Showing posts with label Scrutiny Committee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scrutiny Committee. Show all posts

Friday 17 November 2023

ACE Brent (Action on the Climate and Ecological Emergency Brent), a new coalition of Brent environment groups, challenges Brent Council to step up its climate action


 From words to action
 
 
 
ACE Brent (Action on the Climate and Ecological Emergency Brent), a new coalition of Brent environment groups, challenges Brent Council to step up its climate action. 
 
ACE Brent does not believe that Brent is working effectively to reach Net Zero in 2030, and are asking for : 
  • A clearer, more measurable, accountable and ambitious Climate Action Plan
  • Prioritisation of actions that reduce emissions most and that protect the most vulnerable residents
  • Annual monitoring and reporting 
  • A new Climate and Ecological Emergency Scrutiny Committee
  • A new Brent Climate Assembly and regular reports to open meetings
Ace Brent have also drawn up a list of specific demands covering cycling and transport, insulation and retrofitting, divestment, planning, renewable energy, food, trees and green space.
 
They have written to all Brent councillors with their requests, and have organised a deputation to the full Council Meeting on Monday 20th Nov, Brent Civic Centre, at 6pm. 
 
Members of ACE Brent are Brent Cycling Campaign, Brent Friends of the Earth, Brent Parks Forum, Brent Pure Energy, Brent XR and Divest Brent.
 
Christine Smith, from Brent XR, says: 
 
This is an emergency. Act now!
 
Simon Erskine, Co-ordinator of Divest Brent, says:  
 
Divestment of the council pension fund from fossil fuels is an example of a climate action that has been a very long time coming despite active discussions with members and officers.
 
Sylvia Gauthereau, from Brent Cycling Campaign, says:
 
According to the council's own statistics, road transport is the largest contributor to air pollution in Brent, accounting for over 52% of emissions in the borough. The Council urgently needs to implement some specific measures, that are known to effectively tackle road pollution. This cannot be achieved without significant changes to the built environment, to enable anyone who wishes to actively travel, to choose so. The time for talking about it is over, now is the time to act. The evidence is there, the 'how to' examples are plenty, the guidance is available, the opportunity and appetite are there. It doesn't have to be massively costly. Just get on with it now.
 
Suzanne Morpurgo, from Brent Parks Forum, says: 
 
It's Brent's stated intention to be ‘one of the greenest, most biodiverse and climate resilient boroughs in London’ by 2030' . This needs an increase in tree cover and green spaces,  including sports ground provision. At the moment there is no clear plan for this, or any form of 'FiT' status for sites. We are happy to help.
 
Elaine Sheppard, A Co-ordinator of Brent Friends of the Earth, says:  
 
It's 4 years since Brent Council declared a climate emergency.  We are experiencing flooding and extreme weather in Brent. Our relatives and friends in the Global South are facing much worse. We have come together to request a stronger response as appropriate to the emergency. We need bigger change to reduce emissions, proper reporting and proper involvement of Brent residents in the actions being taken. We are looking for more action, ambition and accountability.

Thursday 16 November 2023

UPDATED: Cost of putting Granville New Homes right rises to £25m. Brent Council purchased them for £17.1m

 

Tucked away in the Housing Management Update tabled for next Thrsday's Scrutiny and Wellbeing Committee is the above paragraph, devoid of context.

Granville New Homes were built via  partnership between Higgins and Brent Council in 2009, and purchased by Brent Council for £17.1m.

In 2021 mounting defects led to the independent Ridge report that put the costs of remediation at c£13.5m:

 


 

Philip Grant queried a report to Scrutiny in October 2021  that put the costs of remediation at £18.5m and Debra Norman replied for Brent Council LINK:

 

As you point out, page 26 of the Ridge Report gives the cost estimates as totalling £13,645,000 but the Cabinet, ASAC and Scrutiny reports refer to estimated costs of £18.5m.  You query why this is and whether there is a second specialist report on fire safety issues which accounts for the difference.

 

 

This figure of £13,645,000 is included in the £18.5m referred to in the reports.  As set out in paragraph 3.9 of the Cabinet report, that higher figure also includes the cost of fire safety work already undertaken and paid for by FWH, e.g. the waking watch over the premises and a new fire alarm system, and a contingency figure.  In addition, paragraph 3.9 make clear that the total figure is inclusive of VAT, which FWH and I4B, unlike the council, would be required to pay.  The final sentence of 3.9 should have read that the £18.5m is “based on” an estimated value from Ridge, but in the overall context of the paragraph I think the position was clear.

