Brent Council attempts to address the Strategic Risks ahead and introduces new risk areas

Strategic Risk Areas - red equals highest risk and highest impact (5/5)

Tomorrow's Brent Audit and Standards Advisory Committee (6pm) LINK will be discussing the Strategic Risks Register compiled by the Council.

 

 

The following new risk areas have been added to the Strategic Risk Register:

 

Cost of living crisis

The cost of living crisis caused by rising rates of inflation and fuel/energy costs, may result in more families and households to fall into unemployment and poverty, which may lead to increased level of service demand on the Council and place additional pressure on front-line services.

Recruitment and retention

Failure to recruit and retain sufficient permanent staff to a significant number of posts, including senior managers, leaves services without sufficient and/or sufficiently qualified staff leading to services being impaired and an overreliance on agency/interim staff.

Increased demand from migration and people movement

There is a risk that a sustained increase in migration and movement of
people could result in increased demand on the Council's critical front-line services (including housing, education and looked after children), which may result in service deterioration, financial pressures and also impact on the wider cohesion of the community.

 

NEU Video on the Cost of Living Crisis calling for support for June 18th demonstration

 

The full report is available HERE. It is important for the reader to assess whether the Action Plans adequately address the risks in the various areas. I include two extracts below.

 

The Cost of Living Crisis is clearly important in Brent. The Risk Register states: 

COST OF LIVING CRISIS (A)

 

RISK SUMMARY

 

The cost of living crisis caused by rising rates of inflation, National Insurance, and fuel/energy costs, may result in more families and households to fall into poverty and unemployment, which may lead to increased level of service demand on the Council and place additional pressure on front-line services.

 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, PROGESS AND CONCERNS

 

The Brent Resident Support Fund (RSF) is a discretionary support fund available to Brent residents who are in financial difficulties, for example struggling with food, utility bills and other household essentials. For 2021/22, the RSF budget was £3million.

The government announcement of 3 February 2022 regarding Energy Bills Rebate included provision for most properties in council tax bands A to D to receive a £150 rebate payment. It is estimated that the total amount paid could be up to £14.5m at full take-up.

The announcement also made provision for local authorities to create a fuel rebate discretionary scheme to support some properties in bands E to H. The government have provided funding of £1,933,800 allowing the Council to establish a scheme to support bill payers not eligible under the main scheme for properties in bands A to D.

A cross-Council Cost of Living Crisis Group has been set-up to look at the impact of the crisis across all services and to ensure a joined-up approach.

A Food and Fuel Poverty Toolkit has been prepared which contains links and signposts to various organisations to support residents. Staff and Members have been briefed and trained on this and it has been presented at departmental management teams and relevant services.

A Financial Inclusion Dashboard is in place which draws together data from across various datasets, including council tax support and benefits. This is used to identify residents who may need targeted supports (i.e. in arrears). It also provides a strategic oversight for senior management.

 

ACTION PLAN

 

1. Further enhance the Financial Inclusion Dashboard by introducing additional datasets to help identify residents in need of targeted support.
2. To use the Food and Fuel Poverty Toolkit to prepare a leaflet to be sent to all residents signposting them to various organisations that can provide support.
3. To continue to roll-out training regarding the Food and Fuel Poverty Toolkit crisis toolkit to partners and the third-sector.
4. A report will be taken to Cabinet for approval in June 2022, outlining all the measures currently in place and other planned actions to be taken by the Council. The report will also seeks approval for additional funding for RSF for three years from 22/23

The need for truly affordable housing, including Council housing, has been a major theme of this blog. In this section I was looking for an action concerning the issue particularly in the light of the concerns raised by Philip Grant over the Cecil Avenute development. 

