Climate Change,Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel - Thursday 19 September 2024, 6:00pm - City of Wolverhampton Council Webcasting

Climate Change,Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel
Thursday, 19th September 2024 at 6:00pm 

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  1. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  3. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  4. Cllr Sally Green
  5. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  6. David Pattison
  7. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  8. Perminder Balu
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  1. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  7. Perminder Balu
  8. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  9. Cllr Carol Hyatt
  10. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  11. Cllr Carol Hyatt
  12. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  13. Cllr Carol Hyatt
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  18. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  27. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  28. Cllr Stephanie Haynes
  29. Perminder Balu
  30. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  31. Cllr Sally Green
  32. Perminder Balu
  33. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  34. Cllr Harbinder Singh
  35. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  38. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  40. David Pattison
  41. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  43. Perminder Balu
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  45. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  47. Perminder Balu
  48. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  50. Cllr Jasbinder Dehar
  51. Perminder Balu
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  54. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  8. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  18. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  20. Cllr Greg Brackenridge
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  23. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  28. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  30. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  32. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  34. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  36. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
  37. Cllr Harbinder Singh
  38. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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  43. Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN
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Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:00:07
good evening and welcome to this meeting of climate change, Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel, my name's Councillor, Barbara majority, and I'll be chairing the meeting, I'd like to welcome anyone watching the meeting online.
before we start, I'd like everyone to stand for a minute's silence in memory of Councillor Susan Roberts, previous Chair of the meeting, who recently died.
thank you.
I'd also like to thank Councillor Hayes for standing in for Councillor Roberts when she was really poorly.
the meeting is being live streamed via the Council's website and be available for young after the meeting has taken place, the press and the public can record this meeting and take photographs, please note that the cameras in use by the Council to record this meeting out of sufficient resolution to allow external viewers to observe with detail what she had viewing on your screen including laptops, tablets, phones and you'd notebooks,
the following up proceedings for everyone attending the meeting
please keep your microphones or Newt unless you had invited by the Chair to speak, please state she would name before you make a comment or ask a question.
please do not speak over one another, I will bring you into the meeting at an appropriate time if you'd prefer into specific document, clearly state the title and page number.
apologies, so we now move on to the business items at, or are there any apologies submitted for?
Chair apologies were received from Councillor who day seemed and Councillor John Reynolds no, the apologies received Chair.
Earl Piggott Smith - 0:02:55
are there any other apologies to anyone has been made of of substitutes in attendance?
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:03:02
no declarations of interest are there, any Councillors who wish to declared an interest in relation to any matter on the agenda.
Councillor Green.
Cllr Sally Green - 0:03:17
thank you, Chair and Non Pecuniary interest in being on board of
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:03:23
directors Wolverhampton towns, thank you for that noted.
the minutes of the meeting, the Panel that Austria approved the draft minutes of meeting on the 18th of July 2024 as a correct record kind of have a proposer and a seconder.
all secondary thank you, those in favour say, AYE.
thank you, Khalid.
we move on to the agenda 2041 Net Zero strategy, a draft in consultation plan.
I'd like to invite David partisan Chief operating Officer and commended Barlow head of green cities and secular economy, to present the report.
so, with your permission Chair, I'm just gonna very quickly.
David Pattison - 0:04:16
Institutes per minded and context. This is about the strategy for the whole city. As we know, there is already a 2028 strategy in relation to a net 0 commitment in relation to this Council that will be coming back at terms of an update where we are against the action plan later in the year. This is about the consultation on the the proposed strategy before it goes out to consultation, to get your views, to help inform what goes out to consultation in relation to the approach to get to net 0 for the whole city. So if, with your permission Chair, I will just hand over to permitted to go through the slides, settler
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:04:54
Perminder Balu - 0:04:55
thank you, David, through future, thank you very much of go through the slides and, as usual, take any questions that you may have.

1 Welcome and Introduction

MEETING BUSINESS ITEMS

2 Apologies

3 Declarations of interest

4 Minutes of the previous meeting (18 July 2024)

DISCUSSION ITEMS

5 2041 Net Zero Strategy (Draft) Consultation Plan

you've got the documents in front of you, I appreciate that the report is quite comprehensive, but it's also a fair reflection of the level of work and effort that the team had been putting in and other stakeholders to reach the stage that went up its title draft because after today and subject to any further comments and input that you may have, we will then look to take it further out to and and formalise it before we take it out to consultation and then revise it again and come back to scrutiny in due course next year with the outcomes as well.
purpose of today is following your consideration of the papers circulated is to acknowledge the process and the work that's being put into this on the approach that's been taken to make sure that it's a comprehensive or make tried to make it as comprehensive as detailed as we possibly can core to this is that it's evidence-led, there's been a lot of work undertaken a great deal of effort and analysis to make sure that the content of these the recommendations and the proposals moving forward have a firm basis upon which they're being put forward.
likewise, to gain your feedback on the, if there is any other improvements or any other alteration that you may wish to make before we take it out to consultation, we are looking just what I'm talking about consultation, we are looking to go live with the consultation next week Friday that's the 27th with your permission and any comments that are coming back today.
if that's possible, where currently doing all the work in the background to to get that go-live and old detail the the process relating to the consultation as well, this also our opportunities, please, for yourselves to not only feedback on it but help how we undertake the the consultation if you feel it appropriate and give us some further pointers on what what you're looking to do where we can support you and you can support us in terms of making sure that it goes to as wide stakeholder arrange as possible.
moving on to the report itself, the core element here stems back to our city, our plan.
it's fundamental ensuring that it's tied back to our core priorities and and on the secret 6 aspects of that that was rooted in right from the outset and the engagement and consultation early consultation that we had with stakeholders to help develop this both internal and external, always pivoted back and went back to our city our plan to make sure our priorities and values are reflected hopefully you have seen that throughout the report when you've been reading it,
in addition to this, there are four key themes that we were looking to to focus on, and when you when you're looking at the report, you'll see that the focus on those and there's a couple of diagrams that are forthcoming up as well, if there's any detail on the presentation here then obviously we can pick it up during the the Q&A session as well.
so this focus the this image here relates to the transport, domestic, energy, commercial, environmental and sorry, and what sort of government it myself.
sorry got.
my arrhythmic, I'm just pull that one off.
