Minutes:
Question
If the Executive approve the recommendations of the Gorse Ride Regeneration report they will once again be in breach of their Statutory Duty to all the affected Tenants. Why are you allowing Officers to present reports with consultation outcomes that do not meet the requirements laid out quite clearly by the HCA in the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard (See below)?
The omission of any cost data from the Consultation means that the results of that Consultation are distorted in favour of redevelopment and should be disregarded.
“(2.2.3 Where registered providers are proposing a change in landlord for one or more of their tenants or a significant change in their management arrangements, they shall consult with affected tenants in a fair, timely, appropriate and effective manner. Registered providers shall set out the proposals clearly and in an appropriate amount of detail and shall set out any actual or potential advantages and disadvantages (including costs) to tenants in the immediate and longer term. Registered providers must be able to demonstrate to affected tenants how they have taken the outcome of the consultation into account when reaching a decision.)”
Answer
Over the last year the Council has been actively involving and engaging tenants, homeowners and other interested parties on the Gorse Ride estate in the development of our proposals. This has been done through informal arrangements, such as fortnightly regeneration surgeries and regular Steering Group meetings, which I know you have been a welcome active member of that, as well as a formal consultation survey sent out to all affected residents in February 2018. You were very active in engaging residents to get those surveys returned to us so thank you for doing that as well.
The tenant consultation document contained significant detail around the project history, including the funding issues faced by the Council since 2015. The document set out the advantages and disadvantages for tenants of different landlord options, including security of tenure, rent levels, right to buy and succession rights. It also clearly laid out the home loss and disturbance payments that tenants would be entitled to and again I know you led on some of those really key questions around those areas. We have listened to and responded to the views of tenants, for example, by introducing more bungalows into the indicative masterplan and by adding in some flexibility where tenants are expected to downsize.
I am satisfied that the proposals in the report have been informed by appropriate consultation and engagement with affected residents in line with Section 105 of the Housing Act 1985 and the regulator’s Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Standard.
Supplementary Question
That answers part of it but the bit that is missing is that the tenants have no concept of what rents they are likely to pay. There was a meeting on 5th February, with yourself and others, and it was suggested that indicative rents were put in because people have no concept of what social rent is or affordable rent. One of the Officers present said “no we can’t do that because it would terrify the less able on the estate”. The actual response received that was positive was 17.5% not the half that has been put in the report that were positive. There was a large group of 30% who were unsure because they didn’t have all the details. Now if those people knew how much the rents could potentially go up, which is between 50% for social and 100% for affordable, what would their choice have been? So the report is unclear and misrepresenting the case to the rest of the Executive.
Supplementary Answer
As always your observations are really helpful Christine. I believe that the rents that tenants will be paying will be in line with what they are actually paying now. Obviously there will be some differences in terms of people who are actually downsizing or there may even be people that might decide that they want to move from the estate and move elsewhere. I think it is going to have to be done by individual tenant.
The Leader of Council stated:
You have raised some really interesting points and there will be different circumstances for different families wanting to potentially move into different types of properties. So may I ask again, this is just a starting point, and again these conversations will continue and they will continue for a long time and may I ask that you work very closely with Richard after this meeting.