Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee - Tuesday 16 September 2025, 6:30pm

Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee
Tuesday, 16th September 2025 at 6:30pm

Agenda

Slides

Transcript

Map

Resources

Twitter

Forums

Speakers

Votes

Speaking:

Welcome to our Webcast Player.

The webcast should start automatically for you.

Webcast cameras are not operated by camerapersons; they are automated and linked to speaker microphone units. The aim is to provide viewers with a reasonable visual and audio record of proceedings of meetings held in public.

Note: If your webcast link appears not to be working, please return to the Webcast Home Page and try again, or use the help email address to contact us.

Start of webcast

Share this agenda point

Webcast Finished

Select an agenda point

Scroll with video

Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Thank you.

how things all in progress .

Health Velow

housing regeneration subcommittee members, along with the key participant presenting in this meeting room

and those and others joins remotely

Only

subcommittee member present in the room

can vote

should a technical error

prevent this meeting

Should a technical error prevent online attendees participating in the meeting, I'll take the

decisions how to proceed the meeting after taking advice from the officers. This meeting

being filmed for Council website for public viewing, those in the present will be in the

footage. I remind members at the meeting only speak on my directions and keep their microphone

when they are not speaking.

I also request members, when you speak on your microphone,

please speak clearly so that your view can be recorded.

And keep your microphone mute when you are not speaking

with exceptions of school team members,

only turning on your video camera when you are speaking to save the bandwidth.

Student members are encouraged to keep your video camera on.

And if member and officer join remotely, want to speak, please use the razor functions.

Please do not use the remote meeting chart function, as it not will be seen those in participating meeting physically.

Thank you.

Jack, do we have any apologies?

I have received none, Chair.

Thank you.

Can members introduce yourself, followed by any declaration of whether you have any disciplinary

These State Science Foundation

with Boys and Girls ofSarahNC,

Good evening, Councillor Muhammad Chadri, representing my land. Nothing to declare.

Good evening, I'm Mahbub and I'm the Co -opty Tenant representative.

Councillor Amin Rahman, Befrung, Green, West, nothing to declare. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Do members have any questions or comments on the previous meeting?

Can members approve the minutes of the previous meeting?

Thank you.

Action has been submitted.

Do members have any questions or comments?

Our first report item on the agenda is the community members and corporate directors

reflection on the priorities 25 -26. Housing regeneration are key areas for the Council's

ambitions and delivery and is of high importance of the residents of Tower Hamlets. It is known

for its calculated diversity and has a complex housing landscape with a mix of special houses

and private development.

For each, resident housing represents not just a shelter,

but a sense of stability and belonging.

Many people have deep connexion to the area,

and regeneration initiatives offer the promise of improving living conditions,

upgrade events, and the increased job opportunity.

So with this brief I introduce, I would like to welcome Councillor Kaviramat, an officer.

Councillor Kaviramat, you have to introduce this item set out on a key achievement from the last year ongoing challenge, pressure and priorities of this year.

Also, feel free to add to this cabinet member's commitment.

You will have five minutes to provide us an overview on this item.

Please consider the slide as taken as read by the subcommittee.

So highlight any parent in key areas that the subcommittee needs to be aware of.

And then we'll move on to the members' questions.

I'll let you know when your time is nearing.

So please, it is your turn.

Thank you, Chair.

Can I start by congratulating all members on your appointment to the panel?

I think it's the first time presenting this taxi air since the appointment.

So in setting out the housing and regeneration priorities for taxi air 25 -26, our focus is on building more affordable homes,

improving the quality of the homes we already have, and making sure our services work better

for residents. As you're aware, there's been lots of dynamic

changes leading into a sort of housing management reconfiguration of how housing is delivered.

We've had a number of shifts in terms of senior leadership team.

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to Stephen Platt, who's our permanent

director for Repairs and Asset Management for Housing Management.

We've got Chris here, we've got Karen, you all know, and Andrea's here from TAHOOF.

So overall, we're working towards a target of a thousand affordable homes within the

pipeline delivering currently we've delivered already 220 new council homes.

We've got the mayor's accelerated housing programme, which will bring over 3000 new homes.

The council's acquisitions programme as well.

and we will get a large number of homes that we will be buying back with that.

We're in talks with a number of developers as well in order to improve our acquisitions.

In terms of improving housing management, we are looking at,

We are currently in the process of improving and strengthening our delivery of service,

particularly around improvements of repairs.

Steven is an expert in this and he has come in and he is working very proactively.

We are also preparing through our strategy team for the implementation of AWAB's law

and Karen can talk about that. There's a lot of stuff that's happening dynamically within the housing regulatory system.

In October we're expecting the Renters Reform Bill to go through as well, so as a council we have to have readiness and preparedness for that.

We are also focusing on building safety as well as fire safety as you know the outcomes of the Grenfell disaster, the fire that happened at Grenfell.

There's been continuous legislative changes for the safety of residents. We welcome those changes and we're rapidly working towards that.

In terms of strengthening our neighbourhoods and customer services, we have rolled out

your voice our action improvement programme.

We've expanded on the big door knock programme.

So we're going from a state to a state engaging directly with residents.

Officers from the housing management team are picking up those repair issues for residents

who may find it hard to reach or be savvy with computers in putting complaints through or repair requests.

We are improving our complaints handling and we've strengthened our processes in terms of governance

and how these complaints are recorded, dealt with.

I think a key area for everybody as members we all raise is how repairs

Don't necessarily get done to a quality standard and against Stevens Port matrix forward

Which will be assessing and monitoring how our contractors operate in relation to service delivery

And I know anecdotally a lot of us get complaints that a repair was booked in and nobody turned up

Again, these are live real issues for residents, particularly a number of residents may take

days off work in order to be home.

Suddenly these appointments are cancelled.

So again with this new matrix system that Stephen's working on, we will be tracking

and monitoring all of those.

We're endeavouring to sort of look at in terms of resourcing how we can do cheques on the

both pre and post repair to ensure that these repairs are being done and challenge what

the contractors reports come in.

And I think that's where the biggest gap has been, where contractors sign off, repairs

being completed, yet those repairs haven't been done to a satisfactory level.

In terms of safer private housing, so again, the licencing and enforcement teams that we

have with the restructure that that team has directly moved under Karen now.

You have two minutes. Thank you and our enforcement officers will

be going and inspecting properties particularly around HMO licences and so on so forth.

I will wrap up chair. In summary we continue to deliver on the targets

of 1000 affordable homes per year including 220 new homes this year and 3000 more which

is going to be coming through the Mayor's Accelerated Housing Programme.

We are also pressing ahead with the Council's acquisitions programme.

We are enforcing and strengthening housing management, preparing for AUB's law, so dampen mould are dealt with quickly.

Ultimately, these priorities are ambitious but achievable and we as an administration are really focusing on safer homes,

more affordable homes and better services for our community.

Thank you, Chair.

I think the committee member comments.

Thank you committee member, Chancellor Kabir Ahmad, and officer for your overview.

I think it was useful to get a sense of our positions, ambitions moving forward.

Do members have any questions? I'll take two questions at a time.

I will ask the committee member or officer to respond.

Do members have any questions?

Okay, Councillor, your question please.

Chair, before I get to my question, can I ask you, is this presentation, this report,

an annual update for us as a committee?

Is this what it is for Housing?

Okay, so three years into the administration, I've been on this committee for three years,

there's a three -pager presentation and to be fair I know the council is doing a lot

more and we could have been given a more substantial update.

You talked about repairs, Councillor Ahmad, it would have been nice to have some form

of data to customer service data, where we are, what the challenges are, what the risks

are.

You have been able to show us that this council and this directorate knows where we are, so

it gives us an opportunity to ask you the questions on behalf of our residents and also

just to keep track of this, because it's coming back, I just feel really disappointed.

If I'm being totally honest, and I really don't want to do this, but we are three years

in, and this is a presentation, when it comes to home building, where's the joint venture

part?

Where is, like, where's all, we could have had data on what we're delivering this year,

exactly where we're delivering, we could have had some data about pipeline, we know what's

happening nationally, we know this is a challenging area, not just for this council, but councils

across the country.

It would be nice for us to be able to really test how resilient we are as a council and

how we're doing against all those odds.

I guess I'm going to put this question back to you firstly, is do you think this was sufficient

and do you think you could have provided us with a bit more information on where we are,

state of play for the council?