thank you, yeah energy supply. My mind mistake I was, I couldn't read the one in the Green, so they're the four key themes that the city as a whole needs to concentrate on in order to reduce the majority of the the any gig and the carbon emissions related to this. It's a tall order that ask is for the 96% reduction between 2021 data usage of consumption to 2041. It's achievable, but it's ambitious but still achievable subject to us putting the right measures in place, and thank you and having the the right partnerships, collaboration and buy-in and support not only from the Council but
stakeholders, businesses, academia and others, including our residents.
the illustration here gives you the provides a route map with pivots along the along the timescale of 2026 2031 2036 and then finally 2045.
the boxes represent the different organisations that we would look to engage on this, on where the responsibility lies, the council cannot and will not be able to achieve this by itself there boxes in green on national government, then the West Midlands Combined Authority, and then those in purple ourselves.
that also distributed when it comes to the Council or in the purple boxes.
our residents, so it's the whole of the city, not just the the Council itself,
getting buy-in from stakeholders. Businesses, academia is fundamental in taking fall or all of these, but also the grant fund, or that the funding streams that government have been talking about into in terms of coming forward in a meeting these milestones we will monitor and reflect on the different stages of the of the route, the of the pathway to understand where we are and have regular checkpoints. It's important that we pivotal flex and we keep it adaptable, that if there are new opportunities that come up or more challenge, some challenges that are greater than we thought they were, that we are now time to reflect on that and moving us like the different direction or concentrate on new option, our opportunities that come our way
the priorities are in front to you were going to theme, these take them across different avenues, it ties back to the action plans for each of the priorities are themed, the action plan has 20 actions on at the moment and we're looking at your work with your input and feedback are they aligned are they where we need to be other where we want to be and what our residents and stakeholders are looking for as well?
so those the action plans again, you will have had all of these in your pack and, in the detailed report as well, the consultation itself, we will be looking to have our online survey that we do for all corporate surveys. We are also having a queue up to scan, as proposed a QR code generated so that when we're outta events were organising a number of events in person events across the city, they will range from going to Youth Councillor in a couple of weeks' time through to family hubs, businesses, the university ignite and various others, but this is also where we come back to you to ask for your input and where we can support you of what we can support each other
in other venues and other avenues of communicating this as well, we will have a series of digital tablets that we will take to each of the in-person consultations, so those without devices, we will provide them the access to be able to get online and help and support and help and guide them through completing the survey online but given the context behind it as well, so where that's happening we've already identified a few locations but I'll have somebody the City Centre and through my engagement with,
businesses, we will go out to businesses, businesses as well, so we've got about a dozen locations and dates identified at the moment, but we're more than happy to continue doing further on those as well, we will analyse all the details and then, once we have that we will come back to Scrutiny in early next year provided the feedback of where we are and the evaluation before we then take you through the normal governance processes to get it formally adopted, I'll stop there and and offer for any questions
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:13:19
thank you payment, it's quite a lengthy documents, lots of information, yet before I open it up to the Members, could I just ask?
I was wondering.
excuse me,
sorry, it was wondering about a soft ammonia simply for the public, whether they could come along to that, because, although the consultation document is there, but we're not seen people face-to-face, and sometimes I think, seeing pupils face to face to bring them alongside you might be quite useful and it was very successful last time John road split was involved with that.
so it is that something that you you would consider, thank you.
Perminder Balu - 0:14:00
more than happy to to to take that on board whether we do that as part of the consultation process itself to have everybody together, all it's a you filled in the survey and we go back to those people who have left the their contact details and we given what the outcome of it is about more than happy to work and and take that forward I think it's a great idea thank
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:14:22
thank you for that, I'd like to open up to members start with Councillor D Hall.
Cllr Jasbinder Dehar - 0:14:32
three-year Chair, thank you sail, thank you for the report, so I'm just wondering the consultation are we gonna have representatives in different languages going into place, a subway sheep institutions, and also we've got the volley meddler coming as well in the West Park as well?
Perminder Balu - 0:14:54
thank you, short answer is yes and Councillor D Hall, I recall you kindly making enough of open jobs radio at a previous meeting as well, I speak fluent in GB, I remember my team is fluent in another language or in another language as well, and we will work with our team, we will work with the online translation to support an part of going out into the community and focusing on family hubs is that we engage with communities.
there's a lot of sectors of of of the city which will engage in this, whether we talked to him or not.
I am concentrating on those that we don't necessarily hear from and and engaged and feel part of a consultation of this nature, so that is my focus, but my colleagues have got similar focuses on other things
Cllr Jasbinder Dehar - 0:15:46
as well, yes, thank you for that also an interfaith Wolverhampton or have a database if you want to get in contact with them solace different organisations and the Chair.
more than happy to receive that information and take that forward, thank you.
Perminder Balu - 0:15:59
thank you, Councillor D, Councillor high at.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:16:05
thank you Chair.
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:16:10
Preminger when I did get come, as there was no support nothing from the Council whatsoever, therefore, as far as I'm concerned, the only way that you can go is up in supporting councillors to share environmental issues and work that's been done to tackle the climate crisis when I look at least 10
action points that 20 action points that you've got.
this opportunity for smoke and mirrors and now leave the straight this if you look at 14 and bed net 0 carbon in sick, now sick, now next say.
yeah 7 and 10 sorry.
that's my next point, if you look at number 7, enhance the delivery of business decarbonisation support programme through the UK shared prosperity fund to provide energy assessments and funding for energy efficient improvements, excuse me, excuse me Councillor, how it could
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:17:10
you refer to the page, please all that bright it's it's the page 70 and it's where we've got the 20 action Points.
thank you.
