Communities Scrutiny Committee - Tuesday 23 June 2026, 7:00pm - Epping Forest District Council webcasts

Communities Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 23rd June 2026 at 7:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Chidi Nweke
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  1. Laura Kirman
  2. Cllr Chidi Nweke
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  1. Cllr Stephen Murray
  2. Dawn Harrisson
  3. Cllr Stephen Murray
  4. Dawn Harrisson
  5. Cllr Stephen Murray
  6. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  7. Laura Kirman
  8. Cllr Stephen Murray
  9. Cllr Chidi Nweke
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
  2. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  3. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  4. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  5. Cllr Stephen Murray
  6. Jennifer Gould
  7. Laura Kirman
  8. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  9. Cllr Stephen Murray
  10. Dawn Harrisson
  11. Cllr Stephen Murray
  12. Dawn Harrisson
  13. Cllr Stephen Murray
  14. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  15. Dawn Harrisson
  16. Cllr Stephen Murray
  17. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  18. Cllr Rose Brookes
  19. Dawn Harrisson
  20. Cllr Rose Brookes
  21. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  22. Jennifer Gould
  23. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  24. Cllr Rose Brookes
  25. Dawn Harrisson
  26. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  27. Jennifer Gould
  28. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  29. Cllr Rose Brookes
  30. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  31. Dawn Harrisson
  32. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  33. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  34. Cllr Stephen Murray
  35. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  36. Dawn Harrisson
  37. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  38. Dawn Harrisson
  39. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  40. Cllr Smruti Patel
  41. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  42. Cllr Smruti Patel
  43. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  44. Cllr Lisa Morgan
  45. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  46. Dawn Harrisson
  47. Cllr Chidi Nweke
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  1. Cllr Smruti Patel
  2. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  3. Cllr Stephen Murray
  4. Cllr Chidi Nweke
  5. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  6. Dawn Harrisson
  7. Cllr Jodie Lucas
  8. Dawn Harrisson
  9. Cllr Chidi Nweke
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  1. Webcast Finished

1 WEBCASTING INTRODUCTION

Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:00:00
Sorry for the shock there. I have to read the webcast and introduction first. I would
like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be recorded live and will be
capable of repeated viewing or another used by such third parties. Therefore, by entering
the council chamber, you are using the sitting area, you are consenting to being framed and
to be possible use of those images and sounds, recordings for webcasting and training purposes.

2 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Welcome, members. I'm Councillor Umeke and I'll be chairing the meeting today. In the
chambers we have officers. To my immediate left is Nicola Sayers, Head of Legals and
Deputy Monitoring Officer. To her right is Dawn Harrison, Director for Housing Services.
and to my right I have Laura Kamen, Democratic Services and on webcasting we have Lou Baker.
Online we have Jane Goad, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer. Any apologies?
Laura Kirman - 0:01:30
We've received apologies from Councillor Lee and Councillor Lisa Morgan, her advisor,
should be running late.
Any substitute members?
There are no substitute members tonight, Chairman.
Thank you. Members, as Councillor Lucas...

3 SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS

Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:01:45
Councillor Lee is not here, she is the Vice -Chairman and she is not present, I send her apologies.
I would like to propose that Councillor Lucas act as Vice -Chair this evening. Can the committee
agree to this?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Walden?
Thank you.
Thank you.
The closure of interest.

4 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Any closure of interest from members?
Item 5, notes of previous meeting.

5 NOTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Can we agree the accuracy of these notes and the meeting on the 3rd of March 2026?
Agreed.
Thank you.

