You are invited to attend Borough & Bankside Area …...2019/07/10 · major works to complain about the bill and request that the council reviews the cost. 2. Leaseholders on the

You are invited to attend

Borough & Bankside Area Housing Forum

7pm Wednesday 10 July 2019 Venue: Decima Street Tenants & Residents Association Hall

7 Decima Street SE1 4QR

(Opposite Bermondsey & Lansdowne Medical Mission) Nearest Bus Station: Grange Road / Caledonia Market

AGENDA 1. Introductions and Apologies 2. Code of Conduct 3. Privacy Notice 4. Delegates & Deputies List 5. Attendance Monitor

6. Minutes of Previous Meeting Held on 22nd

May 2019 & Matters Arising 7. Cabinet Report - Review of Resident Involvement 8. Council’s Approach to Community Engagement 9. Garage Benchmarking 10. Area Managers Performance Report – To Follow

11. Reports Back

Tenant Council

Homeowner Council

Community Council

Arbitration

Environment Monitoring Panel

Report Back from Working Parties

TRSIG

12. Borough & Bankside Forum Dates 2019

For further information please contact: Chuks Amaechi T: 0207 525 3914 E: [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

13. AOB

London Borough of Southwark

BOROUGH & BANKSIDE AREA FORUM CODE OF CONDUCT

APPENDIX 1: MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA

1. Criteria for recognition of groups sending delegates to Borough & Bankside Area Forum on behalf of under-represented sections of the Borough

1.1 Groups sending delegates to Area Forum must

(i) be based in the Area

(ii) support the Council’s Equal Opportunities Policy

(iii) be a not for profit group

(iv) not be party-political

(v) be constituted in a fashion consistent with council policies

(vi) be able to demonstrate that their services or meetings are regularly publicised

(vii) act within the terms of their consultation

(viii) not be represented by a person employed by the group

(ix) register with the Council (Housing Community Development Section ) and provide details of their aims, the area covered by the organisation, their criteria for membership, the names and addresses of their officers, a commitment to the Council’s Equal Opportunities policy and a copy of the organisations’ constitution.

(x) Be approved by Southwark Council as a nominating body, Southwark Council may revoke

approval after consultation with the Area Forum.

2. Groups currently representing under-represented sections of the community on Borough & Bankside Area Forum.

Young Persons {up to 21 years of age}

People with disabilities {including physical and learning disabilities, and mental illness}

People with caring responsibilities for children and/or relatives

Pensioners

Lesbians/Gay men

Black and ethnic minorities

3. Schedule of Recognised Tenants Management Organisations and Tenants & Residents Associations

Borough & Bankside Area Housing Forum • southwark.gov.uk • Page 01

All Borough and Bankside TRA’s and TMO’s.

3.1. The number of representatives from each of the properly constituted and recognised tenants/residents associations and management co-operatives as identified above will be 2.

3.2 The number of deputies from each of the properly constituted and recognised tenants/residents associations and management co-operatives as identified above will be 2.

4. Schedule of local community groups with a housing interest as recognised in accordance with Clause

4.1 (b) of the Area Forum Constitution.

TBC.....................................................................................................................................................................

.......................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................................................

4.2 The number of representatives from each local community group with a housing interest shall be 1.

5. Quorum

5.1 The quorum for Area Forums shall be not less than one third of its elected membership or 6 members whichever is the greater. If there is no quorum after twenty minutes from the scheduled start time, the meeting will be cancelled. Once the meeting has commenced, it will close if there is no longer a quorum.

6. Adoption of Constitution and Code of Conduct

6.1 Borough and Bankside Area Forum adopted its Constitution and Code of Conduct at the Area Forum meeting held on

24/06/2015 – all voted in favour.

