Apologies for lateness were received from Councillor Denise Jones.

Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, please see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Members are reminded to declare the nature of the interest and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it’s the Members’ responsibility to declare any interests form and to update their register of interest form as required by the Code.

If in doubt as to the nature of your interest, you are advised to seek advice prior to the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services

Councillor Marc Francis declared a potential interest in relation to the Item 8 Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions due to his wife Councillor Rachel Blake being the Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair Moved and it was: -

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 21^st September, 2020 be approved as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair was authorised to sign them accordingly.

The Chair Moved and it was: -

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 19^th October, 2020 be approved as a correct record of the proceedings and the Chair was authorised to sign them accordingly.

To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).

Nil items

To note the Forthcoming Decisions.

Noted.

To note the outcome of the Call-In of the Mayor’s decision in Cabinet to approve the proposed changes to the CHR Allocations Scheme will cause serious detriment to homeless families going forward and over 1,000 longstanding residents currently in Band 3.

The Committee noted that:

·         The Mayor’s decision in Cabinet to approve the proposed changes to the CHR Allocations Scheme had been Call-In; and

·         The decision had been referred to the Mayor in Cabinet for reconsideration, including consideration of the alternative course of action with no amendments or additions.

Members are asked to refer to the report included in the Cabinet agenda 28^th October, 2020.

The Committee received a presentation from Councillor Candida Ronald (Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector); supported by Neville Murton (Corporate Director, Resources); and Kevin Bartle (Interim Divisional Director of Finance, Procurement and Audit) regarding the Council’s projected outturn position against General Fund, Dedicated Schools Budget, Housing Revenue Account and earmarked reserves for 2020-21, based on forecasts as at 31st August 2020. The main points arising from the discussion are outlined as follows;

The Committee:

A.   Noted that with regard to future Government money that LBTH might receive and in particular regarding the Foregone earnings (i.e. the difference between earnings actually achieved and the earnings that could have been achieved).

B.   Noted that this was forecast as being £7m;

C.   Noted that LBTH had submitted a formal claim at the end of September;

D.   Noted that there were a couple points requiring clarification as to what LBTH could and could not claim for;

E.   Noted that it was considered LBTH would not receive the total amount being claimed and it was anticipated that the Council would have a short fall of potential £1m. However, LBTH will continue to keep this under review;

F.    Noted that the main reason for this is where the Government considers that the Council has made a conscious decision to not collect income. The best example of this being where a decision was made to provide free parking permits for essential workers and NHS staff. The Government considers this to be a local decision that the Council has made so it will not reimburse the income foregone;

G.   Noted that previously it had been assumed that LBTH would get that back as a legitimate loss of income due to Covid;

H.   Noted with regards to the social inequality that has been highlighted by the pandemic e.g. the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) where prior to the pandemic savings had been agreed. However, with a budget greatly reduced LBTH is still moving ahead with those savings.

I.     Therefore, asked if there has already been enough adjustment given the inequalities that has been highlighted as a result of the pandemic;

J.    Noted that the overspending in the DSG is something that has been discussed with the Department of Education (DfE) and LBTH is restricted to what it can do within the plan that has been agreed with the DfE; 

K.   Noted that in terms of the social inequalities LBTH is considering about how to rebuild and recover after the pandemic. However, the Council does have a legal responsibility to set a balanced budget and with the risks LBTH currently faces in terms of the overspends and  demographic pressures means that the Council does not have much room for manoeuvre in terms of identifying new areas of spend at the same time as protecting programmes to address inequality such as the Council Tax reduction scheme which we know will be really important to residents as the Borough rebuilds after the pandemic;

L.    Asked about (i) the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.1

Members will receive an update on the Waste Services Performance.

The received a presentation from Councillor Asma Islam - Cabinet Member for Environment and Public Realm; Dan Jones - Divisional Director, Public Realm; and Richard Williams - Business Manager Operational Services that provided an update on the Waste Services Performance since the ending of the previous contract and the Service coming back in house and highlighted  the challenges and successes since March, 2020. The main points arising from the discussion on the presentation are summarised below:

The Committee:

