Agenda item
Reports from the Leader and Cabinet
To receive reports from the Leader and Cabinet in accordance with Standing Order 38.
Minutes:
In accordance with Standing Order 38, the Council received reports from the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Members, as follows:
(i) Councillor Butt (Leader of the Council)
(a) Councillor Butt reiterated his thanks to Mrs Jashu Vekaria of Uxendon Manor Primary School for the hard work she was doing in improving the lives and outcomes of children at the school and that it was imperative that the Council continued to work closely with our schools and strive to improve outcomes there. Councillor Butt went on to say that this showed the commitment Brent had from all its teachers in relation to schools within the Borough. He added that recent Ofsted announcements had accredited Brent’s Village School and Crest Academy as “outstanding”, which had meant that almost 96% of Brent’s schools were now rated as “good” or “outstanding” and that this was down to the Council’s continued commitment to improving the outcomes of the Borough’s children.
(b) Councillor Butt extended his congratulations to the current Mayor who had recently been officially recognised in the “Who’s Who” of Bangladeshis in the UK for his work throughout the Bangladeshi community but also the wider community work and for his charitable work and political work carried out on behalf of the residents of Brent.
(c) Councillor Butt referred back to the success of Brent’s schools and said that it was imperative that the Council continued to work with its schools and to improve the outcomes of the Borough’s children as well. There had, he said, been some discussion around how the Council could help all of the Borough’s children and that recently, the Council had welcomed a delegation from Barbados who wanted to work with some of Brent’s black and afro-Caribbean children and to see how the Council could actually try and help and improve the outcomes of those children. Councillor Butt went on to say that the Council had also welcomed a delegation from the Czech Republic who were interested in seeing the work that the Council did with its Looked after Children and how they could learn lessons from what the Council did in Brent.
(ii) Councillor McLennan (Deputy Leader)
(a) Councillor McLennan extended her congratulations to all those associated and working with Crest Academy following its recent Ofsted inspection.
(b) Councillor McLennan spoke on the difficulties and challenges that the Council had faced over the last few years and the fact that the Council had to make cuts of £120m. She said that the current budget consultation was out at this present time and again the Council was looking at identifying yet more cuts and savings. Councillor McLennan did say that the task facing the Council was not as onerous as that faced in 2014-16 but she wanted to focus on the good things that, even in spite of all of the challenges, this Administration was still taking forward and in doing so, being positive and trying to do all that it could for the Borough’s residents. In particular, Councillor McLennan said that those areas the Council was looking to address were:
· Brent Advice Matters
· How could the Council maximise income from the Civic Centre as a multi-functional facility
· Root and Branch Review of Customer Services
· Establishment of a social value advisory group.
(iii) Councillor Mashari (Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Growth, Employment
and Skills)
(a) Councillor Mashari was very pleased to announce that Brent had hosted its first Business Board Meeting on Thursday 17 November 2016. This newly-established board would discuss insights into strategies and direction Brent could take to help investment and facilitate business growth and look forward to further meetings.
(b) Councillor Mashari announced that the Council had also secured agreement with Quintain and the construction firms in Wembley Park to deliver local apprenticeships, jobs and training. Brent Works would account manage opportunities in partnership with the College of North West London, the DWP and other partners to support a range of training opportunities in a centralised centre. The Council envisaged that this construction jobs and skills centre would be broadened out to include opportunities for development across the Borough.
(c) Councillor Mashari advised Council that the Liberum Project in St Raphael’s estate was delivering above financial target, was engaging 390 people and supporting 86 people into employment to date, with the project having being live for 18 months now. Additional funding had, she said, also been secured to provide support to residents with low level mental health needs. In conclusion, Councillor Mashari said that the project had gone live last week and the looked forward to the outcomes of that.
(iv) Councillor Miller (Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities)
(a) Councillor Miller said that it was a real pleasure to be standing before Council in his new role as Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, although he wished to begin his report by offering to send on behalf of the Council, its condolences to the family of James Owusu, a Brent resident who had been cruelly murdered some two weeks earlier. Councillor Miller announced that the Council’s thoughts and prayers were with his family and that he would assure his family that the Council would be working very closely with the Police to make sure that this matter was investigated and appropriately dealt with.
(b) Councillor Miller advised Council that his first priority in his new role as Cabinet Member was to keep Brent safe by cracking down on violent crime and gangs with an intelligence-led approach to antisocial behaviour and to create an environment where victims of domestic abuse could come forward and look again at how victims could be supported and perpetrators reformed. Councillor Miller said that Brent’s approach to gangs, crime and disorder would be a tough one but it would be one which focussed on this intelligence-led prevention work and on rehabilitation. Councillor Miller went on to say that the Council would not shy away from tackling crime, which blighted working communities but the Council also knew that it needed to work hard on the social, as well as the individual sources of crime and that people were appropriately supported and that the Council intervened early.