6 WORK PROGRAMME

Item 6 is work programmes which you find on page 11 to 12. The committee working programme
for the year is shown on that page. Do members have any further comments or proposed amendments
to the working plan?
Councillor MURPHY.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:03:26
Thank you, Chairman. There's three issues and they're not going to be very time -consuming.
Number 3, Museum Trust. I can only speak as one member, but I just wanted to make it clear
kind of what I was expecting because of the previous meeting where we didn't get what
we were expecting. Members may remember that attached to the minutes of the meeting where
the Museum Trust gave their initial report, which we deemed not to be what we were looking
for gave us a really, really, really thorough update of all their work.
So I just thought it might be useful before the 29th that from my point of view, and I
can only speak as one member, from my point of view, if they were to update that attachment
to those minutes, you know, with things that have happened since they were produced, that's
the kind of report I would be looking for.
So I think that would just be a useful steer because I think that was probably the point
problem at the last, you know, was it two meetings ago, the understanding of what we
were looking for wasn't there.
So certainly if they update what they attached to those minutes of that meeting, that would
be an excellent report and an excellent starting point.
Item 11, I think I know what that means, but can I just have a clarification what that's
going to cover?
possible compensation and remedies policy.
What's meant by that?
Hi councillors.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:05:00
The compensation remedies policy is a requirement
from the housing ombudsman.
So it's to make sure that we're compliant
with the housing ombudsman code,
and it will cover compensation
when residents make complaints and such like.
And will that be an update of an existing policy
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:05:22
or is this something that's relatively new?
It's relatively new and it won't be a policy, it will be guidelines.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:05:28
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:05:31
And just one other, and I think I'll speak for a number of people.
We've got one meeting here that says to be confirmed.
Presumably, my understanding of that would be
it's not the purpose of the meeting to be confirmed,
but the date of that meeting.
That's a really important meeting as you'll appreciate,
Chairman and Vice -Chairman.
So can we have that date as soon as possible
for our busy diaries?
I'm talking about number 23.
Thank you, Councillor Murray.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:06:03
There was some discussion of you and scrutiny about that
Laura Kirman - 0:06:05
because of the work programme
and the scheduling of the work programme
as to where that would best sit.
The joint meeting of the chairman of the scrutiny committees will consider that again.
It will be brought back to the next overview and scrutiny and you will be informed and
the date will be set as soon as possible.
That's good to know.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:06:28
So will it sit in one of the meetings that we already have in our diaries, either communities
place or the main R &S committee?
Yes.
Thank you, sir.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:06:36
Can we note those comments on the programme, please?
Noted.