That's the first question.

The second question is, it's a positive thing, I think the appointments that you mentioned

in the presentations are well deserved. They are very good appointments. I really look

forward to working with all three. It is going to take this Directorate in the right direction.

I truly believe that and I do believe in the officers that are in that Directorate. Unfortunately,

I have to also be honest about the fact that this presentation should have been stronger.

With repairs, I want to ask what are the challenges right now that we're facing? What do we see

coming in the next year, especially yesterday in ONS we talked about budgetary pressures.

We know where the budgetary pressures are with TA.

Is any of that going to affect how repairs are delivered?

Are we trying to find other ways to do contracts?

I mean I would have loved to have some real data, some real information here that I could

have asked further questions, but this is what I can think from the top of my head.

If you can help me with that, that would be great.

Yes, answer the question please.

If I may, thank you.

So this is a general overview because I think each of those areas will potentially have

sort of rabbit holes that we can go down and scrutinise and look at.

So I think what the team wanted to do is give the committee a general overview of the stuff

that's happening in terms of the precise details of the repairs and so on and so forth.

They will be coming time and time again to scrutiny because you have the housing management

subcommittee and that has the scrutiny details on a month to month basis of the trajectory

of repairs.

But what we wanted to do here is just give a general overview and then in terms of the

specifics because if you go into repairs and the dashboards we operate by the KPIs, that

will take up the whole time alone.

So it's really important the questions you're raising and we totally appreciate that

If happy to present you with a separate pack with all the repairs and everything which goes into the housing management subcommittee

And again, these are all published works

on a month -to -month basis

in relation to budgets and repairs

There are so the HRA pays for the repairs in terms of the budgets

and the constraints facing from the general fund in terms of temp accommodation and so on and so forth.

That's a separate budget that operates.

We have allocated in terms of our new Decent Homes programme which was announced previously in cabinet

and also within the budget 140 million pounds additional to the repairs contract.

I suppose part of it in terms of repairs is the key issue for us is how performance management

is done.

Unfortunately the contracts that were signed with the repairs contractors weren't that

robust in terms of contract management and performance management.

So one of the key things, and Stephen can come in on that, Stephen is doing now is retrospectively

working with those contractors in relation to areas that we can scope out and we can

sort of performance manage them through the various different KPIs Stephen's setting up

with them.

Stephen, if you want to come in, in relation to the repairs and the concurrence.

Yeah, I think that we do have the suite of KPIs and all the detail and they don't always

paint a very, they paint quite a positive picture.

Now, what myself and Chris have heard from members

and from residents is actually the experience on the ground

doesn't actually, we can say, well, we've got 80 % of this

or 75 % of that, but actually there are several thousand

issues that we know where people haven't had

a suitable service.

So the KPIs are reported, we monitor,

Chris is very good on working out where there are outliers in those KPIs and how we can monitor them.

But what we're also doing more is talking to residents, talking to members to find out the experience of the residents about the repair service.

I'm meeting a group of residents specifically on that.

So I don't think that the KPIs in some ways tell the picture.

So we're aware that there's a bigger piece.

These contracts are coming, we've got a couple of years left on existing contract,

so we're looking at ways that we will be re -procuring, what we want in the future,

what will that repair service look like, and I've also invited residents to be part of that conversation,

and maybe even part of the procurement process.

And then you talk about pressures, I think Chris is going to cover the AWABs law,

we just don't know what the volume of demand is going to be,

So things like that cause us not unforeseen pressure,

because we know it's coming, but we can't quantify it,

because we don't know the quantum of it.

But the HRA is balanced and it is funded,

so we do have funding to do the work,

and we just don't know exactly the quantum yet.

Igor Flauperkzian, brief, please.

Thank you, I appreciate those answers.

My questioning around the budgetary pressures wasn't about not understanding the HRA ring

fencing. It was more around, well, we know we've got a bit of a trend going on in the

budget about where the pressures are, and they are trends not just for us, for other

councils as well. Where the HRA is just able to sort of be okay, we're not in a place

where we can really invest into, unless we are, and I don't know, this is why I don't

have information in front of me, I'm trying to dig, is where the resiliency is, because

you've also just said that we don't quite know what the demand might be, we don't quite

know what the pressures might be, so it was a little bit of testing of what we do know

and how resilient we think our HRA finances could be.

That was the first thing.

And to be fair, you have answered parts of that already.

The KPI, the reprecurement part, yeah,

that totally makes sense, but that also comes out of course,

that links back to my question about

can we cover those costs during the HRA.

Coming back to the report, I'm happy, look,

I'm happy to put together an email with a set of questions

that should have been answered in this presentation.

Fair enough, I understand this is an overall presentation about where we are.

I still will stick to my grounds that this should have had a bit more depth into it.

But yeah, I appreciate the answers that's given so far.

I'm requesting colleagues, please keep your questions brief.

Sorry, Chair.

If I can just respond to the HRA resilience and confirm, we do have resilience within

in the HRA and it's in a secure place and to a certain degree, I mean as Chris will

correct me if I'm wrong, but as the surveys are coming back, because all properties are

being surveyed, we are at the moment ahead of the curve in terms of what returns we're

getting in relation to the works that need to be done.

Chris, is that correct?

I will let

colleagues keep your

questions brief

so others can ask

questions.

Now I will

request

your question, please.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you,

lead member and the

officers.

Thank you.

I have a question.

Can you explain a bit of

what the CHAP scheme is, and

if 46 homes have been

acquired and 34 are in the

process and bringing it to acquire, what has happened of the other 520 expression of interest?

Why is the target to acquire 200 homes and when it will be achieved? Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. So the CHAP scheme is the GLA gave us £40 million, £200 ,000 per unit to match

fund and we had to put up the remainder of the money.

So one of the first things we did is we went out to market with residents within the council's

housing stock who were lease holders and they wanted to sell their properties in order to

purchase those properties back.

As you can understand, when purchasing a property you have to go through a litigation process,

conveyancing process. So there are delays from somebody saying that they want to

buy a seller property and us wanting to buy that property because there is a

legal process we have to go through. So that's why there is a delay in how we

acquire those properties. So different properties may have different issues

around it. So that's the first thing around that. In terms of the HRA,

last year's budget we set aside 168 million pound in its entirety.

However, positive news is that we are purchasing properties at a cheaper rate than previously anticipated.

Mind you, these configurations came from SAvels when they surveyed the state of the situation,

at the time of the application of the grants and so on and so forth.

So residents of town hamlets are actually getting a fantastic deal as we are acquiring those properties our target areas

Predominantly focused on the larger properties for us to buy back. And again, we're getting value for money within those as well

So the the programme is going very well

and on average

I think corporate director said now now we've got the infrastructure in place because this was a new programme that was set up from scratch

I think per week we're looking at probably

Was it per month Karen you can correct me about eight signing off about eight units?

per week or per month

For for a week so that that's what we're covering now about an average of about four a week

But remember there is a legal side when purchasing properties you have to go through so hence

It's about four a week, but as we've got the infrastructure in place more will be processed and due through due diligence and so on so forth

But the programme is going very well

Thank you the Councillor Ahmad, please your question

Okay, thank you chair

so I have two questions

one is

You mentioned the officers will be going state -to -state for visit

different estates. So is that possible to include the ward councillors in the visits?

When is the estate visits? Number one. Number two is a specific question. You may not have

the answer right now, but you can come back. So in my ward, there's a building called Angela

Court, which is a ten -storey building. In 2022 or 23, the lift was, the lift is on top

of the sewage and the water came into the pit of the lift and because of that the lift

wasn't working for about several months.

And exactly, it was sorted at that time, but exactly the same thing happened recently,

only a few weeks ago.

So my question is what did you learn from the previous problem and how did you implement

and why are we kind of in the same place again?

and I think it's going to take quite a long time.

There are a few families with disabilities,

so I think it's quite important to know the timing,

how long it's going to take to a precise timing.

Thank you.

So, in terms of the details of Angela Court,

I mean, Stephen's very closely, he's been directly working on this

since the more recent sort of spillage of sewage,

I've also seen it on the news as well and we have been working closely with the housing

management team in order to address those issues.

In kind of an overview, this is a structural problem, okay, which is within the building

design.

So Stephen will, with his expertise, will sort of tell you about the solutions he's

working on in relation to that and that will cover the lessons learned as well.

Stephen?