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:17:19
OK that they occur twice in the in the documents, but it's where there's 20 action Points non mine, it's page 70.
if you've got it differently, if you know anything Jake teen on, we've right page 18 on yours right, and then if you look at number 10, develop a collective purchasing framework, spoke the widespread deployment of rooftop solar, an existing buildings, nor are they Council buildings which, in which case that point should be lodged with what the Council is doing to make itself net 0 or are they public buildings again?
are they business buildings that you'll be sporting businesses to have them those traction points
belong the same day if, if they're about businesses, then purchasing a framework to support the deployment of rooftop solar becomes part of.
funding energy efficiency improvements for business decarbonisation I don't think this when you when you think about what those action points mean they are, some of them are overlapping on the
there is commonality between the whole between through the all the action plans, but that also ties it together to show that the linkages in the different areas in terms of whether the one of the same
but the UK shared prosperity funded external government funding.
that that's access by individual organisations and businesses, where we're looking at number 10 on on the list in terms of rooftop solar, where we may well I mentioned earlier in the presentation that this is a whole city approach, it's all our buildings obviously evaluating whether the public, public sector buildings or individuals or sorry residents,
social, housing and businesses, so it's a collective approach on evaluating what that company that can be, but if you feel there is room for manoeuvre there, then we can we can have a look around as part of coming coming here today.
with regards critical mass when that took place, we were in the early stages of of development of this and we we wanted to come out, but we weren't developed enough to be able to go out with the community and take something forward, but further events were more than happy to to to engage right when they did chair with your permission I'd got.
two points to make if that's OK
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:19:59
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:20:00
two further ones, OK two points, thank you, then there is the second thing is, if you look at the it was 14, wasn't which was
0yes, you've Oscar, embed Net Zero carbon a sickie company principles into procurement process across the Council, so that does that mean to support businesses in demonstrating that they've got a route to net 0.
before you know, as part before, you would procure from them, because that's what's happening in investments.
OK at the moment we already have a sustainable procurement policy, what we're looking to work with colleagues to see how we need to enhance that as well, because that looks at climate aspects, but it doesn't necessarily we could capture the circular economy element of it, we were fortunate enough in Wolverhampton to be the first in the region to launch a reuse hub together it was taken forward by
local voluntary Voluntary Service ASAP, and the reuse hub coming forward, so having that being fundamental part of what we do now, that circular economy is given that prominence as well, in addition to enhancing what we have on environmental credentials and and taking that forward so that that's key David Drew,
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:21:29
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:21:30
yes, David, so just a couple of quick points, so I think one of the key things here and I raise the question about smoke and mirrors is is actually being absolutely transparent with our residents. So we we, we
David Pattison - 0:21:39
get, the data will be tracking at exactly as within the 2028 and then sharing it, and indeed that's what the strategy is talking about actually certain milestones and then actually making sure we share that. They said the the issue about the critical mass. One of the challenges is that took place in June, which obviously we were in pre-election period for the general election. It is mid-June. I do believe there will support from the
I think it's the Strategic Lead for
service Lee transport also gave some support in relation to, but actually there were limits on what we could do it, because we weren't pre-election period as well.
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:22:15
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:22:17
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:22:18
can I make my that playing at your last question, I don't know if you've nicked, it must be still have gotten our website, but their action plan is extremely transparent, invisible, unavailable to the public any way that this is only now business cases because that's Revolut athlete passed the 20 principles enough gun-shy business case because that's the how that's the how are you going to do it? That's the most important part of all the pages that you've presented to us, some of which are repetitive
it's the, how are you going to do it, and that's the most important part I mean you haven't included food, most of the sort of action plans will include food as well, and food is not him not mentioned, neither are many of the community groups that are already there.
as part of the civic economy.
I won't sit a mapping exercises because Manchester got National Lottery money to set up environmental hubs within the community.
we recycle coats, we recycle school uniform, we recycle children's toys, we we, we have a cyclic economy for Stephen newborn babies.
all of the six already exist in our city, but they were things that Manchester was able to pull in a huge amount of money for setting up across Manchester, and we are already doing them as a city embedded within our communities, we are actually doing quite a lot and it would be good to see that reflected.
in the business plan for the circular economy, because there are things to be built upon.
thank you Chair.
you want to come back Pimenta thank you through future.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:24:11
Perminder Balu - 0:24:13
we have got details within the plan relating to plant biomass and the food aspect of it as well, perhaps it's not as prominent as you would like, but it is in there, but this is part of that development process that we're going through at the moment there are many great things that the city is doing a wonderful city, we can't capture everything in every document every time.
and I'm aware of a number of the elements that you've just mentioned in terms of Toy libraries or tools, libraries, recycling and bringing furniture forward through donations to refugees and everything so where copies of closely through with genuine John, so they're not detailed here that's not that we're ignoring or more we're not taking them into account because we're doing though all that good stuff already.
it's a weighty hearty document already if we included all the fantastic stuff we're doing already, you would definitely say that we're repeating stuff that we're doing, but we would lose the loose, the messaging, that we're trying to bring forward a year or on on this as well, so I'm really thankful for what we do already, I just not included in here at the moment but we will bounce on to those good things and we will use and hopefully
get support from those organisations as well, when we go out as part of the consultation, and equally thank you for the the link that you you provided a few weeks ago as well for additional support and advertising, the through Joshua that you, you mentioned on who has done some good work on promoting this agenda as well, so I will certainly be following up on that thank you.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:25:48
thank you parliamentary right, Councillor, but thank you Chair.
Cllr Alan Butt - 0:25:52
also on section 14, the procurement link. I think that with procurement it, it's a moving recipe and menu all the time and each changing at the moment nationally, and that's about to be amended. I think it's down as medium term here I don't know how long the menu of that is in years as a medium term, but I think it needs to be a higher priority than medium because if you want to bring SMEs along and all the major businesses, you've got to work with them, know what the impact is gonna, be for them, they're gonna have major out lies to achieve even a small part of this, and I would like to say it something a bit more in a priority for the procurement side and maybe an update from procurement on where they're at at the moment with it. Our procurement team
thank you Chair.
Pimenta, which I'd like to come back on that, and can also only take
Perminder Balu - 0:26:52
that up with the procurement team and and have a conversation, if you would like, then do the company it or whether a different scrutiny meeting and and and feedback on that that's absolutely fine.
I fully agree with your first comments in terms of it's a moving feast base that we can prepare for what we know at the moment, and the dialogue and engagement that I've had to date and will continue to have is organisation certainly SMEs need to be ready with environmental credentials need to be ready, need to understand what their DSG's are because they will be asked for this and be transparent in what they're doing so making sure that,
their own organisations if they have premises that aware of what they'd environmental footprint is how they got a nominated person for environmental matters because they will miss out on procurement, and that was a conversation I was having with businesses this morning around that very thing and a lot of them already ahead of the curve. They're far. They've already got this because the international building organisations, but even somebody SMEs, are really clever and savvy, and that's part of the support that the Council is being taken forward with them and the engagement and the workshops through city development that a lot that have happened at
ignite to help get businesses ready as well, so that will be a core messaging part of what we take forward at its core to the bottom line, as well as what we need to do for the environment.
Cllr Alan Butt - 0:28:23
medium term, what do you mean by medium term, how many years?