7 Annual Housing Performance and Tenant Satisfaction Report 2025/26

Item 7 is the annual housing performance.
Councillor Patel will be presenting the report.
Thank you, Chair. Just one second.
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:06:59
And right, I was just making notes
from what Councillor Murray was saying
so I can pass it on to my colleagues as well
with regards to some of the updates he wanted.
Okay, so the annual housing performance
and tenant satisfaction report
that you will have in front of you.
This report provides an overview
of housing and property services performance for 25 -26,
including results from the tenant
satisfaction measures survey.
The focus has actually absolutely been this time on compliance, tenant satisfaction and
continuous improvement in service delivery as it normally is.
The key achievements, which we have some really good ones to shout out about this time, not
massive amounts but a little bit at least, tenant satisfaction, overall satisfaction
with EFDC as a landlord is up on the last year's percentage at 75%, with the notable
improvements in repair satisfaction which have gone up 3 .9 % and the property maintenance
as well. The statutory safety compliance that we have, we've achieved 100 % compliance in
all of the required gas, fire, asbestos, Legionella and the lift safety cheques across the housing
stock. Can I just add, this was a huge piece of work that the officers have taken on and
everyone who's involved have had to do it. It's amazing to have the 100 % that we have
at the moment. Repairs and maintenance, 90 .49 % of non -emergency repairs and 96 .88 % of emergency
repairs were completed within the target time scales. Moving on to the section for lettings
and income management, the average time to let the void properties was six days, so the
target's normally five days and sometimes you just can't avoid it, but obviously we
try and make sure we come in that time.
And rent errors were kept,
areas were kept below target at 1 .44 % of the annual rent
role.
Pleased to inform that none of the families were placed
in B &B accommodation for over six weeks.
More than six weeks is what I mean.
Lit meetings, they always obviously we met the statutory
obligations doing that.
Tenant satisfaction measures, looking at it deeply
in terms of the percentages.
So the statutory TSM survey independently conducted, exceeded the required sample size
with the 1 ,151 households participating.
So we were like 10 % over than usually on the average where people are at and what's expected
from us.
So that's really good.
I mean, that's one question actually I did ask again to George Dorn saying, are we better
than everybody else?
Because I know I'll get asked that question.
So EFDC satisfaction scores are above the peer group median in most areas, including
overall satisfaction, repairs, and property maintenance and safety.
Areas with the highest satisfaction that we had was safety of the homes at 82 .6%, property
maintenance at 76 .5%, and being treated fairly and with respect at 77 .6%.
I know that some of this stuff is quite obvious, but I'm glad it's still on there and on the
measurements that we need to make sure we cheque against for us.
Areas for improvement, emergency repairs, performance at 96 .88 is below the 100 % target
that we would have liked to have had.
Complaint handling was 34 .1 % of the tenants were satisfied with complaint handling.
and the 97 .14 % of complaints were resolved
within the target time scale.
Once again, the target is 100%,
which we obviously would love to achieve.
With regards to antisocial behaviour,
the satisfaction with ASB handling was at 57 .6%,
which is slightly below the peer group,
but there are things that we are working on in the pipeline
to try and see if we can better that.
And we know that's the weakest category
in every single council and everyone's you know struggling with that section as
well. Communication satisfaction with being kept informed dropped slightly
increased communication efforts are planned and one of the things that's
also going to help is in October what we have is a you know planning in terms of
knocking on all the doors of all our tenants and getting information in their
contact details and how they'd like to be contacted in the future and so all
those things we're hoping will feed into this part of the survey for next time as well,
post that date kind of thing.
So right, and the actions and next steps that we would like to carry out and what we are
working on in the pipeline is we're working on the targeted action plans in place to address
complaints and ASB as I said earlier, including enhanced scrutiny via the tenant complaints
panel and deeper analysis of the dissatisfaction. So sometimes it's a perception we want to
and figure out are there facts in that perception or are we working against perception. Continued
focus on improving emergency repairs. Deep breath. Deeper analysis of dissatisfaction.
Continued focus on improving emergency repairs and communication with tenants. We want to
on the good figures that we've had this time
in terms of repairs.
Ongoing review and expansion of performance indicators
to ensure compliance and relevance to tenants needs.
In conclusion, the services maintained a strong compliance
and improved tenant satisfaction in key areas.
The focus for 2627 will be
on addressing operational challenges,
particularly in the complaints and the ASB
and maintaining high standards in safety and repairs.
This hopefully provides the committee with a clear picture of current performance and the progress that's been made and the priorities of the coming year.
So yeah, floor's open to questions but as Councillor Murray said we are on target.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:13:14
Thank you, Councillor Patel. Before we move on, Councillor Morgan do you have any declaration of interest?
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:13:22
Apologies my last meeting over and now I have no declarations of interest, thank you.
Thank you very much. Members, any comments?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:13:31
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:13:36
First of all, the portfolio holder has actually covered the key issues and flagged the key