 

During the  election campaign candidates at the Housing Hustings were concerned about developers 'getting away' with low levels of truly affordable housing and there were suggestions that the Council should engage its own in-house experts in Viability Assessments, rather than external providers. Developers use Viability Assessments to demonstrate that a development is not financially viable, or does not provide an adequate return if they provide the amount of afforable housing that the Council expects.  There was also support for a separate Housing Scrutiny Committee. These issues are not addressed: 

 

LACK OF SUPPLY OF AFFORDABLE ACCOMMODATION (D)

 

RISK SUMMARY

 

There is a risk that as a result of the limited supply of affordable accommodation, in the Private Rented Sector , settled Temporary Accommodation (TA) and Social Housing, progress made towards increasing the sufficient supply of accommodation to meet the demand from homeless households could be reversed. This could lead to greater reliance on emergency temporary accommodation, which would have impacts on the wellbeing and quality of life for residents, and also provide an additional burden.

 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS, PROGRESS AND CONCERNS

 

In 2012, Brent had 3,176 homeless households living in TA, which was the largest number in the country. By 2018, this number had reduced to 2,450 and it now stands at 1,584. With progress being made on the New Council Homes programme, we believe we will meet the need for 1-3 bedroom properties. The picture is more limited for families in need of a 4+ bed accommodation, where will believe a significant shortfall will remain.

The recent economic downturn related to the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis has resulted in many households facing the risk of homeless. Some of these households are affected by the Overall Benefit Cap, which makes finding alternative private rented accommodation in the borough extra difficult. This means that the families are unable to afford Private Rented Accommodation (at the LHA rate) or settled temporary accommodation, in TA leasing schemes.

The greatest control we can exert on the model is building new Council-owned supply, and encouraging RSLs to build what we need. We can also exert control through social housing re-lets/voids, private rented sector offers, and new build social housing. The Team are also working with the affected families to support them to secure work, and so be exempt from the cap, as well as identifying households who are accruing debt, in order to proactively make contact and offer assistance at an earlier stage, to prevent homelessness.

The Housing Needs Service are working with Notting Hill Genesis HA, who supply TA through the HAL scheme, to procure more property in the North of Brent, where LHA rates are lower.

 

ACTION PLAN

 

1. To continue delivering the NCHP at pace, with a focus on large family homes.
2. To continue to look at additional purchases of street properties that meet specific needs.
3. To continue review and explore options for the building of a new temporary accommodation scheme that would provide an additional 100 units of temporary accommodation.

The highest risk/impact area is the increase in the Dedicated Schools Grant High Needs Block Deficit. (C) This is the funding need for special needs pupils who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which was in deficit by £10.5m in 2020/21.  This has is being addressed by putting in early support to reduce the need for EHCPs, creating more places for such children within the borough and ensuring that costs are collected other local authorities that have children in Brent schools.  In addition to these actions there is a short statement on lobbying central government. An action that could of course be applied to the funding of local government in general.

Joint Statement by Mina Smallman and Dawn Butler on the second anniversary of the murder of sisters Bibaa and Nicole

Today marks two years since two beautiful sisters, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, were brutally murdered in a park in Brent. They must never be forgotten along with the countless other women whose lives have been taken too soon at the hands of men.

Violence against women and girls has reached endemic proportions. It is a stain on society and our duty is to keep campaigning for change that is so desperately needed. We want to provide a platform and a force for change.

We call for long overdue action at the heart of our institutions to ensure the safety of women and girls, so that tragedies like this will never happen again. Continuing as we are will not solve it – we need systemic, institutional reforms.

The Government and Metropolitan Police must undertake coordinated sustainable action to tackle violence against women and girls – on the streets, in the home, in the workplace, online and wherever else it may take place. Because enough is enough.

Action must also be taken to address the repeated instances of misconduct by some officers within the Met Police. The repeated incidents of unacceptable and at times criminal behaviour, as well as the large number of allegations of sexual misconduct, is extremely concerning. The Met have a well-developed actionplan to rebuild faith in their police service. This must include the dismissal of ‘bad apple’ police officers.

Finally, we believe that the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner must acknowledge the institutional racism and misogyny that still exists within the service. If we cannot admit these problems exist, how can we possibly hope to solve them. The new commissioner must be committed to institutional reforms, to working with the public to resolve problems and to ensuring that the service is as diverse as the public it seeks to serve. This is necessary in order to build trust in the Met among all of London’s people and communities.

