Agenda item - 2019 / 20 Budget discussion

40.1           Ododo Dafe, the Head of Income Involvement & Improvement, introduced the budget discussion to inform the panel that there had been various forums for residents to consult with officers to highlight areas in which the council needed to improve the environment of the estates, which was the lowest performing area on the STAR satisfaction survey. She added the main suggestions of improvements that had arisen were to increase the decent homes standard, to tackle isolation, to increase energy efficiency, to increase the number of social housing properties, to distribute planters and to tackle fly tipping. The focus was to improve the neighbourhood as a place to live by implementing quick and effective projects that were funded separately to projects that used the Estate Development Budget (EBD).

40.2           Residents raised the following areas for improvement:

·  grass cutting

·  weeding

·  gardening support and guidance for residents

·  pruning of trees and hedges

·  control of noise pollution

40.3           The Chair stated that lots of these improvements could be supported by the new Field Officers.

40.4           In response to Residents, officers stated that initially when works would be brought in-house there would be start-up costs and that there was no surplus Mears budget funnelling into the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) to fund the EBD, which had already been lowered over the years. They added that residents had previously asked for their EBD underspends to be used to partially top up their reduced budget instead if new projects until it had been expended. Currently the EBD was the equivalent to its budget before the cuts due to this functionality; however there would be reviews into more effective methods of budgeting.

40.5           In response to residents, officers stated that anyone could request road signs to discourage people from parking on grass verges. Officers added that other improvements that could be requested included different coloured bins to indicate the type of disposal and security lighting.

40.6           RESOLVED – That the panel agreed to note the report.