issues, so I am not going to repeat the things that she said. She is right about what we
can be proud of. She is right to have flagged up the issues that she has flagged up. Can
I understand why she is the only member of the Cabinet here, but it is unfortunate that
she is the only member of the Cabinet who is going to hear what I am going to say, because
I do have a general concern about the Cabinet.
In fact, just before the meeting, I have emailed the leader, the Deputy Chief Exec, who I know
we have got online.
We still have not been officially told who the members of the Cabinet are and how the
division of responsibilities have been divided up.
So obviously I've gathered by tonight that Councillor Patel is the Housing portfolio
holder and she's clearly got responsibility for the issues before us tonight.
But it would be great on June 23rd when the annual meeting was on May 28th when we would
normally have known to know who is making up the cabinet.
We have a rough idea, but we haven't had the official notice of who our cabinet members
are and what responsibilities they have.
I have mentioned that via email to the appropriate people.
In fact, I brought it up at Cabinet, I brought it up on R &S and I wanted to bring it up again
tonight and I will continue to do so until we get that.
Before I go on to the actual issue itself, is there anyone who can throw any light on?
We have got Jen's cut her hand up online.
Come in, Jen.
Thank you, Chairman.
Jennifer Gould - 0:15:23
Yes, Councillor Murray, I received your email.
We have known for a few days, and I don't...
I've emailed Demi Services to ask them to publish the cabinet as soon as possible.
But what I can tell you is that cabinet is, largely as it was,
We have got one new cabinet member in Councillor Darshan
Sunger who has taken on the regulatory portfolio,
which has had a slight name change in that it is,
if I've get this the right way around,
environment and regulatory directorate.
There's been some sites swapping around,
so you will know that development management,
So planning was in the previous regulatory portfolio
that Councillor Kesk had.
That has come out of that portfolio
and is now sits with Pen Williamson
in his shaping the district portfolios.
So Ken has now got the whole of Councillor Williamson,
beg pardon, has got the whole of planning,
both planning policy and development management.
and the portfolio that Tim Matthews previously had,
which included Qualys and commercial
has sort of been divided up between
Councillor Holywhip bred in finance and economic development.
So she will now be responsible for the commercial assets
that Qualys manage on our behalf
and the partnership will now sit within Councillor Balcombe's portfolio,
which remains contracts delivery and partnerships in the same way that Councillor Balcombe does that for TBS.
He will now fulfil that function for TBS as well, Qolis as well.
And then every other portfolio pretty much stays the same,
I think so Councillor Risby is still with communities.
We've got obviously Councillor Patel with housing
and I think I've missed somebody,
but it's been a very long, hot day.
I'll say, sorry, I can't speak now.
Lead has obviously got his portfolio cancelled
but I can cancel Williamson and Councillor Sungga as new.
Have I covered everybody? I think that's everybody. You have Jen, you've covered them all. Super, thank you.
I hope that answers your question, I do apologise that it hasn't been published but I will absolutely promise you that it will be published tomorrow.
Can I just come in there Jen? At the top level Councillor Murray, it has been published today.
Laura Kirman - 0:18:14
So the actual members of the Cabinet are on the website. The next level of detail which I know is what you're after,
We are waiting for Gary to come back,
which is on leave till tomorrow.
So it will be published in due course,
but the top level has been changed on the website.
So I'm just looking at it here now
on the environmental regulatory,
Councillor Darshan Sunger.
So if you, we can send you a link to that, if you like,
in the formal notice, Gary will do any returns.
Thank you, Chairman.
I won't pursue that in any more detail
apart from members' point of view.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:18:51
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:18:52
It is who is actually responsible for the nitty -gritty, so we want the detail as soon
as possible.
From my point of view, going back to the main item, I did think that was important.
I have two questions based on what I have read and then two questions that arose from
what I read.
On page 14, right at the top, it talks about obligatory consumer standards and it gives
two examples of headline standards. I won't read them out. When I read the assessment
standard, it talks about a board or governing body, which I can definitely associate with
a housing association. I couldn't automatically think in my mind what would be the substitute
in terms of our social provision of the board and governing body being fully aware of its
responsibilities, where would it lie as regards us?
That would be the Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:19:58
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:20:00
Thank you. I wonder whether it was members or maybe some grouping of officers, but that
is really useful. On page 16, so these are the specific questions, I did have a few more
but the portfolio holder covered them.
So I'm not gonna, on page 16, the third one down.
So I'm looking at TSM measure RP01,
proportion of homes that do not meet
the decent home standards.
And we're saying that at the moment
that relates to 82 properties.
And I'm assuming that's 82 out of the,
I think we're 6 ,300 or something like that
in terms of our stock are potentially non -decent. Is that because we haven't been able to gain access
to those homes for for a number of reasons or are there other reasons why these 82 properties we're unsure of?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:20:59
Um, Councillor, I do actually have an update on that particular indicator and as of today
um we only have five homes that are potentially non -decent and some of that is due to access
issues so yeah and we're working and but if we can't get in that is actually