While we recognise that the process is well under way to appoint the new Commissioner, we are clear that in future this new position cannot be chosen solely by the Home Secretary or Prime Minister. In future, the Commissioner must be chosen by Londoners as a whole – either directly or via their elected representatives. It is only fair and correct that Londoners have a say in who leads the service which seeks to protect and serve the people.

I look forward to working collaboratively with the next Met Police Commissioner, the many good officers in the police service and the many important stakeholders. We would welcome a meeting with the Home Secretary to discuss the above in further detail.

Dawn Butler MP and Mina Smallman

Reminder: The Women's Equality Party has organised a march from Fryent Country Park (Barn Hill pond, Wembley) to New Scotland Yard to lay the responsibility for racist, misogynist policing firmly at the Metropolitan Police doors. 

Starts at 12.30pm at the pond.  DETAILS

 

Call-in hearing over Morland Gardens development takes place on Thursday June 9th at 6.30pm

 The first meeting of the new administration's Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee takes place on Thursday June 9th, chaired bt Cllr Rita Conneely. 

The call-in by Opposition councillors will consider the decision of the Strategic Director for Regeneration and Environment on the  award of the Design and Build Contract for the Morland Gardens (Altamira) development in Stonebridge.

Full details of the basis of the call-in have been published HERE

The Officer's report LINK gives three possible outcomes of the Committee's deliberations:

Recommendation

2.1 That the Committee considers the call-in and agrees to one of the following outcomes:

2.1.1 The Committee does not wish to refer the matter back to the decision maker or to Council, at which point the decision is deemed to be confirmed and takes effect immediately following the meeting; or

2.1.2 The Committee decides to ask the Strategic Director – Regeneration & Environment to reconsider the decision, in light of any observations of the Committee; or

2.1.3 Having had regard to the advice of the Director of Legal and HR Services or Director of Finance, the Committee considers the decision is contrary to the Council’s Budget or Policy Framework, at which point it refers the matter to the next practicable meeting of the Council, subject to the provisions of Standing Orders.

  The meeting can be watched live HERE

REMINDER: Tuesday June 7th March on the Met from Fryent Country Park to remember Bibaa Henry & Nicole Smallman

 

From Women's Equality Party

It’s now nearly two years since Nicole and Bibaa were tragically murdered, since the police utterly failed to respond when they went missing officers charged guarding them took ‘selfies’ with their bodies. Since then more then more than two hundred women have lost their lives to male violence, tens of thousands more have experienced rape or sexual assault. Meanwhile politicians and the police have made empty apologies and fought about which of them carries the most blame

Enough is enough. These past two years have seen a groundswell of support for real, lasting change to the institutions that are meant to protect us. 

On Tuesday June 7th we are marching to honour Nicole and Bibaa, and all the women we have lost their lives to male violence. March with us for every woman who has to live in fear, and for every black woman who is forced to live the double jeopardy of malignant racism and misogyny. 

The full march will be ten miles, from the park where Nicole and Bibaa were tragically murdered to the doors of New Scotland Yard - laying the responsibility for racist, misogynist policing firmly at their doors. 

 

The meeting point at Barn Hill Pond, Fryent Country Park (a walk from Wembley Park station)

 

Alternative transport will be available if you are unable to walk or roll the full distance, or you can join us for the final mile from 6pm, or at the final rally outside New Scotland Yard.

Sign up to the full ten mile march below.

WHEN

June 07, 2022 at 12:30pm - 5pm

WHERE

Barn Hill Pond, Fryent Country Park
Wembley
London HA9 9LN
United Kingdom
Google map and directions

 

LINK TO SIGN UP 

UPDATE: Call for Planning Enforcement investigation into controversial 44 Queens Walk residential units marketed as Queens Luxury Apartments on hotel websites

UPDATE

Following the publication of the article below Philip Grant has written to the Brent Planning Enforcement Team  calling for an investigation into the matter and enforcement if appropriate. In a comment on the article Philip writes:

The 44 Queen's Walk planning application, 19/2163, was given consent on 19 February 2020, on the basis of the planning application documents and plans as submitted. These were for 7 residential apartments.