Yes, so as you say, there's been a repeat of the issue which has caused the lift, I

think it's the lift pits to fill with sewage which has then caused the lifts to fail.

So we are looking at getting those lifts back early part of next week.

We've got parts coming this week for the lifts and also for the pumps in the basement.

There's also a request and I've accepted an offer to go and visit the residents at Angela

Court because there are some wider implications with the design of the building and how we're

going to progress that.

I don't want to say too much, but there are other avenues around how the building was

built that we feel we need to take action further to cover the position that Tower Hamlets

is in.

So I don't want to expand on that other than to say we're aware of the wider issues and

we're managing it directly and I'm going to hopefully go and meet the residents there

in the next few weeks.

So in relation to the big shout that officers are going, this is an officer led programme,

the one that was done in boundary even as lead member, I wasn't present there.

So, I mean, if you're interested, then maybe email Stephen or Gula and they can speak to you about it.

But it is officer -led, it's an initiative that officers have discussed and taken,

and they join up from the caretaking services and the back -office services,

because I think it's really important that everybody gets an insight into how, sort of,

their actions contribute to benefit residents and inaction contributes to the suffering of residents.

So it's a real powerful way of officers of the housing management team engaging with residents directly

and seeing the problems directly as well. Otherwise it's generally the caretakers who see the site of the estate

and housing management officers who, housing officers who sometimes get access and see this stuff.

But I think it's an officer led initiative and I can only leave it at that.

Councillor Amin Rambam, your question, please.

Thank you, chair.

Thank you, Councillor, for your presentation.

First of all, I'd like to say congratulations on choosing delivering more homes as a priority.

One of my first questions is from the presentation.

On your first point it says working with developers, what does it actually mean?

My second question to you is are we on track building 220 new homes this year?

The report says there will be a council built, will they be managed by the council as well?

So since day one of coming into the office or being allocated this position by the Mayor, one of the things we have been doing via the planning team is speaking with developers and looking at what the need for Tower Hamlets is.

Now, I don't have a problem with developers making a profit, okay?

Because for us to have development, those who come and build properties won't do it unless they make a profit.

We've got to be realistic about that.

But the 106 element of it, the social housing element of it, needs to reflect the need of the borough.

So if they build one bedrooms and two bedrooms and say we've met the 35 % quota and thank you very much,

It's a successful planning application and it goes through it doesn't really meet the needs of

Those on our housing waiting list so when we're negotiating with developers

And when we're having developers forums and speaking to them. We're really raising

The key issues and the needs of the borough and we work in partnership with developers

And a lot of developers have responded positively

so if you see sort of in terms of I think

From 2022 we've passed over 15 ,000 housing applications, 15 ,000 units, of which more than 4 ,000 are social housing units.

But particularly around the social housing element of it, there are more free and four bedroom units.

If we can, we'll even ask them for five bedroom units as well.

That's quite difficult to balance in terms of viability, but a number of developers have actually put in five bedroom units as well.

We want good quality homes, so these are stuff that we will negotiate in terms of the material they use.

The superficial structure of it may be different between the private and the social units,

but in terms of the material they use for the infrastructure, we want good quality.

We want the same as they will make in their private units.

So that's what it means to negotiate with developers and

work in partnership with developers.

We've had a number of developers forums, and a

number of developers have positively reacted to us.

Yourself in committee, along with other members, have

passed a number of applications as well.

Most recent was the Teviot, which will be a positive

benefit again Poplohakka are the landlords of that but there's been a

sort of Riverside one housing applications these are names that

operate you know with within Tower Hamlets Latima which is the development

wing of Clarion housing have had the London chest hospital site as well which

is in Councillor Ahmadal Kabir's ward.

So what we want to sort of highlight with them

is marrying up their design and their vision

of those properties in line with what the need

of Tower Hamlets is, particularly around the housing issues

and overcrowded families.

Sorry, Councillor Amin.

What was your other question around

In terms of the delivery, as you'll see, at the last cabinet meeting we had the Mayor's

Accelerated Housing Programme, which we are hoping will be delivered by next year.

So in preparation for that we have also asked an external contractor, because you have to

in terms of capacity levels of the council.

Our bread and butter isn't to make housing,

so we have to bring external experts in order to do that.

In terms of the housing delivery team

and the capital delivery team,

what we picked up was they were quite small teams.

So on piecemeal projects they can work,

but when you're looking at like a corporate capital programme

with, you know, 54, 50, 70 sites, okay?

It's technically challenging for them to deliver that.

So we're on course for delivering that.

Yes, would they be managed by the council though?

Yes, the ones that are direct delivery

will be managed by the council,

but in addition to that,

in terms of the acquisitions programme, okay?

So some of the acquisitions programme is piecemeal,

But they are within the... The council are the landlords.

And we would be buying that from lease holders.

So they will be within our estate.

And other acquisition programmes we are looking at.

We are looking at buying up whole blocks.

So when we buy up a whole block, that block would be managed by the council's housing management team.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Any sub -questions to go through me?

If you mind, to the colleagues.

Yes, Mabu, I'm your question, then I'll go to Susana.

Hi, thank you, Councillor, for your presentation.

When I was reviewing the minutes from the previous meeting,

page 14, we have the regulators of social housing,

which graded as C3.

And then on page 14, it's written that once details

are formalised or devised, they will be shared

with the subcommittee.

And I think, I was expecting in this,

since that was two months ago, I was expecting

this scrutiny committee that we have at least

the initial plans of how, a course of action,

how do you tackle the underperformance.

and I say this as a tenant of the council, so I live in one of the properties of the council

and today had me as coming to do dampen mould in my flat.

Likewise I say as someone who is a former board member of Tohamtong before he got insourced back into the council.

So I think there needs to be, I would say as a standing item in regular student committee

that this is our course of action and this is how we tackle and in terms of ultimately

the council HRA exists to serve the residents and how to improve their quality of homes

and the quality of lives. And if we've been graded C3, then we need to have that course

of action to take us that trajectory. So there should have been a paper in this report and

you know, going forward it should be a standing item in our regular papers for...

Is that your question?

Can you put your question as well, please?

So first thing...

Councillor, I will take her question also, you can answer both of them together, okay?

Maybe it's related to what Councillor Asma is asking. I think

my question is could we have the KPI review

like regularly in terms of the number of

What is the breakdown in terms of socially affordable rent?

And what is just a house, which is a home, which are luxury apartments?

So I think a breakdown of the KPI in terms of the progress is important.

I find that we stopped talking about major works, and I wonder how is that in terms of delivery timeline.

I think the previous meetings it was good to know that we have 140 million, but how then with this,

AWAB's law and the major works, other aspects of the major works, how are we trending?

So I think the KPI is really important because I would like the council to show off,

like for example my personal experience with Chris is amazing, I mean Chris responds to all our repair requests.

So of course there could be a traffic light system on the KPI to show which areas you are improving in terms of response rate,

which areas are challenging to Asma point because the whole country is suffering from housing.

So I think the question is it would be nice for this scrutiny to look at where we are performing and where we are not performing.

And we are not just scrutiny so we would like to look at that.

So if I can answer Susanna's question first, happy to share all that information with you,

but as part of the housing regulators inspection, what we've done is we've set up a housing

management sub -cabinet in order to address, because there is a volume of issues.

And as I said, in terms of if we go through each of those data sets, this meeting won't

have enough time for it and housing management is a beast of its own that we

need to do so we've set up a separate meeting for that but I think officers

can I request that the papers for housing management subcommittee are

shared with the committee here as well so that they can look at it and reference

it and if there are specific areas that you want to delve into with officers

more than happy for you to put it on your work stream and for us to you know

drill into the details of that.

So that's the first thing around that.

And we do have all the information.

So if after the meeting can I request, Karen, I think your team gets all the papers together

if you can share all of the papers for the last committee meeting that we've had for

that.

And it is a live tracker with updates containing previous months as well as new months and

sort of projected targets.

So you'll have full access to all of that.

And I think it's important because of transparency and the questions you've asked, Susanna.

In relation to that standing item, again, I'm going to suggest I refer you to that committee,

okay, because all of that data, all of that stuff is in there.

And again, just like Susanna, I'm going to ask officers to send that to you.

If I can also request when we're having those committee meetings, they're in the diary, maybe invite members if they want to attend those meetings,

as well as other members of this committee for those meetings, so that everybody's aware and you'll have access to all of that detail.

