Agenda item

The City Mayor will answer questions raised by members of the Overview Select Committee on issues not covered elsewhere on the agenda.

Members raised the following questions for the City Mayor:

Training courses

Councillor Cleaver, the Vice Chair of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission asked the City Mayor if he would provide further information on the training courses, for trades such as woodworking and plumbing that the Council were providing.

The City Mayor responded that the council had a good record for providing training and officers worked closely with Leicester College who were outstanding in helping to get young people to acquire the skills they needed. He was also particularly pleased with the city council’s record of helping women acquire skills in areas more traditionally associated with men.  The City Mayor said he would arrange for further information on this to be sent to Councillor Cleaver and Members of the Overview Select Committee.

Money to buy back former council homes

Councillor Cleaver asked the City Mayor for more information about the scheme to buy back former council homes.

The City Mayor responded that he welcomed the initiative but said that there would only be a small number of ex-council homes per year that would be available for buy-back. The council would however make the most of the opportunities that were available. As a result of the right to buy scheme, there had been a dramatic reduction in the number of socially rented houses provided by responsible landlords (including councils) and a large increase in private landlords. While there were some very good responsible private landlords, there were also people who fell victim to some irresponsible landlords. The City Mayor added that the right to buy scheme was significantly disadvantaging people who were in desperate need of social housing with a responsible landlord.                         

£10m grant for infrastructure work

Councillor Cleaver asked the City Mayor whether the £10m grant received from the Government was only intended for work at Ashton Green.

The City Mayor responded that a specific sum of money had been received which he understood only related to spending on Ashton Green. The funding was very welcome and important in opening up the development there and in creating much needed housing, including affordable housing.

Honoured Citizens Award

Councillor Cleaver asked the City Mayor whether he would like to comment on some of the leaders in the city, who contributed so much through volunteering. Councillor Cleaver mentioned Janet and Peter Robinson and the volunteers who gave up much of their time to run the Friendship Group in the south side of Leicester. Janet and Peter had just received an Honoured Citizen Award from the Lord Mayor.

The City Mayor expressed his appreciation for all that Janet and Peter had given to the people of Leicester over the past 30 years and asked for his best wishes to be forwarded onto them.

Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Winter Plan and cancelled operations.

Councillor Cutkelvin, Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission, said that the Commission had received an update on the Winter Plan; there had been some very cold weather and had been issues relating to delayed transfer of care and cancelled surgeries. It had been said both nationally and locally that the impact of the cancelled operations would be experienced for some time in the NHS, possibly until next winter. Some of the people waiting for operations were in acute pain or dependent on care or perhaps waiting for adaptations to their home. There was a need to listen both nationally and locally to what was being said because the situation would impact on Adult Social Care.

The City Mayor responded that the Strategic Director of Adult Social Care briefed him and senior colleagues once a week and the way that the NHS was coping was a feature of those meetings. They had that week talked about the national and local situation and the impact on the council, Adult Social Care and people in general. There were strong concerns about the level of demands on the NHS, the impact on accident and emergency admissions and acute hospital beds. The council was working with them to try to help them cope with demand. The City Mayor added that he had great concerns for the              NHS and the way it was trying to cope with increased demand and the level of funding it received.

Frozen Pipes / Boilers

Councillor Cutkelvin referred to the problems people, including housing tenants had experienced because of problems with their boilers and frozen pipes during the recent bout of extremely cold weather. Housing Repairs had received a huge increase in phone calls from people not knowing what to do. Councillor Cutkelvin said that it would have been helpful if a message had been put on the council’s website or telephone system giving some advice on possible action to take (as her plumber did). This would have been helpful to tenants and eased the impact on council services. People had made multiple phone calls because they could not get through. Councillor Cutkelvin expressed a view that the risk assessment should have anticipated such a scenario and made appropriate provision.

The City Mayor said that the council were always looking for ways to help their tenants but were somewhat constrained as to what advice they could give. The Director of Finance responded that they could not advise tenants to take their own action such as to pour boiling water over their pipes; Councillor Cutkelvin agreed that would be unwise, but said that the council could have suggested the use of warm water or a hot water bottle placed on the pipe.

The Director said that a large number of calls had been received and when that happened, the provider closed the telephone line down. She understood that the same issue happened with other organisations including British Gas. Telephone calls were also coming in regarding other issues and the Director commented that there was a need to consider how they could mitigate a situation where a large number of telephone calls were coming in, for example during very cold weather.   

Members heard that while it was known that the cold weather was coming, it was not known that the boilers would be affected in that way. Councillor Connelly reported that a solution had been identified for the future, and a small device, costing about £10, could be fitted which should prevent any such future occurrences.

The City Mayor offered to arrange a meeting in about two weeks’ time, with Members and Officers, to consider the issues that had emerged from the very cold weather.

Councillor Cutkelvin commented that while it was good news that a possible solution had been identified, she re-iterated that the risk assessment should have identified this issue.  She also found it difficult to accept that some advice for tenants could not have been put on the website.

Sincere thanks were given to staff in the Gas Team who had worked extremely hard during this time.

The Dawn Centre

Councillor Cank, Chair of the Housing Scrutiny Commission stated that she had asked for a review of the Dawn Centre but had heard that it could be 12 or 18 months before the review could take place.  The centre was used by vulnerable people and she said it was not acceptable to have to wait so long for a review to take place. Councillor Cank commented that there should be inspections for homeless centres as there were for children’s homes.

The City Mayor responded that this was a legitimate subject for scrutiny to review and that the Housing Scrutiny Commission could undertake such a review in advance of the planned officer review.

The Assistant City Mayor for Housing explained that the role of the Dawn Centre was due to be considered as part of the Homelessness Review and Strategy (which was included on the agenda), but he was very happy for Housing Scrutiny to look at this. There were individuals who for different reasons would not use the Dawn Centre, but there was no inspection regime as there was for elderly person’s and children’s homes.

Compensation for businesses affected by road closures

Councillor Grant asked the City Mayor if compensation was available for businesses affected by road closures, and if so, how could those businesses access the relevant information.

The meeting heard that there was a discretionary scheme to provide hardship relief from business rates The Director of Finance said she would send Councillor Grant a link to the relevant information on the council’s internet.

Executive Decision: Sale of Land on Melbourne Road

Councillor Grant referred to an executive decision that had been taken earlier that day relating to the sale of land on Melbourne Road. Details of the sale had not been made public and he questioned how the sale would be perceived by community groups.

The City Mayor responded that he was very surprised that the information had been withheld. The land in question was a very small parcel of land on the edge of the Melbourne Road shops and while it might be deemed to be an asset to the purchaser, the sale would remove a liability from the council. He was not aware that there were any commercial sensitive issues around the sale but would look into the matter.