Signed: Chair: Mr Peter Davis

Vice Chair: Fola Ogunkola

Area Housing Manager: Sharron Smith


PRIVACY NOTICE

Please note that this is a public meeting and minutes will be taken and published on the council’s website, this will include names of attendees, which area housing forum they represent and records of what was said by whom at the meeting. Southwark Council needs to publish this information to ensure its resident consultation structures are transparent, accessible and inclusive. This is to comply with housing legislation and council’s own policies. This information will be published on line for a period of 2 years after which time it will be taken down. If you wish your name and other information not to appear on the published minutes please make it known at the start of the meeting. If you are concerned about how the council is using your data, please contact our Data Protection Officer via [email protected] or on 0207 525 5000.

More information about your rights is available on our website, or via the Information Commissioner (www.ico.org.uk).


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.ico.org.uk/

Delegates & Deputies List

Tenant’s and Residents Associations

T&RA Delegate Deputy

Albert Barnes House TRA Chung Lam Li Williams Steven Smithson

Decima TRA Sean Jeannette

Dodson and Amigo TRA Colin Challenger Bob Morris Andrew Harrison

Hayles Jenny Marshall John Bailey Dada Nwafor

Kipling TRA Sheku Fofanah

Lant & Bittern St TRA Damien Cheetham

L'Sborough and Scovell TRA Karon Dahmer Kim Beaumont Lyn Meade

Meadow Row TRA Denzil Kennedy Anthony Woodhouse

Nelson Square Garden TRA Franco Margliano

Jack Zamora

Pattison House TRA Darren Dolphy Devlin Shea Laura Hull

Perronet House & Princess St Jane Livesey

Rockingham Community Charles La Fevre Kobir Uddin Association Ian Smith Samuel Opare

Tabard Garden Central TRA Chinweizu Nwosu Nafisa Muhlemann Toyin Johnson

Tabard Garden North TRA Peter Davis Janet Olayanju Jareth Mills Munirat Okesola

Tabard Garden South TRA Lourdes Fernandes

Murtagh Kavawagh

Webber Row and Quentin TRA Jill Goddard


Borough and Bankside Area Forum

Attendance Monitor 2019

Area Forum Meeting 2019

09/01 30/01 06/03 24/04 22/05 10/07 07/08 02/10 06/11

/2019

/2019

/2019

/2019

/2019

/2019

/2019

/2019

/2019

T.R.A & T.M. O Delegates

Albert Barnes House TRA C P P - P

Brook Drive T&RA C - - - -

Decima Street T&RA C A A P P

Dodson & Amigo TRA C P A P P

Hayles T&RA C P P P P

Lant and Bittern Streets T&RA C P - - P

Lawson T&RA C - - - -

L’sBorough & Scovell T&RA C P P - A

Leathermarket JMB C P - - P

Meadow Row T&RA C - - - -

Rockingham C Association C - - - -

Tabard Central TRA C P P P P

Tabard North TRA C P P P P

Tabard South TRA C - - - -

Perronet House TRA C - - - A

Webber & Quentin T&RA C - - - -

Ward Councillors

Cllr Adele Morris – Borough C

P

- -

-

and Bankside

Cllr David Noakes – Borough C

A

A -

-

and Bankside

Cllr Victor Chamberlain – C

A

- -

-

Borough and Bankside

Cllr Maria Linforth-Hall - St C

A

- A

A

Georges

Cllr Graham Neale - St C

A

- -

-

Georges

Cllr Helen Dennis – Chaucer C - P A A

Cllr Karl Eastham – Chaucer C - - - -

Cllr Sirajul Islam - Chaucer C - - - -

(P) Denotes present (A) Denotes apologies sent

(-) Denotes non attendance and no apologies

(C) Denotes Cancelled Meeting


MINUTES

Forum: Borough & Bankside Housing Forum

Date: Wednesday, 10th July 2019

Held at: Decima TRA hall

Present: Delegates & Deputies:

Colin Challenger (CC) Dodson and Amigo TRA (Chair )