It is published stuff that's on there and the meeting is live webcasted as well.

In relation to major works, I'm sure I can disclose that.

We're currently at the tendering process.

So we're looking to appoint contractors for that.

Once those contractors are appointed, so we're going

through that procurement process.

Some of it is commercially sensitive, so I can't go

into too much detail of that.

But Stephen, maybe you can give an oversight

of where we are with that.

So we've got existing schemes that are on site and running, and Brewers and Maltings

is an example there.

We've then got a tranche of schemes which stopped for one reason or another, sometimes

due to the Building Safety Act, changes in scope.

There was a little bit of stopping and starting.

And we're actually looking looking at a framework to deliver to deliver some of those in in the short term

And then we've got the main procurement exercise, which is to a point

To contract as one north one south and some SMEs to deliver the capital programme

over a longer period of time

I had a question.

What were MIRs like in their damper mould work to your flat today?

How did it go?

It was multiple appointments.

It was meant to be dealt on Friday for water damage and the damper mould.

They sent someone to do the water damage but not the damper moulds.

So I had to call up again and then I had to come again.

And then in Rukranath, another third appointment, because another piece of work.

So there is, I think, that needs to be better coordinated and managed because I reported two issues

and I was told we dealt with one appointment, but then they sent me a decorator, a painter to do all that

and she said, I'm not a damp and mould person. So then I have to then call up again to do that.

And then the dampened mould guy came in and said, I'm the dampened mould guy but there's issues with your bath.

We do understand where it's coming from. It's not a question, it's a comment.

So I'll ask, I'll ask your question please.

Thank you, sir. Give me again the opportunity to ask another question.

Steve, can you provide exact number of affordable housing provided since the mayor took his office in 2002?

and the mayor will be able to achieve his pledge like delivering 4 ,000 affordable homes.

Off the top of my head, I can't give you the exact number, but we are on target of delivering more than 4 ,000 homes.

I think we are still in the

teetering phases of the cabinet

subcommittee.

We are still in early stages

but we should really be

coordinating the papers

between the two committees.

I really

want us to take up the offer

from the cabinet member about

working with officers to get someone a briefing and understanding and where we want to dig in.

Can I suggest that we agree as a group that we will put our questions in together on the areas

that we would we wanted to see in the presentation we did today if we can decide that together.

And my only last question back is on building homes is cabinet member you said a lot today,

thank you, but you said a lot without saying anything as well. The joint venture,

I didn't quite answer my question.

Where are we?

You said things like positive reactions, great, but where are we?

What does this mean?

What is this?

Because like when you first introduced this and then we heard about trying to get investment

in, right thing to do, but realistically where are we right now?

Where is the communication?

Do we think we're going to have something solid soon?

And what does that sort of break up look like between working with the developers and what

works out for the people of this borough as well.

Thank you.

So the joint venture was only I think, off the top of my head, 12 sites.

Now that's been integrated into the wider Accelerated Development Programme which consists

of about 50 sites.

In terms of capacity issues, we've contracted MACE in order to run those modelling for that.

So we will have a minimum on certain programmes, a minimum, sorry, we will have at least 51 %

social housing on some programmes.

On other programmes it will be 100 % social housing, depending on the funding streams

that are involved.

So as you can understand, if you get grant funding from the GLA for example, then there

has to be certain breakdowns and quotas you implement with that.

If a JV partner comes in and builds out, then there is a certain percentage that they will have.

So those configurations over 50 plus sites...

That's fine, that's understood. You've explained that earlier very well as well, thank you.

Do we have a deal on the table already for any one of those sites, because you went from 12 to 50 now?

Have we got a deal on the table yet for any one of those sites?

So this is part of a tendering programme for certain sites and for the ones that we are directly delivering, which is within the MTFS, numerous sites, deals are there in terms of the council will directly deliver those sites.

So the money has been set aside for those sites.

For the joint ventures, Councillor, do we have a deal on the table with the developer for any one of those sites?

No, because MACE is doing the overall redesigning.

So still in early stages?

Sorry?

Still in early stages.

Coronado, you want to come in?

To pick up on Susana's point about the completed homes and consented homes, so that planning

consent to and then eventually completed.

They are KPIs in the annual delivery plan, which goes to cabinet every quarter.

So we certainly could break that down for you and give it here.

it's public information but we can certainly circulate it here either as part of the papers

or as a separate briefing. And just in terms of the cabinet subcommittee there's a meeting

next week, papers will be dispatched this week and Councillor Carnes, the Chair of Housing

Scrutiny, is invited to the beginning of all of those meetings so you came to the last meeting

and you're able to make a comment on the papers that are presented. So since the meeting has

been set up, you've been able to come to both of those meetings. So I'm just thinking, Jack,

that when Councillor Cohen comes as the scrutiny chair, if he was to garner information from

other members of the committee in terms of what the paper, maybe questions arising from

the papers that you might want to ask Councillor Cohen to ask, or you may come along and support

him. But that's the first item on the agenda at the cabinet subcommittee for housing.

Okay, no more questions. I wanted to ask a question but I feel it's a bit late so our colleagues are waiting. We have to go for a break.

Thank you, thank you, Commander -Memorial, Kobi Ramad and officers. This is very important for this Council.

Thank you.

We look forward to invite you back for further discussion on progress and challenges.

At the moment, this item is done.

Now we will take a prior break, 15 minutes for prior break.

Colleagues, we will be back in 15 minutes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good evening. Welcome back everyone.

I am grateful to those who waited patiently.

I am really grateful. Thank you very much for your patience.

Our next item is hours lost.

The next item to receive update on our laws on what is it and how has the housing management

service prepared it for.

I would like to know to begin ask of the committee member for regeneration, exclusive development

in the house building and officers for housing regeneration to present these items.

As before, Kobi Rahmat, can you introduce the items and officers as well?

Feel free to add the cabinet members' comments.

So you will have maximum five minutes to provide us with the overview of this item.

please consider the slide as read by the subcommittee.

So highlighted, any relevant key areas and subcommittee need to be aware of,

then we will move on for the member question.

I'll let you know when is your two minutes in the area.

So you can start now. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. I think I've done a lot of talking

and I think it will be unfair if officers don't get an opportunity

to do much talking while they're here.

And I know I'm the cabinet member for it.

As you've read the presentation, Chair, you can see that the timeframes we're operating

by is on there.

And also kind of the phases we're looking at, a three -phase approach to addressing this.

And I think from 27th, it's important to highlight that, from 27th October 2025, landlords will

legally required to address damp and mould hazards within fixed timescales and address

all emergency repairs within 24 hours, whether they relate to damp and mould or any other

hazards.

So what I'll do is I'll ask Karen to speak about the policy first and then I'll ask Chris

to come in in terms of the specific details of our programming in relation to the policy.

Karen, if you want to add anything else to that.

Chris, if you come in. Have you got a mic? Oh, you have? Okay.

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate your time. It's my first subcommittee.

So in terms of Awab's Law, just to give you a bit of background, you may know this, since

the tragic death of Awab Ishaq in 2020, the coroner of Rochdale Court ruled that to be

through a prolonged exposure of black mould in his home.

Essentially, our WABs law, as Councillor Kabir rightly pointed out, is around moving our

operation to certain time scales.

So for example, all emergency repairs within 24 hours, addressing leaks, condensation,

damp and mould within 10 days.

How we've approached it is to manage our processes and systems, we've resourced accordingly with

our main contractor, MERS, we've also identified and resourced to some direct management teams

as well, including a manager, some surveyors, a bank of surveyors and repairs coordinators.

We have gone through a process of working within a working group of key stakeholders,

align priorities, so change the priorities to align with the timescales, understand,

understood and refined the Meers offer, our repairs provider.

We have mapped the customer journey, engaged the housing service centre with new scripting

so they can get the front end conversation right and also build our systems in terms

of mapping those jobs and also the dashboard of compliance out of the back end upstream.

We're at a wider cascade at the moment internally within the council.

I'm not sure if you've got any questions but I welcome those in terms of this.

Thank you very much for your overview, committee member Kabir Ahmad and Susana and the officer

for your overview.

I'd like to take questions now.

Susana, you can go ahead with your question.

I think the question is the old versus the new.

In terms of the old versus the new reaction time.

So for example emergency repair when we say within 24 hours.

So I think the new one is also within 24 hours.

But what exactly will happen within the 24 hours is the question.

