Minutes of the Meeting of the

Neighbourhood Services Scrutiny Commission

Held: Thursday, 27 January 2022 at 5:30 pm

P R E S E N T :

Councillor Thalukdar(Chair)

Councillor Joshi	Councillor O’Donnell,

Councillor Nangreave	Councillor Waddington

In Attendance:

Councillor Clair, Deputy City Mayor for Culture, Leisure, Sport, and Regulatory Services

Councillor Master, Assistant City Mayor for Neighbourhood Services

Councillor Cole

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies were received from Councillors Solanki and Westley.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Members were asked to declare any pecuniary or other interests they may have in the business on the agenda. Councillor Nangreave declared that she licenses were currently being considered in her ward.

CHAIR'S ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Commission observed a minutes silence in recognition of Holocaust Memorial Day. The Chair noted that this was John Leach’s final meeting as Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services as he was leaving the Council. The Chair, Commission Members, and Members of the Executive all noted their thanks and praise to John for his years of service to Leicester.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING
It was noted that a response to an enquiry raised at the previous meeting had only been received that morning. AGREED: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Neighbourhood Services Scrutiny Commission held on 9 December 2021 be confirmed as a correct record. That the Commission requests that written responses to enquires raised by the Commission should be provided as soon as possible.

PETITIONS
The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.

QUESTIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND STATEMENTS OF CASE
The Monitoring Officer reported that a question had been submitted by a member of the public as set out on the agenda to be considered in accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Part E Procedure Rule 10. The Chair invited Mr Michael Taylor to present his questions to the Members of the Commission. Mr Taylor put his questions to the Members of the Commission as follows: Climate Action strongly support the introduction of Selective Licencing for private rental accommodation in the city requiring rental housing to reach specific standards of energy efficiency. At the moment you are suggesting a licencing requirement that Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) demonstrating band E are provided to get licences, and that properties are required to improve to band D by 2025. We understand that if you got full council agreement you could ask for higher energy efficiency standards. Is it correct that you have the power to do this if you choose to? Given that it is both more energy efficient and cheaper, as well as less disturbing to tenants, to do housing improvements in one go, rather than in bits and pieces, and given that considerably higher that EPC band D is needed for the city’s housing in order to address climate change, would you consider requiring EPC certification band D for licencing now, rising to band C by 2025? In response it was noted that Councils could impose conditions on hazards such as cold and heat, but energy efficiency was not considered as part of this as it did not relate to standards experienced by tenants. It was also noted that private property could not be rented out if it was lower than EPC band E and that a government consultation was ongoing to look at raising the minimum band to C by 2030. Mr Taylor thanked Officers for their responses.

DRAFT REVENUE BUDGET 2022/23 AND DRAFT CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2022/23
The Deputy Director of Finance submitted a report setting out the City Mayor’s proposed budget for 2022/23. The Commission was recommended to consider and comment on the Neighbourhood Services element of the report. The Commission’s comments would be forwarded to the Overview Select Committee as part of its consideration of the report before presentation to the meeting of Council on 23rd February 2022. The Head of Finance, presented the item, it was noted that: The main issues affecting the budget were the decade of austerity, the Covid pandemic, and the rising costs of Adult Social Care. Of those the latter was most significant. The Government Finance Settlement was better than expected but was still only for one year. It was noted as per recent years reserves would be used to balance the budget. However, it was projected that these reserves would run out by 2024/25 and savings would need to be found to balance the budget. It was noted a 3% Council Tax increase was proposed as part of the revenue budget report. In response to Member’s questions, it was noted that: The report going to Full Council would be the final budget with updated figures following the Government’s funding settlement. The inflation situation was under review and would be considered in the final budget figures. It was noted in Neighbourhood and Environmental Services there were some savings built into 2022/23 budget. However, they predominantly related to income generation. It was noted that future budget savings would go through the relevant consultation process and decisions would be taken as savings were identified. It was noted in the revenue report that there were areas of budget shortfalls in relation to income. It was confirmed that this mainly related to areas where income was being impacted as a direct result of the pandemic, such as parking income and one-off covid money was being used to fund these budget gaps. A fundamental budget review was ongoing, with the aim of assessing where the best place to make savings would be, as well as generating more income. The only Capital Projects for the Service that had an impact on the Revenue Budget were leases for equipment for the Parks Service which used prudential borrowing. AGREED: That the Commission recommends that the Council explore how more income can be generated for Neighbourhood and Environmental Service in future. That the Commission supports the Draft Revenue Budget and Draft Capital Programme.

