Members Code of Conduct – Part 4A of the Constitution)

To receive disclosures of interests from members and co-opted members on matters to be considered at the meeting. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

Notes:

(1)       Members must consider their interests, and act according to the following:

(2)       Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member concerned or their spouse/partner.

(3)       Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction applies to them.  A failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. 

(4)       Officers must disclose interests in accordance with Council Standing Order 44.

In the interests of transparency, Councillor A Mitchell and Councillor K Hussain both stated that they were holders of very small amounts of Legal and General shares.

Action: Director of Legal and Governance

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2023 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

(Su Booth / Louis Kingdom – 07814 073884 / 07890 416570)

Resolved –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2023 be held as a correct record.

Any referrals that have been made to this Committee up to and including the date of publication of this agenda will be reported at the meeting.

No referrals were made to the Committee for this meeting.

(Access to Information Procedure Rules – Part 3B of the Constitution)

Reports and background papers for agenda items may be inspected by contacting the person shown after each agenda item.  Certain reports and background papers may be restricted. 

Any request to remove the restriction on a report or background paper should be made to the relevant Strategic Director or Assistant Director whose name is shown on the front page of the report. 

If that request is refused, there is a right of appeal to this meeting. 

Please contact the officer shown below in advance of the meeting if you wish to appeal. 

(Su Booth / Louis Kingdom – 07814 073884 / 07890 416570)

No requests to inspect reports and background papers were received.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “H”) will be submitted to provide Members with an update on the Housing Enabling and Growth agenda, the opening of the Housing Revenue Account and accelerating the delivery of Housing (including Affordable Housing) across the District.

Recommended –

That the report be considered and that Members request a further update on housing growth in 12 months.

(Angela Blake – 01274 432589)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “H”) was presented to the Committee in relation to the Council’s ambition to increase the economic wellbeing and prosperity in the District through housing growth in accordance with its plan that identified key priorities as ‘Decent homes that people can afford to live in’ and ‘Ensuring the supply of homes is the right type and location to meet demand’

West Yorkshire Mayor’s primary ambition was for the provision of 5000 affordable homes over the next 3 years across West Yorkshire which was supported by Bradford Council through its Housing Strategy.

When housing stock numbers held by Bradford exceeded 200 units, Government guidance required local authorities to open a Housing Revenue Account (HRA).  Increasing the supply of affordable housing owned by the council, within the HRA could increase the district’s supply. A new HRA business plan, adopted by the council prior to the fund being re-opened during April 2023, showed three growth scenarios to increase numbers to over 800 by 2028.    However, as HRA’s could not go into deficit by Law, high inflation presented significant challenges with Bradford’s HRA being particularly vulnerable due to the smaller number of units owned and that it had only existed again in the same year.  To support the housing pipeline, a review of sites in Council ownership to identify those surplus to requirements was undertaken.

The report provided details of the New Bolton Woods development project and the City Village scheme, including the aims, progress to date and work going forward. 

Funding for housing to be purchased for Afghan refugees and Ukrainians was allocated by Central Government with match funding from Bradford Council.  In addition, further funding was announced for additional housing for Afghan refugee resettlement schemes.

The council identified land in its ownership that was sufficient to provide around 4500 new homes. WYCA provided funding through its brownfield housing fund to assist to remediate these sites which often required additional investment due to how land had been previously used.  WYCA also agreed, in principle to assist in funding the creation of additional posts to enable the development of these sites to be expedited.

Details of net additional dwellings in the report provided data from 2013 up to 2021 with a further table detailing affordable housing data. 

Central Government schemes required significant match funding from local authorities which were a challenge as the reduction in local authority budgets impacted the ability to deliver an accelerated housing programme.

Following the Officer’s presentation, Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and comment.  The details of these and the responses given are as below.

A Member asked if the management of housing stock was going out to tender and was advised that it had been approved at the Executive meeting earlier in the day and stated that it would take up to April 2024 to complete the process.  A number of providers including Incommunities had attended a ‘meet the buyer’ meeting to discuss requirements but it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “I”) will be submitted to provide an update on the Council’s empty homes programme of work.

Recommended –

That the report be noted and Members request a further update on the work of the Empty Homes Team in 2 years.

(David North – 01274 437629)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “I”) was presented to provide Members with an update on the Council’s empty homes programme of work.

The Council had a statutory responsibility to deal with a variety of matter relating to empty residential properties including

·     Prevention of statutory nuisance

·     Securing empty properties against unauthorised entry

·     Resolving defective drainage

·     Prevention of damage by pests and/or vermin

Tackling empty homes in the district contributed to the provision of quality and affordable housing in communities and neighbourhoods where people were happy to live.

The Council’s statutory responsibility related to both transactional properties (those that had been sold etc and were likely to be empty for up to 6 months) with resources targeted towards long term empties.

The report explained the teams involved and their roles and responsibilities for enforcement and the breadth of the types of properties involved.  Working with Council tax colleagues, the Empty Homes Team worked to confirm that properties were empty with occupancy remaining as a Council tax function.  The team also attended partnership meetings and liaised with other public bodies such as West Yorkshire Police, Yorkshire Water, Environmental Health and Council Wardens, sharing information and intelligence relating to empty properties.