accepted by the regulator if we don't get access but of course we want to get
into all homes. I'm really pleased I answered that question 82 to 5 in when
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:21:21
excellent so my two general well one's a general point and then one's another
question. Overall in my ward rep has quite a lot of social housing as a as
the chairman will know because we sit for the same ward. My perception as a ward councillor
is that our record on repairs is improving and that's been shown in these figures. But
what I did want to just particularly flag up, and maybe crisis situations shouldn't
arise and things that are not being handled as well as they should, shouldn't arise, but
you know that's just kind of life and the way things work occasionally. I just wanted
to put on public record again, that I can only talk as I find that whenever I approach
QALYIS and I go through their main customer satisfaction officer, Debbie Casey, the response
is always immediate and the response is always positive and she will sort out anything that
hasn't happened in a way that it should have happened.
As I say, you can be a purist and say, well, that shouldn't have arisen, but life just
isn't always like that.
So how they respond to what you bring to them, I think matters as well.
And I just wanted to put on record how impressed I am by how qualities respond to that kind
of issue and particularly their main complaints and customer satisfaction of yourself.
And then one other question I have, we would have all been delighted to read and the portfolio
holder brought it up that we are keeping to the bed and breakfast rule of six weeks.
Six weeks in bed and breakfast isn't great, but we're keeping to that legal requirement.
But I'm assuming that's because either we're obviously using other avenues or we're keeping
a strong input through Norway House, but I'm assuming that means then we must have homelessness
families that aren't insecure tenants, the secure tenancies within our housing stock.
So I wanted to ask how many general needs housing units are we using for homelessness?
Because that obviously does have a knock on effect for people who are bidding through
the normal system.
So how many homeless cases have we got in general need stock at the moment?
Thank you, Councillor Mory.
Unfortunately, I don't have the figure, but I will feed that back to the committee.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:24:02
Dawn Harrisson - 0:24:04
Fair enough, Chairman. Thank you.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:24:05
Thank you, Chairman.
Any more questions from members?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:24:09
Councillor Brooks.
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:24:15
Thank you very much for this report. It's red. Is that, that's on? Yeah, sorry. Brain
is affected by the sun. I noticed that we had 22 cases that went to the housing ombudsman.
Could you give us a flavour of what sort of issues did get as far as the ombudsman?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:24:41
Hi Councillor Brooks. Unfortunately I can't at the moment but I'm happy to go away and
do some analysis and bring that back to you. What I would say is that you may be aware
that the Housing Ombudsman does encourage people to approach him and people have to
go through our two -stage process to be able to do that. But I will get some analysis of
the 22.
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:25:01
Thank you, Chair. It was just really, because this is anecdotally my experience in recent
years as well, partly due to staffing shortages, but I did notice that the issue of antisocial
behaviour did come up as an area that we weren't always dealing with as well as we might.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:25:27
Before you answer that question, I've got Jane's hand up. Is it in terms of the first
Jennifer Gould - 0:25:35
question Councillor Brooks asked? Yes, thank you Chairman. I just wanted to
add really just to bring to the committee's attention one of the issues increasingly that
we're experiencing around complaints,
and not just in housing actually,
but across the council as a whole.
We are seeing an increase in the numbers of complaints
and the increase of complaints that are
sort of quite clearly made through the use of AI.
And I think one of the real challenges around that
is that a number of those complaints that come in
where people are using, you know, chat GPT
or other forms of AI,
is that there's a real kind of misappropriation
or misalignment of the way that they are using
parts of the legislation to support their complaints.
And I think because the use of AI is increasing,
it's easier for people to put together
quite significant and prolific complaints
that we're having to deal with.
So it's not in direct answer to the question that was raised,
but I do think it's really important for the committee
to know that we are experiencing that.
Along, I might add, with every other council
experiencing similar things.
And it does present us with a real challenge
and we are continuing to talk about it
at senior leadership level about how we deal
with those coming in and sort of increasing numbers.
I wanted to raise it with them and put it on their radar. Thank you, chair.
Come back to the second question. Can you repeat the question again?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:27:17
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:27:22
Yes, it was just on social behaviour. I think sometimes we have to deal with that as we
have been short of relevant, experienced staff. Also, sometimes I think, I think, we have
How can I put this very tactfully?
Perhaps problem families have sometimes been moved around, let's put it that way.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:27:55
Anti -social behaviour, the low level stuff is actually dealt with housing, but community
safety team have experienced anti -social behaviour officers, so there's a lot more joined up
working now and we are tending to see more results.
They've got new systems now for monitoring types of antisocial behaviour.
So with that in place, we are expecting to see things improving in terms of resolution.
It is quite difficult.