Dada Nwafor (DN) Hayles TRA

Chiweizu Guy Nwosu (CN) - Tabard Garden Central

Janet Olayanju (JO) Tabard Garden North

Sean Jeannette ( SJ) - Decima TRA

Toyin Johnson (TJ) Tabard Garden Central

Chung Lam (CL)Albert Barnes House TRA

Damien Cheetham (DC) Lant and Bittern St TRA

Sheku Ahmed Fotanah (SAF) Leathermarket JMB

Councillors

Officers:

Sharon Smith (SS) Resident Services Manager

Chuks Amaechi (CA) THIO

Apologies : Lyn Meade - L’Sborough and Scovell TRA

Karon Dahmer(KD) L'sborough and Scovell TRA

Jane Livesey (JL) Perronet House & Princess Street

Jenny Marshall Hayles TRA

Cllr Maria Linforth-Hall - St Georges

Cllr Helen Dennis – Chaucer


1. Introductions and Apologies Action

1.1 The chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Attendees introduced themselves. Apologies recorded on the previous page.

2. Constitution /Code of conduct

2.1 Noted

3. Correspondence

None

4. Minutes of Meeting held on 22nd

May 2019

4.1 Noted and Approved

5. Matters Arising

5.1 Item 5.1 - Copy of forum constitution forwarded to all delegates.

5.2 Item 5.2 - CC proposal to review constitution has been suspended.

5.3 Item 5.5 - CC met with Mr Michael Scorer, Strategic Director for Housing and Modernisation in respect of the complaint letter from the forum about the quality of

service received from Mr Stephen Douglas – Director, Communities Directorate.

1. Mr Scorer promised to get back to CC in writing. 2. CC suggested that forum packs should be a maximum of three sheets to enable

delegates read and understand.

3. He also proposed that chairs of forums should be involved in agenda setting as

prescribed by the forum constitution and that accompanying documents should

be summarised and written in plan English.

5.4 Forum delegates stated that reports from the council are difficult to understand and scheduled council consultation meetings conflict with each other.

6. Resolution

6.1 The forum request that the council in accordance to clause 5 of the Borough and Bankside Area Housing Forum Constitution, must involve the Chair and Vice

Chair in the agenda setting process of the forum at least two weeks before the

scheduled date and accompanying documents should be written in plan English.

Proposed by DC Seconded by DW , Unanimously agreed

7. Fire Safety – Communal Area Approach Report

7.1 Report Noted.


7.2 SS explained that all council properties will be assessed and there are two types of approaches that will be adopted depending on the type and size of the building namely the managed and zero tolerance approach.

7.3 SS stated that the managed approach allows strictly defined use of common parts of the blocks and limits items in communal spaces to control fire and ease ignition. This approach is only permitted in blocks that a site specific assessment has been carried.

7.4 The Zero tolerance approach does not permit the use of communal spaces to store items and no exceptions would apply. The focus is principally on high rise buildings and the council is also committed to replacing front doors that do not meet fire safety standards.

8. Major Works

8.1 Report Noted

8.2 CC provided a verbal report on the district heating works being carried out at the Albert Barnes Estate and the concerns of leaseholders, who have been sent a bill of £20,000 for the works.

8.3 Leaseholders are required to pay this amount upfront or within 3 years while tenants are allowed to pay via their rents for a period of thirty years.

8.4 District heating is expensive to maintain and allows for those who use less heating to subsidise those who use more.

8.5 Albert Barnes TRA on behalf of leaseholders requested that the forum on its behalf writes to the director of housing to compliant about the bill sent to leaseholders.

The forum resolves as follows:-

1. The chair of the forum has been mandated to write to the director in charge of major works to complain about the bill and request that the council reviews the cost.

2. Leaseholders on the estate are advised to challenge the section 20 sent to them

and should get an independent contractor to provide a cost estimate for the job.

Unanimously agreed

9. AOB

9.1 SS stated that the manager’s report will be presented at the next subsequent meeting


Item No. Classification Date: Meeting Name:

7 Open 10th

July Area Housing Forum 2019

Report title: Cabinet Report - Review of Resident Involvement

Ward(s) or groups

affected: All

From: Tenant Council

BACKGROUND:

1. The Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Kieron Williams, presented a report to Cabinet on June

18th

, 2019, on the resident involvement review. The report (attached as Appendix 1 to this report)

makes a number of recommendations for restructuring resident involvement within the borough.