The consent letter included the following condition:

'4. The residential units hereby approved shall at no time be converted from C3 residential to a C4 small HMO, notwithstanding the provisions of Schedule 2 Part 3 Class L of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 (or any order revoking and re-enacting that Order) without express planning permission having first been granted by the Local Planning Authority.

Reason: To ensure that an adequate standard of accommodation is maintained in all of the residential units and in view of the restricted space within the site to accommodate additional bin or cycle storage.'

It is clear from this that the planning approval was for the apartments to be residential units within planning Class C3. This is defined as:

'C3 – Houses, Flats, Apartments:

Class C3 is use as a dwelling house (whether or not as a sole or main residence)
* by a single person or by people living together as a family, or
* by not more than 6 residents living together as a single household
(including a household where care is provided for residents).'

I think that the key words here are 'use as a dwelling house'. It might be argued that someone renting a two-bedroom apartment at 44 Queen's Walk for £205 a night is using it as a temporary dwelling house. 

However, I think that this sort of use, especially as it is advertised on hotel websites, would fall within planning Class C1:

'C1 – Hotels and Hostels:

Class C1 is use as a hotel, boarding or guest house or as a hostel where, in each case, no significant element of care is provided.'

I have referred this apparent breach of the planning consent to Brent Council's Planning Enforcement Team.

Krishna Court - Salmon Street view (actual address 44 Queens Walk, NW9)

Wembley Matters covered the planning application of a family house at 44 Queens Walk, Kingsbury that involved the demolition of the house and the construction of a block of flats. Planning officers claimed that the loss of family housing was compensated for by the construction of a number of flats on the corner site. There was much local opposition to what many called a blot on the surburban landscape. LINK

The flats were put on the market via Ellis & Co. with prices: 1 bed £365k, 2 bed £515k-£520k and 3 bed £575k. It now appears that there was a single buyer for all the flats that are not housing for coupled or families but are marketed on hotel websites as Queens Luxury Apartments LINK with the price for a 2 bedroomed apartment around £205 a night.

 

Advertising Extract:

 

Managed by D Property Investing Ltd

Company review score: 9.5Based on 24 reviews from 1 property

1 managed property

---

Property information

Queens Luxury Apartments are positioned on a lavish street a stone throw away from Wembley Park and its stadium, along with its other popular attractions. All apartments benefit from an outside space with high end garden furniture. Each apartment comes with modern high end fixtures, fittings and appliances, not to mention its unique designer furniture. Our apartments are perfect for business or pleasure and also benefit from gated parking. There's something for everyone whether your looking for ground floor with spacious gardens, or penthouse style with great views.

 

The property manager stresses that hen parties etc are not catered for.

 

The question arises as to whether planning officers and planning committee members were duped into approving an application that in no way counts towards provision of housing for the borough or that contributes to Brent Council's housing targets. 

You can see how much potential housing was lost by looking at Queens Luxury Apartments property list for Krishna Court: 

 

The three bed-roomed apartment was cited in the planning discussion as much needed replacement family housing.

A further question is how much of the accommodation approved by the Planning Committee,  on the assumption that it will be sold on the market to long-term residents, is in fact being bought up by propery companies as self-catering holiday let  properties or even just simply land-banked. 

The low voting turn-out of Wembley Park ward, covering the Quintain estate, gives a clue. It was 21% of registered electors just above Stonebrdige at 22.21% and a Brent average of 30.67%/ In contrast Alperton turn-out was 43.6%.

Lastly, one more questiom, does this use as a holiday apartment complex require change of use planning permission?

 

 

Wembley Place in the High Road - beyond a joke!

New developments and regeneration in Wembley Park, Alperton and South Kilburn get a lot of attention but Wembley High Road is also being steadily redeveloped.  In this guest blog a local  resident looks at some disturbing issues in a new development on the High Road.

 

Perhaps whilst everyone is banging on about parking etc let’s look at Wembley High Road. Wembley Place was built by Henley Homes  the very same contractor that closed the High Road for months having pumped 25 metres of concrete into the sewer when piling) now operated by Genesis Notting Hill.  I believe they are responsible for the social housing (45) flats above Sainsbury's and shared ownership above Costa Coffee.  Not sure who operates the remainder which is private, block is at the back overlooking Copland Fields.