Sometimes we do have to move people just to get them out of those situations.
But ideally we want to be dealing with the perpetrators of antisocial behaviour, which can be quite difficult.
Thank you.
Does that answer your question now?
Yes.
Jane?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:28:31
Yeah, thank you.
I just thought it might be useful to add.
Jennifer Gould - 0:28:36
I think there's quite a,
perhaps a misconception that we move
difficult tenants around.
It's actually quite hard to move a tenant
who doesn't necessarily want to be moved either.
And we don't take those things lightly actually,
because if a caseworker has,
or an officer has done a huge amount of casework
around tracking somebody's and evidencing
somebody's antisocial behaviour to move them to another property means that we have to start all
over again and sort of previous evidence doesn't then exist if we're taking action against a new
tenancy, against a new address. So I don't think that we do that necessarily. What I would say
though is that sometimes it's absolutely, you know, even if somebody or quite often in cases
what you find is that perpetrators of antisocial behaviour are also victims of
antisocial behaviour and you know very often it isn't a clear case of black and
white and I think in those cases moving people is the right and sensible
thing to do because I sometimes taking people out of the situation that they're
in and placing them into a different environment potentially with different
support networks around them and a different package wrapped around them can make all the
difference actually in terms of how people behave. So, A, I don't think we necessarily move people
very often at all but even in circumstances where we do, it is the right thing to do and we then
create the right environment for that tenant to go on and thrive. So I think it's just kind of
thinking more broadly about that if that's helpful.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:30:27
Councillor Morgan. Do you want to come back on that Councillor
Wood? Yeah I think sometimes our tenancy book says
Cllr Rose Brookes - 0:30:33
very clearly people shouldn't deal you know in drugs. I think often that
neighbours have feel intimidated about giving evidence that's one of our issues
I think. And that's not unique to a forest. It happens in all levels of society.
Councillor Morgan.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:31:01
Thank you. Actually, one of my questions has already been answered, but I just want to
say first of all thank you to Councillor Patel for again starting off a new year with turning
up again as a portfolio holder. She was very good last year, turned up every time to speak
to us about the housing and I'm really pleased that she's doing it again, so thank you.
Thank you to Dawn because one of the questions that I was going to ask was about the 82 properties
that we actually brought up last year about an issue and you've come back with such positive
news. That's really good. I think it's sad to see that we still have
193 people at any one time in temporary accommodation.
That's just a comment.
What I'd really like to know,
and I might've missed this, Safa did, I apologise,
is the fact that we still got 632 ,000 pounds owed
in arrears.
What can we do about that?
What we're doing about it?
Is it people, because of the cost of living crisis?
What can we do as a council to try and get that back?
Or what are we trying to do?
That's a hard question. I'm sorry, Don.
Thank you. It is a difficult question. We have our income team and they are actively
Dawn Harrisson - 0:32:17
chasing arrears. There is a cost of living crisis. People are struggling, but our arrears
are at a good figure. We are less than 1 .8 per cent, which is actually quite remarkable
compared to other organisations. So we don't want debt. Nobody wants to have debt, and
the team do work hard to try to get in as much as they can, introducing payment plans
and so forth, we will be looking at other ways
that we can try to encourage to pay people as well.
And we'll share that with you at a later date.
Yeah, come on.
Thank you very much.
It's quite nice to hear as well
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:32:48
that we're so good compared to other people.
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:32:50
So that's a bit that's not on here,
but that might be nice for us to find out
where we are in comparison to other councils as well.
I think that would help me as well,
because then I wouldn't have asked that question.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Morgan.
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:33:10
Councillor Mory. I will go back to anti -social behaviour for a moment and add a few comments
from the experiences I have had within the ward and I am sure other members have as well.
The perception, well not perception, but it is a perception, the figure that we have had
of dissatisfaction or level of satisfaction about us dealing with it doesn't surprise
me because I think sometimes there are unrealistic expectations of what the council can actually
do.
The days of where I used to, and I won't mention any names, but when I was a young junior councillor,
I remember a housing officer saying to me, and she wasn't joking or he wasn't joking,
if I haven't made a council tenant cry at least once a day, I haven't done my job properly.
These were the days before secure tenancies, so there is a misperception.
Our tenants, however they behave, have rights as secure tenants, and that means dealing
sometimes with quite difficult problems is a really difficult issue.
So there is a misconception, you know, what is the council going to do about it?
Why hasn't the council marched around and told them you're going to be out next week
if you don't do...
It doesn't operate like that anymore.
You know, quite rightly, council tenants have secure tenancies and even more secure after
item 2 tonight probably.
And they have rights, don't they, within law.
So there's that really strong misconception.
The council can be doing things.
I'm talking about situations I've come across directly and they can't tell the complainants
what they're doing because of data protection.
Quite rightly, they won't tell absolutely everything to me as a wall counsellor in detail
