Examination of Witnesses (Questions 180
- 183)
MONDAY 15 JANUARY 2007
COUNCILLOR ANGELA
HARVEY AND
MS ROSEMARY
WESTBROOK
Q180 Chair: In
the private sector?
Ms Westbrook: In private sector
tenancies.
Councillor Harvey: Often RSL tenancies.
Ms Westbrook: They are essentially
private sector rents paid for largely through housing benefit
and then 40% are outside Westminster. In terms of who we prioritise
for living in Westminster, it is essentially those households
and families who have got children in a school.
Q181 Chair: That
was not the question. Maybe you could provide it to us in writing
afterwards? Where are the 40% going?
Ms Westbrook: To a number of east
London boroughs by and large. Perhaps we can put that in writing.
Q182 Chair: I
know we are over-running but can we move on to the private rented
sector, since you have such an enormous amount of it, and ask
whether you think you have got enough powers to control the quality
of the private rented sector in your borough? I know some of it
is very high quality and very high rent, but obviously not all
of it.
Councillor Harvey: I would say
our community protection department, which covers environmental
health, introduced a licensing scheme, for example, for HMOs some
years well in advance of the Act which came in last year, and
they are very, very keen indeed.
Ms Westbrook: We have taken up
a number of schemes to improve the quality, not simply through
enforcement action but also through grant activity, particularly
around energy efficiency, grants to landlords to improve the quality
of homes and grants to improve up to decent home standards inline
with the Government policy around vulnerable tenants living within
the private sector. The other area of activity the borough has
really taken on is around empty homes where we have always had
a very proactive strategy and have undertaken Compulsory Purchase
Orders to take back against owners who have not used their properties.
We have undertaken empty property Compulsory Purchase Orders unlike
the majority of local authorities.
Q183 Chair: Have
you already used the new—
Ms Westbrook: We decided that
we are not planning to use the Management Order powers because
we do not think they work very effectively. We think they put
the authority at risk because my understanding is, and I am not
expert in this area, if you take out the Management Order you
then are responsible for returning a rental income to the landlord,
so you become liable to take on the management and then supply
the landlord or the owner with a rental income. We have decided
we are not going to take that kind of action. The action we will
still take, where we have particularly recalcitrant owners who
absolutely refuse to bring their properties back into use where
they are derelict and are impacting on neighbours, is to take
out Compulsory Purchase Orders.
Councillor Harvey: We have not
used many of them but the knowledge that we do has certainly been
helpful so that in all cases we do not proceed to a CPO, but we
certainly have done.
Chair: I think we are running out of
time. I am very conscious of the fact that as well as your submission
there is the Westminster Housing Commission Report and we may,
if it is okay with you, write to you subsequently with some questions
arising from that Commission Report since it is such a mine of
useful information. Thank you very much indeed.
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