Issue - meetings

F Williamson introduced the report and asked if Committee had any questions.

Cllr Adeleke commended Fiona’s team for the work they are doing at this very difficult time and requested that Fiona passed the good recommendations and thanks to her team.

Cllr Mahmood asked three questions; 1, what are the implications for Dacorum’s performance of the new Building Safety Bill, 2, is there a risk assessment for Covid for everything Housing does and 3, clarification on the table on page 100 garages figures in red.  F Williamson advised that that the new Building Safety Bill has not been passed through parliament and reached Royal Assent yet, there will be a period for compliance for the statutory compliance and building regulations that will create the framework for which we will need to work.  It’s focussed on the high rise, high risk buildings and we have six in that category, we have undertaken preparative work through fire risk assessments and we have all that data on a system called Geometra.  This will identify all of the work that’s required in those buildings, that will be done on a priority basis.  We have put a growth bid in the budget for a Building Safety Manager, which is a key role in the new Bill, they will coordinate all of the information to ensure that all those buildings will be certified by the new regulator who is part of the HSE, we have also increased the budget so that we can undertake the additional work.  In respect of the Covid Risk Assessments Fiona mentioned that all Group Managers have worked with their Team Leaders and Health and Safety to identify any risks with any of the job activities or interactions with the public, so each area has their own risk assessed method statement.  F Williamson explained the detail in respect of page 100 for the garages.  The employees were two members of staff who deal with allocations and the licences, the premises cost is maintaining the garages, but that has been reduced as there is a pressure on income, because there are 70% of the garages occupied, there has been an adjustment, but with the work being undertaken with the stock condition survey and targeted investment, which will be presented to Scrutiny in December, we have reduced the expenditure to make sure we don’t put additional pressure on that budget.  The recharges are through the general fund for the administration and central office function that we pay that is the cost of managing the garages internally.  F Williamson advised she will circulate more detailed information on the Capital charges breakdown.

Action: F Williamson

Cllr England said that on page 45 point 2.1.2 the performance of lifeline call services and asked how long and what method it’s taken to identify that they were out of action.  F Williamson replied that the Supported Housing Officers were contacting tenants asking them to test their lifelines, there was a problem when the Officers restarted the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79