This has implications for all tenants in the council’s housing stock. It also has implications for those

residents actively involved in the council’s existing resident involvement structure.

2. Amongst the proposals included in the Cabinet report are the following:

a. Creation of a new, cross-tenure Tenant and Leaseholder Forum for the purposes of

facilitating landlord-tenant consultation on strategic issues (rents, repairs policies, lettings

etc.). This body would replace both the Tenant Council and the Homeowner Council.

b. Creation of a new pool of interested residents, who would be contacted to participate in

specific, one-off consultation exercises in relation to specific issues (e.g. a focus group on the

management of sheltered housing, a co-design panel on the development of an anti-social

behaviour strategy, a sample survey group on customer service standards).

c. Use of the new Ward Forum structures (set up under the council’s Empowering Communities Programme, and subsequent recent reform of community consultation structure) for the

purposes of cross-tenure neighbourhood consultation on a range of issues, including housing.

These Forums would, in effect, replace the current Area Housing Forum structure.

d. An annual programme of consultation events on estates/areas not currently covered by

tenant and resident associations (TRAs), so that residents not covered by TRAs still have

a chance to consult with the council on a range of issues.

e. Continued support for TRAs, with a commitment to continue funding of TRAs, provide

training for the latter, and provision of advice services for tenants and homeowners (currently

provided by the Southwark Group of Tenants Organisations and the Citizens Advice Bureau).


3. The Tenant Council received details of the Cabinet report from the Cabinet Member for housing

(CMH) at its meeting on June 17th

, 2019. Having done so, it now wishes to receive feedback from

Area Housing Forums across the borough on the report and, in particular, its recommendations

for reform of resident involvement in the London Borough of Southwark.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. That the Area Housing Forum considers the attached report from the Cabinet Member for Housing.

2. That the Area Housing Forum deliberates on the proposals contained in the report.

3. That the Area Housing Forum provides feedback to the Tenant Council on the Cabinet report, such

feedback to be included in the draft minutes of the meeting at which the report was discussed.

REPORT AUTHOR John McCormack, Tenant and Homeowner

Involvement Team Leader

CONTACT DETAILS 020 7525 7544 [email protected]


Item No. Classification: Date: Meeting Name:

9 Open 10th

July Area Housing Forum 2019

Report title: Garage Benchmarking

Ward(s) or groups

affected: All

From: Head of Homeownership Services

RECOMMENDATION

4. That Tenants Council receives this report for information and notes the contents.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

5. This report aims to show the difference in cost of renting an LBS Garage and the cost of private sector options of a similar nature and size. To ensure that the results of this report pertain specifically to prices available in Southwark, only garages located within the borough have been included. We have however updated and supplied the pricing structure of Councils in the immediate-to-general vicinity of Southwark as well. To further ensure accuracy in comparison, we have where possible, only incorporated examples which match the cubic meterage of the garages we offer (128Ft Sq). In some cases it was necessary, for the sake of a larger data set, to incorporate examples even where their size was not established or detailed in the listing. In these instances we have only accepted listing which appear to be of a similar size. These listings primarily cover those offered by Gumtree & Lockup garages (as their listings tend to be sparse on detail).

6. As requested by the Tenant’s Council, we have sought out private rental costs for a number of

garages/lock ups across the borough, taking information from large and small companies, as well as those companies who represent private garage owners (such as Stashbee.com & Gumtree).

