Agenda and minutes

Tenant Scrutiny Board - Friday, 15th July, 2022 12.00 pm

Venue: Civic Hall, Leeds, LS1 1UR. View directions

Contact: Emma Lomax 0113 3783330  Email: Emma.Lomax@leeds.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome Introductions and Apologies

To agree and sign off the minutes of the previous meeting.

Minutes:

JG opened the meeting and welcomed all in attendance. Everyone introduced themselves and apologies were noted for Rita Ighade.

 

2.

Exempt Items

Minutes:

None.

3.

Late Items

To identify items which have been admitted to the agenda by the Chair for consideration.

 

(The special circumstances shall be specified in the minutes.)

Minutes:

None.

4.

Minutes of Previous Meeting

To confirm as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting held on

Minutes:

The previous meeting minutes were approved as a true record.

5.

Chair's Report

To receive an update from the Chair on scrutiny activity, not specifically included on this agenda, since the previous Board meeting.

Minutes:

JG – We formally welcome new member Sue Easton to the Board. Apologies again for the cancellation of the June meeting. Both Jackie and I attended Maddie Hunters funeral at Chapel Allerton on behalf of the board. I was unable to attend the National Resident Involvement Conference on the 21st June which was held in Leeds. The Vice Chair and Ian Montgomery attended. The Environment, Housing and Communities Board had their first meeting following the local elections. Councillor Anderson remains the Chair. During the meeting they decided once again to co-opt the Chair of Tenant Scrutiny Board to their board when they discuss housing matters. The Vice Chair and I met with Peter Greenwood on the 28th of June to write up the draft report that will be placed before you in Item 5 of today's agenda. I have a meeting on July 25th with Councillor Rafique Executive Member for Environment and Housing, to update him on the work of the TSB overall.

The board do not meet in August. Next meeting is Friday September 16th. I will not be available other than by email between 2nd and 29th August.

 

6.

Anti-Social Behaviour

Minutes:

Neil Bowden talked through his presentation. He discussed the various approaches and strategies currently being used to manage anti-social behaviour in the city. These are to tackle a range of issues and concerns including organised crime, nuisance vehicles, noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour in areas or places of concern.

Maddy Edwards gave an overview of the Housing Leeds role in managing ASB. Instances of ASB rose during the pandemic, there now being 205 live cases of ASB particularly related to noise nuisance and an increase of domestic abuse cases.  All cases enter an ASB ‘triage team’, which officers assess to look at the severity and then based on the available information make contact and discuss with customer. Once assigned to an officer the service undertakes a vulnerability matrix to assess needs and if there are any particular issues that need to be tackled. The triage team also decide if the case is to be managed with the Housing Office, who take on lower-level case or for more severe cases, the Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour Team (LASBT) 

 

Housing Leeds work very closely with LASBT and Police and share information as required. We are very careful with what is shared and who to. Most cases within local housing teams get a resolution early in the process. If early stages are exhausted and behaviour is still prevalent, then we are able to serve a Housing Caution. If behaviour remains a referral is made to LASBT who then lead on taking the case for prosecution.

We manage cases by putting the victim first. LASBT meet every 6 weeks to review open cases. We do use mediation but this needs to be accepted by both parties and if therefore something that isn’t used as much as it would ideally be. 

Injunctions are also a tool we can use in certain cases, and if these are breached we can take further legal action. 

 

To help manage any ASB that occurs in multi-story blocks we are able to deploy security patrols and make use of static guards and have CCTV linked into Leeds Watch who monitor CCTV. We also look to instil a sense of professional curiosity in staff, which can lead to asking residents questions, building up knowledge of what is happening and helping us achieve better outcomes. The questions asked by officers can sometimes be challenging, but are essential to help take action. When we look at lessons learnt from how we have managed ASB cases, we are interested and do look to see how we have managed a case and if we have demonstrated our professional curiosity at the initial stages so we can resolve as many cases as early in the process as possible.

 

Questions from the Board:

 

JG – What we learnt in the ASB previously undertaken by the board is that at least 50% of LASBT work is noise related?

ME – Yes.

JG – And a lot of what you spoke about just then noise wasn’t included?

ME – Noise often  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Report and Proposals on Phase 2 of Tenant Engagement Review pdf icon PDF 392 KB

Minutes:

Vice Chair Neil Battison read through the proposals that have come out of the review into Tenant Engagement which the board have a hard copy of in front of them.

The Chair then re-joins to discuss the proposals with the board and take any questions for Ian Montgomery. The Chair asks for votes on each proposal as they are discussed, and all are passed with some caveats to be ironed out at later meetings in the year once the Voice Panel is launched.

 

SE –My understanding is that the Tenant Voice Panel includes how we are responding to the Building Safety Bill?

Ian – Yes, the new panel will have a number of roles, one of which will be to help self-assess with us how we are meeting the Social Housing Regulators Consumer Standards, which includes building safety. 

Sue – One of the standards is engagement?

Ian – Yes, there are four consumer standards currently, with a proposal to increase this to six, with new standards around building safety and on the theme of transparency.

 

The Board have asked for the standards to be explained in the September meeting in more plain English and to learn more about the changes coming from the White Paper.

 

JG – Why not do a launch event of Tenant Voice Panel and see each other face to face?

DM – Need some new blood, that’s the way to go as other city-wide groups have disbanded.

JG – It needs to be made clear that it is a launch event for the Tenant Voice Panel in case there are any previous city-wide panel members which would like to attend. 

 

IM – It’s a good idea to have a launch event. I have shared previously we would like to hold an induction so people are aware what the panel will be doing, and a launch event is an effective way to do that and it’s good for people to reconnect. For the board’s reassurance, the launch event will come after what will be the launch to all tenants. It will be put out there in the public domain so anyone who participates in it will be clear what the role of the panel is and how it’ll work. We could offer a face-to-face session and an online session too for people who are unable to attend in person.

JG – Are we talking about 2 launches?

IM –We would launch it out in public domain, attract new and interested members, then have a launch or induction event – a face-to-face session to give more detail about what it is and how it will work, but would like to offer an online launch and induction also. 

JG – Might attract city wide group members, needs to make it plain it is a launch and the panel itself is not still up for discussion.

IM - These proposals we are discussing today can go out to all previously involved tenants for information. When launched we want to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Forward Plan

Minutes:

The Chair wished everyone a good Summer before the next meeting in September.

 

9.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

Minutes:

16th September 2022, 12:00 – 14:00.

Civic Hall Committee rooms 6/7 and on MS Teams