Brent Council had rejected various options to address the problems including a rebuild.


 Instead they settled for a complex financial arrangement with FWH (First Wave Housing) disposing of the blocks to the Council's Housing Revenue account. LINK

The Extraordinary Scrutiny Committee of October 2021 asked some tough questions, not least Ketan Sheth's on why Higgins was still being offered contracts by the Council after its Granville New Homes failure,. With superb irony Higgins having been involved with building a block that needed £13.5m/£18.5m remediation was awarded the remediation countract, for another faulty block, Merle Court.

The Committee were told that the amount of time that had passed since 2009 meant the Council were not likely to succeed in any settlement claim against Higgins. I believe that changes in the law about time limits means that is no longer the case and there are reports that the Council may be in tlaks with Higgins.

Certainly that is something that Scrutiny should take up with the Council as well as the failure to complete the works by October 2023 as first forecast and of course the rise of costs to £25m which with the original purchase price of £17.1m brings the total to c£42m. It would also be useful to know if the bald £25m is the end of the story or other costs will need to be added as in Debra Norman's response.

It may be instructive for Scrutiny Committee members to revisit the Minutes of their October 2021 meeting. Here is an extract:

The Committee queried whether the Council, as Guarantor of FWH, had chosen to challenge FWH on the issues. Minesh Patel advised that the Council’s role as a Guarantor was to meet with the Board of FWH on a regular basis to go through Key Performance Indicators and understand how the Company was running. The Guarantor had not been made aware of any issues prior to the final Ridge report.


Hakeem Osinaike (Operational Director Housing, Brent Council) advised that the properties were managed by Brent Housing Management (BHM) on behalf of FWH, and they had managed the repairs in those blocks up until the inspection. He advised that it was in rectifying the fire safety issues a decision was taken to rectify any other issues as well.

The Committee noted that Higgins had been appointed to design and build the blocks in 2009, and had heard from residents and staff that there had been problems with the blocks since they were built. They queried what legal action against Higgins, as the contractor, had been pursued, considering the roofs had been previously replaced when FWH took over the building. Peter Gadsdon confirmed that BHP had replaced one of the roofs before FWH took over, and once FWH had taken over they had done works on water ingress issues and had planned to replace all roofs over time as part of previously published business plans for the Company, with an original cost estimate of £2m – 2.5m. With regard to any legal action taken, Peter Gadsdon advised that the records showed the building had been signed off and handed to the Council, but he was unable to comment on anything before 2017 when FWH took over the buildings. He advised that FWH had not had any conversations with Higgins regarding the defects which they were made aware of in May 2021. Legal advice was previously sought about whether there was any chance of redress but due to the passage of time were advised it was unlikely. The Board’s priority was to ensure the properties were repaired back to safety.

Continuing to discuss the contract with Higgins, the Board queried why the Council were not communicating with them on this considering they were current contractors on other blocks being built. They queried whether there was a risk of this happening in other blocks that had been built or were being built. Minesh Patel advised that he did not have the details on the construction contracts with Higgins as that was a procurement process, but nothing had been brought to his attention that there were any concerns on any of the blocks Higgins had worked on.


Councillor Southwood advised that the contractor had been awarded work by the Council through a procurement process without prejudice, the specification of which would have applied modern building control and expectations to whatever they built, and which would include monitoring on the delivery of their contracts. From a FWH perspective it was highly unlikely any other stock would have these issues as Granville New Homes were the only medium rise buildings in the assets. Peter Gadsdon added that, like the Council, FWH and i4B commissioned stock condition surveys and had Fire Risk Assessments in place and there were no issues in that regard. Councillor Southwood agreed to provide written assurances to the Committee that there was no issues in any of the blocks Higgins had worked on, and further information on the procurement process such as whether past performance of a contractor was considered before awarding a contract.

 

Philip Grant adds:

 


 


Another interesting sideline on Granville New Homes is that Brent Council is supposed to have acquired Granville New Homes (for its Housing Revenue Account) from First Wave Housing Ltd for £0 in early 2021. [That should probably say early 2022]

This was part of a refinancing arrangement that would reduce the interest payable on the £17.8m loan Brent had made to Brent Housing Partnership Ltd (as it was then called) to buy Granville New Homes from Higgins (or to pay them for building the four blocks).

It appears that the £17.8m loan is still outstanding, but according to the Charges Register in the Companies House records for First Wave Housing Ltd (as at today, 16 November 2023), that loan is still secured on a property known as Granville New Homes!