KEY ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION

7. We have found that there are three main types of storage garages/lockups available on the rental market. The first type is provided in the form of traditional site-based garages, similar to those provided by LBS and other authorities, where the block of garages form part of an estate/housing site. The second type being of a similar nature to the traditional mentioned above, but are privately owned by parties such as Lockupgarages.co.uk. These may be found as part of housing sites, or on private land earmarked for residential housing new-builds. The third type being those of larger businesses like ‘Big Yellow’, who own warehouses which have been partitioned into separate units for storage rental. It is typically not possible to drive a car into warehouse type garages/lock ups, whereas it is usually a mandatory aspect of the traditional style of on-site garages. Where this ability does exist in the warehouse type (which we found to be rare), it usually results in a substantially higher cost of rental. Due to the rarity of this option, we have deliberately chosen not to incorporate it into this reports’ findings to ensure that the results aren’t disproportionately skewed.

8. Anecdotally, there is another type of storage: “store and deliver”. This method entails the collection

and delivery of storage goods, direct to and from your door. The method does not allow immediate access to stored goods, leading to delays in access and as such, has not been included as the comparison would not be appropriate.

9. During the course of our investigation we discovered the sub-letting of LBS garages via sites such as

Stashbee.com and Gumtree.com at, typically, multiples of the weekly rent offered by LBS. Although


instances were few and far between, and relatively recent: where we have found our garages to be illegally sublet by our licence holders, we have taken steps to revoke the licence and repossess the garage (sub letting is not allowed under LBS licence terms). We feel repossession to be the correct and proper approach to the situation so as to protect the interests of residents with a genuine need for a garage.

10. Over the following pages, we will explain through the use of graphs, where the cost of Southwark’s garages stand by comparison to the private sector. As the comparison is intended against private rates, we have begun with comparison against our own private rate. We have however, also included comparison against our other rates. A brief overview is supplied with each graph.

Private Garage Rental: Weekly Price Comparison

11. The chart below shows the cost of private Garage rentals across all examples obtained (red), compared against LB Southwark’s Private Rate (blue).

12. Where garage sizes have differed, we have calculated costs relative to the size of a Southwark

Garage. In some cases, garage size (Sq Ft) was not possible to obtain, such as for Lockupgarages.co.uk, however inspection of images of these garages show them to be of a similar size and type as those offered by Southwark and so these have also been included.

The lowest cost across this data set is £18.00, with Lockupgarages.co.uk, whereas

the highest cost is £80.77, with Parklet.co.uk

LBS with a private rate of £33.50, places 15th out of 25 in the low-price category, so as to

be considered in the mid-range of cost by comparison

If excluding Lockupgarages.co.uk and their lower-than-average prices – a symptom of their

specific business strategy – LBS’ price would place 2nd in the lowest-price category, behind

a Gumtree listing which is £1.19 cheaper per week


Private Garage Rental: Weekly Price Comparison

Lockupgarages.co.uk £30.00













Parklet.co.uk £50.77


Parklet.co.uk £ 46.15

Parklet.co.uk £ 36.92



Gumtree.com £39.23

Gumtree.com £32.31

Gumtree.com £39.69

Stashbee.com £ 45.69

Stashbee.com £51.75

LB Southwark

£33.50

£0.00 £10.00 £20.00 £30.00 £40.00 £50.00 £60.00 £70.00 £80.00 £90.00

Private Storage Rental: Weekly Price Comparison

13. The chart below shows the cost of private storage rental across all examples obtained, compared against LB Southwark’s Private Rate.

14. Some examples are based on slightly differing storage sizes. To ensure we have enough examples

to examine, these have been included at their original quoted price. Where a size difference exists, it is no more than 2-3 SqFt.

LBS Private Rate quote is cheapest of all surveyed, being £115.00 cheaper than the

highest priced [Big Yellow], and £8.62 cheaper than the next cheapest priced [Henfield]

The median price across the range is £83.26

LBS Private Rate is £49.76 cheaper than the median price


Of all suppliers surveyed, LBS is the only supplier which allows dual use of the

storage space, to hold belongings as well as vehicles, for all its garages

LBS also appear to be the only supplier to offer water and electrical access at a number of its

garage sites (additional service charge applies)

Private Storage Rental: Weekly Price Comparison

LB Southwark

£ 33.50

Henfield Storage £42.12

Shurgard [Forest Hill] £77.54

Access Self Storage £78.52

Safe Store £87.99

Shurgard [Southwark] £92.49

Attic Self Storage £108.49

Big Yellow £148.50

£0.00 £20.00 £40.00 £60.00 £80.00 £100.00 £120.00 £140.00 £160.00

Local Authority Private Garage Rental: Weekly Price Comparison

15. Although this report intends to look at the private rates available outside of the local authority sphere, we felt it would be prudent to provide a comparison of local authority private rates, as well.