Perminder Balu - 0:28:27
that would look to be about five years, but again, where we mentioned that we will flex and pivot, but if we need to bring that forward and concentrate on something else and this opportunity or government funding comes forward and we need to to do something else so,
all of these are slightly fluid, but there are some core elements that we have to do in the next couple of years to position ourselves to be in the right place for later on.
thank you for that Councillor Hughes, Joint Task question yeah might
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:28:56
have very quick question.
Cllr Stephanie Haynes - 0:29:00
what's in SMA, I'm sorry if everybody else knows, but I don't know.
small and medium-sized enterprises yeah, businesses up to 500 people
Perminder Balu - 0:29:08
but and turnover, I think it's of 0 1 up to 1.5 million notes or something of that ilk, but it's generally speaking, is your small organisation knew new businesses starting?
thank you, Councillor Green.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:29:25
sorry, you, Chair, thank you.
Cllr Sally Green - 0:29:27
so per minder, A fresh, not as reports hint through the really interesting and while we're capturing all the different groups and
going out to different areas in everything.
what about the children?
are we likely to run a similar sort of consultation and get our children's points of views on this, let's face it, they're gonna be around a lot longer than any of us are also the buildings, the school buildings.
I only know, possibly, of one, where there is a link service between the school and a community, because they use a biomass boiler, so are we talking with the TFA around school buildings, who are we talking to around heritage buildings, who we can't put solar panels on or things like that, so we're talking to Heritage as well as to their view on what can be done.
thank you, parliament.
through Utah, I'll take schools first.
Perminder Balu - 0:30:32
my first port of call after this, and your feedback is Youth Council. That's been on the agenda for more, probably 6 7 weeks already, so I want to make sure that that we've got their call that meeting, to go straight back to the Youth Council to get their views, help, ask them what they had input is and how we go back to it. They will go and part of my ask to them will be to go back to their respective schools and colleges to ask if we can come in and have that conversation. We obviously have colleagues who liaise directly on schools and deal with schools, school buildings. There are a number of schools that are already putting solar PV in or having in and as part of the city-wide, because it didn't fall into the 2028 action plan, but as part of the city-wide element. Now schools are fundamentally part of that as well. So I would internal colleagues, we've got a direct line into all the schools and we will be taking that up, one of the venues that we have secured, moving onto your heritage comment, is the art gallery just across the way we actively want to use art as part of communicating the 2041 strategy.
working closely with them, the the venue, it's specifically being chosen to be able to draw people in to also then explain when you have a heritage building of this nature, it's extremely difficult to do.
it's very challenging, given the listed nature of it, what the the the way the whole system works, the roof and everything else. So we can have those conversations, I've dealt with English Heritage on many listed buildings and scheduled ancient monuments. I know that planning and all other protections are the problem, so I am fully aware of how difficult that can be, but it's part of that communication and having it at the Art Gallery allows us to both tick the box of showing and educating others about listed buildings and the wonderful building that it is, which some of them may not have been to. Hopefully it's an attractor that they can get increase footfall at a later date after the consultation and we can have that conversation about 2041. At the same time,
thank you for it out per minder Councillor, saying thank you Chair.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:32:56
Cllr Harbinder Singh - 0:32:58
this question might before for John
considering of this, the Net Zero action plan.
and and considering the amount of the cost of the scaffolding outside this building, have we considered a solar panels or do we have solar panels in this Building order is is something that's been planned rather nationally a year, spending on our money, our scaffolding again and and also we've got a few high-rise flats in just of Dovedale Road.
and they're that actually a year.
the and actually paying all the roofs, and so have we considered a solar panels are for for the high-rise flats, are to start off with our buildings and then moving on, thank you.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:33:47
I think David, you indicated you like to answer that.
yeah, I am more than happy to, so the answer is we do already have PV cells on this building.
David Pattison - 0:33:57
Councillor saying, but we just getting the details and exactly how much so we've just done an energy audit on this building as part of our commitment working out. Actually what scope is there to put more on, so we've been doing exactly that work and indeed we've got it on cultural or other buildings as well, but we are actually really pushing hard to see what other options there might be in and this is obviously, as we know, this is about the city wider and actually how we can support businesses to find funding and streams to help them do that to and to to to ensure that our city becomes net 0. I think one of the things that's really important that this report is actually also how we're trying to stimulate the the green industry in our city as well, because actually that is one of the key things is
Lincoln with the green innovation corridor, how we can help provide the jobs of the future for our young people in our residents, so actually you know.
if you think about the jobs that were the jobs that people thought, they would say when I was a child in year back in the 70s and 80s, they're very, very different to the job now and actually the world has changed and that green technology that green revolution getting our city involved at an early stage will really help stimulate
that key thing of jobs for the future and also the industries, and that's where that Lincoln with and the University the College to actually make sure that there is a real pipeline of talent and the skills that that the our young people will need to the jobs of the future is really really important, so that's where this is coming in as well but as you know as a council as a as a as an over of buildings you are already have got a number of PV cells and we're looking to increase lap but I will get the details that ran on exactly how many we've got.
Cllr Harbinder Singh - 0:35:40
yeah, thank you, David, for the answer also we've got some work going
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:35:46
Cllr Harbinder Singh - 0:35:47
on on Dovedale high rise, flats on Dovedale Road and Falcon Crescent, it's a lot of money that's being spent on that, do we have any higher solar panels on that OK?
David, the I'll get these Helsing all getting sent round to you, so I
David Pattison - 0:36:04
don't have that immediately in front of me, but I'll get that sent to to the to the panel.
thank you, Councillor Haynes, it's just really to follow on from
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:36:14
Cllr Stephanie Haynes - 0:36:15
Councillor Green suggestion about those schools emergency jobs summit, though, have we been to churches plazas because I know the church is a dicey, will have a carbon Net Zero Plan and that they are very, very enthusiastic about so I just wondered whether you know we could Lincoln we then perhaps and I unless you already have of course so just to see if they are to work alongside them as well.
Faith centres have been identified and were looking at the motif
Perminder Balu - 0:36:43
multifaith organisations as well across the city to to bring that equation in, and it's not necessarily. It's not only engaging with congregations on a one-to-one or individual level, but, like you mentioned the buildings themselves, and there are wide-scale operations across the city that need to come in and they need to play that they'd need to play a fundamental element of this. Many are still, like many other parts of the country, falling into disrepair, something to repair the roof, which churches generally always are. Then that's an ideal time to take it or be innovative and put in solar, which is the roof. So yes, it's. It is part of the the engagement process
yeah, so I know that in the dirty Birmingham they are solar panelling
Cllr Stephanie Haynes - 0:37:30
on and I'm sure they are in in Lichfield as well, so.
