Agenda item

Stage 1

The Executive Mayor in Cabinet is asked to:

1.    Receive the recommendations arising from the meetings of the Streets, Environment & Homes Sub-Committee held on 20 July 2022 and the meeting of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee held on 21 July 2022 (Appendix A).

2.    To provide a substantive response to the recommendations (a Scrutiny Stage 2 Report) within two months (i.e. at the next available Cabinet meeting on 12 October 2022).

Stage 2

1.     To approve the response and action plans attached to this report at Appendix A and that these be reported to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or relevant Sub-Committees.

RESOLVED: To

1.     Receive the recommendations arising from the meetings of the Streets, Environment & Homes Sub-Committee held on 20 July 2022 and the meeting of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee held on 21 July 2022 (Appendix A).

2.     To provide a substantive response to the recommendations (a Scrutiny Stage 2 Report) within two months (i.e. at the next available Cabinet meeting on 12 October2022).

Stage 1

Cabinet considered a report, which detailed at Appendix A, recommendations that had been developed from the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, and its Sub-Committees, since the last Cabinet meeting. 

Constitutionally, it was required that an interim or full response be provided within two months of this Cabinet meeting.

The recommendations arose from consideration of business transacted at the meetings of the Council’s Streets, Environment and Homes Sub-Committee, held on 20 July 2022, and the meeting of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee held on 21 July 2022.

Stage 2

Cabinet considered a report, seeking its approval to approve the full response reports arising from the Stage 1 reports presented to the Cabinet meeting held on 6 July 2022, which included action plans for the implementation of agreed recommendations, or reasons for rejecting the recommendations and that these be reported to the Scrutiny and Overview Committee or relevant Sub-Committees.

The Executive Mayor said that he had met with Councillor Rowenna Davis, Chair of the Council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee, last month to discuss how he and the Cabinet could continue to build a strong working relationship.  He said that, as part of that discussion, was the Cabinet’s continued desire for effective pre-scrutiny to be carried out on Cabinet reports before decisions were made, together with what steps could be taken to facilitate that, for example, a better alignment of committee dates in the new municipal year to minimise any unnecessary delays.

The Executive Mayor said that while there were many recommendations before the Cabinet, agreement could not be met on all of them but he did commend the work of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee and its sub-committees on its work and in drafting these.

At the invitation of the Executive Mayor, Councillor Davis said that she welcomed information received and that the Executive Mayor had provided a response within the prescribed two-months’ period.

Councillor Davis went on to say that she wished to focus on the following three areas, which were most pressing and relevant to Croydon. 

1.            The Cabinet Member for Housing and the Executive Mayor’s response on the Committee’s work in respect of the housing repairs contract.

The Committee welcomed their commitment to build better communication with tenants and a commitment to culture change, which would ensure tenants being treated with the empathy and respect they deserved.

Specifically, Councillor Davis said she was disappointed that Cabinet had rejected the recommendations submitted in respect of proposed compensation for any botched jobs, which occurred under the housing repairs contracts.  Councillor Davis said she hoped that this could be reviewed in the future and that Scrutiny be involved in that process.

She said that the Committee was also disappointed that the recommendation to issue a revised tenants’ handbook (detailing tenants’ rights) had also been rejected.

2.            Financial Performance Report (Agenda Item 7 to this evening’s meeting)

Councillor Davis said that Scrutiny had looked at this in detail, earlier in the month and had been impressed by the candid honesty and openness by Councillor Jason Cummings (Cabinet Member for Finance), which seemed symptomatic of a culture change, which was to be welcomed.

She expressed her concern, however, of a potential overspend by the Council of up to £19m, particularly when there was so little time to remedy this.  She said that Scrutiny was keen that all Members be kept advised as to progress in tackling this and key milestones to be put in place to assist in this.

3.            Violence against Women and Girls

Councillor Davis referred to the Tackling Violence against Women and Girls; Statement of Intent item, which was due to be considered later at this meeting and said that this had been particularly relevant since her committee had considered, at its last meeting, the Council’s Community Safety Strategy.  She said that half of the women or girls in the Borough had felt “a bit” or “not at all” safe where they lived.  She said that domestic abuse cases had risen year-on-year with 5,154 reported cases last year alone (the highest level in London).

Councillor Davis said that the problem for Scrutiny was that domestic abuse was already listed as a top priority for the Safer Croydon Partnership.  She said that greater community engagement (including with victims themselves) would be welcomed and she acknowledged the work that the Executive Mayor and senior officers were doing in this area.

In response to the issues of botched jobs and the tenants’ handbook, Councillor Lynne Hale (Cabinet Member for Homes) appreciated the concerns raised regarding disrepairs and said that everyone accepted that the time people had waited had been unacceptable and there was a lot of work to be done with regards to the housing repairs contract.  She said that the Council could look at paying compensation for botched jobs but that the money for this would be met from within the Housing Revenue Account, which was funded by residents and that the priority now was to bring homes back into a decent state of repair.

Regarding the tenants’ handbook, Councillor Hale said that she was aware of a lot of work, which was going on within the Housing Directorate at the moment in terms of restructuring and that the Council wait until it had a correct and accurate handbook, which would be of greater use to residents than the current version, which would likely be out of date before too long.

In response to the financial performance report issues, Councillor Jason Cummings (Cabinet Member for Finance) thanked Councillor Davis for her feedback on the meeting he had attended and was pleased that the Committee felt that he and the Administration were being transparent in what they were saying.

Regarding financial reporting, Councillor Cummings said that the Council was able to provide financial reporting, but this was taking time to check figures and the process was not as slick as might have been hoped at this time.

Regarding forecast financial position, in-year, Councillor Cummings said that this had been stated as being between £9.5m and £19m but that the projected position was for a £9.5m overspend but that this was in a range between £19m over and £3.6m underspend and said it was important to refer to this range when quoting these figures.

Regarding tackling violence against women and children, the Executive Mayor said this was an ongoing piece of work and was very much about a delivery plan, not just a new strategy and a new piece of paper, but about ongoing wider engagement, meetings with the Council’s partners and those affected.

Councillor King asked why the Executive Mayor was rejecting over half of the recommendations, and marking his own homework, which Councillor King said the Executive Mayor had said he would be doing had he not elected a non-Conservative Member as Chair of the Council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee.

In response, the Executive Mayor said that the whole premise was that Scrutiny should be led by the Opposition, which it was, and that there was also cross-party working on Scrutiny, which he thought was working well.  He said that the Administration was moving towards much more pre-decision scrutiny, but he was not marking his own homework.  He said that there had been several meetings held and a number of recommendations had come forward from the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, some of which, he said, had been accepted, others had perhaps gone beyond the remit of the Committee, and it was about listening and responding to the comments and moving forward in a practical manner.  He said the Administration was resetting the relationship with scrutiny in the Council, which had been given its due credit and was being worked appropriately.

Having listened to the contributions and considered the detail in the report, the Executive Mayor, in Cabinet, RESOLVED that:

1.            The recommendations arising from recent Scrutiny meetings be responded to in due course; and

2.            The substantive responses provided to previous recommendations as set out in the report, be agreed.