16. As shown in the graph below;

LBS finds itself in the higher mid-range of cost, ranking 5th most expensive of the

12 boroughs surveyed

LBS price of £33.50, is £56.87 cheaper than the highest price [LBW], and £27.54 more

expensive than the cheapest price [LBG]

The median price across the range is £18.47

LBS Private Rate is £15.03 more expensive than the median price

Of the 4 boroughs surrounding Southwark, LBS is the 3rd most expensive borough. It is

£27.54 higher in price than the cheapest borough [Greenwich], and £2.50 cheaper than

the most expensive borough [Lambeth]


Private Rate

LB Westminster £90.37

LB K&C £38.92

LB Islington £37.86

LB Lambeth £ 36.00

LB Southwark

£33.50

LB Camden £33.42

LB Hackney £18.47

LB Newham £ 16.75

LB Croydon £14.00

LB Lewisham £13.69

LB Tower Hamlets £12.77

LB Greenwich

£ 5.96

£0.00 £10.00 £20.00 £30.00 £40.00 £50.00 £60.00 £70.00 £80.00 £90.00£100.00

AREA CHARGES AND POSTCODES*

Area GCON GREN GARP Other Total

Aylesbury 84 357 61 6 508

Bermondsey 224 666 131 15 1036

Borough and Bankside 78 267 54 2 401

Camberwell 126 427 80 9 642

Dulwich 48 191 76 3 318

Nunhead and Peckham 131 375 112 7 625

Peckham 63 187 18 2 270

Rotherhithe 81 183 36 2 302

Walworth 138 456 111 14 719

Browning EMB 0 19 0 0 19

Delawyk 20 27 6 0 53

Haddonhall 3 21 0 0 23

Leathermarket 5 193 0 0 198

Willowbrook 0 1 0 0 1

No area 114

Total 1001 3370 685 60 5229


Postcode GCON GREN GARP total

SE1 81 183 36 300

SE5 135 496 86 717

SE11 11 12 6 29

SE14 9 24 8 41

SE15 174 511 111 796

SE16 219 626 132 977

SE17 202 736 165 1103

SE21 11 61 10 82

SE22 27 100 54 181

SE24 22 38 9 69

Total 4295

Without postcodes 934

Total 891 2787 617 5229

*The figures are accurate as at 30th April

AUDIT TRAIL

Lead Officer

Louise Turff, Head of Homeownership

Report Author Carl Jenson, Performance Officer

Version Final

Dated

Key Decision? No

CONSULTATION WITH OTHER OFFICERS / DIRECTORATES / EXECUTIVE MEMBER

Officer Title Comments Sought Comments included

N/A

Cabinet Member N/A

Date final report sent to Constitutional/Community N/A

Council/Scrutiny Team


Borough & Bankside Forum Dates 2019

Forum Dates Agenda Planning Tenants Council Dates Dates

30/01/2019 TBC 07/01/2019

TBC 21/01/2019

06/03/2019 TBC 18/02/2019

24/04/2019 TBC 18/03/2019

22/05/2019 TBC 13/05/2019

10/07/2019 TBC 17/06/2019

07/08/2019 TBC 22/07/2019

02/10/2019 TBC 16/09/2019

06/11/2019 (AGM) TBC 11/11/2019 (AGM)

TBC 09/12/2019


Documents

You are invited to attend Borough & Bankside Area …...2019/07/10 · major works to complain about the bill and request that the council reviews the cost. 2. Leaseholders on the