Is it just acknowledgement or is it to resolve the issue?

The other question is why the inspection outcomes used to be more stretching to say within 48

hours and then the new one it says within three days.

The third question is if you could give more detail beyond them and more what other kind

of hazards.

So the old piece equates to the original consultation that was undertaken.

So for example the emergencies within 24 hours carried over to when the new draught guidance

came out on the 25th of June.

So it wasn't long ago that the new draught guidance was released, but there were some changes,

and as you've seen, we've laid those out.

They change from our calendar days to working days.

One of the main changes also is that the written summary that goes to the resident once we've

established the works we need to undertake to address the damp and mould.

The written summary changed from 48 hours to three working days.

I guess the reason for that is to allow us as a local authority or a registered provider

nationally the time to write to the resident and consider the works and summarise those

effectively.

In terms of the 24 hours, that is the time to remove the immediate harm and risk to the

resident.

Thank you.

Any other question?

Asma, your question.

Thank you, Jay.

Can I, thank you for this.

This is very well explained in the presentation.

I wanted to understand the impact of the pandemic on the residents.

the 24 -hour response for emergency repairs that's required, how are we able to assess that?

I just wanted a bit more understanding what will mean you will receive that 24 -hour response

straight away and are staff equipped to be able to recognise what is emergency and what might not be.

And the other two parts of this for me is in between what's legislated and the guidance that we need to follow

is the proactive approach of prevention and advice

that we can support residents with damp and mould.

Are we gonna go a little bit heavier on communications

when it comes to what they should be doing to the property

in order to help keep the moisture out,

keeping windows open, those kind of things.

How are we gonna communicate that back to residents?

And I know there's resource restrictions,

but how are we able to still make this work?

And another suggestion is one of the big links

that other councils are finding is where there's leaks in properties and blocks that is linked

to severe damp and mould. Are we keeping a list or are we going to try and keep a list

of that information where we have residents report a leak in a block, in a property, so

that we can track that journey and we know how to maybe prevent severe damp and mould

for residents' properties before it gets to that stage?

Thank you for your question.

So in terms of the front end diagnosis, the accurate diagnosis of the emergency, we've

been working with the housing service centre, the contact centre, to accurately diagnose

that through scripting.

So it's the questions you ask the residents and the answers they give you and then that

kind of going to a decision, an ultimate decision,

of what priority rating we give that particular job.

In relation to the proactive work,

we have a pilot that we're working through with Switchey

to put some units within some properties

to get some remote environmental monitoring.

Also, when we do our LGSR, our landlord cheques on an annual basis through our gas contractor,

we utilise those to do proactive inspections of our properties.

They go around and they look, they go through a framework, a pro forma with photos and proactively

feed that back into our offices to ensure that we can go out with that information.

That last piece around leaks, that's a real challenging issue in the borough, I think

we've got that 90 % flattered property archetype. We have a leaks process and it's under review

at the moment to ensure that we can optimise and improve that.

So in relation to communication we've already started a dampen mould programme which is

there was a major campaign from within the comms department going around advising people

around dampen mould around ways to sort of ease the level of dampen mould also advising

residents on sort of what to do if there is dampened mould. This is in addition to

what our repairs would do. This is still up and I think we it was something that

was also picked up by various other outlets and housing providers in how

good that sort of advice was. These were like small Twitter videos and stuff like

that which was circulated through Facebook and social media and other outlets and we

also had pictorial ones which were put on posters and everything as well, advising residents.

I just request you something, Chair. Can we get a hold of a copy of that script that staff,

when they're on the phone, how they ask the questions and then they work out what

priority that residents fall under.

It would be really good.

I don't know about anyone else.

It would be really helpful for me.

Donna, is it allowed to give the script or not?

OK.

So I'll have officer to respond on that.

We certainly can share that.

But we're also doing some work to improve it.

And we've got a resident group of a number of estates,

including the Ocean Limehouse.

I don't know the others.

bold is the B -O -L -D, and they're looking at the scripts and looking at how it could be tweaked, but we can share those.

OK, Andrea, you want to come in?

Thank you, Chair. Just to let the committee know that the Council hosted a seminar working group today,

which Chris presented at, chaired by Karen, where we had over 50 people either online or in the room

talking about best practise, sharing what we had found.

Gateway shared a pilot exercise that they had done

and shared the good and the bad, which was really useful, I think, for all of us.

And we're going away from that meeting today, putting together an action plan

to really understand how we can work together,

particularly around overcrowding and the health impacts.

So we had health colleagues there and academics who have been doing a lot of work to try and understand not only the physical

impacts but the mental health impact of damp and mould and which is clearly exacerbated by overcrowding.

So there's a much wider

agenda

emerging I think from the conversations that have been having around our WAPSLAW.

I think, in terms of reassurance to residents as well as members here and panel members

as well, I think it's important we highlight that in Tower Hamlets we have a really good

working partnership through Tahoe with all our housing providers and I think we are all

Sometimes we may not get the repairs done immediately in a long time, but overall in

terms of the reaction, in terms of caring, I think all housing providers in town do try.

Sometimes there are constraints because if you think about it, this stuff is coming in

very raw, very quickly from the housing regulators to our law and the whole country is mobilising

exactly at the same time. So those resources, even with money, it's difficult

to purchase. Those supply lines and so it goes right the way through that whole

process. So I mean we are working collaboratively, we are learning from

each other and you know expertise is it's very rare now because everyone's

grabbing hold of everyone they can. So those in the industry do realise the

technical challenges that are also involved in this.

I want to cover your question, please.

Thank you, Chris, for your presentation.

I've been experiencing a few issues like residents complain me about, you know, the

contractor you mentioned, the mares, the repair team went there, the property, and they visited

the property and when they finished they said, okay, someone will contact with you and we

and arrange the booking for the next appointment.

And they just sign up and say, job been completed.

And council, the people, the residents, they've been waited, waited, and they call council.

Council said, oh, it's on the system, your job been done.

And I found a few cases exactly the same.

But how are we going to solve this kind of issue?

This is my first question.

And second question, what steps have you been taking to ensure that the residents of the poorest

quality, privately rented housing in this borough and award this new right and under this law. Thank you.

So on that first issue, it is something that we recognise and acknowledge and you know,

Mahbub gave a prime example which happened today. So this is some of the stuff that will go into the performance matrix

that Stephen has set up and is coordinating and looking at.

So we are sort of going to track and monitor and hold our contractors to account in relation

to missed appointments, in relation to quality of service.

All of these performance indicators will be measured by Stephen and his team.

That's along the first staff.

In terms of the private renters with the new Renters Reform Act, the No Fault Evictions

and all of that part of that is also to ensure that they will have a quality standard applied

to the private rented sector.

So our housing environmental health team, you know like you have shops that have the

environmental one to five scores, eateries and stuff like that, restaurants and all of

that, so there will be a new system in place where they will have those scores as well

in terms of the quality of service that the private renters are providing.

And we're going to play a forward -facing role in relation to that.

Karen, do you want to just give a brief scoping around that?

Yeah, I can do that in the next item.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, it's on there.

So we'll cover that in the next item as well, so Karen will give a bit more detail.

All right?

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chairman.

Just a quick one regarding emergency problems over the weekends. How are they dealt with? Can you tell me a bit more?

Yeah, so we we offer

service

At the weekends in terms of emergencies. We've got a bank of emergency call -out officers as well as our calls

Are triaged into Mia's contact centre?

and delivered in the same way, albeit out of hours.

Sorry, if I can piggyback on the back of that.

So I think one of the other issues is, and what we've done when we've gone through data and understanding the issues are,

in terms of the contract we signed up to previously before we came into office,

we seem to have a higher degree of emergency call -outs than the structured repairs.

So there is a contractual issue there as well, which again, we've kind of gone back to the drawing board in order to match the two up.

So, you know, analysis has taken place and a lot of times systemic repairs that need long -term solutions are reported as emergencies.

So again, that's partly to do with the training of our staff when they're recording the information

and it's also partly to do with the inspection process.

And the most important thing is to do with the gaps in communication because whenever

anything happens to any individual on a personalised level, it's an emergency, you know, for me,

for you.

So for example, Councillor Chaudry, those issues you raised clearly are emergency issues.

But we also have to have a structured approach to it.

So what are we going to do in the short term in order to resolve that immediate issue?

And what are we going to do in order to fix the structural problem which may take longer

in order to deal with?

