Current Housing Issues
A few outstanding housing issues that Councillors and relevant officers may wish to ponder:
1. When will the report on anomalous Housing Revenue Land (ie stuff that should probably be transferred from the Housing Revenue Account to the General Revenue Fund) be published and go to the Housing SCAG? John Kennedy and co will be pleased that the Roundabouts of Clockhouse (sounds like a French Art-house movie!) have beem sorted out. Within the Lib Dem Group, St Helier and Wandle Valley Councillors should watch out if Sutton Central Ward Councillors (and we know who they are!!) pull rank and get their area (ie Rosebery Gardens) sorted out first!
2. When will the new Tenant Compact resolve the following two issues:
a) The arrangements by which tenant reps to the Sutton Housing Partnership Board are sorted out?
b) That the Federation can appoint 2 or 3 reps on the Social Care Performance Committee. I heard that this is still not resolved at the recent meeting of the Committee. On other performance committees we have a range of stakeholders. If we can have Patients Forum reps on Health Scrutiny we can have tenant reps on Social Care Performance Committe to aid the overall scrutiny process. Let's hope this is sorted out in the next few months.
3. Heating Charge Increases.
One of the points I made before the elections was that we needed to ensure we were clear who the winners and losers were if we moved away from bulk purchasing. Generally the move will benefit younger or middle aged residents over the elderly. Perhaps Simon Latham and/or Peter Dolan might want to arrange a briefing for all Councillors on this to explain the current rise and the possible future changes.
1. When will the report on anomalous Housing Revenue Land (ie stuff that should probably be transferred from the Housing Revenue Account to the General Revenue Fund) be published and go to the Housing SCAG? John Kennedy and co will be pleased that the Roundabouts of Clockhouse (sounds like a French Art-house movie!) have beem sorted out. Within the Lib Dem Group, St Helier and Wandle Valley Councillors should watch out if Sutton Central Ward Councillors (and we know who they are!!) pull rank and get their area (ie Rosebery Gardens) sorted out first!
2. When will the new Tenant Compact resolve the following two issues:
a) The arrangements by which tenant reps to the Sutton Housing Partnership Board are sorted out?
b) That the Federation can appoint 2 or 3 reps on the Social Care Performance Committee. I heard that this is still not resolved at the recent meeting of the Committee. On other performance committees we have a range of stakeholders. If we can have Patients Forum reps on Health Scrutiny we can have tenant reps on Social Care Performance Committe to aid the overall scrutiny process. Let's hope this is sorted out in the next few months.
3. Heating Charge Increases.
One of the points I made before the elections was that we needed to ensure we were clear who the winners and losers were if we moved away from bulk purchasing. Generally the move will benefit younger or middle aged residents over the elderly. Perhaps Simon Latham and/or Peter Dolan might want to arrange a briefing for all Councillors on this to explain the current rise and the possible future changes.
posted by Charlie Mansell at 4:14 pm
3 Comments:
Charlie
Could you pls explain why a move to metering for gas would benefit the young and middle aged more than the elderly?
I would ave thought it would be the other way round...
Metering would surely only increase choice of supply rather than than the inequitous state we have now of a monopoly situation.
It has been pointed out to me that if meters were in use now then most tenants would be at least £250 per annum better off.
Why should the newly formed SHP make the 400 residents pay for the ineffeciency of the bulk gas market and insist that the defecit on the gas account be paid off in 12 months when the main council is borrowing £7.8 million on a LOBO over a 60 year term.
Seems somewhat unfair to the least well off in Sutton especially when they are unable to get benefits against the 68% increase since April.
Regards
Cllr Tim Crowley
Carshalton South and Clockhouse
Charlie sorry that should read
4000 residents
Tim
When this was discussed before the elections the evidence we had was that it was younger residents who paid the full cost (especially leaseholders)who were complaining as they did not use the heating all the time and wanted to have their usage measured, which would happen with metering. However it was noted that some elderly residents (especially on p-laces like Roundshaw) kept the heating on all the time for large parts of the year and if they were metered, they would probably end up paying much more than the present fixed charge.
In other word whilst metering would have winners, it would also have losers and we need to consider that before making any final decisions.
I expressed some concern at the time that responding to one group of residents could lead us to having concerns expressed by another group at a later date. I was assured that elderly persons properties had all been insulated,so this might be less of a problem than initially thought.
I leave it to current Councillors to weigh up these issues and consider the best way forward, which is probably the currently adopted approach of getting rid of bulk gas purchase in the coming years.
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