifies that the tenancy assignment transfer all rights
and responsibilities to another party in according
with the legislation that we have.
This is quite a strict legislation anyway.
So, yeah, we're bringing it in line with that.
and if you've got any questions,
and I do note that we have received an email from you,
Councillor Brooks, to an actual live example
of how something like that could slip
through the cracks as well.
So yeah, fully aware of that,
and if there's any other questions, we'll take them on.
Okay, thank you for the introduction.
Councillor Nauruki, just quickly,
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:35:44
do you have any declarations of interest?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:35:46
No, just to give my apologies for late.
It was a busy day at work.
No problem, but Councillor Brooks gave your apologies most likely for lateness already.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:35:58
Thank you.
OK, so we will now move to members for questions.
We will start with Councillor Murray.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:36:09
I haven't got any questions in terms of the policy because it is relatively minor changes.
but it was just a question of procedure because I was just a little bit surprised on page
55 to read under consultation.
And I may have misunderstood it, but this seems to me that it hasn't been passed the
tenants and residents panel.
Maybe it has, but that's not what the report tells us.
I was a bit concerned about that.
Thank you, Councillor Murray.
Keith?
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
Keith Bowman - 0:36:45
No, it hasn't.
The tenant and leaseholder panel is in abeyance at the moment.
We held a number of meetings and things like that
where we're getting very, very few people coming along.
I mean, like two or three.
Sony, you'd come to a few
where there were very few people there.
We do have a network of engaged residents that we use.
So we'll place something on our website for consultation
and email that network of residents
and see if there's any response.
We're currently without a resident involvement officer.
We've got recruitment going on on Friday, fingers crossed we'll get somebody else in,
because Ryan Doggett, who was in the role, left at Christmas.
And that will be one of their first things they'll be doing, is actually regenerating
that.
We've been looking at doing some grassroots work, trying to get local resident associations
moving so that we can then build up again, because it's such a diverse district in terms
of urban versus rural.
So that's why it hasn't referenced it there, because the panel's not sitting at the moment.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:37:45
I understand that and we are recruiting.
You are saying that this has been emailed to tenants and residents on our estate that
have engaged before and that is good.
A rough indication of how many people that is?
Thank you.
The list I have got at the moment is about 37 people who have actually engaged and are
happy to receive it.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:38:08
Keith Bowman - 0:38:09
We do have to be a bit careful in that.
I would love to email it to 750 people
that I've got on a list who received the housing news,
but I suspect I'd get into trouble for that.
So I need to have that permission
to be able to contact them for these purposes.
Given the current circumstances,
there has been an attempt to consult
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:38:26
with tenants and residents, yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Murray.
Councillor Dutt.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:38:34
I've got a couple of queries.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:38:36
page 63, relatives who can inherit a council tenancy that started before April 2012.
Can you clarify, child or grandchild, is that defined as offspring or age -related?
My children are over 40, but they're still my children.
It's not defined further than that to the best of my knowledge.
Keith Bowman - 0:39:04
I mean there is of course the right that they have to be living at the household as well,
so they can't be living elsewhere.
But no, it's not, as best my knowledge, it's not defined any further than that in terms of age or relative...
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:39:22
Should it be clarified? Because it could be read as, you know, a child under 16 or...
Keith Bowman - 0:39:27
That is a possibility, we could put that in, but of course there are separate laws that prevent a child under age...
No, what I meant was...
...from holding a tenancy.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:39:35
What I meant was, I understand from your answer is that it means offspring as opposed to a
minor and that, you know, a child under 16, and I think that clarification might be useful.
Okay, yeah, I can incorporate that clarification, yeah.
Yeah, continue, Councillor.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:39:56
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:39:57
The next one on page 64, I wonder if you could explain under succession rights if the council
tenancy is not a secure tenancy, about being demoted for antisocial behaviour. Can you
clarify that, please?
Keith Bowman - 0:40:24
So this is where the tendency has already been demoted for antisocial behaviour.
If it's then succeeded to, then that demotion remains in place for the period of time that
it's actually been demoted.
So it's not that it just starts afresh.
The demotion of tendency remains in place until it expires.