Councillor green, you'd like to ask a question.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:37:42
Cllr Sally Green - 0:37:43
yeah, through Utah, set for Monday, you saying about solar panels, so what are would be the benefits as well?
as technology moves forward, we now have the use of people being able to actually buy solar tiles, so what is the offset, or what do you know what the differences between?
approve having or been all solar tiles or part of it, compared to having two or three or four solar panels on the top of it do we have any data around that at all?
thank you Chair.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:38:18
Perminder Balu - 0:38:18
through Utah. Like many things in many elements, it depends on who the manufacturer, it is what the type bigger. There are some solar panels, which are called by facial solar panels on its actually to in one so the first panel allows the sunlight to penetrate through, but he also generates energy before it hits the second panel, the second panel. The same surface area might only be one panel. Innovation that technology is moving at such a pace that we're trying to keep up with this, but what that also allows us to do is be creative where if roofspace is not available now we can look at the façade of the building because you can get films, you can get. There is really clever ways of doing different things that will help also the appearance, so you can get architectural appearance from me, but also energy generation as well. So I think I don't believe will be able to give you an answered in terms of what this product or that product would be able to do. There are general market analysis out there, but that mark the industry is moving faster. Than we can. We can do the analysis on it and we would look to take that on board and actually utilise for innovation. David mentioned the green innovation corridor skills and training. Well, this is where we need to be moving forward, so our children or those looking to reskill
you know, you might have been, or a car mechanic or a plumber for a long time, but now you want to move into renewable energy well, this is the skills and technology that we as a city are looking to bring into the city work with our ecology to the universities and take those skills forward the opportunity through this programme to really up uplift our skills levels and be prepared for the new jobs that are yet to be even thought about.
is a big part of this and we want to make sure that we're right on the cusp of bringing forward, or all of that creativity and working with industry and academia to make sure that we're in a great place for our residents yet to come and those who wish to reskill.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:40:23
thank you for doubt, the last question, Councillor die-hard, thank you through you, Chair.
Cllr Jasbinder Dehar - 0:40:31
so about two years ago some of the them face institutions approached me and married having solar panels on their buildings.
and I'm just wondering I mean, will we I mean if they want to lead, how will we do that I call there'll be funding, or how would we do that?
because there was a question they asked me.
yes, upon winter.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:40:57
Perminder Balu - 0:40:57
we can quite Hoe more than happy to engage and have those conversations and where, like with businesses, were sign posting. Let's say in this example, the UK shared prosperity fund. There are other options and availability. I work closely in a different capacity or across the West Midlands and on our Birmingham. Interfaith society are doing a lot of work on bringing forward funding opportunities for grant funding outbreak centres. It doesn't matter with what fade centres and I'm more than happy to my part up. My bringing to this process and engaging with others is bringing forward that knowledge sharing as well. So I'm more than happy to make those introductions, but I album thank you Chair
Cllr Jasbinder Dehar - 0:41:37
thank you for your answer, nor these questions from different directions, so thank you it's been very comprehensive, I'd like to
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:41:46
make a proposal that maybe if we could have a copy of the energy report that you mentioned in it, because I think that might be useful for Members to have a look at in terms of energy if the the building that Councillor Singh actually mentioned.
excuse him.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:42:17
I was just looking at page 22 and the recommendations they are just.
within two of those plus the work, can we just?
what's the word?
I endorse the fact endorse the recommendations on page 22 by the Members, please.
she lost, but propose that can have a proposal great place.

6 City Housing Complaints Performance and Service Improvement Report 2023-24

and seconder of saying thank you, that's gone ahead, thank you, but we're on to the next agenda item on your complaints, performance and service improvement report, I'd like to invite joined, Roseblade, directed ref Residents' Services, and Jenny Lewington Deputy Director of City housing to present the report.
thank you, Chair and Lord Davide from my, I'll do a short introduction
John Roseblade - 0:43:10
of the item and then Jenny will take us through the the meat of the report so.
I think first of all this is a new requirement introduced by the Housing Ombudsman,
and it is a requirement to undertake an annual report to our governing body and for these purposes that that that is you.
on the performance against complaints about housing, now we all know that as Councillors, you will have a long list of casework relating to housing onshore, and I think it's fair to say, chaired the purpose of tonight is not go into the detail of that but to deal with the overall performance.
and certainly look at, I think what is very important about what has been done in response to some of those complaints.
without wanting to to to lower the tone, but I think it is a very important point.
we were all very acutely aware of the the the recent Grenfell report and others as well as a as a consequence of that sort of horrific events that happened there. The report was very clear about the importance of the Tenants' voice and the ability to make complaints to raise issues and what is absolutely vital is how they are responded to recorded or and and and basically those people are listened to, and this forms part of that process so that the the there is very key fundamental, important point that the that runs alongside this
if you just go on to the deck slide, Jenny
we obviously see the recommendations, and that is to note the the the report, to consider the contents and performance in areas identified and then importantly to provide a response which will form part of the publication of the report.
later on, or certainly before the end of the month, so I think Chair I'll hand over to Jenny but with the thought of you know what what the panel might want to offer forward, as as comment and in association with the report.
OK thanks.
