Agenda and draft minutes

The Committee is asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on the 17^th June 2024.

The minutes of the last meeting were approved as an accurate record with no matters arising, subject to the following amendments:

• The minutes of the last meeting were approved as an accurate record with no matters arising, subject to the following amendments:
• An addition of the Committee’s thanks to the Tenant Scrutiny Committee.
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Committee members to declare an interest in any particular agenda item where applicable.

There was no declaration of interest.

Report of the Strategic Director of Housing, Environment and Healthy Communities

The Committee received an update on environmental enforcement with specific reference to fly tipping in Gateshead including the scale of problem and measures being deployed to tackle the issue, barriers to success and options to further improve the Council’s approach to minimising the impact of fly tipping on our communities and environment. It also discussed the structure of the new antisocial behaviour (ASB) team and its role in contributing to environmental issues and improvements.

The Enforcement Team in EIG currently has 5 permanent and 2 temporary officers dealing with a wide range of enforcement matters in addition to fly tipping which include planning, highways, vacant properties and problem sites, accumulations of waste, and abandoned vehicles. The focus of the work of the Enforcement Team in respect of waste is on large scale fly tipping i.e. those individuals who profit from illegally disposing of waste and businesses who don’t effectively manage their waste.

While resources for tackling large scale fly tipping have increased since December 2023 from 0.5FTE to 2.0FTE (by the end of this year) the report described that there is insufficient resource to respond to every report and cases must be triaged and prioritised. One or two difficult prosecution cases per officer is sufficient to severely limit the ability to be reactive to new service requests.

Consequently, current perceptions are that the Council is failing in its ability to tackle and address such an important issue. Such criticism is widely observed on social media sites or within online news reports and by way of complaints to the Council about its services.

In 2023, additional funding allowed for the appointment of 20 additional staff and equipment across the street cleansing and horticultural service to carry out litter picking and environmental improvements. 3 of those were dedicated to spot and clear fly-tipping and to respond to Members requests and priority clean ups.

The report detailed work being done to address fly tipping since January 2024, not including prosecutions:

• 10 Community Protection Warnings issued
• 2 Community Protection Notices issued
• 1 Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949 notice issued

• 49 Environment Act 1995 Section 108 notices (requiring any person whom we have reasonable cause to believe to be able to give any information relevant to any investigation – can also be prosecuted for non-compliance and we have successfully prosecuted individuals recently)
• 4 Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) Interviews undertaken (the majority of interviews have been conducted as part of S108 enquiries)
• 10 Environmental Protection Act 1990 Section 34 notices issued (requiring recipient to provide details of what they have done with their waste).
• 2 Environmental Protection Act 1990 Section 47 notices issued (requiring future compliance with waste management requirements)
• 41 Formal advisory warning letters issued (following investigations where there hasn’t been sufficient evidence to take formal action)
• 110 Accumulation of waste letters requiring removal issued to residents and businesses.
• 54 Business engagements
• 1 formal notice to produce documentation confirming waste carrier’s licence
• Worked with landowners to protect their land from  ...  view the full minutes text for item CPL12

Report of the Strategic Director of Housing, Environment and Healthy Communities

A report was presented to the Committee providing a summary of the position on energy efficiency in Housing Revenue Account (HRA) homes. It also considers planned and future measures to ensure the Council Housing Stock is fit for a low carbon future.

There are several national policies that have a direct impact on energy efficiency and the approach to net zero and retro fitting in the housing sector. These include the Climate Change Act from 2008, the Heat and Buildings Strategy and the UK Environment Act. This legislation covers a range of topics that impacts upon homes, energy and the wider environmental conditions within the public realm, for example air quality.

• Do you have any idea of the time scales? In the process of checking the data, currently at 65% of data quality. Many only need small investment to move to band C and will be planned into the capital programme from next year. Some higher-level works may be longer than the 5-year HRA level.
• How many people aren’t already using energy efficient light bulbs? Top thing on the recommendations can be this, depends on the property.
• Would be interested to know the range of energy efficiency in the properties. Roughly 50/50, slightly more of C then D. but there are some outliers in both directions. Will have this information by the end of the calendar year.
• Warm homes plan – is there information on how we’re working to this already? Working with the energy team already and bidding for money.

RESOLVED

i.                 The Committee received and commented upon the report. 

Report of the Strategic Director of Housing, Environment and Healthy Communities

The Committee was presented with a report demonstrating the changes to the Allocations Policy and to give an update on the number of applicants on the Housing Register.

• Bungalows do with the age requirement? Yes
• Would this be removed? Some have a lower age, but its more the one bedroom flats. Traditionally cassed as older peoples accommodation, and becoming increasingly harder to let. Shortage of one bedroom properties without an age restriction as well. Size of the bungalows also tends to be an issue, and also have some in very steep locations.
• Whats the thinking behind changing the financial eligibility? 25 for singles and 50 for couples (thousand), seems like a steep increase. More in line with how the policy works. Its doubled for a single person, not good.

Would like information on the number of sales of council houses this year and historically to understand the depletion of stock. Sell approx. 115 a year, and these tend to be higher demand 3 bed properties

Joint report of the Chief Executive and the Strategic Director of Corporate Services & Governance.

The following additions were made to the Work Programme 2024/25:

• An update on Environmental Enforcement for the March meeting
• To postpone the item on Homelessness scheduled for October to the end of the municipal year
• To add an item on Potholes to the October meeting