How can a loan be "secured" by a 'Fixed Charge over land known as Granville New Homes, Granville Road, South Kilburn, London NW6 0JJ', when First Wave Housing Ltd no longer owns that property?

And another odd thing from the Companies House records. Despite owing Brent Council £17.8m on a loan for a property it no longer owns, as at 31 March 2023, First Wave Housing Ltd had £11,028,334 in its bank account, up from £4,231,167 at 31 March 2022. What is going on?

Perhaps the Community & Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee should be asking Peter Gadsdon, Corporate Director of Resident Services, about that, when he makes his Report to its meeting next week. He should know the answers, because he is also a Director of, and Company Secretary of, First Wave Housing Ltd (a company wholly owned by Brent Council, but a separate legal entity from the Council).

LINK TO FIXED CHARGE CERTIFICATE


 

Thursday 15 December 2022

Street cleansing road categories explained - are you DH, DM or DL? This will determine the frequency of manual sweeping

 

The documentation for tonight's delayed Scrutiny Commttee regarding changes in recycling and street cleansing contains the above table.

I asked for clarification of the DH, DM and DL categories of zones.

Brent Council responded:

The terms 'high, medium and low' used in a cleansing perspective come from the old Best Value199 and National Indicator 195 classifications for land use types. 

Below is a link to the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (COPLAR) which covers this:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/834331/pb11577b-cop-litter1.pdf

High obstruction would include blocks of flats including tower blocks or large complexes

Medium would involve smaller communal dwellings such as low rise blocks or mid-size complexes

Low would mainly be free standing houses, semi's or terraces.

Typically the more homes there are within an area, the more resources are required to maintain it.

My conclusion is that most suburban streets would be reduced to a minimum monthly cleansing frequency unless 'intelligence' (residents' informing the council) triggered a special clean.

I asked for a list roads by zone classication so readers could identify how their road woul be affected, The answer:

We are not able to share a list of all roads by zone classification at this stage as this is commercially sensitive and subject to an ongoing live procurement process.

The Scrutiny Committee can be viewed on Live Stream HERE from 6.30pm

Friday 17 June 2022

1 Morland Gardens – yet another twist!

Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

“Altamira”, 1 Morland Gardens, with community garden in the foreground. (Photo by Irina Porter)

 

When Martin reported, just a week ago, that a call-in meeting of Brent’s Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee had given the go-ahead for the contract for the Council’s Morland Gardens redevelopment scheme to be awarded, you might have thought that the fate of the heritage Victorian villa there was sealed.

 

The only thing that could scupper Brent’s controversial plans to demolish the locally-listed building might be the objections to the proposed Stopping-up Order for an area of highway between the restored garden wall of the villa and the community garden. Council Officers, with the encouragement of several Cabinet members, had decided in early 2019 that they could use this extra piece of Council-owned land, in order to build more homes as part of the development. They had failed to consider the consequences of that decision, or to take the necessary action to obtain the Order, which led to the call-in.

 

The “award-winning” building which Brent wants to replace “Altamira” with.

 

Alan Lunt, Brent’s Strategic Director (Regeneration and Environment), won his right to award the two-stage Design & Build Contract for Morland Gardens to Hill Partnerships Ltd on the evening of Thursday 9 June. But when the agenda for the Cabinet meeting on 20 June was published the following day, this was item 12:

 

12. Authority to Tender for the Design & Build Contract at 1 Morland Gardens, Stonebridge.

Following on from a call-in relating to the original contract award, this report requests approval to invite tenders by way of a direct award under the Network Homes Contractor Framework and approve the pre tender considerations as required by Contract Standing Orders 88 and 89.’

 

The Report for this item was “to follow”, and that was not published on the Council’s website until the afternoon of Thursday 16 June. What had gone wrong? This is the explanation given at para. 3.3 of the Report:

 

The council also sought to procure a contractor for the scheme in May 2021 and May 2022 but both tender opportunities were unsuccessful. The first tender opportunity did not elicit any bids. The second tender opportunity elicited three bids and the council recommended the award of the contract as detailed in the Key Officer Decision report of 20 May 2022. This decision was subject to “call in”, during which period the Framework under which the contract was awarded, expired and so the council is required to procure a contractor again under a further procurement process.’

