Agenda item

Report to follow

J Doe introduced the report to members and ran through the main points.

• Paragraph 3 relates to building control and the two months determination target is a fraction under 100% but income is healthier than it has been. Building control is a competitive service and there is competition – the Hertfordshire Building Control Consortium has been set up and does not include Dacorum, St Albans and Watford. There is also a pressure in staff recruitment and there was a reliance on agency staff but this has decreased due to three trainees being recruited. The Council has raised its fees by 10% to bring it in line with the competition.
• Development Management workload remains high and there has been an increase in major applications which take longer to deal with but brings in extra income. Income has increased to £843k which exceeds the target of £812k. This is encouraging as there were concerns the target would not be meet after market uncertainty in the wake of last year’s EU referendum. There has also been an increase in turnaround times for all applications.
• Appeals have a success rate of 70% which is in line with the national average.
• The only exception is validating planning applications in three days. The target is 70% but it was just above 50% this quarter. There are ideas on how to improve this but importantly, it did not affect the processing times of the applications.
• In Strategic Planning and Regeneration, new developments have reached 523 properties, the majority of this is private sector but some is Housing Association and Council stock.

Councillor Birnie referred to the income of £544k in building control and asked how profitable the service is.

J Doe said the service cannot make a profit. It is fee earning to process statutory applications. The Council must make a rolling balance over three years and some services cant be written off against the income, for example, inspecting dangerous buildings.

Councillor Birnie asked why Dacorum hadn’t joined the Hertfordshire Building Control Consortium.

J Doe said it had been considered but these discussions were confidential. The consortium can only make a profit if they set up as an approved inspector and the business model does not expect this for a few years yet.

Councillor Birnie asked if ‘golden handcuffs’ had been applied to the trainee positions in building control.

J Doe said there is a repayment period if you leave before 24 months.

Councillor Riddick referred to the briefing paper that had been emailed to members regarding fire safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. He said he had concerns that leaseholders were not forced to comply with the Council’s safety standards and suggested there should be mandatory compliance.

J Doe said the briefing paper was produced by the housing service and these concerns should be directed towards the Portfolio Holder and the Housing and Community OSC. He said you can’t force leaseholders to take the fire doors but they are provided by the council.

Councillor Birnie suggested this was something that needed to be discussed at the next group meeting.

J Doe said that since the devastating fire, the council’s first priority is to look at its tower blocks. The council has 6 towers and they have been assessed. Private tower blocks, like the KD Tower, are the responsibility of private owners through a building control assessment. Private sector developers tend to use private building control companies.

Councillor Tindall suggested that the concerns of this committee should be passed to the housing department and housing associations.

Councillor Howard said she was surprised at just how many different housing associations there were in Dacorum. She was told there were about 123.

Councillor Hicks asked if building control at the Council had signed a building off, is there a report on file.

J Doe said yes. Once plans are received from developers, they are checked for compliance against regulations.

Councillor Hicks said if there is an instruction from the government to check all tower blocks, it will just be a case of checking the reports.

J Doe said yes and it was down to the owners. The Council tends to get most of its building control applications from smaller developers.

Councillor Hicks asked if the Council have records from private building control sign offs.

J Doe said they had limited access. The priority is for Council owned blocks and the building control function would ensure the buildings complied with regulations at that time.

Councillor Birnie asked if J Doe was aware of any significant changes in fire regulations.

J Doe said he would have to liaise with building control colleagues. There is a big difference between the council as the landlord and its role in building control. J Doe suggested that he would take the point away and discuss with the Portfolio Holder and the housing team.

Councillor G Sutton said it was worth considering and checking the advice given to residents in tower blocks as there was conflicting information for residents at Grenfell Tower on the “stay put” policy.

Councillor Tindall said he had lived in a tower block previously and most of these blocks were built in the 1960s and 1970s and they were fire proof at the time of building. The stay put policy is standard practice as the buildings are designed the ensure thee fire is contained. Problems begin to arise when the original design is interfered with.

Councillor Riddick said he was shocked that the only communication Hightown Housing Association have had with their residents about fire safety, is to post information on their website. The internet is not accessible to all and they have a greater duty of care than that.

J Doe said the council had written to all residents in the tower blocks and these letters had been hand delivered today.

Councillor Tindall referred to page 4 and the low refusal rate for planning applications.

J Doe said the Council had received 2429 planning applications in 2016/17 and there were just 94 refusals and 39 appeals from those refusals. The council lost just 12 appeals.

Councillor Tindall congratulated the department on their work

J Doe said the refusal rate is a problem in some authorities but Dacorum have a focus on pre-application advice to ensure less is refused.

Outcome

That the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee approve the report.