KNIFE CRIME STRATEGY
The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a presentation on the development of a Knife Crime and Serious Violence Strategy for Leicester. The Assistant City Mayor for Neighbourhood Services and Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services introduced the item, noting that the Strategy was being developed to provide a coordinated approach to knife crime which was community led. The Community Safety (Knife Crime) Co-Ordinator presented the item, it was noted that: · The development of this Strategy was a pledge in the City Mayor’s Manifesto. · Crime data indicated that the majority of perpetrators and victims of knife crime were under 25 and male. The number of incidents involving under 25s fluctuated over time, but overall incidents were trending slowly downwards. · Parliament was currently considering changes to legislation to give public bodies a legal duty to work together to tackle serious violence, which would also newly include domestic abuse and sexual offences, therefore these new aspects would be included in the Strategy going forward. · Communities across the city had been consulted for the Strategy through community events, as well as a Steering Group and Taskforce Group. · The Strategy was initially launched in July 2021 and was Council-wide, meaning that many Departments were included in the work. · Coming out of the community consultation, 34 recommendations had been produced. These were based around a wide variety of areas. · The aim was to finalise the Strategy and launch the recommendations in March. · In order to action the recommendations, a number of projects had been launched. This included the community designed Community Mentor Project, and the Reach Project which was funded by the Home Office. · Many other initiatives were already ongoing in the Council to tackle this agenda. In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that: · The Safer Leicester Partnership was liaising with the Police and OPCC’s office to get crime data in more usable formats. A variety of different data was available on the issue, recorded by various public bodies · Effects of the strategy may start to be seen when the recommendations were implemented, however it was a long-term strategy so the full impact would take time to show. · One of the recommendations was to have an audit of Pupil Referral Units, which were not regulated by Ofsted. The issue of trauma was dealt with in the recommendations with regards to positive messaging and supporting those impacted by knife crime. Issues with funding of Youth Clubs had been raised in the consultation. It was hoped that community spaces could be made more accessible for youth activities with regards to cost. The £450k of funding for the strategy was provided by several public bodies, with the Council providing £250k. This was priming money to help develop more sustainable support. The goal was to allow communities to take a bottom-up approach to knife crime over a long-term period. The east and west of the city remained the hotspots for knife crime. These areas were the focus of the Community Mentor Project. Leicester was in the top 20 nationally for knife incidents, which was why Home Office funding had been received. AGREED: That the Commission recommends that Members’ comments raised be taken into account by Officers implementing this work. That the Commission recommends that a Briefing for all Councillors be held on the issue of knife crime. That the Commission requests a progress update in 6 months. That the Commission requests that the slides be presented be included in the minutes pack for the meeting.

AFRICAN CARIBBEAN CENTRE CONSULTATION FINDINGS
The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report to provide a summary of the public consultation exercise undertaken to gather views on the usage and future running of the African Caribbean Centre (ACC). The Head of Neighbourhood Services presented the item, it was noted that: The ACC was currently used by several different community groups. Previous investment to the ACC had come in to improve the facilities. Most recently the building was run by a partnership arrangement. The majority of the annual £170k running cost for the ACC was in running costs. The consultation took place during a period where the ACC was operational and there were no Covid restrictions. The consultation was promoted across the city and online. Paper responses were available. 352 responses were received in total, 82% of respondents were users of the ACC. Social and cultural functions were found to be the most popular usage of the ACC. 47% of respondents had expressed a preference for the ACC to be run in future by community organisations via the Community Asset Transfer policy. The proposal was to trial the Community Asset Transfer with a 5-year lease, with a peppercorn rent. Updated assessment criteria for the building were also proposed. In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that: There was a positive history of the Community Asset Transfer being used in Leicester. As part of the Community Asset Transfer process, interested community organisations would need to submit a business case which would be assessed by the Council. This would ensure a transparent process and provide assurances around the business plans submitted, as well as ensuring a consistent process for evaluating different organisations. There would be an option for the Council to take the building back if the organisation running it ran into difficulties. If the 5-year trial period was successful, there would be an option for the lease to be continued. Independent support would be provided to those writing the business plan in order to help to keep it realistic and avoid over-promising. Community groups interested in the opportunity to run the ACC would have access to a full financial breakdown and details of the building and conditions survey. Community benefit would be an important part of the assessment criteria that would be used to decide who would run the ACC. Councillor Cole was invited to comment on the proposal. He said felt that it was important for the African Heritage Community to have a distinctive location as a focal point for the community, and that the proposal to have the ACC run by the community would better enable this. He also felt that the ACC being run by the community would allow the community to express itself more authentically. AGREED: That the Commission recommends that Members’ comments raised be taken into account by Officers implementing this work. That the Commission recommends the proposal to allow community group to run the African Caribbean Centre via Community Asset Transfer. That the Commission recommends that robust business and financial plans be in place for the Community Asset Transfer process.

STATEMENT OF LICENSING POLICY - 2022-2027
The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report to update the Commission on the review of the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy under the Licensing Act 2003 and seek any comments before the Policy went to Full Council on 24 February 2022. The Deputy City Mayor for Regulatory Services introduced the item, noting that legislation required the Council to publish a new Statement of Licensing Policy every 5 years. The policy was largely unchanged but had some new elements including Areas of Special Interest and Consultation. In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that Sexual Entertainment Venues were not covered by this policy and had a specific policy. It was also noted that noise nuisance was considered during the Licensing process and that there were procedures within Licensing to deal with noise complaints. AGREED: That the Commission recommends that Members’ comments be taken into account by Officers implementing this work. That the Commission supports the new Statement of Licensing Policy.

DRAFT WORK PROGRAMME
The Chair noted that any suggestions for future items for the Commission should be emailed to himself or the Scrutiny Policy Officer.

ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS
The Chair noted that a briefing for all Members would be held on Friday 4 February to brief Members on the Council’s response to the recent lifting of all Covid restrictions in England. The meeting closed at 7.56pm.