So I suppose part of it is how we communicate that to our residents as well.

And I think that's another area that the team have worked hard on in order to make sure

that all members of staff operate with a level of empathy and understanding and getting that

communication across.

Thank you chair.

When you say emergency, do you have a universal definition what constitutes an emergency and

whether the tenant and residents have the same understanding that this is the emergency?

Many times I found tenants saying this is an emergency for me, but landlords saying

this is not an emergency.

And how do you communicate with residents about this?

Number two is I'm aware there's a huge list of vacancies in housing and environmental

health.

So when it comes to implementation, how are we going to manage that?

Because if we have so many vacancies, especially environmental health,

even though this is not something directly under your command,

but that will affect us because if you don't have resources,

especially people in environmental health service,

then how are we going to, especially the dam, mould, this,

How we're going to implement that new law is coming in effective from only in October 2025.

So if I, Chris if you can come in on the definition elements of it, because clearly I've just spoken about that.

So there are differing sort of definitions around stuff and in terms of resolution there are differing approaches in terms of resolution.

Some can be quick fixes, others will take longer term fixes.

But as far as I'm aware in Karen's team,

there are no vacancies in the housing environmental team.

But what there will be is more jobs advertised

because of the level of demand we have

and the levels we wanna reach.

So this is a growth area.

If you look at the private rented sector, for example,

we'll have to do, going forward,

assessments of around nearly 50 ,000 properties in Tower Hamlets. The current existing team

won't have the capacity to cover that at a reasonable time, the level of work that's

got to go in, or there will be backlogs. So some of these are growth areas that we will

be reacting and we are reacting to legislation and laws that will be applied. In terms of

What funding will be put in place by government and so on and so forth, that's not clear yet,

if any, will be put in.

So again, that's another area that we have to react to, depending on what capacity levels

and funding we have around that.

And our action plan will be dependent on what we have and the ability to deliver.

Chris, if you come in on the definition element of it, please.

Thanks, Councillor.

Yes, there is a broad framework of emergencies, however it's always complicated because you

can overlay people's vulnerabilities and they will be unique to the individual reporting

repair.

I guess the broad definition of an emergency is if it's causing damage to the property

or person, for example an uncontrollable leak.

Thank you.

So, this is going to be passed as law, so how, is there going to be a set of KPIs developed

to track whether we are responding within 24 hours or fixing it within 24 hours or,

you know, things like that according to the government guidelines?

So again, because this is monitored by the housing regulator, there will be KPIs, there

will be reporting mechanisms and again, you know, this will be monitored by Stephen's

team as director of repairs and housing assets. Chris is the service head, so he will be actively

sort of looking at his managers' work outputs in tracking that and again Karen, through

role will be reporting this stuff through to the housing regulators.

I don't think they've set up the actual dashboards or reporting mechanisms for that.

So we'll be doing it under, because we've had the inspection, so we are reporting to them on a monthly basis and having meetings with them.

And this stuff is already within the radar of our reporting mechanisms.

If they create a new reporting system or some IT system in order to do that, I don't know yet.

Or software that they've sort of laid out. But as we sit here currently on a month to month basis,

we have meetings with the regulator and this stuff is monitored and reported as a standard item for us.

The last question is from me.

Sorry, I didn't ask the question.

The last question is from me.

Once reported, what's the timeframe to

fix that dump and mould?

The second question is that

most of the residents living in a

RSL property, social network property and work as well.

They are also dumb and mould.

So who is monitoring them that dumb and mould is repaired once it's reported?

I will be grateful if you answer those questions. Thank you.

So the first thing, Chair, is the timeframes for the repairs depends on the severity of what it is.

So in terms of the immediate, we will do immediate inspection.

Depending on the seriousness of it will be how it's addressed.

So if it's very light dampened mould, it will be treated.

If it's more systemic, then we'll have to look

at other processes from decanting properties

and then getting major works sort of done

in relation to the dampened mould.

So it varies depending on the level

of severity that's there. In terms of the RSLs, so it's the social housing regulator

who they report to, but I suppose partly it's yourselves as well, because you can call in

RSLs in Tower Hamlets that operate in Tower Hamlets if you feel their performance isn't

up to scratch. If your residents feel that you need to call them in and there are certain

areas you need to address. So it's a multi -layered approach. Usually, generally, most of the

RSLs who operate in Tower Hamlets like to have a good relationship with the council.

And the last area is you can also articulate it through Andrea, who is representative of

TAHUF, which is the housing federation that join up all of the social housing providers

in Tower Hamlets, so they're the mechanisms you would operate by, unless anybody else

wants to add anything in relation to that.

I think just to say I mentioned at the last meeting that the whole of the sector has taken

the death of Auerb incredibly seriously from 2020 and most have not waited for the legislation

to actually go back and start talking with residents, to start re -inspecting homes and

to put processes in place. So I think that at the moment we are sharing a lot of best

practise but we certainly share the concerns around the constraints around resourcing because

everyone is fighting to try and get the best talented people on this to make sure that

they're doing a good job and all of our boards are all over this as well as the regulator.

So it's something we're all taking incredibly seriously.

So last thing I'll say, there's a governance issue here as well, so I think, and that level

of seriousness that Andrea's speaking about goes throughout the whole stem of any housing

operator from the council, so from a council perspective we've set up a specific subcabinet

committee in order to address housing management itself.

I know Poploharka have various different layers of governance where these areas are also covered

in terms of repairs and most housing operators will have like either a repairs or a complaints

subcommittee set up with like such as yourselves which will go through their data sets and

their responses in relation to repairs and so on and so forth.

Once again, thank you committee member Kabir Ahmad and officer for working on this.

Now, the last item of the night is a presentation.

I would like to once again welcome and ask

Councillor Kabir Ahmad and the Director of Housing Strategy,

Policy and Regulatory Assurance to present this item.

As before, Councillor Ahmad, can you introduce the items?

And Karen and other officers, feel free to add on.

So you will have five minutes on these items.

So Councillor Kabir Ahmad, you can start now.

Chair, I know Karen's team has worked really hard on this.

So I'm going to ask Karen to do justice to the paper

and present it directly.

Is that all right, Karen?

Karen, are you okay?

Okay, please, you've got five minutes.

So I'll assume that the committee have read the paper,

so I'll just do a quick overview.

So a housing strategy is not a statutory document.

The only statutory housing strategy

that a local authority is required to have

is a homelessness strategy,

and Cabinet agreed the homelessness strategy 24 to 29 last year at Cabinet.

So, but that's not to say a housing strategy isn't important. It sets a clear strategic framework for

the partners in the borough to align with. It creates a foundation for future initiatives and

it also shows a commitment to good practise and sets out really clearly the policy context in

which housing is operating in a borough like Tower Hamlets.

The strategy is tenure neutral.

Lots of people think the strategy is about us as the council

and how we manage our houses.

It's about every single tenure that's in the borough.

So on the first slide, I set out what the tenure split is

in Tower Hamlets.

So 36 % of tenants live in social housing.

38 % live in private rented accommodation,

which is one of the highest in London. 23 % are in owner -occupied, which is the lowest

in the UK, and 3 % are in hostels or shared ownership or intermediate housing. And the

strategy has to speak and address all of those tenures. Now the council doesn't necessarily

have a lot of control in some of those areas, but it does have policy levers that it can

use, enforcement powers it can use, for example in the private rented sector, and members

have touched on some of that today.

So in terms of the scope of the strategy, I've set out in the slide on the left -hand

side it's about new supply, it's about a better private rented sector, it's about reducing

homelessness, it's making sure that we've got enough diverse housing to meet diverse

needs, that we're making sure that homes are decent and they're safe, we're making

sure that the council's housing stock is managed effectively and that we're

working in partnership with other people in the borough to deliver good housing

and that we're using planning policy, as Suzanne was talking about, as an

enabler to deliver the housing because we can't, Andrea and I and the other housing

providers can't deliver all the housing that's required and it has to also

address the sort of net zero because housing is the biggest emitter of

emissions in this borough. It accounts for 20 % of all carbon emissions so

housing if you can reduce emissions in housing then you're doing well. But on

top of that there's lots of unique challenges in Tower Hamlets. So we have

the fastest growing population and the highest population dentacy. We've got the

biggest private rented housing affordability only five out of a

hundred rented homes is affordable to somebody on a low income.