3 Chair so key questions for Scrutiny to consider the analysis of the
Jenny Lewington - 0:45:48
complaints, including the number of complaints, our performance timescales for a response and the themes of those complaints, you may want to consider the service improvements that we've identified in the report and, as John said, provide your thoughts and comments to be published alongside this report.
so, as as John said, the social Housing Regulation Act empowered the Housing Ombudsman to set a complaints code and this report forms part of that requirement, we as the Council we we are the landlord and it is our responsibility to provide a self assessment to the Ombudsman and how we handle complaints how our housing managing agents handled them on our behalf. So this report provides you that analysis of the number of complaints, the themes and then our learning from those complaints.
this presentation will outline briefly the complaints received by our for managing agents, however, you should note that the detail in the report covers the three managing agents because at the time of this report new part village had an active supervision noticed so their management arrangements were being provided by Wolverhampton home, so that's why you're 3 See detail on Bushbury Dove Cote and Wolverhampton home specifically you'll see a summary of the housing Ombudsman's findings for 23 24 and the proposed improvements to the complaints handling process.
and, as John suggested, this is not about the nature of individual complaints, but about whether we've got a sufficient process for handling complaints and our timescales and the learning that we take from those complaints to ultimately improve services for tenants.
so the first managing agent.
to be considered in the report is Bushbury Hill and won't spend too long talking about Bushbury because I shall say their complaint numbers are very low, they had two complaints.
low numbers of complaints are not necessarily a good thing, and what more touch on that? At the end, Bushby died only received two complaints and they were resolved within timescales. The third pie chart on their looks at tenant satisfaction around her. It's a perception measure, so our independent organisation acuity, who have handled added tenant satisfaction measures, survey 300 tenants in Bush Bray to consider how and ask them how satisfied they were with complaints handling. So whilst you can see there's a level of dissatisfaction, a lot of that is down to the perception rather than the actual handling of that complaint.
and again, the learning, because the numbers were so low, rather than learning, specifically from a complaint and the themes of the complaints, what will be looking at with Bush breeze more about ascertaining whether their complaints handling processes well communicated with a tenants know how to comply and because the low numbers that might be something that we want to to focus on,
OK, The 2nd managing agent is duff coats the smallest of the managing agents to be considered in this paper, they received four complaints.
or resolved at stage 1 and all resolved within timescale, and again you can still see the tenant satisfaction on the right-hand side of the side, 46% were satisfied with the handling of complaints.
Duff Coates, one of the themes that was picked up was around board member, or I'm sorry, I'm trying to handle two devices at once.
do you want to do that, but there we go, thank you teamwork.
OK, so one of the themes of dugouts, complaints that we've picked up was about board member involvement, but it's worth highlighting that board member involvement in a complaint with the tenant management organisation isn't unusual, those board members are very close to the community and very often might be the first point of contact for a tenant, so that's not unusual not something to be concerned about.
and then we do pick up in the report the complaint-handling failure order that was received by Dove Cote, so the Housing Ombudsman will have found the council.
found severe with malice, severe maladministration by the landlord that that's the council and that that comes to us from the ombudsman, but we then pick that up with Dove Cote, we look at the learning from the Ombudsman's findings and we will oversee the make any improvements to make sure that those examples of any failures don't happen again.
OK, so I'm moving onto Wolverhampton homes, our large ICSs managing agent. When I was relying on you, thank you very much. So Wolverhampton homes, our largest managing agent and, like I said at the time of this report, also managing the properties on New part. Village on the Council's behalf, so Wolverhampton homes received 381 complaints and you will note that the numbers on those two charts don't add up. That is because the complaints can be recorded in more than one category, so a complaint could involve repairs and communication, for example, but it is 381 complaints that were received that is relatively low for a landlord or managing agent of that size.
on the next slide, so you can see on this side, as well as the complaints, we also look at non-exec salad enquiries and that is enquiries that either didn't reach complaints stage but were of negative nature or were rejected as part of the complaints process. This is definitely an area that you'll see in our improvements page, something that we need to make, sure we are recording correctly. I think there is some misunderstanding around what the ombudsman and the regulator considered. I non escalated inquiry, and particularly our
in terms of how we record those, there's some work to do to make sure that we do capture all of those.
so Wolverhampton homes do consider their complaints, they do report complaints and themes of those complaints to a committee that reports to their Board.
and they have made improvements in response to those complaints, so some of those improvements can be seen on that slide.
and those complaints are scrutinised, not only in terms of compliance, but in terms of satisfaction, surveys, tenant satisfaction, and we also bringing other elements to make sure that we are hearing the Tenant voice so Wolverhampton homes have a number of tenant panels and other ways to hear from tenants so that is brought into that Panel then that feeds up to the board.
the report sets out the number of ombudsman enquiries and full investigation in the report, and there's more information in the pack about those specifically.
but most importantly, it about how we identify the improvements from those compliance and what we're learning from them. So in line with our duty to monitor complaints, we have identified potential areas for improvement to work and monitor our managing agents on. So we will be looking at tenant perception of, and why is our tenants perception of how complaints are handled so low? We are not an outlier in this area. Early TS them tenant satisfaction measure data from across the country does suggest that tenant satisfaction in terms of how complaints are handled is relatively low. So we are not an outlier in this area, but once we've had the full years' worth of TS them data published by the the Ombudsman, it is an area of investigation that we intend to look at
we do, as part of our low numbers of complaints, need to satisfy ourselves that the complaints process is that tenants have to go through, are clear there easy to understand because that low level of complaints, and also we know you as Councillors received complaints directly and that could suggest today that we're not communicating it well or that tenants don't think that their complaint will be handled in a timely fashion if they go through the complaints route so that's something that we're looking at with the reform managing agents and like I talked about earlier that,
element of non escalated complaint. That is something we need to work on, we need to make sure everybody understands the definite definition of that, because if we are handling service requests or expressions of dissatisfaction and not recording them as complaints, we need to make sure that they have been handled correctly. Tenants don't feel that they aren't being unable to access the complaints process, so we need to do some additional work in that area.
so that's a summary of the report, welcome your questions and your feedback, thank you.
thank you for a good report I could open up to members Councillor.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:55:02
Jenny Lewington - 0:55:03
Cllr Jasbinder Dehar - 0:55:06
through Chair, thank you to any further report, so 9.0 page 13 so Wolverhampton home complaints overview so it says here other 34, could you explain what other is, thank you.
in all honesty, no, I can't.
Jenny Lewington - 0:55:30
but I will go back to the categories, those categories are quite comprehensive, so it's going to be, quite it's going to be an outlier in terms of what those individual complaints were about that and 34 isn't there, so but I will go back and look at the detail. I think probably because they don't fit in one of those categories will have to go and look at those and see what the nature of them where, but I will go back and find that out for yes, thank you. It would be nice to
Cllr Jasbinder Dehar - 0:55:53
have the data back, but thank you for that. Thank you Chair
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:55:56
Councillor Hyde.
thank you Chair.
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:56:04
but those lots that was good, I felt him what you said there's there's lots attack could relate to improving the experience of my residents in what you said and many times they experience of my residents has ended up being positive after they've complaints and and I've joined in and it's ended up being positive and one of these was the home sales complaints which is on page 9 10.5,
and you've either missed something Goff or it's not been recorded, which could be reflection of your comment about the need to appreciate things from the client speci perception with home sales complaints, as I was part of this process with one of my residents where I got there was a commitment to improve the amount of information that was shared on the journey.
and there was a thought to include expected timescales and better manage customer expectation.
