Apologies were received from Councillors Peter Carey and Peta Vaught.

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2012 were agreed to be a true and accurate record and signed.

Matters Arising:

Referring to page 3, item 30, Cllr Sheila O’Reilly said that Ben Osifo, Scrutiny Officer, had referred to the difficulty in tracking down the Allocations Policy document and she asked him where it could be found. He replied that this was undertaken during the previous Locata Review and the current draft document was part of the paperwork submitted to the Cabinet meeting of 17 April; however the Council website has the 2007 version of the document. Still on page 3, item 36, Cllr O’Reilly enquired if the report on the number of direct offers made in a year had been produced and was advised that it had not.

Cllr O’Reilly asked if the phrase “vulnerable people” had been defined clearly as requested by Cllr Bains on page 6. Ben Osifo advised that the consultation was yet to start and that the Panel should maintain a watching brief on this area.

Mr Osifo stated that two areas to be examined regularly by the Panel as a follow up to the Locata Review were Hounslow Homes’ performance and numbers of offers made yearly to understand supply and demand for properties. Discussions were still ongoing but he advised that since the Locata report was submitted in 2009 he had been told that there were not enough resources to provide the information as gathering it was too labour intensive. Recommendations had, however, been attached to the previous meeting’s agenda. Mr Osifo advised that figures had not yet been obtained for the average length of time taken to deal with complaints as requested by Cllr Fisher. Cllr O’Reilly asked about progress made to address concerns regarding training and different versions of the allocations policy being used by different officers. Ben Osifo advised that he had been informed that the issue had been addressed and so it had not been followed up but suggested that the Panel may wish to visit offices to investigate progress.

Cllr Felicity Barwood asked if Sheltered Housing policies were contained in the Allocation Policy document and Mr Osifo advised that they could be found within the draft policy that had been published to the internet.

The Chair, Cllr Mohinder Gill, proposed that Cllr Brad Fisher be appointed Vice Chair. Cllr Mindu Bains seconded the motion which was approved unanimously. Cllr Fisher thanked the members and accepted the post.

Panel Work Programme Planning Discussion

The Chair, Cllr Mohinder Gill, stated that the Panel had looked at a lot of useful areas that were part of the work programme over the previous year under the Chair of Cllr Sue Sampson and Vice Chair Cllr Brad Fisher. He acknowledged that not all items on the programme had been addressed and advised that most of the Panel’s focus had been on housing issues. He stated that the present meeting was an opportunity to find useful areas for the Panel to concentrate on over the coming year. He said that a guide had been provided to assist members in deciding how to choose scrutiny topics and that the Scrutiny Officer had had put together a draft work programme from suggestions given by relevant stakeholders. Cllr Gill advised that the draft topics reflected emerging issues over the forthcoming year but were not exhaustive and that items could be added to the work programme subject to capacity and available resources.

Ben Osifo, Scrutiny Officer, welcomed new Panel member Cllr Gopal Dhillon to the meeting and stated that it was Cllr Gill’s first meeting as Chair. Mr Osifo advised that the meeting was an ideal time for members to say which areas of both housing and environment they wished to look at; housing had been the main focus during the previous year but other environmental issues needed to be examined. He advised that he had emailed Cllr Steve Curran, Cabinet Member for Housing, Alison Simmons, Assistant Director Housing Strategy and Services, and Bernadette O’Shea, Chief Executive Hounslow Homes as stakeholders and asked them which areas they felt the Panel should look at. Mr Osifo advised that Hounslow Homes had made some suggestions and he hoped for a bigger and better picture in September.

Mr Osifo described the role of Chair as providing leadership and direction, managing the work programme, effective management of meetings, providing community leadership and involving and developing Panel members. The Vice-Chair’s role was also described, as supporting the Chair’s leadership, covering that role in the Chair’s absence and leading specific activities.

Ben Osifo advised members that he wished to generate thinking as to how the Panel would work in future; the last Cabinet meeting had decided that Scrutiny meetings would be cut to five a year and so there would not be as much opportunity as before for the Panel to look at whatever members wanted. As a result, Mr Osifo advised, there would inevitably be plenty that members might want to do that could not be covered in the remaining four meetings and so there was a need to prioritise and he asked members to consider the possibility of informal daytime meetings. Mr Osifo stated that he had produced guidance which he hoped would help members to decide whether a topic would be worthy of scrutiny, given their excellent knowledge of relevant topics gained as Ward Councillors, citing as examples Cllr Barwood’s work with Sheltered Housing issues, Cllr Fisher’s with vulnerable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Any business which the Chair agrees to accept on grounds of urgency.