We've got 29 ,000 households on the housing register.

We've talked about overcrowding.

We've got the second highest number of short -term lets in London behind Westminster.

And there's obviously the remediation of dangerously clad buildings of which we had the highest

number in the country.

Those are all unique to Tower Hamlets on top of everything else that's happening in the

housing sector.

So the strategy has to speak to all of those and say what we're doing with partners and

government and residents to try and address some of them.

There are some strengths in what we're doing at the moment, so we do deliver more homes

than any other London borough through the planning policies that we've got.

We're very active ourselves as a developer.

Councillor Ahmed has talked about our accelerated housing programme and previous house building

programmes that the council has endorsed. He's talked about the acquisitions

programme, the 200 homes that we've got much funding for from the GLA. For

private renters we've got three licencing schemes and we also charge the

maximum council tax on empty homes and second homes. That's permissible by the

government. We've talked about the strong partnership arrangements we've got.

We've got a very good offer for single homeless people. We have over 400 hostile

bed spaces in the borough and as housing senior officers in housing we recognise

the corporate role that we play in supporting families and vulnerable

people so I sit on the corporate parenting board recognising that

housing has a role as a corporate parent. But lots of opportunities in the

new housing strategy so the council has insourced MTHH we've had the social

housing regulatory inspection which gives us a real clear road map for improvement to

a C1 rating at our next inspection.

We've secured the support from the GLA.

We've got a new local plan which will increase the amount of affordable homes on sites to

50%.

We've published our rough sleeping strategy.

The renters' reform bill, renters' rights bill will bring about the biggest reform in

the private renter sector in 40 years.

And I can go on and talk about that a little bit more.

And we're also working with our partners

to diversify our temporary accommodation portfolio.

So the Housing Strategy has huge amounts of opportunities.

It has six priorities which are set out on the next slide.

And the slides behind that identify

what would be the future actions

that might deliver those priorities.

and it also sets out how we would measure those priorities through a set of existing KPIs or additional KPIs.

So the very last slide, I'll just finish there, the very last slide sets out our timelines.

So we've done lots of work already with stakeholders in pulling together the strategy.

We'll be taking the strategy hopefully for public consultation between October and November

with a cabinet date in January next year.

Thank you. Do members have any questions?

Thank you for this, Karen. I just have very small minor light suggestions, if that's okay.

I think you've tried to do a really, really good job about bringing in a good make -up

of all the ten years. I think it needs just a little bit more work on tying in a little

bit more about sustainability than net zero, maybe placemaking as well, if we're thinking

about all ten years. I think there's bits in there that we can definitely go stronger

on. And have I missed it? I know we talk about homeless accommodation, temporary accommodation,

but we should probably have a couple of lines in there a bit stronger about our aims to

try and keep homeless families in temporary accommodation here in Tamliss as much as gospel.

And lastly, I think I've touched on placemaking. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done.

That was it.

Thank you.

Yeah, response.

Comments are noted and recommendations are noted.

We'll come and discuss that.

Shall I just set up very briefly what the renters reform bill, renters rights bill will

bring.

So how it will improve the life of private renters.

So there will be an abolition of no -fault evictions.

So it means that the second biggest reason for people coming to seek our assistance for homelessness

is because they've been evicted by their private landlord for no reason.

That will stop and it will be retrospective.

So that will hopefully help in terms of homelessness, preventing homelessness.

There will be restrictions on how much rent can be charged.

You can see that the landowner has to be in line with market rates.

There will be enhanced property standards, so the Decent Home Standard will apply to

private rented homes.

There will be anti -discriminatory measures, so landlords will be prohibited from discrimination

against tenants on the basis of the fact that they have children or they are receiving benefit.

And there will be restriction on upfront payments, so it will limit the amount of rent that a

can ask in advance. And there'll be a landlord database. All landlords will be

required to register on the database every year and upload all of their gas

safety certificates and their tenancy agreements. And the local authority will

receive a whole suite of new offences which it will be the prosecuting

authority for. So if a landlord is not registered on the database and we get to

know about it we can serve a CPN for seven thousand pounds. So the government

is seeing this very much as an enforcement bill. They want to professionalise the sector

and the local authority will be the main prosecuting authority for any offences that are within

the bill. So for renters it's going to bring a lot of security, a lot of stability and

for landlords I think it will professionalise the sector. So we're preparing for the bills

to land really well in the borough because if 38 % of households went

privately this could impact residents really really well. So we're doing lots

of preparation in terms of our comms and our comms will be directed towards

landlords as well as tenants because whilst we can prosecute landlords with

rather they complied with the legislation in the first place. So we

want to make sure that the comms is really strong to landlords as well as

to tenants and obviously we'll be working with government in terms of

additional money because when the government placed new burdens on local authorities, they do allocate new funding.

So we're working very closely with them in terms of what that would look like.

We understand that there will be a top slice to local authorities from the charge that landlords make when they register.

So for example, if it's 30 pound a year to register, the government might keep 10 for the database and give 20 to local authorities.

So we're hoping that government funding will flow behind the bill to help us enforce

Against the new offences. So I definitely think it's one to watch

We we don't do much for private renters in the borough because our role is limited at the moment

But the council is certainly going to be able to help improve the sector with the new legislation

Thank you. Thank you

Councillor, I'm in Raman, your question please.

Yeah, thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Karen, for the presentation.

We have almost what, about 30 ,000 people

on the Common Housing Register,

and a few other than 1 ,000 lettings per year.

Are we ever going to solve the housing crisis in Tamlet?

I've heard other people say that we can't build ourselves

out of the crisis because land's finite.

I know that we're going up,

and an increase in density.

But we probably wouldn't be able to resolve

all of those people's housing problems

in the short or the medium term.

And the register has gone up significantly.

There's priorities within the register.

I mean, the 29 ,000 people have a home.

They're not sleeping rough,

because we'd know about it if they were.

It's just their homes are not suitable

for one reason or another.

Predominantly because of medical priority,

or the room is not, the property is not suitable because they require an adapted home or because

it's too small. And the register quite rightly prioritises those households above other households

who may, whose accommodation actually may be suitable and we can't improve on it any

further. So there's just under 10 ,000 households on the register who are in Band 3 and Band

households who are adequately housed, maybe in the private sector, but they would like

to have a council tenancy or a social housing tenancy for security and because the rent

is more affordable. So those households, they don't give extra points for the level of rent

that you're paying or the lack of security. So the register as it is, and Andrea chairs

the Common Housing Register Forum, or one of your colleagues does, that oversees the

a high housing need and their current accommodation is not suitable. So I think that there are,

we regularly review it to see whether it could be better targeted at housing those people

who maybe have some severe need, but generally on balance I think it probably is housing

those people who need it most.

The only other factor I bring into that is that

the way the register works, it's residents bid

for properties, so whilst properties may be available

for people to bid for, it may not be in the right location.

So there's an element of choice, personal choice,

for residents on the register in terms of the

bidding for the homes that are available at any one time.

I think firstly congratulations, Karen.

I love the fact that you are coming up with a strategy that is guiding on all the key

principles and it is also tenor neutral, which is amazing because Albarra has got the split,

as you said, so I think it is really good that you look into every aspect.

I'm quite passionate about the local plan and I just want to ask with the consultation that already ended on 1st of August, what's holding it back?

Can we not rectify it like tomorrow for example? Because it will then give greater guidelines on private developers to meet the 50 % house building.

So, for example, can it not be brought soon to get it rectified immediately?

So I'll respond to that.

The targeted timeline is for it to be passed in Cabinet and full Council by November and

then it will be submitted to the Planning Inspector and there we wait for the Planning

So there's no way that as a local authority we can force that issue.

So as you're aware, it will be an inspection in public and there will be challenges from all sides

and we will try to defend the position and hopefully it will be adopted thereafterwards.

That's as quick as we can.

Can I just make a quick comment? At different stage of it, it's got greater weight. So now we are at Regulation 19.

So if you pass it, there will be more weight. At least pass it within local.

It will be passed, because it has to go through full council, you see.

So it will be passed and adopted by the council at full council on the basis that all councillors support it.

So that has to be done in line with, there is a governance process behind it that papers have to be prepared and go through before it can just be submitted.

So it is going through and we're trying to expediate it as quick as possible within the governance elements that are there.

Because consultation and stuff like that have to also be digested and then referenced without going through the outcomes of the consultation.

