Minutes:
At 8.50pm Councillor Jelil Ladipo declared a personal and non-prejudicial interest as a council leaseholder.
Councillor Ian Wingfield, seconded by Councillor Martin Seaton, moved the motion.
Councillor Alison McGovern, seconded by Councillor Lorraine Lauder, moved Amendment E.
Following debate (Councillors Peter John, Kim Humphreys, Nick Stanton, Paul Bates, Veronica Ward, David Noakes, Richard Livingstone, Mary Foulkes, Tim McNally, Barrie Hargrove, Anood Al-Samerai, Dora Dixon-Fyle and Aubyn Graham), Councillor Ian Wingfield exercised his right of reply.
Amendment E was put to the vote and declared to be lost.
In accordance with council assembly procedure rule 1.13(5) the following members requested that their vote in favour of Amendment E be recorded in the minutes: Councillors Paul Bates, Fiona Colley, Mark Glover, Mary Foulkes, John Friary, Dora Dixon-Fyle, Aubyn Graham, Peter John, Barrie Hargrove, Susan Elan Jones, Lorraine Lauder, Evrim Laws, Richard Livingstone, Alison McGovern, Kirsty McNeill, Abdul Mohamed, Gordon Nardell, Chris Page, Andrew Pakes, Sandra Rhule, Martin Seaton, Tayo Situ, Robert Smeath, Althea Smith, Dominic Thorncroft, Veronica Ward and Ian Wingfield.
Councillor Kim Humphreys moved Amendment F, following which Councillor Ian Wingfield made a point of personal explanation. Thereafter Councillor Nick Stanton seconded Amendment F.
Following debate (Councillors Peter John, Paul Noblet, John Friary, Richard Thomas and Fiona Colley), the gullotine fell at 10.05pm.
Amendment F was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
The substantive motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
RESOLVED:
1. That council assembly notes in a draft of the housing strategy a £700 million gap in the funding for the executive’s Southwark decent homes programme was reported. It notes the omission of this figure in the housing strategy agreed by the executive as further work is still being carried out as part of the stock condition survey.
2. That council assembly regrets the large number of homes classified as non-decent in Southwark and notes that the housing strategy recognises this is a problem across all sectors with more than a third of housing association homes classified as such. Council assembly further notes that Southwark has far more council housing than any other London borough.
3. That council assembly reaffirms its support for settled view of Southwark tenants that:
a) they wish to remain as tenants of the council
b) that the government’s so-called decent homes standard is aninadequate and insufficient standard for Southwark’s homes
c) when refurbishment takes place the work should be comprehensive and take into account landlord obligations, decent homes and other improvements, rather than simply reflect artificial, piecemeal and partial government targets.
4. That council assembly regrets the continued restrictions imposed on the council by government that prevent it meeting the legitimate aspirations of tenants and leaseholders and its failure to provide any additional funding for fire safety work.
5. That council assembly welcomes the review of the housing revenue account (HRA) by the Communities and Local Government department, particularly over suggestions that power will be returned to local government over rent incomes and capital receipts and supports London Councils in its view that “where an exceptional need to spend is identified, certain local authorities should have their level of debt reduced so as to create additional headroom for local prudential borrowing” but awaits detailed proposals with concern given the government’s recent record on housing finance.
6. That in addition council assembly calls on the executive to launch a campaign to persuade the government to recognise Southwark’s unique position and look at other solutions, excluded from the HRA review, and allow the council to invest in its homes through a combination of:
a) Writing off historic debt – particularly for estates that have been demolished or redeveloped
b) Allowing the council to remortgage parcels of its debt at the current competitive rates
c) Allowing the council a temporary “debt holiday”
d) Lifting the restrictions on the use of receipts from planning gain
e) Giving councils full control over their rent and other income.
Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the executive for consideration.