 

It appears that Mr Lunt may be trying to blame the call-in for the missed opportunity to award a contract for the scheme, and the need for a third attempt ‘to procure a contractor’. In fact, he was given a second chance to find a contractor in August 2021, and the three bids under that procurement process were received in November 2021. The fact that Brent took until 20 May 2022 to decide which of the three contractors they wished to award the contract to is no fault of the councillors who called-in his decision. They did so because of the risk of awarding a contract for a project which involves land that Brent does not have the legal right to build on!

 

Brent’s Cabinet are being asked to make a big decision at short notice. Not only that, they are being asked to approve the finding and appointing of a new contractor in a very rushed process, set out in this table from the Report:

 

Extract from table at para. 3.6 of Cabinet Report.

 

The Report says that ‘the estimated contract value of the procurement is £38m.’ The bid the Strategic Director wanted to accept in May was £37,933,491, but that had been made in November 2021. There was another item on the Cabinet agenda (Watling Gardens) where the Report was also not available, and a Council Officer has explained to me the reason for that:

 

Item 16 was not available on that date because the need for the report has arisen unexpectedly because of the escalation in the costs of the project due to the current inflation situation.  You may recall the challenges this situation is causing for the council were mentioned by the Chief Executive at the recent call-in meeting.’

 

That “escalation in costs” will surely affect the amount that any contractor submitting a tender for the Morland Gardens project is willing to offer. And if they offer an amount within the Council’s “budget” for this scheme, what corners will they cut in order to build it and still make a profit? This could easily become another Granville New Homes, where what was on paper an award-winning design was so poorly built, in order to keep “within budget”, that it is now costing more than the original contract to remedy the defects.

 

Brent Council has made so many mistakes and bad decisions over 1 Morland Gardens, which is why they are in the mess they are now over it. Will they plough on, digging a deeper hole for themselves, or will they finally see sense and go “back to the drawing board”?


Philip Grant

 

Tuesday 13 July 2021

Wembley Stadium mayhem on tonight's Brent_Council Scrutiny Committee agenda

 From the Independent LINK

It is worth reading the above article in full ahead of tonight's Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee. Using an innovation introduced by Committee Chair, Cllr Roxanne Mashari, the Committee will be able to have a preliminary discussion about Sunday's events, under Item 8 : Topical Item.

The meeting starts at 6pm and can be watched live HERE.


Tuesday 24 November 2020

Scrutiny calls for Wembley Ambulance Station closure to be paused and a formal statutory consultation undertaken on the plans

 Standing Orders were suspended at the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee this evening to allow for a discussion of the plans to close Wembley Ambulance Station on December 1st - next Tuesday. London Ambulance Service managers attended.

They told the Committee that Wembley was called an ambulance station but was basically a garage from which ambulance were prepared for the road. They claimed it was not fit for purpose and that the site was down for regeneration by NHS Property Services. It was not a health care setting or health care provision as such. 99% of ambulance respones were provided on the road on a 24 hour basis. The closure had made no impact on response times, which were in fact better and comfortably met targets for Grade 1 call-outs.

It had been closed since March under changes due to Covid and formal closure would take place on December 1st.

The LAS spokespeople were challenged on the lack of consultation which councillors claimed was a statutory requirement, the contradiction of saying it was already closed while also stating that it would close next week, the lack of a Equalities Impact Assessment, response times bound to be better because of lack of traffic in lockdown and the closure of Wembley Stadium, closure being nothing to do with improving the service but NHS Property cashing in on an asset, and its impact could not be considered alone as other ambulance stations in North West and West London were also earmarked for closure.

A clearly dissatisified committee recoemmnded that the formal closure should be paused and that London Ambulance Service should embark on proper statutory public engagement and consultation on the proposal.

After the meeting a member of the union told Wembley Matters that although the discussion was brief they thought it went well.

Brent Trades Council will be discussing the closure and possible action at its meeting on Wednesday November 25th.

Good to see Brent Scrutiny doing its job well.

Tuesday 18 August 2020

Brent Council's statement on 'secret' Scrutiny meeting on Poverty Report

Following concern expressed by myself and others on why a Scrutiny Committee Meeting on the Brent Poverty Commission Report (published yesterday) was not being held in public I asked Brent Council to respond to this question:
There is considerable public interest in the Brent Poverty Commission following the publication of its report yesterday and your Press Release on that.  Can you explain why the ‘Briefing’ being held today for members of the Scrutiny Committee is not open to the public?

