Social Housing Scrutiny Project: ASH Presentation to Haringey Council Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel

On 29 November 2017, at the invitation of Christian Scade, the Principal Scrutiny Officer at Haringey council, Geraldine Dening of ASH made the following presentation to the cross-party Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel. In attendance were Labour Councillor Emine Ibrahim, Chair of the Panel, Labour Councillor Zena Brabazon, Liberal Democrat Councillor Gail Engert, and Liberal Democrat Councillor Martin Newton, all of whom are Members of the Panel. During the summer the Panel had set up a high-level social housing review focusing on national, regional and local issues. The terms of reference for this review are as follows:

To consider attitudes towards social housing, both in Haringey and further afield.
To review the supply and quality of social housing in Haringey with consideration given to both new and older housing across the borough.
To identify barriers in current regional and national housing policy to enable consideration of what Haringey’s lobbying priorities should be around social housing.
To identify key indicators that enable social interventions of estate regeneration to be measured, ensuring existing communities get the greatest possible benefit from changes to their neighbourhoods.
To identify opportunities for residents so they can contribute fully to the delivery of objectives outlined in the Council’s Housing Strategy (2017-22), including monitoring of progress.

The Panel, which is similar to a Select Committee at national level, hoped to receive evidence from a wide range of sources, including professional experts, academics, local residents, council officers, external partners, the voluntary sector and local resident associations. This will be used to develop recommendations, and a report, to be published in March 2018, will include the ASH presentation as part of the evidence pack. Other presentations to the panel were made by Dr. Lisa Mckenzie, Lecturer in Practical Sociology at Middlesex University, and Brian Robson, Policy and Research Manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.