The motion was moved by Councillor Janice Howard and seconded by Councillor Michael Bull

The Labour amendment, as set out in item 25 was moved by Councillor Abigail Jones and seconded by Councillor Imran Uddin.

Councillor Mary Jane Jeanes also spoke on the item.

The Labour amendment was then put to the vote and was carried – votes in favour 37, and votes against 0 with 21 abstention.

The substantive resolution was agreed.

RESOLVED:

Council notes that Merton’s housing stock was transferred to a Housing Association under the previous Conservative administration.  Circle Housing Merton Priory (CHMP) are independent of the council and they have full ownership of 9,000 former council homes. 

On taking over the properties, Circle made a series of promises to residents in terms of the service they would offer as a landlord.

Unlike the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the Council does not have any regulatory powers over CHMP.  Under the terms of the stock transfer agreement, CHMP is formally accountable to the council solely in the specific area of whether they deliver on the promises in the offer document at the time of the transfer and whether they keep to their side of the transfer agreement.

Nonetheless, this council believes it has a moral duty to do all it in its power to stand up for CHMP tenants, leaseholders and freeholders, notwithstanding the limited powers the council has in this regard. This is why in September last year the council succeeded in ensuring CHMP signed up to the 10 Commitments. These commitments include: “Circle Housing Merton Priory will continue to maintain the homes of residents across the three neighbourhoods throughout the planning process until regeneration starts, including ensuring a high quality responsive repairs service.”

Council believes that stronger controls on Housing Associations are needed and that government should give local authorities robust powers to intervene where local Housing Associations are not performing or where they do not offer value for money for residents.

This Council notes with concern that it is now more than 9 months since an independent investigation was commissioned into the whistle blowing allegations of corruption and mismanagement within Circle Housing Merton Priory’s (CHMP) repairs and maintenance service which looked at a sample of 25 properties.

Following pressure from residents, the Wimbledon Guardian and from local Councillors who called for an independent audit, Council welcomes CHMP’s admission that their repairs contractor, Keepmoat Property Services, has been overcharging for works and their announcement that they are now undertaking a wider investigation to assess the scale of overcharging and to identify ways of improving the system to stop contractors from overcharging.

However, despite the severity of the allegations and the number of people potentially affected, the initial audit report of 25 properties is still yet to be released to residents and councillors and no firm timetable for publication has been forthcoming. There has been no update on when the full audit is expected to be completed and when it will be published.

This Council is disappointed with CHMP’s continued inability to manage repairs and strongly believes that it is important to identify a way forward as Merton residents have had to put up with inadequate repairs for too long.

This Council takes seriously its legal responsibility, under the terms of the stock transfer agreement, to formally hold CHMP to account in the specific area of whether they deliver on the promises in the offer document at the time of the transfer and whether they keep to their side of the transfer agreement.  However the council believes it also has a moral  duty to hold CHMP to account on behalf of all tenants, leaseholders and freeholders and therefore has:

·       Introduced regular liaison meetings with the Cabinet Member for Community and Culture, the Director of Community and Housing, CHMP Managing Director, Circle Regional Director of Property Services and the council’s Housing Relationship manager;

·       Ensured that CHMP attended the June meeting of the council’s Sustainable Communities Scrutiny panel for an update from CHMP on the stock transfer commitments and repairs;

·       Required CHMP to produce a separate quarterly performance report to be available to the Sustainable Communities panel;

·       Ensured, as part of their regeneration proposals, that CHMP signed up to a set of 10 Commitments which included continuing to offer a high quality responsive repairs service during the regeneration process.

However despite the above, the council has been clear with CHMP that their repairs service continues to underperform and let residents down.  Council therefore:

(a)  Calls on CHMP to take urgent steps to ensure the repair service is radically overhauled so that residents get the service they deserve and already pay for;

(b)  Notes the Leader has invited Sir Robin Young and Senior Officers of Circle Merton Priory to a meeting to review how they are performing against the 10 Commitments, in particular in relation to ensuring a high quality responsive repairs service, and calls on them to address the urgent and historic cases that remain unresolved;

(c)  Urges CHMP’s senior officers to continue to attend the  Sustainable Communities scrutiny panel as requested by the Chair to answer questions from councillors and residents on the issue of repairs;

(d)  Demands the immediate publication by CHMP of the initial independent audit report on alleged fraud and repeated overcharging of residents by its repairs contractor, Keepmoat Property Services, and a timetable for the completion and publication of the full investigation;

(e)  Requests that any other such investigations conducted in the future in relation to CHMP or any of its contractors, including by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), are published in a timely fashion to ensure full transparency and accountability; and

(f)    Will continue to utilise the limited legal powers available to the Council under the terms of the housing stock transfer agreement, and reiterates its commitment to safeguard the needs of residents on Merton’s housing estates and hold CHMP to account on the quality of its repairs and maintenance service, particularly in light of the HCA Regulatory Notice served on Circle Anglia Limited in February 2015, and to continue to hold CHMP to account in relation to the promises they made to residents as part of the transfer agreement and the 10 Commitments they signed as part of the regeneration proposals, and asks Cabinet to look at the limited legal powers available to us as a local authority if CHMP fail to make changes and demonstrate real impact; and

(g)  Calls on the government to ensure that local authorities have stronger powers to intervene in cases where Housing Associations are demonstrably not delivering for local residents.