Agenda item

5.1

Alan Kewley raised the following two questions:-

(a)       Could the Committee look into the issue regarding Local Area Partnerships on the grounds that, since they were established in October 2013, they had not operated in the format as agreed at that time and on the basis that they represented a very important role as part of the Council’s engagement process?

Response – The Policy and Improvement Officer stated that the future of Local Area Partnerships was to be considered as part of a wider piece of work on how the Council aimed to work with neighbourhoods.  The topic had been included on the Committee’s Work Programme for 2015/16, and Members would, as part of its discussions on this item later in the meeting, be looking at whether this issue should be prioritised for consideration. The Chair added that Local Area Partnerships were viewed by Members as very important in terms of the Council’s engagement process.

(b)       Could the Committee include a topic on its Work Programme for 2015/16 in terms of overseeing the role of the Sheffield First Safer and Sustainable Communities Partnership, particularly how the work of the Partnership tied in with the work of this Committee?

Response – The Policy and Improvement Officer confirmed that the issue of community safety was included as a topic on the Committee’s draft Work Programme for 2015/16, and Members would decide how they would prioritise this and all other suggested topics on the Programme later in the meeting.

5.2

Andy Shallice raised the following four questions:-

(a)       Do officers consider there to have been any improvements in Page Hall since the Selective Licensing Scheme was introduced, specifically relating to tenant management, state and condition of repair, overcrowding or other aspects of the local neighbourhood?

(b)       Has there been any noticeable change, or anecdotal evidence, of the mix of the private rented tenant population since the introduction of the Page Hall Selective Licensing Scheme, such as the proportion of tenants who were ‘economic migrants’, or EU migrants or Roma?

(c)        How many voluntary registrations of landlords has there been in the wider, coterminous neighbourhoods, around the Selective Licensing Scheme designated area?

(d)       When the officers used the phrase ‘they’re not displacing – they’re still arriving’ in the presentation planned to be made  at the meeting on 26^th March 2015, were they referring to landlords or tenants?  If the reference was to tenants, was this suggesting that an ambition of Selective Licensing was to alter the composition of the local tenant population?

Response – The Chair stated that the questions would be referred to Michelle Houston, Private Housing Standards Service, with a request that she provides responses at the earliest possible opportunity.