Councillor Miller advised Cabinet that he had met with the Borough Commander to reiterate the Council’s approach and to outline its commitment to partnership working with the Police and, on that note, he was also pleased to announce a decision taken by Cabinet the previous week concerning the Council’s intention to commit to the Met Patrol Plus Scheme. He said that he had made proposals to commit £408,000 of matched-funding to this programme, which would receive support from the Metropolitan Police service for the Council to introduce 12 new Officers, including a Sergeant, to work on priorities set by the Council and Safer Brent Partnership who would be concentrating on gang crime antisocial behaviour, violence against family members and vulnerable people.
(v) Councillor Hirani (Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing)
(a) Councillor Hirani announced that the Council’s Public Health Team had been extremely busy as part of the Junior Citizenship Scheme reaching out to Year 6 children so that they were aware of the amounts of sugar in food and drink and could make better choices. We are reaching 3,000 pupils across 46 schools at events hosted at Bridge Park and the Kingsbury Temple. Councillor Hirani was shocked in relation to two particular cases, one of which whereby a child had advised that she had had a packet of Skittles for breakfast and another whereby a child had had coco-pops with chocolate milkshake inside them. The upside to this, he said, was that those children in particular would now be changing their diets now that they were aware of the sugar levels in such foods and the work that the Public Health Team was doing.
(b) Last week had a very productive round table meeting with representatives from the England Cricket Board, the FA, the RFU looking at all the different pitches and open spaces that the Council had across the Borough to see how their use could be maximised and to see how best the Council could accommodate all the different sports within parks and school sites and our leisure centres.
(c) And finally, it was tremendous last Monday where we had the Wembley Arch lit up blue for Third World Diabetes Day. This, he said, was a crucial issue that affected people across Brent. Councillor Hirani said that Brent had a high prevalence rate so it was great to diabetes champions here at the Civic Centre and at supermarkets actually raising awareness of what was in such foods.
(vi) Councillor Southwood (Cabinet Member for Environment)
(a) Councillor Southwood announced that this week was Road Safety Week and every day, children and young people and everyone in our communities were put at risk from speeding on Brent’s roads. I would encourage all Councillors, and residents, to get involved in Community Road Watch. She said that the local Police were working really hard on this initiative, which was educational. Councillor Southwood added that she had stood and had a chilly half an hour on Woodcock Hill some weeks ago with Councillors Kabir and Hossain. During that half an hour, 15 people were caught driving over the speed limit, which was, she said, really, really serious and again encouraged people to get involved in the initiative.
(b) Councillor Southwood said that the Council would continue its fight against illegal dumping within the Borough and had introduced a fixed penalty of £400 for mid-level illegal dumping.
(c) Councillor Southwood said that, with regard to controlled parking zones, she was delighted that the Administration was committed to resourcing a programme of reviews. She urged Councillors and residents to get involved and asked anyone who wished their controlled parking zone to be reviewed, to contact the Council.
(vii) Councillor Farah (Cabinet Member for Housing and Welfare Reform)
(a) Councillor Farah announced that Brent was doing well compared to other London Boroughs when it came to delivering housing. He said that Brent had been affected by significant population growth, coupled with an increase in the average family size, which was the second highest in London. In addition, he said that the impact of welfare reform had been severe, especially for large household families and the revised overall benefit cap, which had started in Brent on 7 November, was affecting 1,800 households and high rents and the welfare cap was driving overcrowding in Brent.
Councillor Farah advised Council that, alongside this trend, there had been a major shift with the private rent sector accounting for more than 10 units of Brent House while owner-occupation had declined and provision of social housing had remained largely the same. These factors, he said, were worsened by the problem of affordability and, therefore the Council wanted to build on positive relationships with as many landlords in Brent to secure improved access for vulnerable people to move into supported and private rented accommodation. Councillor Farah said that consultation was underway on a Borough-wide extension of a selective licensing scheme and that the Government was introducing more extensive licensing for 2017.
(b) Councillor Farah stated that the Council’s Housing Strategy was currently being reviewed in response to the Government’s Housing Planning Appeal and further welfare reform in the emerging approach of the new London Mayor and this would take account of progress over the last two years in meeting the same aims of the Strategy. He added that the core objective of the Strategy remained valid but the change in landscape arising from Government reform may mean that more and different means were required to achieve the Council’s objectives. Councillor Farah advised Members that the Cabinet had agreed an option for Brent re its future housing management stock and consultation was now underway. There would, he said, be talks with residents and leaseholders in coming weeks and the Council’s intention was to improve its customer experience and satisfaction of the Council in future housing stock.