So there are, under very specific circumstances, the ability to demote a tendency for antisocial
behaviour and in the case of that demotion would continue until it is naturally expiring
even if somebody succeeded to it.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:40:58
One last one if I may and that was on page 66 the consultation that was undertaken, how
many comments did you have on that?
We didn't receive any comments back on that.
Keith Bowman - 0:41:13
Thank you for those questions.
Councillor Brooks.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:41:16
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:41:20
It is just of an interest to me whether, as I indicated in my own, you could give me some
idea of how many tenancies in a year roughly are succession tenancies.
You know, I just, I don't know whether this is 25 in a district of six and a half thousand
Dawn Harrisson - 0:41:46
properties or much more. The information that we were given for last year is that
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:41:55
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:41:55
there were 26 sessions. You've already received my comments about my concern
about discretion in these cases that you know I referred to in the email which
I'm very keen that we do maintain some discretion, even if we remove obliged.
Thank you, Councillor Brooks.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:42:16
For your response to those questions, would you like that?
Would that be published to other members?
Okay, so the questions have been asked by email, so those can be shared to other members
or included in the minutes for this meeting.
Thank you.
Any other questions, comments on this?
Okay, so I'd now ask members if we can recommend
this report and the policy to cabinet
with any amendments, but I don't think there have been any.
Oh, just the amendments suggested by Councillor Dadd.
Do you agree?
I agree.
Thank you.

10 Council Housing Development - Accessible Homes

So our next main item is the council housing development for accessible homes pages 67
to 74 of our agenda and I believe this will again be presented by Councillor Smooty Patel.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:43:20
Thank you chair. So members with this one what we're trying to do is trying to alleviate
some of these pressures that we have in terms of housing needs for our wheelchair users.
And just to give you a sort of a quick description and a definition, so we've got the M41 category,
which is the general needs category. M42 is where the non -wheelchair accessible units
is what sort of developers would provide you through S106, et cetera. And M43 is something
that we're hoping to target with this particular policy.
So what we've done is,
policy, it's not quite a policy I suppose, but yeah.
So what we're trying to do is basically where,
I've gone off piece, haven't I, from my conversation,
that's what I wanna say.
Okay, so we currently have 137 housing waiting list
applicants in need of a wheelchair accessible homes
of the M4 -3 category.
We're not being offered, who are actually not being offered suitable housing due to
enlarge parts to the design, project management and post -handover management of units, which
is quite specialised.
So the Council House Building Programme is not currently equipped to provide these units,
but these users exist on the waiting list at the moment, which means that those in need
of these units are provided with properties that do not meet their requirements currently.
This has resulted where unsuitable new build units have been allocated to these individuals
in need of accessible units and then we're having to go back and make post handover adaptations
to these properties which again costs a lot of time and effort on council, officer time
and money that it takes to do those.
So we've identified a partner who is an expert in providing fully wheelchair adapted properties
called Habinte and they have advised us that they have a partnership with other councils
where they do take on garage sites, for example,
that are otherwise unviable to build out and we've had that experience ourselves with building on garage sites and they've never been
economically viable for us in the past.
So this sounds like a really good idea to me.
We have identified a number of sites that we would deliver about 10 units
we're looking at the moment.
The partnership agreement would mean that no transfer of land
takes place until the site has started construction
to a foundation stage, which is the golden brick stage, where
you've got a few layers of bricks already down as well.
And until planning requirements have been satisfied as well
for these units, the unit will be built to the M43
and be provided to tenants on our housing waiting list
and that are in need of this property in particular.
And the report, I believe, actually,
I do remember it from the report that it does identify
how many of those tenants that we would be helping as well.
So if you've got any further questions on that, thank you.
Questions, members?
Councillor Murray.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:46:24
Just had one question and maybe I missed it in the report.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:46:27
This is an agreement with the builder to provide this,
but they still remain council properties
and they will still remain tenants of EFDC or does it involve another social provider
as the landlord? I was a bit unclear.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:46:48
Havingtech will actually be the social housing provider, so the homes will belong to Havingtech
but we will have 100 % nomination rights in the first instance and re -let nomination rights
to be agreed.
Thank you for that, Claire.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:47:02
Thank you.
Thank you.
