Agenda item

Update to be given at meeting.

The Corporate Director Regulatory Services introduced to the Panel Mr Geoff Brooks who had been appointed at the Project Manager for the LSVT.  He would be working three days a week and had a background which made him ideal to carry out the work necessary having been involved with 12 stock transfers.

The Corporate Director Regulatory Services in a presentation to members outlined the current position with regard to the LSVT.   She highlighted how the Stock Option Appraisal Commission had reached the decision on the preferred option having regard to the following five reasons:  enhanced housing management, fulfilling tenants priority investment choices, enhanced tenant involvement, more affordable housing and focus on strategic housing function.

It was clear that the HRA could not sustain the reasons given after 2012.   Following what had been said earlier on in the meeting she reiterated that the public and the media seemed to be confused about the landlord and strategic function of housing.  The Council would always have an obligation to strategic housing which dealt with homelessness, housing need, private sector stock even if these areas were contracted out, the responsibility would still rest with the council.

She then outlined the current status with appointment of consultants for the various areas including the retention of LIBRA by the tenants as the independent tenant advisors which gave the tenants continuity of care.  Legal consultants were yet to be appointed and currently expressions of interest were being sort from the eight to ten firms that specialised in LSVT work.

An indicative work programme to develop the strategy was then outlined.  The options for the choice of new landlord were: a brand new organisation, to merge completely with an existing RSL or create a new organisation within a RSL. 

The member governance structure was then outlined to the members and how this would work together with the indicative new landlord shadow board structure which would comprise of five council representatives, five tenant representatives and five independent representatives.   It was still early stages and there was an awful lot of work that needed to be undertaken before any formal offer was made to the tenants.   The uncertainty within the public and the media to differentiate between strategic housing and LSVT needed to be addressed. 

The Project Manager for the LSVT said that in order to have the correct balance on the shadow board a skills matrix was often a useful tool to enable people to be placed on the board to maximise the skills available.   Council representatives could be chosen in a number of ways from having a councillor from each of the three main towns and the north and south of the district to having a political balance.  It was not a written rule as to how representatives were allocated.

One member expressed concern that the fourth option was not spoken about.  He understood the Corporate Director Regulatory Services position, however governments change and this would certainly be the case over the next thirty years.  A 30 year business plan was a comparative nonsense and he wished for something resembling a level playing field. Everything seemed to be floating and the fourth option was well worth considering, as the situation seemed to be biased towards one side.   Other members of the panel agreed with this view.

The Corporate Director Regulatory Services referred to the work that had been carried out last September by the Stock Option Appraisal Commission taking into consideration all the information available to reach the preferred option.  She stated that all literature sent out to tenants would give them the facts as they stood, it would not be biased and this would be checked.    Mention was then made of the sustainability of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and again it was stated that the workings of the HRA was driven by the government.

Discussions then followed about the costs involved with appointing consultants and how places such as Glasgow and Liverpool had dealt with LSVT.  Also how the council would be involved on the stock transfer board if the stock was transferred to which the Corporate Director of Regulatory Services replied.

The Chairman thanked the Corporate Director of Regulatory Services and the Project Manager LSVT for their report.