Can you comment on why No 5 of the 7 Principles of Public Life does not apply to this meeting:

No 5 of the 7 Principles of Public Life 5 Openness Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
This is the Council's response:
A briefing is taking place today with Scrutiny Committee Members about the Poverty Commission report which was launched yesterday. This was not a formal Scrutiny Committee (which is not a decision making body) but a chance for members to hear about the report before it is referred on to Cabinet for formal consideration in September. The decision about how the council will respond to the Poverty Commission report will be made at the Cabinet Meeting and this will be open to the public to view as a live web stream.

Friday 31 January 2020

Brent moves forward on reviewing pension fund investments in the light of the Climate Emergency

World Economic Foundation - Top 5 global risks in terms of likelihood
Brent Scrutiny Committee made common purpose with local pressure group Brent Divest on the case for ending investment in fossil fuels and investment in renewable energy  and low carbon funds at this week's meeting.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Brent's Pension Fund investments are now largely made through the London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV). Change will come through action by the various local authorities represented on the CIV but there are positive signs that  things are moving with the launch of a low carbon industries fund expected within the next six months. 

There are issues about whether decisions can be made on purely ethical grounds but the financial case is now clearer with both Mark Carney at the Bank of England and Schroders warning of the poor prospects of fossil fuel investments.

The overall responsibility to ensure the best return on investments has to be balanced by the risks attached to such investments and there has been considerable change over the last few years as the WEF chart shows.   The Committee ended with a recommendation that the Pension Fund Committee would do all it could around divestment and investment in low carbon funds without detriment to the financial position of the fund.

Before the meeting Simon Erskine of Brent Divest, writing to all committee members commented:


1.       To put the discussion in context, I think it is fair to say that, although the paper refers in its title to the responsible investment policy generally, in fact it is largely about the climate emergency. By this I mean that 4 of the 8 sections of the paper under the sub-title Responsible investment (paras. 3.6 to 3.13) feature climate change, carbon footprint and renewable energy. The paper is therefore talking largely about the question of investing in fossil fuels.
2.       I think it is a moot point whether this is a discussion about ethics as suggested in the Chair’s introduction to the paper in his report. Greta Thunberg has said, in relation to the climate emergency, that “our house is on fire” – and recently that has been proved to be literally true through vast areas of Australia, which follow other exceptional wildfires throughout the world, such as in California, Canada, Siberia – and even in the UK (on Saddleworth Moor). Is it an ethical question whether or not to get out the extinguisher if your house is on fire?
3.       It is not simply a case of deciding if Brent Pension Fund can afford to dispose of its fossil fuel investments. Para. 3.11 of the paper makes it clear that “Climate change has the potential to impact all asset classes over the Fund’s lifetime” and many commentators have made clear that these investments are becoming increasingly risky – not least former Bank of England governor Mark Carney. The United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment recently carried out a study (https://www.unpri.org/inevitable-policy-response/forecast-policy-scenario-equity-markets-impacts/5191.article) suggesting that, for example, oil and gas stocks could lose nearly a third of their value by 2025. Para. 3.11 of the Responsible Investment paper also points out that the Council, with its advisers, is modelling various scenarios (e.g. “business as usual” compared to robust action taken internationally to counter the climate emergency). This should help clarify the risks involved – but there seems to be no evidence at all that fossil fuel investments should be retained for financial reasons – quite the contrary.
4.       Para. 3.13 of the paper comments on a £50m investment in an infrastructure fund which will include 25% renewable energy. This is warmly to be welcomed but the priority has to be to reverse the growth in CO2 emissions and an important element of this is reducing the supply of fossil fuels. 
5.       A short-term problem is that most of the Pension Fund is now invested in the London Boroughs’ investment pool, the London Collective Investment Vehicle (LCIV), which currently has no fossil free equity funds. Recently, however, I met with the Chief Executive of LCIV who said that they were launching their first fossil free fund by the end of March and that they were aware of the need to provide a range of funds for the benefit of the increasing number of London Boroughs which have committed to divest – and indeed more than half the London Boroughs have expressed an interest in fossil free funds. There is accordingly no reason why the Council should not commit to divest when suitable alternative investments are available.
6.       One point that is not mentioned in the paper is the fact that the 2018 Brent Labour manifesto committed to divest the Pension Fund and this was reiterated in the Council’s climate and ecological emergency declaration last July.
7.       I therefore very much hope that the Committee will welcome the report on the Pension Fund’s Responsible Investment Policy and encourage the Pension Fund Sub-committee to move forward, after completing its current due diligence work as described in paras. 3.11 and 3.12 of the report,  with divesting the Fund at the earliest possible opportunity in accordance with the manifesto commitment and climate and ecological emergency declaration.