Councillor Danton.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:47:08
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:47:10
Your list on page 68 of the options for the garage sites, how are these options agreed
on in the different locations when you're looking for building, you know, for making
use of them?
Dawn.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:47:30
My understanding is the sites are chosen because they're not really viable for any other form
of development. They can only be single storey. Sorry, perhaps I'm being misunderstood here.
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:47:44
The following, this is number five, recommended decision, peppercorn disposable. The following
are options that currently have cabinet approval for our garage sites. Council House Building
programme, sell the site to social housing, sell the site to private development, etc.,
divide the site up and sell back to local residents, the private gardens, etc.,
demolish the garage, resurface, etc., sell the site to a town or parish council, etc.,
continue to mark and rent the garages to local residents, and we propose to add
this additional option to the mix. I think we're talking across purposes
there but my question really is when a decision is made about it, who makes the decisions
and how does that come about?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:48:39
I believe that this option comes under 5 .2 to sell the site for social housing to a registered
provider in return for capital receipt to build future council house building and to
gain allocation schemes for rights for council housing applicants. So it's not to get the
capital receipt, it's to get the nomination rights to the property and it would be a cabinet
decision. A paper would need to go to cabinet for any approvals on any proposed sites.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:49:07
Does that satisfy your question? Not really, but I think it's probably not
Cllr Mary Dadd - 0:49:11
within the bounds of this because what I really was asking was when you have garage types
that you want to redevelop, how do you decide amongst those options which path to take,
whether it's going to be an M4 or whether it's going to be offered to town or parish
council, et cetera.
Okay.
Ms. Moody.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:49:34
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:49:35
I think, well, I'm sure Dawn will come in on this one as well, but from what I understand
as well, I think you were saying that this is a better option than doing any of the other
options. So we're proposing that we do this to meet our requirements for the garage sites.
I'll get some further clarification and come back to you, but it's the sites which
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:49:54
Dawn Harrisson - 0:49:57
aren't really feasible to do much else with. It's not financially viable for us to
develop a site where we can only develop two properties. It makes more sense to get a package
of ten where ten buildings can be developed over a number of sites and get a specialist
to develop those homes for us.
Councillor Nauruki.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:50:16
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:50:19
Just one question, just to find out how the developer was identified and what is the criteria
you used to identify that they are a good option to go with?
They are specialists in their field of developing M4 -3 housing.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:50:34
They are a support provider and provide that type of accommodation.
they are a registered provider themselves.
Just a follow -up question.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:50:46
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:50:47
So are we saying that they're the only specialist provider
in that field that no one has to approach
in terms of getting their views and other options
that we can look at?
I'll come back to you on that.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:50:58
I think that at the moment they are on our list
of approved providers, and we can have up to 12 providers
on our list.
We've got nine, and I don't think any of the other
Registered providers on that list have the necessary skills to be able to develop those
types of homes.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:51:17
Councillor Murray, did you indicate to speak?
I wanted to clarify.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:51:22
These are all garage sites that we have already land banked for possible use and therefore
the garages have already been decanted because there was low usage or are these sites that
might present themselves in the future?
I think it's the former, but can you just clarify?
I believe it's the former, but there might be a mixture of both,
Dawn Harrisson - 0:51:43
but I will get clarification and come back to you.
Thank you.
Councillor Morgan.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:51:48
Thank you.
First of all, I think it's an excellent idea.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:51:52
I'm very impressed with it.
But my question is,
it says in the report that we've got a demand of over 380
fully wheelchair accessible properties within the next 10 years. How do we
choose those people? Is it like the top 10 for the first 10 houses or is it the
ones that are more at need? And also the other thing I couldn't find in here and
maybe it's just me jumping the gun a bit, how long do these properties take from
once they get the plan permission to finish? As that jump in the gun a bit
probably is isn't it? It's just I'm very excited about it. I have quite a few
residents that need properties like this? There is a waiting list. People that need
Dawn Harrisson - 0:52:36
these homes are on the waiting list and it will be based on the criteria of the types
of homes and how long they have been on the waiting list for. In terms of build time scales,
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:52:50
I cannot answer that at this stage, I am afraid. It is dependent on their needs and how long
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:52:53
they have been on it rather than it is the top 10 people that have been on there for
so many years, but there could be some that's on there quite recently that are in dire need.
