The Committee are asked to appoint a Vice-Chair for the period up to the end of the Municipal Year.

Councillor Bex White was appointment Vice-Chair of the Committee for the current Municipal Year.

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

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

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The Call-in:

·         Called on the Mayor to revise his decision in Cabinet on 23rd September removing existing social tenant’s under-50 from Band 3 and reinstate all these applicants to their former position within the Common Housing Register.

·         Stated that (i) given the incorrect apportionment of lettings into sheltered accommodation within the Band 3 quota, (ii) the Mayor should instruct officers that the current 5 per cent quota should be retained and only General Needs lettings be counted towards it (iii) consideration should also be given to making good the shortfall in General Needs lettings to Band 3 applicants against the 5 per cent quota over the next two or three years.

·         Called on the Mayor to revise his decision in Cabinet on 23rd September restricting homeless households placed outside Tower Hamlets to three years on our Common Housing Register by making this period indefinite, so that they remain LBTH’s responsibility until they successfully bid for social housing or they voluntarily withdraw their housing application.

• Stated that the Mayor should instruct officers to commission an independent review of the practice of discharging LBTH’s duty to homeless families into the PRS, including speaking to those families this has been done to, and bring that review to the Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub-committee within the next six months.

Call-in Members Presentation

The Call-in members the presented the reasons for call-in to the Committee and proposed alternative course of action, and added that:

·         The decision will result in removing over 1000 residents from band 3 waiting list

·         Legal challenge in Lambeth should be reflected in the decision

·         Removing people after three years is not appropriate given these people are part of LBTH community – The Call-in Members want to encourage people to stay in the Borough.

·         The consultation clearly showed the community’s views – which were not heeded by the decision.

Following the presentation by the Call-In members, the Committee then posed several questions concerning:

·         Band 3 under 50s – situations for applicants’ moving/change of situations

·         Band 3- and three-year cut-off – impact on other bands

·         Consultation responses, and community voices being heard

The Committee then received and noted the response from the Mayor that set out the context of the Cabinet Decision and reviewed the key elements of the decision, reflecting that:

·         this decision is about being realistic about people’s chances of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.1

The Committee received a report regarding the establishment of the Scrutiny Sub-Committees and Appointment of Members to those Sub-Committees.

As a result of discussions on the report the Chair moved and it was RESOLVED to:

1.         Approve Scrutiny Leads with specific portfolios and if so to appoint Members to the posts as set out in Section 3 of this report and attached as an appendices to these minutes;

2.         Note the co-option requirements for education in accordance with legislation, as set out at Paragraphs 3.3 to 3.10 of this report;

3.         Approve the appointment of two independent co-opted representatives onto the main Committee as detailed in the report to replace any earlier co-options.

4.         Approve the Sub-Committees as set out in Paragraph 3.11 of this report;

5.         Appoint Members for the above Sub-Committees;

6.         Agree to respective terms of reference as set out in Appendix 2 to this report for the main Committee and the three Sub-Committee’s; and

7.         Approve the Sub-Committees Chairs as set out in Appendix 3 of this report.

Attached as an appendices to these minutes

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

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