I was part of of the process, I was told that it is going to be I T work to give prompts to so that whoever is handling any particular case will be receiving those prompts and will know that communication should be potentially a next step but also in this part of the the to residents that were part of making this happen, I think one of them had declared mental health needs.
and with a declared mental health needs, there was a point of order Chair, excuse me, 0, we're not going into specifics Sotwell, parents,
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:57:45
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:57:49
sweetheart, Joan Jonas general point, thank you, as it declared mental health needs point of Audit Chair I think you know.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:57:57
not not for all all residents, if all residents speak to Wolverhampton homes and have a declared mental health need who I think I think
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:58:08
that's true specific is that two specific because it relates to OK,
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:58:10
thank you not appropriate for this meeting, I'm afraid, alright and I
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:58:12
apologise.
Wanda Jamie about the the complaints issue, whether there were some
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 0:58:23
dicey satisfaction between the tenants actually coming forward about a complaint and how they kind of go about that.
what what are the outcomes of that, I think several people we know as Councillor to come to us instead of coming to say Wolverhampton, homes or duplicates so.
obviously they're feeling that their voice isn't being heard, so why have you got any thoughts on that place?
thank you Chair.
Jenny Lewington - 0:58:57
the tenant satisfaction measures when tenants are asked about their satisfaction of how a complaint has been handled, and it's it's a perception measure, so they needn't have actually had a complaint to be resolved, but it's important that they feel like they are able to complain and they will be listened to if they do complain, but that does ask foreseeable some additional information from the tenants that have contacted over the phone, so we are able to analyse the themes, actually the ability to complain and understanding the process isn't a theme that we've pulled out. We have pulled out other themes of complaints, so it might be that
one of the themes is about tenants feel risk failing, respected and listened to if a contact over the phone and elements like that dignity and respect they treated are they treated well when they contact our managing agents, and we also pull out the themes of complaints. But what you've said, Chair is is absolutely something we are looking at, we are scrutinising and we will do so, probably through different channels, so probably through some of the tenant panels and our direct contact with those tenants groups as to whether they feel and their experiences that they understand the process. It's well communicated it's easy to get through on the the phone or complained via e-mail et cetera because, whilst it hasn't come out as a key theme in the tenant satisfaction measures, the low numbers of complaints suggest to us that that is something we need to look at, because that it's not quite right that we would expect numbers to be slightly higher, we would still want timescales to be met for responses, et cetera, but
we would probably expect the numbers to be higher, so we will be looking into that
not something that I picked up, the numbers are fed of earlier law
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:00:43
considered and the nightlife houses, I'm really West Councillor as we get more than and that one complaint.
Councillor Brackenridge, thank you, Chair, and and and it is a concern
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:00:55
of mine, the low number. It does seem strange, encountering intuitive when you sign and we've got a low number of complaints. Something must be wrong, but with the amount of tenants we got clearly, we would
Cllr Greg Brackenridge - 1:01:06
expect more mafia is that if, if tenants are struggling to register, repairs or compliant, because we may be more towards online and I'll do support that, but without that face-to-face, and I'll talk about the closure of all Roehampton housebuilding in Wednesfield when you close those centres, there's less places for certain groups of people to make those complaints or to
ask for those who pays, so what we see these councillors effectively becoming a default option to report issues to every councillor, you will speak to, will get certain people that will just found them first, and not the Council and reported to us, and we become the Council for them not a problem with that that's what we're here for but,
I think that with more face to face.
and with more accessible routes for more people, I think that's where we'd probably redress this issue.
but I do agree with you are now the issues are now the contracts, and now it's difficult, but I think you probably getting a low number of compliance because you got 60 councillors here, all of whom are taking on a lot of housing issues at the first point of contact, thank you.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:02:20
John
thank you Chair, I've just coming back on that specific points as
John Roseblade - 1:02:29
well, so if Councillor Hussain, a high number of case load and residents using Councillors as the first point of contact isn't really sustainable, it is not the way it should work, so I think one of the things about this process as well and we were doing it to a certain degree anyway, but this is a very detailed look at how complaints are handled and the complaints system so the fact that we're
actually putting this lens over this one and you know lift in lifting the lid of it is is is actually a very positive process, because we this is about going into the nub of why did residents feel that way and how do they make complaints and can they have easy access and know how to make sure that their voices are heard?
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:03:23
thank you for that, Councillor, his yeah, just gone on from Councillor
Cllr Stephanie Haynes - 1:03:25
back from ridges comment, actually if.
if?
if they do come to us first and its registered with us, and we put it in through cancer support, does that register as a complaint with yourselves?
because if it doesn't, that could be where some of the complaints are being missed, so I'd just was sitting here thinking it does come to us and way raise it with you, does that registers a complaint?
because of the country.
Cllr Greg Brackenridge - 1:04:01
on that point, cheered up or Woody badging not are not all listen to the officers of because a lot of the issues around getting and I'm sure with the Council's or he them talking about it will be about we need to repair or we need something like that but the down that there were issues with the phone lines we've made huge strides in that now but I think for it to be registered a complaint he would have to go through the formal complaints process.
and I have advised people how to do that, because the one unaware that there was even one in existence that's down to education of the public and each another issue, but I do want to congratulate the Officer and agree with him that we lifting the lid on something here and it's good to turn over the stands sometimes you find things that are not great, let's let's keep going with that philosophy.
yeah, just to back that year, I think it's great that you turning the
Cllr Stephanie Haynes - 1:04:53
stone ever basically and having a look underneath is down and to just carried out on, but I just wondered if that is possibly why the numbers are low compared to what we get in our inboxes, I suppose.
