Agenda, decisions and minutes

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 July 2021 be agreed as an accurate record.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 July 2021 be agreed as an accurate record.

There were none.

That the report be agreed with recommendations (subject to the amendments agreed at the meeting) for submission to Mayor and Cabinet, as follows:

Leading the transformation

1.1.        The Task and Finish Group believes that it is time for a comprehensive retrofit strategy – which brings together all of the initiatives relating to housing retrofit across housing types and tenures. This should utilise the broad range of the Council’s powers, its influence and its partnerships. The strategy should set out clear measurable short, medium and long-term targets describing a path to carbon neutrality by 2030.

1.2.        Progress on the development of the strategy (and the Group’s other recommendations) should be reported to the relevant scrutiny committees by the end of the 2022-23 municipal year.

1.3.        Mayor and Cabinet should:

·           Consider how best to lead the step change needed to reach the Council’s ambition for net zero by 2030. The Task and Finish Group believes that the cabinet portfolios relating to the climate emergency, housing and planning are connected. It is recommended that discussions take place on how the cabinet portfolios might be formally linked.

·           Hold discussions with leaders in neighbouring boroughs about their ambitions for net zero – and the potential to join resources, projects and ways of thinking together to meet some of the common challenges facing local authorities.

·           Give careful consideration to the mechanisms available to have discussions with amenity societies, stakeholders and local groups about the values and principles guiding conservation and carbon reduction measures. It is important to find a common ground that recognises and emphasises the value of both.

1.4.        The Housing Select Committee should consider making retrofit a standing item on its agenda. This should include updates from social housing partners on their formal plans for net zero. In particular – the group recommends that the Committee invites Regenter to outline how it will work with the Council to improve the energy efficiency in the homes managed as part of the Brockley private finance initiative. We believe that there should be an expectation that all Council contracts with housing providers support Lewisham’s climate emergency declaration.

1.5.        Further opportunities should be considered for all councillors to attend training and briefings on the impact of the climate crisis (with a specific focus on the importance of retrofit). The Committee suggest that this take place as part of the induction programme of new and existing Councillors at the start of the next administration, 2022. 

1.6.        The Task and Finish Group welcomes the work being carried out by the economy, jobs and partnerships team (as below) – and it recommends that a further update on this work should be provided to the Sustainable Development Select Committee.

Communicating with purpose

1.7.        The Council should adopt a ‘one stop shop’ approach for residents to learn about the measures they can take to respond to the climate emergency. Work on this should commence immediately and, if possible, an on-line site be completed by the end of the calendar year 2022.  The Council’s  ...  view the full decision text for item 3.

3.1    Councillor Krupski introduced the report - inviting members to make comments on the evidence gathering and the report’s contents. In the discussion the following key point was noted:

·         Further to a late submission by a member of the public – additional reference would be made in the report to the role of retrofit in preventing overheating.

3.2    Committee members discussed the recommendations – the following key points were noted:

·         Members would welcome further detail in the report about when the recommendations would be implemented.

·         It would be the responsibility of the overview and scrutiny committee to follow up on the implementation of the recommendations.

·         Members would welcome dedicated officers within the planning department specialising on the issue of housing retrofit.

·         The Council should monitor the availability of funding for housing retrofit work on behalf of housing providers in the borough – in order to ensure that partners were in a position to bid for funding when it became available.

·         Members would welcome further strengthening of the recommendation about works on void properties in Lewisham Homes.

·         Scrutiny committees should be asked to consider how best they might collaborate and coordinate their approach to scrutiny of retrofit issues. A suggestion could also be made to hold all member briefing on retrofit.

·         Consideration should be given to providing an update and/or training for new members of the Housing Select Committee on housing retrofit.

·         Recommendations relating to partner organisations should specify the expectation that they should coordinate their retrofit activities.

·         A further recommendation should be included relating to the cooling benefits of retrofit – and the benefits of coordinating retrofit work with tree planting.

·         Members highlighted the importance of retrofitting non-housing stock.

·         Councillor Krupksi thanked officers, members and all of those who had been involved in the process of evidence gathering for the review.

3.3    Resolved: That the report be agreed with recommendations (subject to the amendments agreed at the meeting) for submission to Mayor and Cabinet, as follows:

Leading the transformation

·         The Task and Finish Group believes that it is time for a comprehensive retrofit strategy – which brings together all of the initiatives relating to housing retrofit across housing types and tenures. This should utilise the broad range of the Council’s powers, its influence and its partnerships. The strategy should set out clear measurable short, medium and long-term targets describing a path to carbon neutrality by 2030.

·         Progress on the development of the strategy (and the Group’s other recommendations) should be reported to the relevant scrutiny committees by the end of the 2022-23 municipal year.

Mayor and Cabinet should:

·           Consider how best to lead the step change needed to reach the Council’s ambition for net zero by 2030. The Task and Finish Group believes that the cabinet portfolios relating to the climate emergency, housing and planning are connected. It is recommended that discussions take place on how the cabinet portfolios might be formally linked.

·           Hold discussions with leaders in neighbouring boroughs about their ambitions for net zero – and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.