Is that correct?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:53:11
The idea is that it's done in a fair way.
So somebody that needs a fully wheelchair accessible home, if they need a two bedroom
fully accessible wheelchair home and they are number one on the list, they would get
the property rather than somebody that comes on the list because, you know, these are wheelchair
and fully accessible homes.
So it's based on the time that they've been really on the waiting list.
Somebody that's new that's come on that needs a wheelchair accessible home will not jump the gun of somebody in the same
circumstances that's been on the list for a number of years.
Thank you, that's what I wanted to hear.
Councillor Nwukie.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:53:41
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:53:43
Thank you chair. I think I agree with my colleague. It's amazing.
I like the idea, but I still have this concern in my head where we focusing on one supplier. I just think
where is the value for money here?
Because even in my projects, I always have the policy
to speak to more than one person, two or three or four
sometimes, to get a sense of what I'm really achieving here.
But my concern here is that we have just one supplier.
I know they're the expert in the field,
but I'm a bit flabbergasted that there's no other people
that we can speak to about it, is to get the real sense
of the savings and the value for money
that we are looking for here.
Dawn?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:54:28
The only cost to us is the handover of the sites
to the developer or to the provider.
We're not buying the homes back, so there is no cost to us.
We get the nomination rights because we are giving
the sites over to peppercorn price.
And we won't be doing that until we reach
the golden brick stage.
So in terms of value for money, it's not like
your standard section 106 where we would be acquiring
or buying the properties from the provider, these homes will always remain with the registered
provider themselves.
Councillor Morgan.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:55:04
Sorry, I thought when you were saying, Ricky was saying about that, is the fact that maybe
he was looking at the idea of why are we not building them ourselves with consultation
from other providers, i .e. the provider and we build the houses ourselves for EFDC.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:55:26
I'll come back to you. I'll speak to the development team but I don't think that
they have the expertise within the team either so we'll be paying for
consultants to do something where there's already other people. I think
Keith may. If I may, thank you chair, just because I got involved in some of the
Keith Bowman - 0:55:37
early conversations with this. Habitat for Our Housing Association, they're not
just a developer or a provider, they are a housing association. They are within the business
really around housing associations, the go -to when you're looking at adapted and adaptable
properties, M3 and M4 standard properties. They are part of the partnership that we have
with a number of housing associations where we receive nominations to homes and we deal
with our waiting list on that. So they're part of that partnership and that's the partnership
we can go to. They are the only specialist provider that's on that list and in fact they've
been included on that list, particularly because of that expertise.
I've worked with Habentec in the past in different locations, but I haven't come
across another provider, another housing association who can do this.
So whilst you're right, we know what the demands are, they are the ones who have got
the expertise and the ability to develop it.
So it's not really a procurement exercise, as Dawn was explaining.
this is about us working with an expert in the field who we can then nominate
our residents to or our prospective residents to.
Does that help?
Councillor MURRAY?
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:56:49
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:56:51
Yes, just to help, and I might be completely wrong,
but the office has to do a terrible bit one hour a day.
Long, long, long time ago,
I was a portfolio holder for housing
and then the chair of the housing committee.
And I think the way it works is that if you,
Council can't just say they want to work
with their social provider,
because they never work with,
we may get called out for social providers.
Oh, sorry, microphone please, Council.
I apologise, I do need to restart then.
I am trying to put people's minds at rest.
It may have changed since I was directly involved in the housing portfolio and all that.
It was a long, long time ago.
My understanding is we can't just pluck a social provider out and say we are going to
work with you.
We invite expressions of interest.
I think it is up to 12 social providers.
Do you want to work within our district?
And in order to be on our list, they have to pass a whole number of really close, you
know, we examine really carefully the social providers we work with.
So anyone who is on our list has passed a whole number of kind of regulatory tests and
so on and satisfied a whole number of conditions or they wouldn't be on our approved list.
But as I say, I may completely have misunderstood.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:58:24
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:58:27
Ert
understand the requirement.
A lot of new homes now do actually have the requirement
to have disability access, i .e. ramps into the stairs.
I know that when my mum built her house 15 years ago,
that was actually a requirement that she had to have
disability access and egress and some wider downstairs doors
and things like that.
