Agenda and minutes

[To receive any apologies for absence and notification of substitutions]. 

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Dr Michael Hardacre and Councillor Jasbinder Dehar.  The Chair commented that the Senior Governance Manager, Martin Stevens was unwell.   She sent good wishes on behalf of the Panel  and wished him a speedy recovery.

[To receive any declarations of interest]. 

Councillor Zee Russell declared an interest as a Board Member of Wolverhampton Homes.

[To approve the minutes of the meeting of the Vibrant and Sustainable City Scrutiny Panel held on 3 March 2022]. 

The minutes of the meeting held on the 3 March 2022 were confirmed as a correct record.

[To receive a presentation on WV Living Governance and Linked Companies]. 

The Chief Operating Officer gave a presentation on WV Living Governance and Linked companies. The Chief Operating Officer stated the importance of transparency by Local Authorities about the Local Authority bodies that they control.

The Chief Operating Officer had taken an overall report to the Resources and Equalities Scrutiny Panel setting out the approach for all the controlled companies and committed for each of those bodies to bring a report to the relevant Scrutiny Panel. The Residents Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel clearly had WV Living within its remit.

The Chief Operating Officer went through the background, under the Local Government Act 2003 (LGA 2003) and Localism Act 2011 (LA 2011), Local Authorities could own and control certain types of companies and other bodies such as Limited Liability Partnerships. As of 2018 Grant Thornton estimated that there were over 740 Local Authority owned companies with the largest proportion related to property and investment.

The types of bodies that there were, included; trading companies, certain joint ventures with other organisations, property companies, service provision companies including so called “Teckal” companies, whereby some Local Authorities ran services through companies they owned. A Legal framework provided that Local Authorities could trade using the power in the acts mentioned above.  More innovative methods to reduce costs were introduced due to the decline in popularity of outsourcing to the private sector and increased funding pressures on Local Authorities. The types of companies Local Authorities could have were those wholly owned companies by a single Local Authority, wholly owned by a collection of authorities, joint venture companies - such as Birmingham Airport and Limited Liability Partnerships, provided they were not used to trade commercially.

The Chief Operating Officer commented that in relation to WV Living as a trading company there were several measures put in place by LGA 2003.  It was about making sure there was a level playing field between Local Authorities and private sector companies.  Local Authorities received no direct advantage over the private sector, required greater transparency arising from the company law requirements, avoiding subsidy control restrictions, and had to make sure there was a lot of control over the way that trading took place.

The additional hurdles for trading companies were:-

-           that approval was obtained from full Council for the establishment of the company;

-           that the Local Authority prepared a business case supporting the exercise of the trading power;

-           a prohibition on subsidising trading activities; and

-           they could only trade in services other than those in which they had a statutory duty to provide to residents.

Critically for each of those linked bodies (trading companies etc.) best practice stated there should be:

-           a Shareholder Agreement between the Council and the linked body defining the arrangement;

-           a business case;

-           a business plan which was regularly refreshed setting out the Key Performance Indicators and expected financial performance; and

-           governance arrangements to monitor the compliance with the Shareholder Agreement/business case/business plan.

The Chief Operating Officer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

[To receive a presentation on the evening on the Heath Town Regeneration Project]. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment for Wolverhampton Homes gave an overview of the Heath Town Regeneration Project. Heath Town had been originally constructed with considerable deck access blocks linking, in theory allowing people to walk from one side of the estate to the other without ever having to touch the ground following the “streets in the sky” concept of the 1960’s.

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment stated that the estate was opened in 1969 by HRH Princess Margaret and there was just over 1250 dwellings on that estate, most being in either tower blocks or deck houses. Pictures were shown of the view in the 1970’s of Hobgate Road, Hampton View, the shopping centre and Chervil Rise. There were large amounts of brick façade and cladding which made it virtually impossible to see in. This type of layout overtime created quite a few issues. Since construction two blocks where demolished in 1990, six were converted into houses under “lopped and topped” programmes also in the 1990’s. In 2018 as part of regeneration a further four deck access blocks were demolished to open the heart of the estate. Issues with the deck access block were with crime and policing.   This was because there were several different escape routes and the Police did not have the resources to combat that effectively.

Consultation had taken place with the residents in 2015, which concluded that their principal concerns at the time were safety, security, and car parking. The link bridges were in immensely poor condition with significant amount of the concrete damaged. The timber cladding was losing its bearing, panels were falling off and there was a real concern for the general condition of the estate at the time.

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment stated that the reality was that the future of the estate had been uncertain for so long, consequently there had been a lack of planned improvements. In 2014 the Council made the decision to regenerate the Heath Town estate.  They had created a “master plan” which included selective demolition and the remaining blocks to be refurbished. The Heath Town Masterplan was shown to the Panel which had Phase 1 and Phase 2.  It involved a range of infilled sites primed for development and the plan was to build over 200 new family homes with a mix of affordable and open market sale housing. The first phase was still under way, they were involved with a company called Black Country Make to construct six homes. The second phase was currently being procured with a view to work starting next Summer. 

The Head of Assets and Stock Investment remarked that the strategy to combat the issues with some of the deck access blocks was trying to get people on the ground working to create a secure environment. They wanted to create a more welcoming environment to each of the deck access blocks.   To create secure points of access, to monitor the entrances and circulation spaces with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The date of the next Residents, Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel is scheduled for Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 6pm. 

The date of the next Residents, Housing and Communities Scrutiny Panel was a scheduled for Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 6pm.