 

Since complaining that the gates were never open to the service areas when everyone and their mother is parking in Ecclestone Place opposite  to facilitate their deliveries, it would now appear that said gate is now broken and hasn't been closed for months.  

 

 

This results in a theoretical "Car Free Development" where the  majority of residents who own cars are now freely parking along the service road.  I counted approximately 18 vehicles when I took the photographs for this article.  

 

 

When I saw people moving I asked if they were residents – the answer was,  “Yes, the gate doesn't work and it's easy to park here without any problem.”

 

 

I also noted that the disabled bays of which there are 20 were also nearly full, and have it on good authority from a resident of the private block which is above it that only about 4/5 have permits and it is rumoured some residents are using their relatives and friends to gain a space.  This area has now been reduced due to scaffolding, which brings me on to my next item.

 

Since shortly after completion in Easter of 2020 and the retail units being fitted out and leased to Costa and Sainsburys, scaffolding went up around the ground level of all the three blocks.  You will note it's under every section where there are greyish oblong bricks.  

 

Now from when it went up, well over 18 months ago, nobody has been seen working on it.  The only person I have spoken to is the guy that comes and puts up the permits and checks the security of it.  I asked the scaffolders as to what is happening and they informed me that these bricks/cladding has been installed incorrectly and there is fear that they may fall off and injure someone.  As the scaffolding is at low level there does not seem to be anyone in a rush to repair it/remove/remedy the situation.  

 

 

But the best joke is, outside Costa on the area where they have installed seating on the "Piazza" adjacent to where our "Water Feature" was supposed to be installed but never happened.  There is no scaffolding and scaffolders have not been told to erect there, so god help the fans and patrons of Costa who may be injured if one falls off!

 

You might also observe the Heras Fencing which has been there forever, along with the security gates to enter the development. None of this was shown in the artist’s impression of the development.

 

 

As for the play area, it is unusable for the kids as it's full of scaffolding and despite the fact it was 20% down on the recommended amenity space in the first place. Coplands Fields still remain locked off to everyone, despite being "public land". We were told it only required 10% of the space to build the new school but they have given St Josephs RC School and Elsley Primary some to expand to for forms of entry - the rest remains fenced off to the public.  

 

I really need Carolyn Downs to answer an FOI as to why this is so.  I have ear-ached Muhammed Butt and Krupa Sheth to no avail, and cannot get a sensible answer from either of them.............something is not right.

 

 

Kingsbury’s history of welcoming refugees – a Platinum Jubilee memorial

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

A Queen’s Green Canopy tree, planted in Roe Green Park.

 

Many people will be celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this weekend, and one excellent way to mark the 70^th anniversary of her reign has been to plant a tree. I saw this recently planted oak tree when walking in Roe Green Park, and when I read the plaque beneath it, I was reminded of some local history that I’m happy to share with you.

 

The tree is one of eighty, planted as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, and the 80^th anniversary of the Association of Jewish Refugees. Their trees have been planted at various places around the country that welcomed refugees from the Holocaust. The Kingsbury tree is in ‘memory of Gustav and Herta Nagler, who found refuge here from Poland and Germany in 1940.’

 

The AJR memorial plaque beside the tree.

I don’t know Gustav and Herta Nagler’s story (if you do, please share it in a comment below), but my research into Kingsbury’s history has shown that they were not the only refugees to find a new life here. 

 

One of the first was Dr Willy Selig, who settled in Kingsbury around 1930, after leaving his home in Munich, an early hotbed of the Nazi Party in Germany. He rented a former farm worker’s cottage at Valley Farm, in Kingsbury Road (where Sutherland Court now stands) and opened a (pre-NHS) GP surgery there. The Valley Farm housing estate was being built just across the road, and he was soon a popular local doctor.