So it is happening, but there's obviously a void now,
properties that we have.
So I'm really pleased to see that that's being considered
and addressed.
Councillor Patel.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:59:16
Just a really quick note, just noting from the interest that we've heard from the members,
perhaps when we get closer to the project or anything like that, we have more information,
we will try and communicate that through a newsletter or something like that that we already have.
And yeah, I'm excited as well, so I would love to see some more details and photos about these things.
So yeah, thank you.
Thank you for all of those comments and questions.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:59:38
So I will ask members, can we please recommend the report
and policy obviously awaiting some further responses
to cabinet for their approval.
Thank you.
So our next item,

11 Council Housing Development Programme - Annual Update - PUBLIC

council housing development programme annual update.
So we will, sorry.
So again, councillor Smooty Patel, please,
to present this to us.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 1:00:10
So I think the recommendations have stayed the same
on this one, I was just double checking, yep.
So for scrutiny to consider and recommend the report
that we've prepared for CABBADA to approve
the general direction of travel
for the Council House Building Programme
and the sites that form part of this
for further progression as referred to in the appendix
and summarised below.
So what we've got now is a report to consider
and recommend, this is something we do annually,
so we wanted to bring this in and go through the reasons
for why we're bringing this to you today.
It's to maintain the momentum that we want
with the Council House Building Programme
and to give a general update on the different modes
of developing affordable housing being reviewed
by the Council's development team.
It's also been a long time since a routine update
of such has taken place, so we are quite keen to reinstate the updates as well.
So the sites will still need individual cabinet reports for permission, for example, to spend
money on as well.
We did initially think about putting this into the pink sheets, but I think we're saying
we're fine to include that.
And if you've got any comments on the pipeline, that's already provided to you in the appendix.
We can take questions on it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:01:37
I was just going to remind members that we will not be going into private session on
this item.
So any questions that you have, you may ask them at this time.
We will not be going into private session on this item.
So any questions that you have, including those on those restricted documents that was
in the agenda, you may ask at this time.
Councillor Murray.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:01:59
Yes, I have one on originating from page 76.
And it is coming from a ward issue, but it's the principle I want to examine as well.
And I'm not turning this into a planning committee because that would be completely inappropriate.
But the development in my ward for Ladyfields that is in favour of planning is not a building
development plan that I think a responsible landlord should ever have submitted to planning.
So I really want to know why there isn't any general discussion from a member level of
involvement in terms of the type of schemes we are putting into planning.
Because though it might be meeting planning requirements, for us as a council to put in
an application that has virtually no parking places because planning allows us to do that
is not being a responsible landlord in my view.
And that's a particular issue in my ward because of the massive development of Luckton's Close,
which is exactly the same issue and has caused horrendous problems, absolutely horrendous.
I mean, we're talking real problems in terms of parking spaces and breakdown of community
cohesions.
You only have to ask the police the number of times they're called out.
So I have used Ladyfields as an example and I deliberately haven't gone into detail about
the planning issues because it's in the planning stage, they were being appropriate.
But why isn't there any member involvement in the general outline of how we're going
to develop these sites?
Okay, we don't want to turn anything to a planning meeting and really detail what we
want this balance of flats and this balance of housing on this site.
But why isn't there any general discussion about how we develop sites?
because as I say, I think the one I know inside out
is not something I would ever have thought
that we as a responsible social landlord
should be putting forward for consideration.
Thank you, Councillor.
I'm sorry that I'm unable to answer that question.
Dawn Harrisson - 1:04:25
I will have to go away and come back to members.
Councillor Williamson.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:04:32
I just shout for the planning side,
Cllr Ken Williamson - 1:04:36
planning can only make a decision
on what's put before them.
They can't actually decide to change what's before them.
That's a different application.
So officers are giving recommendations
on planning law on what's before them.
So in a sense, Chairman, that reinforces my point
Cllr Stephen Murray - 1:04:56
that it's us as the applicant,
the housing services as the applicant
that has to consider really carefully what they're putting forward before planning,
because I completely accept planning have to judge what's put before them in terms of the planning rules and regulations.
Yep, so therefore there's even a greater responsibility on us as a housing authority of what we're putting forward.