You can't just submit it and pass it.

So they have to have kind of it detailed in terms of what the responses have come back.

I'm pleased that you are very supportive of it.

And we've got a great deal of support for it.

But there's also others who are critical over certain areas of the plan.

So there are mechanisms we've got to work through in relation to that.

Just one last question as well. In the strategy, Karen, can there be a...

What about compulsory purchase order for land that doesn't belong to the council?

Have I just like to let you know it's got to go through the courts and we don't always we

So Robin Hood Garden for example, one part of that, we got the CPO through, but there

is sort of just behind that, the phase 4B element of it, the council didn't win the

CPO and that's kind of delayed the programme over there.

So there are elements of it which is tied in with legality and so on and so forth, but

a CPO can only be used as a last resort when you've exhausted all other processes.

It's that negotiation that creates various delays and stages.

Next time if you want another question, ask the chair.

So I will ask the officer to respond.

Okay, thank you. Mr. Mohammed, your question please.

So most of the new build properties are open plan.

Most or majority are significant amount.

This is not liked by the biggest population group of the Council.

So my question is, in terms of strategy, have we ever consulted or conducted a survey

that we understand what is liked or what is the expectation of the residents of Tower Hamlets,

what kind of properties they want.

Most of the time I found some people don't have other options,

that's why when the properties, open plant properties come for bidding,

many residents don't want to but they are obliged because there is no other option.

So is there any plan for a consultation or conduct a survey

to understand what was the expectation of our residents?

Thank you.

So again, this is going to planning issues.

So we've got to have a balance in how we address.

So in terms of official planning processes,

we have to follow national planning guidance.

And there's nothing in there that says

that it has to be closed kitchens.

And so when developers come,

we can't, as a local authority, knock a development back

if it's in line and in conformity with planning guidance.

However, saying that, all the meetings I've had with all the developers I've had over the last three years,

we have consistently emphasised the preference of having, particularly around the social housing units,

of separate kitchen and living room.

We have, and a number of developers have responded well.

And I know responsible developers,

including Poplar Harker,

do have in their planning applications

a sort of separate kitchens and living rooms.

So we are doing all we can in a advisory way

when they're coming through the planning process, but we can't demand that an application would

be rejected by officers if they meet planning guidelines. That's the first thing. And the

LPA, the local planning authority sits separate and outside of member influence. Then you've

got the quasi judicial bodies which passed the planning applications and I think all

members have consistently from all parties highlighted two developers who come to these

committees to have separate kitchens and living rooms. So it's something that we can request

and we actively request when they come for pre -meets and sort of various different meetings

with sort of chief executives and at the most senior level

in order for them to support our residents

in that way forward.

Within that.

I just add to what Councillor has said

that there's a real difference between

when the council builds or one of the RP builds

or if we buy a section 106 and when we build we do have separate areas.

When the council builds they have separate areas.

But if you're buying something it's unlikely at the moment

because of all the reasons that you already know around financial constraints

and what the developers think is going to be easier for them to build.

I think on the issues my colleague have brought up is also all the councillors who represent the residents of Taurehamis, we face this one.

I think it's not, as a resident of Taurehamis, I think it's not because of the financial constraint, I think it's because of awareness amongst the RSL.

So if Council can make awareness, invite them somewhere,

nearly 73 RSL, invite them and make them aware of the issue,

I hope they will see kindly and that will be dealt with.

So I will be asking the committee member if he can create awareness amongst RSL.

Thank you very much.

It's about the open kitchens.

If the private, because in a way they build, some floors are private, they sell it.

So they can do whatever they want. But those are people of big, large family going into large accommodations.

And if the awareness is there, that it will be. Because we keep people moving to the property to be happy.

If they are moving to the property and they are not happy, all the time they can see.

Large family, large cooking, large everything.

I think there are awareness issues. I'll ask committee members to look into that one.

Make awareness among the social RSL, probably it will be solved.

Anything?

This time I do want to give credit to former councillors because in the early 2000s this

council and councillors at the time did a lot of work into open plan kitchens. This

is why we are in a place now where people who built in to Hamlet are actually very aware

of our culture sensitivity with open kitchens and the council don't tend not to build open

but it's the restrictive part the cabinet member spoke about but I do also want to credit how far we've come because

Even the mayor when he was councillor back in the early 2000s

This is something a lot of a big group of them worked on and he actually got national attraction at the time

So I do want to give credit to everyone that worked on this previously

Great

So chair, thank you

and as I said to you chair, I suppose in terms of

the

The RSLs, as Andrea said, and the council itself, when we are directly in control of the developments,

absolutely, but sometimes what happens is developers build properties and then get an

RSL partner. So after they've got the planning permission and everything else. So then it's

tied in with the design of the building. We do, through that planning process, particularly

around the family size homes, the 106, we do advise as much as possible and we will

continue to do that. So absolutely supportive of what you said, Che.

Che, I'm not sure if I'm going to get another opportunity to speak, so I just wanted to

take this opportunity to thank Andrea, who by sleight of hand stated that today is going

to be her last housing scrutiny subcommittee. And I just want to honour Andrea's work,

I know I've been a member here for three years, but I know Andrea's been coming to these meetings

for I won't say how many years, I'll get told off. But, you know, Andrea's given dedication

and commitment to housing in Tower Hamblets, and over the years, you know, numerous people

have lived in sort of accommodation and properties, and Andrea's advocated for that, and also

chaired to HOOF, which includes Tower Hamlets Council as one of the partners as well.

So I think I would request the committee also give Andrea a hand of applause.

Thank you so much.

It's been an honour to represent the RPs and also for you to challenge us to do better

for our residents. So thank you.

We didn't know that I would bring a bunch of flowers for her. Our apologies from this

side. But from our side, congratulations on being a loyal participant in this RPs.

I just met you two times.

We have been here for a long time.

I wish you the best of luck.

Your next appointments and

congratulations.

We are going to miss you.

As far as the other Councillors, we are

going to miss you.

We want our female Councillor to say

something on the issue.

Thank you.

I just found out what is happening.

I had to grasp the change.

I can't remember the last time I met you.

I can't let you go away without saying this, Andrea's work, she's going to leave behind a legacy

because when I was small and the state that I grew up in, which is now Poplihaka, the state generation,

Andrea had a big hand in that, so I can't let you go without saying a big thank you for everything that you've contributed

in Tower Hamlets and in Poplihaka. Sorry about all the aches and pains we give you as councillors and politicians,

Squirrel World.

Thanks very much and you will not be forgotten.

Thank you very much.

We have to be quick as well, Andrea.

Thank you

. We are grateful to the committee member

for providing this after

to give

us an opportunity

to contribute with this strategy.

The next item is AOB. If the officers or the cabinet members want to stay, you are free to stay.

If you don't want to stay, you are most welcome to leave.

There will be two minutes, then we will be concluding this meeting.

The next Housing Management Cabinet Subcommittee meeting is Wednesday 24th of September.

The paper for the meeting should have just been published on the Council website.

Can members highlight particular questions?

The committee would like to raise the cabinet and send them to Jack.

Please send them the video.

Also,

there will be a site visit on 25th of September to conclude the Scrutin Review on Commercial Asset

used to promote the regeneration of borough. Full details will be circulated to the members this week.

Is there any other business to discuss? So if there are no other business to discuss, I call this meeting to close.

Thank you very much everyone. It has been very peaceful and

very calm and very participant on this subject.

So nice to see you again.

I'm grateful to you and good evening to all of you.

Thank you very much.

Thanks Jay.

Thank you.

Please leave feedback relating to the quality of the webcast (i.e. audio visual elements) only. Comments relating to conduct or contributions of attendees or political statements will be deleted.

Required field

Name

Comments

Need an accessible hCaptcha?
Check available options.
Sign up to hCaptcha or Log in to hChaptcha.

By clicking Send feedback, you agree that Tower Hamlets London Borough Council and Public-i can use the information above to review your feedback and contact you about it. See our Privacy Policy for more details.

Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee - Tuesday 16 September 2025, 6:30pm - Tower Hamlets Council webcasts

Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub CommitteeTuesday, 16th September 2025 at 6:30pm

Agenda

Slides

Transcript

Map

Resources

Twitter

Forums

Speakers

Leave a comment on the quality of this webcast

Votes

Housing & Regeneration Scrutiny Sub Committee
Tuesday, 16th September 2025 at 6:30pm