about what they're doing.
They might give me a slightly closer picture, but I'm not allowed to share that with the
complainants, because there's data protection issues around that.
I think the other factor we have to appreciate is often these are multi -agency, so we can
often be reliant on how proactive community policing is and so on.
From my experience, I'm happy that our housing team and our Safer Communities team are doing
what they can.
I'm sure there will be examples where they may not have got everything right, but they
are as proactive as I think we can reasonably expect.
And I think those are some of the issues
that help explain the, you know,
the rating on that satisfaction.
But as the portfolio holder said,
that's the same for all councils
because they're operating within the same
set of constraints, aren't they?
Thank you, Councillor Mone.
Councillor Lucas.
Thank you, Chairman.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:36:06
One point and two questions.
So I first just want to start by commending the housing director, Dawn Harrison, for the
work that you've done obviously in the time that you've been responsible for housing.
Because I mean, it's not drastic differences that we're seeing, but we're definitely seeing
some improvements in the comparative data.
And obviously that goes hand in hand with commending our portfolio holder for the work
that has been taken place there.
My questions are, the first one is in regards to the KPI suite,
so the portfolio holder mentioned in the introduction
about the expansion of the KPI suite to continue
to be relevant.
Is there any particular performance indicators
that you're looking at changing or introducing?
Is that you, I assume?
Thank you.
So we already have the TSM, the perception measures,
Dawn Harrisson - 0:37:01
measures and the operational ones. Because we're doing inspection and because the governing
body, the committee and cabinet members are required to know what's going on, what we
want to do is to introduce a quarterly report to this committee that covers a wider suite
of KPIs, so not just the ones set by the regulator, not just the tenant satisfaction measures,
but the ones, for example, around home ownership, around temporary accommodation, which aren't
part of the TSM suite.
Okay, thank you. That's good to hear because this leads on to my next question, which I
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:37:32
don't know where this currently sits or where it needs to sit, but I had a ward issue recently
about an external area of the, like a bin store area that was experiencing high volume
of rats and I just wondered where does that sit? Is there sort of any kind of KPI that
we've got communal areas does that cover sort of car parks and bin areas or is
those communal areas sort of internal that's my question it covers all
Dawn Harrisson - 0:38:06
communal area so it would include business stores as well okay thank you
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:38:11
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:38:16
sorry if I may add I mean we are actively actually looking to make sure
we produce this document where again from the point that councillor Murray
said as well, in terms of setting those expectations and reminding tenants and leaseholders what
their different responsibilities are in terms of maintaining the common areas as well.
So we've had some cases where we've looked at them where people keep moving the bins
away to one side and they're by the window in somebody else's kitchen, et cetera.
So making sure that if they want clean areas, they understand that we have a cleaning schedule
already that we do, but if it needs to go over and above,
then that's something they'll have to have internal
discussions about as well as part of their association.
So it's about setting those expectations as well and making
sure we remind them of those responsibilities.
Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for those answers.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:39:06
And I think on this particular issue that it was,
was actually about the cleanliness of the bins once
they've been emptied.
And I think that it did raise an important issue that I think we
do need to investigate further because my understanding is I don't know where that responsibility
sits. I am waiting for the housing estates team to come back to me because I don't think
TVS undertake any bin cleaning and obviously there isn't an individual person that's responsible
for cleaning a group bins on an estate. So I think that it's something that I would like
to keep under your radar just for moving forward really especially in this hot weather we're
experiencing hotter summers, and if there's waste that's been
sat at the bottom of a bin that hasn't been cleaned properly for
some time, it could lead to more issues which could obviously
impact the KPI data that you're getting back.
Thank you.
Ms. Fong -Shuang Ting, Chief Executive Officer, KPI
I think we'll certainly take that away and maybe have a look
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:40:04
at the schedule that we currently have and then see if
we need to do anything or adjust it for summer, et cetera,
if we need to be stepped up.
Thank you.
Members, Councillor Morgan.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:40:14
Cllr Lisa Morgan - 0:40:18
Is it something that you actually could relay back to the whole committee, please, because
I think it's a really important point that Councillor Lucas highlighted, and I think
we all need to be able to sort of know who to go to and for what reasons, because it
is something that is highlighted quite often, especially on the big estates where they've
got all the big communal bins in one place. So, and please, Councillor Lucas highlighted
it, but it would be nice if you could come back to all of us. Thank you.
Councillor, sorry.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:40:49
Dawn Harrisson - 0:40:51
All the inquiries will be fed back to all committee members, yes.
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:40:57
Members, if there's no other questions, can we note the comments and the report, please?
That's it. That leads us to item 8 on the agenda, which is the ending of 10 -year fixed