And I just do not understand why there's no member involvement whose knowledge of their own walls,
I would say is sometimes better than housing offices and that's obvious I
mean that's no criticism you know we should live and breathe in our wards and
so that the point the portfolio holder has made kind of reinforces the
importance of us having some involvement in the applications we are putting
forward. I definitely take your comments on board
Cllr Smruti Patel - 1:05:59
Councillor Murray but without having to turn into a smaller mini planning
application before it goes into planning so there's a danger in that in terms of
member involvement but we will definitely sit down and have a
discussion of how we can formulate that and have a look at the ones that are in
planning currently as well have a look at those schemes and both Dawn and I
being new to this whole portfolio itself.
And there's a lot of discussions we're having around how we're
doing things and how to do things differently to have
different outcomes, basically.
So yeah, we will definitely take that on board,
but on how we can have that member input without turning
into a little mini -app planning committee meeting
before the planning.
So yeah.
Councillor Newy.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:06:46
Thank you, Chair.
I'm going to ask the question
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 1:06:49
Just to support my work colleague in terms of what he
said about the garage development.
Again, not going into planning meeting here.
But just to say, it's a valid point that has been made,
especially where the land loads or the developers are the
council itself.
We need to at least get the ward members involved who know what
is happening on the ground because like my colleague said we have been facing a
lot of parking issue in the area and when residents are seeing what is going
on they're horrified of the impact we have so yes a planning issue is
different but let's be mindful that would not creating more issues for our
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:07:35
Cllr Mary Dadd - 1:07:38
residents. Thank you. Councillor Dadd. Yes thank you on the same issue I think that
It's not just, as a council, it's not just planning,
it's all the social and community aspects as well.
But Councillor Patel has said they're going
to have a discussion.
I think that I for one would appreciate the feedback
on what is proposed or what is decided.
Thank you.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 1:08:01
How will that come back to members?
We can circulate that.
Okay, thank you.
So it will probably come by email
to members of the committee once they've had that conversation.
Any other questions, queries, comments on the report?
Okay.
So can we please recommend the report and policy with the updates that will come in
the interim to Cabinet for approval?
Thank you.
So there is no need to exclude the public.

12 EXCLUSION OF PUBLIC AND PRESS

And yeah, I'd like to take this opportunity at this time
to particularly thank our housing service director
who was new in the role for all of the reports
that have come to scrutiny.
Obviously we've had Keith as an officer as well
attending our meetings.
I think it's been possibly unheard of
to have this volume of housing reports
to this Scrutiny Committee and especially being new in the role.
So thank you very much.
I just really wanted to make that point and also recognise
Councillor Smooty Patel in your role in bringing all
of these housing reports and presenting them
as you have done so well.
I think this evening concludes probably the housing reports
to Scrutiny this year unless there's any late amendments.
So I want to take this opportunity to thank everybody
that has been involved in that process.
And members, for all of your great scrutiny of those reports as well.
It just leaves me to inform you the date of our next meeting on the 3rd of March.

7 DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

And thank you for being here this evening and I will close the meeting at 10 past 8.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman.
Keith Bowman
Team Manager - Housing Strategy and Information
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Keith Bowman
Cllr Rose Brookes
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Rose Brookes
Cllr Mary Dadd
District councillor for Ongar ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Mary Dadd
Dawn Harrisson
Service Director Housing & Property
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Dawn Harrisson
Laura Kirman
Democratic Services Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Laura Kirman
Cllr Jeane Lea
District councillor for Waltham Abbey North ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Jeane Lea
Cllr Jodie Lucas
District councillor for Waltham Abbey West ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Jodie Lucas
Cllr Maria Markham
District councillor for Waltham Abbey South and Rural ward
Independent
View profile Cllr Maria Markham
Cllr Lisa Morgan
District councillor for Grange Hill ward
Independent
View profile Cllr Lisa Morgan
Cllr Stephen Murray
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
Independent
View profile Cllr Stephen Murray
Cllr Chidi Nweke
District councillor for Loughton Roding ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Chidi Nweke
Cllr Smruti Patel
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill West ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Smruti Patel
Cllr Ken Williamson
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill West ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Ken Williamson