As of October 2022 there were 3416 long term empty properties showing a reduction since 2009 from 7302.  A table of the details of these numbers was included in the report for information.  The report went on to provide details of ownership which indicated that the majority were owned by those with only 1 property (as opposed to landlords with property portfolios).  Details of properties that ceased to be classed as empty were also included.  A breakdown of the work carried out by the team related to service requests and proactive work undertaken was included for Members’ information with a total of 991 live cases.

The team was awarded the ‘Empty Property Practitioner of the Year’ for their work in bringing empty homes back into use.  In some of the cases worked on, sanctions were necessary for home owners who were not cooperative in taking the necessary actions to make their properties available, despite loans being made available and other options being explored by the team.

The team also developed two financial products that can provide essential funding to an empty property owner to help bring their properties back into use.  The process and details of compulsory purchases showed that a number of purchases were made from 2010 but also included voluntary acquisitions.

Officers provided an overview of the aims of the report and shared some examples of properties brought back into use.

Members were then given the opportunity to ask questions and comment.  The details of which and the responses given are as below.

Members stated that the report was fascinating and asked how they could assist in identifying potential properties and how to feed the information back to Officers with details of their locations etc.  Officers advised that they do possess a list which could be shared with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “J”) will be submitted to the Committee to provide information and to advise Members on the Highways Services Procurement plans for the financial years 2023/4 and 2024/5.

Recommended –

That the report be noted.

(Richard Gelder – 01274 437603)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “J”) was presented to provide information and to advise Members on the Highways Services procurement plans covering the financial years 2023/24-2024/25.

The report also provided information for Members on the procurement of contracts with a value in excess of £2m that could be undertaken in line with this programme in accordance with the requirements of Contract Standing Order 7.2.1 (CSO 2022/23).

Officers explained that the two-year action plan formed part of Bradford Council’s procurement strategy.  The categories of procurement which were undertaken consisted of a range of professional and technical consultancy services, materials supply, construction contacts and technical support.  Over the past five years the Highways Services teams made an increasing use of national frameworks to procure support and construction of their capital works programmes to take advantage of the valuable routes to market these facilitated.

Officers also advised that one of the funding streams relating to the procurement and maintenance of traffic cameras had come online which would give the Council the infrastructure for enforcement powers to issue warnings and fines for moving traffic offences following a change in the law in May 2022.  Councils were able to apply to the Secretary of State for new powers under statutory instruments to bring parts of the Traffic Management Act 2004 into force.

Resolved –

That the report be noted.

Action: Strategic Director, Place

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “K”) will be submitted to the Committee to provide an overview of the measures that Building Control Services have implemented and will implement in response to a decision made by the Local Government Ombudsman to a complaint received about the outcome of a resident’s application process for construction work inspected by Bradford Council’s Building Control Service.

Recommended –

That the Committee note the actions in the report, which would allow Building Control Services to inform the LGO that their requirements have been met.

(Chris Eaton – 01274 432483)

The report of the Strategic Director, Place (Document “K”) was presented to the Committee to provide members with an overview of the measures taken by Building Control Services (BCS) following a complaint that was submitted to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) relating to the inspection of construction works by Bradford Council Building Control Services Officers.

Details of the complaint were included in the report which resulted in BCS reviewing its practice, procedure, record keeping and document management systems to ensure that the problems identified would not happen again.  The LGO required a report to be submitted to provide details of the review and any changes made as a result to both the relevant OSC and the LGO.

Although the Council was deemed to be at fault, it was not responsible for what actually happened.  Due to how council building control responsibilities were framed in law, the purpose of the Council’s power was to protect the public in general, not the private rights and interests of individual builders or landowners.  Compliance with Building Regulations still sat with these private individuals.  No further remedy was required by the LGO but recommendations were made to avoid similar situations occurring in the future. 

The Council agreed to take steps to be compliant with the LGO recommendations and implemented the use of a mobile app which enabled Officers to log inspections and capture data in real time, on-site or ‘out of the office.’  This would prevent actions being overlooked on subsequent visits or inspections by surveyors who were all reminded of the importance of record keeping and requests/actions to be taken by builders must be recorded. 

The evidence that a remedy had been implemented would then be submitted to the LGO to comply with its recommendations, part of which was that a report went to the relevant scrutiny committee.

Resolved –

That the actions in the report be noted, allowing Building Control Services to inform the LGO that their requirements have been met.

Action: Strategic Director, Place

The report of the Chair of the Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Document “L”) will be submitted to present the Committee’s Work Programme for 2023/24.

Recommended –

That the Work programme 2023-24 continues to be regularly reviewed during the year.

(Caroline Coombes – 07970 413828)

The report of the Chair of the Regeneration and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Document “L”) was presented to provide Members with details of the work programme for the 2023-24 municipal year.

Members held a brief discussion on a number of the items in the plan for further clarification.

Resolved –

That the Work programme 2023-24 continues to be regularly reviewed during the year.

Action: Lead Scrutiny Officer