John Roseblade - 1:05:10
I don't think they are reported through that system, so if I I'm just having numbers scribbled next to me and the numbers through the Councillor support Unit seem significantly higher than is what is being reported there. Now, the there may well be different, some of those might be service requests, so you know, ringing up contain more toilets broken is a service request, bringing obtain. You said you would come out on Tuesday and you haven't is a complaint, so there may be differences, but that is certainly something we can take away and make sure that if it is going through, see you that it is reported as part of this process.
that's good, thank you, Councillor Green.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:05:54
Cllr Sally Green - 1:05:59
3 Chair and costs Wolverhampton wake up, small pockets are.
Bathampton, homes or whatever, not quite big estates, where they don't have any tenant representation, because they're not big enough to form a cowboy or even have a representative. How do we make sure that these little pockets don't get left behind and of course, while we're still very much digital champions, never seen, we still have to be mindful of our alien population who,
then, basically, been able to negotiate with the phone and knows that they can win, but to do anything online is that of the question we making sure we're not missing those.
we would like to pick her up Jonny yeah, thank you.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:06:46
thank you, Councillor Green,
Jenny Lewington - 1:06:48
in terms of tenant engaged, and we should have opportunities across a car across a spectrum of opportunities, shouldn't have to go to a tenant and resident Association to be involved in your managing agent, so we should be providing other opportunities, not just online, and I'm conscious that some of the examples I'll give you will be online. So there are online panels and we have had Facebook Live events where people have been able to feed in there will be one-off events like the old get together and if you've been watching all the Hampton homes page in Facebook page, in particular recently, by having increased their engagement opportunities quite significantly in the last couple of months, with informal opportunities as well, so droppings, coffee events, sort of
nice informal opportunities where there's not a a sort of formal engagement, ask it's just to come in, have a conversation with us, talk to your estate manager, talk to your tenancy officer, tell us what's going on on your estate, so there should be a variety of opportunity in terms of making a complaint, you are still able to walk into an office, there is housing presence in the Civic
you can make an appointment to go to Wednesfield, there is obviously the online opportunities and Wolverhampton homes have made a commitment to increase presence in localities, so they should be coming out to hubs and other community spaces in the future, but that's definitely an area of improvement, we are encouraging that improvement as well and I hope you will see in the next month next month next year.
significant improvements in that space, because it is something we're very conscious of fair and equal access to housing services, so there should be online and face-to-face.
thank you genuinely that's encouraging, thank you grab that Councillor bought.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:08:43
Cllr Alan Butt - 1:08:44
on what John said really yeah, if we identify a repair, is not a complaint review identified compliant the RHI I've been reporting Councillors support.
and then, if I know the officer concerned on Wolverhampton home say I would include them in that, but that's not enough to for it to be recorded as a complaint directly with Wolverhampton homes because if it then get dealt with fairly quickly it goes back to customer to Councillor support and I Margaret offers completed and I don't think the two are actually joining together to say was actually orangutan homes issue I think that's the problem.
so it we may need to have a particular way of recording complaints that would highlight them in a better way, possibly unjust reporting, an incident repair or whatever.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:09:38
right John, to pick that up year on for, as I say, we will commit to
John Roseblade - 1:09:42
take that away and I think it is more about the Councillor support unit is great and it does what he does and you get the response back. It is about at the other end either. The TMA or Wolverhampton homes make sure it goes into the proper system there and we're not talking about duplication, but we are talking about correct recording and reporting of those issues.
councillors thing.
thank you Chair 3
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:10:14
Cllr Harbinder Singh - 1:10:15
considering that the complaints are very low indeed, is it a language barrier, is the Rising song complaining or are considering how high the the survey results are but is a language barrier or do we have a language Line, therefore, for them to get their points across or complaints across or if that's something that we need to look into? Thank you.
other children's, but this is conferred Les journey yeah, thank you through YouTube.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:10:52
Jenny Lewington - 1:10:53
we we have as part of our oversight of Wolverhampton homes and another managing agents conceded access, fair and equal access to housing services and language is definitely something we have considered, it features heavily in our Department equality plan where we are assessing whether people are able to access our services and we consider things like language Wolverhampton homes do have the translate facility on their websites, our information can be translated and they would be at they would have access to language Line.
but that's not to say that we shouldn't keep considering that area of analysis, and it should be something that we look at when we do this particular investigation into whether customers know how to complain, are able to complain.
you know it's not good enough for us to assess that accessibility once we will continue to look at that through our equality analysis of those services,
right, thank you Joni Joan, could I just ask both on the Ombudsman's report, what options to that, and where does it go, please?
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:11:57
thank you Chair.
John Roseblade - 1:12:03
in relation to the Ombudsman report, it is recorded. We produce that, along with the comments of the Scrutiny Panel or did will will need to check, but we have a requirement to publish it. Sorry, did you want to come in that? David, thank you, so they, all of the ombudsman reports
David Pattison - 1:12:23
also go collectively so that they look at social care, and Ombudsman, and the Housing Ombudsman and the other Ombudsman reports go to governance and ethics Committee on an annual basis and includes details of all of those reports which are then published to our ward as well, so early something that there was a an annual report over 16 pages, with all of the details of all of those decisions that we don't want to governance and ethics Committee on 5th of September budget that with the public have access to
thank you for that.
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:12:56
I think there's a few things to pick up of in China after 10, certainly in terms of complaints to period go in what is a complaint, what isn't a complaint, so I think there's a little bit of groundwork to be done there so basically,
do the members recommend Scrutiny Board?
items 1 to 3 on page 4 of proposed at J, thank you seconder.
thank you, that's what about the?
Jones going to respond back to both Councillor inquiry.
the fourth recommendation is about.
reply to the gosh, I've forgotten, Councillor Cohen,
sorry, Councillor enquiries and you're gonna feed that back to us
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:13:50
right good, moving or night.

7 Climate Change, Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel - Draft Work Programme 2024 - 2025

agenda Item 6 climate change, Housing Communities, Scrutiny, Panel, the draft work programme like to invite all ticket Smith Scrutiny Officer to present the report.
thank you, Chair, that he. Obviously, the report sets out the current
Earl Piggott Smith - 1:14:09
work programme for the remainder of the municipal year. There obviously will be further tweaks to take account of some of the discussion has taken place today and that love again if Members are looking at the work programme. This particular points within the items listed as they would like further information on an obsolete and please contact me all through the Chair or Vice Chair. We continue to try and pick those up, and clearly one of the things we're trying to do is activities between meetings as well. So again, if there are issues at members fall within the remit of the Panel, the light to raise, and obviously they can contact me directly or the Chair or Vice Chair, to pick those up and will action those as soon as we're able to, but is there for comment Chair, thank you
are there any other comments or questions?
Cllr Barbara McGarrity QN - 1:14:55
so close the meeting, thank like to thank everybody for their contributions and footprint in the meeting to an end, thank you.