Agenda and draft minutes

An apology for absence was submitted on behalf of Councillor Brown.

There were no other apologies for absence.

To receive declarations of interest from Members including the terms(s) of the Grant of Dispensation (if any) by the Audit Board or Chief Officer & Director of Corporate Services.

There were no declarations of interests.

Summary:

To consider the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 26 May 2022.

Recommendation:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 26 May 2022 be approved as an accurate record.

The Cabinet considered the minutes of its meeting held on 26 May 2022.

          RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 26 May 2022 be confirmed as an accurate record.

There were no urgent items.

The Cabinet was informed that the meeting of Cabinet Advisory Panel A which was scheduled to take place on Monday 20^th June 2022 had been cancelled as no items of business had been drawn down for consideration.

There were no references from other committees.

Summary:

The Housing Ombudsman published a revised Complaint Handling Code in April 2022, setting out requirements for social housing landlords to meet in their approach to complaints handling. There is an obligation on the Council, as a social housing landlord, to self-assess against the Code annually, to report the results of the self-assessment to Members and publish the results, and to demonstrate learning on complaints in annual reports to tenants. This report presents the Council’s self-assessment against the Code.

Recommendations:

1. That the self-assessment, completed in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, attached at Appendix A to the report, be noted;

2.  That the self-assessment is published on the housing complaints section of the website, be noted; and

3.   That the actions for addressing non-compliance with the Code, as set out in Appendix B to the report, be noted.

The Director of Housing & Public Protection presented a report which informed Members that the Housing Ombudsman had published a revised Complaint Handling Code in April 2022 which set out strengthened requirements for social landlords to meet in dealing with complaints. Under the Code social landlords must undertake and publish an annual self-assessment of their complaints handling against the Code, take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with the Code and to demonstrate learning from complaints in annual reports to tenants. The Council had carried out its second annual self-assessment, which had built upon the findings and actions from the first self-assessment carried out in May 2021, and found that the Council was compliant with most aspects of the Code. Where any areas of non-compliance had been found, actions had been identified to address these, including improving the response to service requests arising from the complaints process, aligning complaint response timescales with the Code, promoting awareness of the complaints process to tenants and regular reporting of complaints to the new Housing Advisory Board. The report also informed Members that a new complaints management system was due to be launched during the summer.

The Cabinet noted the Council’s high degree of compliance with the Code and the actions being taken to address minor non-conformities and improvements to the complaint handling process.   

            RESOLVED:

1. That the self-assessment, completed in accordance with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, attached at Appendix A to the report, be noted;

2. That it be noted that the self-assessment is published on the housing complaints section of the website; and

3. That the actions for addressing non-compliance with the Code, as set out in Appendix B to the report, be noted.

Summary:

To approve four new road names for the second phase of the Alkerden locality in Ebbsfleet Valley.

Recommendation:

That the four new road names for the second phase of the Alkerden locality in Ebbsfleet Valley be approved as Colyer, Combes, Hassell and Homefield

The Cabinet considered a report which sought approval for four new road names for the second phase of the Alkerden locality in Ebbsfleet Valley, containing 182 properties. The proposed names, which were based on the names of past tenants of the land according to the 1843 Tithe maps and a document detailing the local history of the site, had been submitted for consultation to Council Members, the Emergency Services, Royal Mail and the developer, and complied with the Council’s policy on Street Naming. Suitable suffixes would be chosen once the final road names had been approved.

The Cabinet noted that street naming had largely been driven by historical connections with each locality but felt that the scope for identifying suitable street names should be broadened, for example, to recognise the contribution of key figures during the Covid pandemic, such as the Chief Medical Adviser, and wider cultural figures, citing Peter Blake and his body of work. The Chief Officer & Director of Corporate Services said that she would inform the team accordingly.

            RESOLVED:

That the four new road names for the second phase of the Alkerden locality in Ebbsfleet Valley be approved as Colyer, Combes, Hassell and Homefield.