1. Asked to what extent if at all does the Service consider the reduced amount of complaints about missed bin collections is down to Covid and what are the barriers that still remain between residents reporting missed collections and that being picked up?
2. Noted that overall, one of the biggest advantages that the Service has now is that it can see more clearly details of complaints that could not be seen before. Therefore, the Service can now target complaints more effectively and has been very effective at resolving issues and is now seeing a reduction in overall number of complaints.
3. Noted that the focus is now on tackling repeat complaints and complaints at crew level with a focus weekly on the reduction in complaints.
4. Noted that the Service is now able to focus on complaints at ward; estate and crew level which was possible before and would like to share such data with councillors if they have particular concerns.
5. Noted that the major impact of Covid for the Service has been where regular staff are absent due to illness and/or self-isolation.
6. Noted that the Service put in some very early measures to be able to keep the crews safe and have continued to adapt.  However, there has been a cost increase the biggest impact being where the Service has to bring in agency staff which has had an impact on completion of work because agency staff are not as familiar with the way LBTH undertakes waste collections.
7. Noted that the Service is developing an Action Plan and Ward based Action Days to address issues that have been raised e.g. Whitechapel; Weavers; and St. Peters Wards where there have been high levels of street cleansing complaints.  The Service is looking at targeting hot spots to understand exactly the nature of the difficulties e.g. service design; people not understanding what they should do with their waste or that people are fly tipping.
8. Noted the Service is looking at if better information is needed for residents and businesses and in some cases taking enforcement action e.g. the Service has been taken action over the last few weeks to target issues around illegal fly-tipping and they plan to continue with this targeted approach. As well as having a very focused look at cleansing standards and service design.
9. Noted that the Service is currently experiencing an exceptionally high demand for bulk waste collections which has led to fly-tipping in some areas.  However, the Service is (i) working to ensure that the three bulk waste collection teams  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.2

Member will receive an update on Covid-19.

The Committee received a focused presentation from Dr Somen Banerjee, Director of Public Health at Tower Hamlets Council that provided a comprehensive update on the current situation in the Borough with regard to food provision; the communications plan for vulnerable residents; planning for school outbreaks; the impact on social housing; as well as test and trace capabilities.. The main points arising from the discussion on the presentation are summarised below:

The Committee:

• Noted that Dr Somen Banerjee had agreed to attend on a regular basis to provide his expertise and latest information on the pandemic in the Borough
• Noted that comments were still awaited from the Executive with regard to the Review of the Borough’s response to Covid-19.  However, it was hoped that a reply would be received in the next few days and the response to the pandemic would continue to be monitored in the Committee’s regular meetings.
• Noted with regard to food supply and Covid that the Government will need to have a sustained plan as the pandemic and its associated economic fallout has compounded and deepened the situation in a Borough with the highest level of child poverty in London. There is a real concern that that not enough work may have been done around food sovereignty during the pandemic especially for younger children. Therefore, consideration should be given to the funding received from central government and what the Council has considered to address food supply and the impact that this will have on budgets in the future.
• Noted a recent issue raised by a resident or being misinformed that illustrated that it has never been more important for the Council to communicate effectively with residents including effective signposting and sharing of the relevant Government’s guidance.
• Commented that with regard the impact of the virus the Borough’s Bangladeshi community it has been indicated that they are apparently disproportionately affected because by the virus and housing conditions in Tower Hamlets. In response it was noted that looking at the available data it does seem to illustrate that there are high levels of Covid in local Bangladeshi population and with higher levels in multi-generational housing and overcrowding which is linked to a risk of increased transmission of the coronavirus.
• Noted that the Director of Public Health has been working very closely with housing associations to link national data to local housing data so that we can see within each housing estate where there may be an increase in the levels of the virus.  Therefore, through an ongoing dialogue with housing associations giving practical advice (i) about the cleanliness of communal areas; and (ii) to those living in overcrowded households about how they make their homes safe.  This is was an approach that initially linked to inequalities and ethnicity although there have been studies which indicate actually this is all about economic conditions; overcrowding and housing.
• Noted whilst there is no quantitative borough-wide data regarding self-isolating, Public Health have in their engagement work gained considerable insight  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.3

Members will consider the Committees Work Programme for the current Municipal Year.

The Committee received and considered the items proposed and agreed some slight changes to provide flexibility and focus for the scrutiny function overall.

The Committee Authorised the Chair to finalise the Work Programme, in consultation with the Officers, before being published and circulated to the Mayor; Cabinet, and senior officers.

To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.

(Time allocated – 30 minutes).

The Committee Authorised the Chair to finalise the Scrutiny Questions following comments by the Committee, in consultation with the Officers, before their submission to the Mayor in Cabinet on the 28^th October 2020 (See attached appendix).

To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

Noted that a response had been received from the Mayor regarding the Committee’s COVID-19 Review and recommendations. This would be shared with the Committee and arrange for this to be published with the minutes of tonight’s meeting.

As the agenda circulated contained no exempt/ confidential business and

there was therefore no requirement to exclude the press and public to allow

for its consideration.

Nil items.

Nil items.

Nil items.

Nil items.

To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.

(Time allocated 15 minutes).

Nil items.

To consider any other exempt/ confidential business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

Nil items.