Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Carragher and Councillor Atkinson, Cabinet Member – Regeneration and Skills.

Members are requested to give notice of any disclosable pecuniary interest, which is not already included in their Register of Members' Interests and the nature of that interest, relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the Members Code of Conduct, before leaving the meeting room during the discussion on that particular item.

No declarations of interest were received.

Minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2018 and the Special Meeting held on 31 January 2018

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2018 and the Special Meeting held on 31 January 2018 be confirmed as a correct record.

Report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance

Further to Minute No. 30 (3) of 7 November 2017 the Committee considered the report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance that presented formally the final report of the Housing Licensing Performance Framework Working Group.

The Working Group was established with the following Terms of Reference and Objectives:-

·       The Council is working toward the introduction of Private Rented Sector Housing Selective Licensing and Additional HMO Licensing schemes in parts of the borough

·       The Selective Licensing Scheme Proposal was taken to Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Regeneration and Skills) in November 2016, for review. The proposal was overwhelmingly supported

·       The Selective Licensing proposal was then taken to Cabinet for formal approval in December 2016, together with approval to undertake the statutory formal public consultation. Cabinet approved the proposal and consultation

·       The Selective Licensing Proposal has since been the subject of a 12 week public consultation, April-June 2017. This included notifying all Councillors of the Selective Licensing proposal and consultation, so they had the opportunity to contribute

·       The results of the consultation, together with a Final Licensing Scheme proposal were taken to Cabinet in September 2017, and approved. The Council is now in the process of preparing the Selective Licensing scheme to go live from March 2018

·       One key piece of work that needs to be done over the coming months is to set up a ‘performance framework’ for the Licensing schemes. This will allow the Council to test, in future, whether the Selective Licensing scheme is having an impact on improving the Licensing Neighbourhoods and private rented accommodation. The performance framework will be submitted to the Cabinet Member – Housing and Communities for approval once it is completed

·       The Council approved a ‘business case’, which set out it’s justification for introducing Licensing schemes. To justify the proposed schemes for Sefton it was argued that Licensing of private rented homes would lead to the better management of these homes, which in turn would help tackle the following issues, which were used as the criteria for our schemes;

-         significant anti-social behaviour.

-         poor property conditions,

-         a high level of deprivation or

-         high levels of crime

·       A Licensing scheme can only remain in operation for a maximum period of 5 years. The Council will need to monitor whether the Licensing schemes are having an impact on the issues/criteria it sought to tackle and improve

·       Toward the end of the 5 year life of its schemes, the Council will need to consider whether it needs to extend the life of its schemes, and if it does, it will need to justify this through a new business case. Almost certainly, the Council would need the evidence that its schemes are having a positive impact on the issues identified. Therefore setting a suitable performance framework will be an essential tool, both to monitor the effects of licensing and to help justify any extension of the life of its schemes, should it wish to do so

·       The Objective is for the Working Group to help  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

Report of the Head of Economic Growth and Housing

Further to Minute No. 16 of 19 September 2017 the Committee considered the report of the Head of Economic growth and Housing that:-

The report indicated that the Cabinet Member – Communities and Housing had submitted a response to the Government’s consultation ‘Tackling unfair practices in the leasehold market’; that the Government published its report on 21 December 2017; and summarised the responses in relation to leasehold sales and ground rents on leasehold properties. The full published response can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/670204/Tackling_Unfair_Practices_-_gov_response.pdf  

The report concluded by detailing how the Council was raising awareness of leasehold sales in Sefton by promoting and publicising information via its preferred communication channels including the Council’s Housing and Investment Services departmental web pages alongside news items published on the MYSefton news site.

Members of the Committee asked questions/made comments on the following issues:-

·       Concern was raised about the mass ownership of leaseholds by a small number of people

·       The inadequacy of the law at present in respect of leasehold sales and the concern that the future legislation proposed by Government on this issue may not be enacted due to a shortage of Parliamentary time

·       Government’s consideration as to how existing leaseholders can be supported and the introduction by some developers of schemes to compensate individuals

·       This issue had cross party support on the Council and residents  should be urged to lobby their Members of Parliament to seek a change in the law regarding leasehold sales

·       The UK was the only country in the western world using leasehold sales

RESOLVED: That

Report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance to follow

The Chair advised the Committee that this item had now been withdrawn from the agenda; and that the Final Report would now be considered at the next meeting of the Committee to be held on 3 July, 2018. This will enable the Final Report to be signed off by the Working Group at its meeting to be held on 4 April 2018.

Report of the Head of Locality Services - Commissioned

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Locality Services – Commissioned on the Flood and Coastal Erosion Management (FCERM) Strategy review scoping document.