 

Older residents I interviewed, when writing a history of the estate (where I live) for its 75^th anniversary in 2005, remembered him with affection. I heard stories of how he had helped the local ARP team during the war, although as an “alien” he was not allowed to be an official member. The wardens gave him one of their tin helmets to wear, and requisitioned a replacement for one that had been “lost”.

 

A WW2 Air Raid Warden’s helmet.

 

After Fryent Way had been built in 1935, Willy Selig moved to a new house there, at No.22. The medical practice he began is still there, in an enlarged building, as The Fryent Way Surgery, serving the local community.

 

New homes on the Valley Farm Estate attracted many Jewish families, some from other parts of London and others fleeing Nazi persecution. Mersham Drive (named after a village in Kent), developed between 1931 and 1933 by Messrs A & M Haddow, proved very popular (it may be a coincidence, but the street name sounds similar to Mea She'arim, one of the oldest Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem outside the walls of the Old City!). It was residents of Mersham Drive who founded the Kingsbury Hebrew Congregation in 1934, which began meeting in their homes and would go on to become Kingsbury Synagogue.

 

The Spiro family, an older couple, their son and his wife, moved to Valley Drive around 1938. They’d left behind a manufacturing business in Berlin because of growing persecution from Hitler’s Nazi government. The final straw was when young Mrs Spiro was walking past a school, and saw a group of boys beating up a Jewish pupil (identified by the yellow Star of David he was forced to wear), and being urged on to do so by their schoolmaster. She knew she would never want children of her own if they stayed in Germany, and fled to Britain with her husband and his parents. Her own parents decided to remain, and died in the Holocaust.

 

Mr and Mrs Spiro, and their first child, safe in Valley Drive c.1945. (Courtesy of Elizabeth Clarke)

 

Further along Kingsbury Road, it was Holy Innocents’ Church that would provide a safe haven for more refugees, or rather its vicarage. When Rev. Lambart Edwards agreed to become Vicar of Kingsbury in 1883, it was on condition that a “parsonage” would be provided for him, as he had a wife and five children (and probably servants as well). He also had a new church built, rather than the ancient St Andrew’s in the south of the parish.

 

Holy Innocents’ Church, with its vicarage, early 1900s. (From the late Geoffrey Hewlett’s collection)

 

Around 1930, a smaller and more manageable vicarage was built at Roe Green, and the large old house behind the church was sold to John Laing & Sons. They allowed it to be used by the Children’s Society as a home for babies awaiting adoption. In 1939, it was taken over by Dr Barnardo’s Homes, to provide a home for some of the around 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children brought to Britain from German-controlled Europe as part of the “Kindertransport”. 

Those children would have found a welcoming community in Kingsbury. In 1942, the Hebrew Congregation acquired Eden Lodge, a large Victorian mansion beside Kingsbury Green, and registered it as a place of Jewish worship. It was soon to be known as Kingsbury Synagogue, with its own new worship building erected in the grounds by the late 1940s. But Jews escaping Nazi persecution are far from the only refugees that Kingsbury has welcomed.

 

Ivy Cottage at Kingsbury Green, with Eden Lodge beyond it, early 1900s.
(From the late Geoffrey Hewlett’s collection)

 

The Gohil brothers and their families moved to Crundale Avenue in the winter of 1969/70, some of the first Asian residents on the Valley Farm Estate. Like many others of Indian origin, they had come to England from Kenya when that country’s newly independent government discriminated against them. Their new neighbours were friendly and very helpful. Their house only had open fireplaces for heating, and it was the Jewish lady from next door who showed them how to lay and light a coal fire, and where to buy coal and firewood!

 

Over time, many of the Jewish families have moved on from Kingsbury, while newcomers have been a wide variety of people from around Britain and the world, some of them also refugees from wars and famine. 

 

Another view of the AJR Queen’s Green Canopy oak tree in Roe Green Park.

 

It’s fitting that the new oak tree in Roe Green Park was planted ‘with thanks to the people of Britain who helped [Holocaust] refugees.’ Our long-serving Queen has symbolised some of the best aspects of Britain, such as the welcome to refugees shown by the people of Kingsbury, and of Brent.

 

Philip Grant.