8 Ending of 10 Year Fixed Term Tenancies

terms tenancy, shown on page 2 of the supplementary agenda. This will be presented by Councillor
Patel again. Can you introduce the report, please?
Cllr Smruti Patel - 0:41:27
Thank you, Chair. Just to quickly respond to councillors who have noticed, the other
councillor members who are not here for the cabinet members, but just to stick up for
my colleagues, I mean, there really is only one item on the agenda today, which was housing.
And between myself and Jen and Dawn, I'm sure we would have probably had all the answers,
so majority of the answers. I think it's a bit, yeah, today I think we'll excuse them
today seeing as we're all eager to get home too early today. Coming back to
the 10 -year fixed -term tenancies, we are discontinuing this for one main
reason that it really isn't serving us any purpose and it's taking up too much
of our office time. So the report is in front of you to approve the ending of
the 10 -year fixed -term tenancies for new general needs lettings and moving the
existing fixed -term tenants to secure lifetime tenancies at their next review point. The
evidence has shown us that fixed -term reviews have not delivered the intended benefits.
Over 90 per cent of the tenants reviewed remained in their homes, while the process creates
significant officer workload, legal risk and tenant uncertainty.
Moving to secure tenancies will provide greater stability for tenants. It will reduce the
administrative and procedural risk and allow officer time to be redirected to tenancy sustainment,
arrears prevention, safeguarding, fraud cheques, underoccupation work and targeted downsizing
support. The proposal has no expected rent impact and it's expected to have minimal impact
on housing supply or the housing register. The existing legal powers to address rent
careers, antisocial behaviour and tenancy fraud will remain available. The cabinet is
currently going to be asked to approve the policy change, approve the transition of existing
fixed -term tenants to secure tenancies at review and delegate authority to update the
relevant procedures and policy documents as required in the future. Any questions?
Thank you for report. Members, any comments?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:43:43
Cllr Stephen Murray - 0:43:48
Councillor Mory? Yes, just to talk about cabinet members for
a minute, again I can only speak as an individual. I only expect cabinet members to be here if
they have a relevant item on the agenda and you're absolutely right. I wouldn't expect
anyone else but yourself to be here tonight. And looking back at the work programme, you've
It looks as if you're going to be there on your own most of the time, because it almost
read like an old housing committee when I saw the World Programme.
But that's fair enough.
This can't come quick enough.
It shouldn't have been introduced.
I was part of the discussion.
It just became, to my way of thinking, a fad across local government.
It originated from national policies that wanted to see a break -up of secure tenancies
and I would argue a break -up of close -knit communities that secure tenancies help to
produce.
So this can't come quick enough.
It should never have been introduced in the first place.
The evidence that we're now using to say we shouldn't continue it doesn't surprise me
the slightest so 100 % behind this chairman. Thank you. Any other questions or comments
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:45:09
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:45:14
for members? Thank you chairman. Similar to Councillor Murray I have no issue with it
and I think it is the right thing that we need to be doing is having no benefit if it's
having no benefit. My only question and I don't know enough about the legal side of
If a tenant is not abiding to their tenancy agreement, do we have break clauses in place?
If they had been previously, would it have been at the 10 years that you would have been
able to get them out?
Is that an issue at all with moving to lifetime tenancy agreements?
Dawn Harrisson - 0:45:58
In a 10 -year tenancy or a lifetime tenancy, you still need to issue a notice to end the
tenancy during that term. Yes, you could potentially end it at the end of the fixed 10 years, but
you still have to wait 10 years to get there before you could do something. We have the
ground date or Section 8 notices that we can issue for non -compliance of tenancy and for
breach of tenancy and that remains the same whether it's a secure tenancy or a ten year
fixed term.
Cllr Jodie Lucas - 0:46:28
Thank you. That does help me feel a bit more comfortable with it. Just on that, if you've
got that section 8 notice that you can serve, because I only know like sort of residential
tenancy agreements and the changes that come into place with them, are we still able to
serve those because I know that there's now changes to residential tenancy agreements.
Thank you.
Dawn Harrisson - 0:46:56
Yes, so the no blame notice, the section 21 notice is what has been stopped and we don't
comply with section 21 so we issue section 8.
Thank you.
Any other questions or any comments from members?
Cllr Chidi Nweke - 0:47:08
Can we now recommend the report and policy to cabinet for approval and members?
Thank you.
Agenda 12 is exclusion of public and press.

9 Ending of 10-Year Fixed Term Tenancies

There is no reason to exclude public and press.
The date of next meeting is the 29th of September.

10 DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

And on that, we'll end the meeting at 7 .47.
Thank you.
Cllr Rose Brookes
District councillor for Buckhurst Hill East and Whitebridge ward
Loughton Residents Association
View profile Cllr Rose Brookes
Jennifer Gould
Strategic Director - Chief Operating Officer
Epping Forest District Council
View profile Jennifer Gould
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 Jodie Lucas
District councillor for Waltham Abbey West ward
Conservative Party
View profile Cllr Jodie Lucas
Cllr Lisa Morgan
District councillor for Grange Hill ward
Epping Forest Independents Group
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