The report indicated that Sefton had a requirement under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to produce a Local Flood Risk Strategy; that the Act required each Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) in England and Wales to set out how it would manage flooding and coastal erosion in its area; that Sefton was a Lead Local Flood Authority and this Strategy would satisfy this statutory need and also satisfied the requirements under the Flood Risk Regulations 2009 for a Flood Risk Management Plan; that the Sefton Strategy was first produced in 2015 and after 3 years it was required to be updated; and therefore the report set out the scope of this update, reviewing what had changed since 2015 and sought views and input on the proposals.

The report detailed the strategic developments since 2015 to be considered in the new strategy in relation to:-

·       Liverpool City Region

·       Sefton 2030

·       UK Climate Predictions update 2018

·       Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs 25 year plan

·       The Sefton Coast Plan

·       Coastal Adaptation Strategy

·       New policies adopted by the FCERM team

The report also detailed funding issues since 2015 to be considered in the new strategy in relation to:-

·       Budgetary issues associated with the FCERM team being merged into a new service area called Green Sefton with the Parks and Green spaces and  Coast and Countryside teams

·       Merseyside Partnership Quick Win Funding

·       Cell 11 Regional Monitoring Programme (Cerms) Funding and Shoreline Management Officer Local Levy funding

·       United Utilities spend programme

The report then highlighted the changes in the understanding of risk associated with:-

·       Shoreline Management Plan review

·       Coastal erosion predictions

·       Climate change predictions

·       Surface Water Management Plan realisation of modelled data

and developments in the way the Council worked relating to:-

·       Sustainable flood risk management

·       Communication

·       Data management and sharing

·       Performance management

The report concluded by detailing the constraints facing the Council due to budget reductions and which meant that priorities were changing and alternative ways of delivering the service were being looked at; and that the FCERM team would be undertaking a review of its strategy and the outcomes and actions set out in the 2015 to 2018 strategy and of the understanding of coastal erosion and flooding both coastal and inland would be undertaken with the most up to date information available. It was anticipated that the final document would be published in January 2019.

Members of the Committee asked questions/made comments on the following issues:-

·       The United Utilities spend programme and the development of their Programme for the 2021-2026 period and the types of local mitigation schemes that may be included

·       The input from elected Members through briefings and reports to Cabinet Members and Overview and Scrutiny Committee

·       Coastal erosion predictions and the fairly significant coastal erosion in places, particularly just North of Hall Road, Blundellsands, where in one storm over 10m of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

Report of the Executive Director

RESOLVED:

That as no officer was present at the meeting to introduce and answer questions on the report consideration of the matter be deferred to the next meeting of the Committee to be held on 3 July 2017.  

Report of the Executive Director

RESOLVED:

That as no officer was present at the meeting to introduce and answer questions on the report consideration of the matter be deferred to the next meeting of the Committee to be held on 3 July 2017.  

Report of the Head of Corporate Resources

Further to Minute No. 5 of 4 July 2017 the Committee considered the report of the Head of Corporate Resources that updated on United Utilities’ (UU) increase in surface water charges to schools.

The report detailed that Members and officers met with representatives of UU on 16 November 2017 at which UU confirmed the compatibility of the concessionary scheme for schools’ site area based charges with relevant charging guidance – including Defra’s guidance on concessionary schemes for surface water drainage charges, and their view on the longevity of the scheme. This was subsequently confirmed in writing by UU by letter dated 15 December 2017 and a copy of the letter was attached to the report as Appendix 1. However, it was noted that DEFRA could still make further allowances and include certain community assets in their concessionary scheme and the report recommended that on this basis, DEFRA should be contacted once again to arrange a meeting at their London offices as offered previously.

Appendix 2 to the report provided details of Salix Finance Ltd. that was funded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department for Education, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government and was established in 2004 as an independent, publicly funded company, dedicated to providing the public sector with loans for energy efficiency projects; that Sefton Council had operated a Salix invest to save loan fund pot for over 12 years, for its corporate sites to reduce energy consumption and lifetime savings to date from these investments were now in excess of £1M; and that OFWAT had shown an interest in the SALIX funding model and proposed this to be an option that this Committee should explore for development in conjunction with BEIS as well as OFWAT and the water companies where possible.

RESOLVED: That the Head of Regulation and Compliance be requested to:-

Report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance that updated on the draft Work Programme for 2017/18; and seeking the identification of any items for pre-scrutiny from the Key Decision Forward Plan.

RESOLVED: That

· 

Report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Regulation and Compliance that included the most recent report from the Cabinet Members for Communities and Housing; Locality Services; Planning and Building  Control; and Regeneration and Skills. 

RESOLVED: