Agenda and minutes

The Leader welcomed Councillor Sharon Holder as the new Cabinet Member for Strategy and confirm the members of the Cabinet in attendance.

The Leader pointed out that this Cabinet meeting had been moved forward because the Government had not agreed to extend or replace the Provisions in the Coronavirus Act, permitting meetings of local authorities to be held remotely beyond 7 May 2021. Accordingly Cabinet meetings could no longer take place remotely and from next month they would be held in person. This would be a problem to councillors vulnerable to Coronavirus and every effort would be made to ensure their safety.

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19 April 2021 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of the proceedings, and that the outstanding actions be noted.

There were no apologies for absence.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

The Leader stated that since 2014 the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF) had asked residents and experts to carry out independent commissions to form policy ideas. He was grateful to those who dedicated their time on a voluntary basis to provide LBHF with support and guidance.  In this instance the LBHF Resident-led Climate and Ecological Emergency Commission was setting out the findings and recommendations to protect the environment.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt stated that this report was prepared by members of the LBHF Resident-led Climate and Ecological Emergency Commission. It followed up from the Council decision in 2019 to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency, aiming for the whole Borough to reach net zero-carbon emissions by the end of 2030, which was a very ambitious target. Local people looked at the areas that the  Council needed to address and presented this well received report by the Community Safety and Environment Policy and Accountability Committee (CSEPAC) in March. He thanked all the Commission members for their work.

The Chair of the Commission, Paul Beaty-Pownall, highlighted the following four key deliverables and summarised the proposed actions for achieving a net zero borough by 2030:

1.    Stablishing a vision that encouraged change to a zero-carbon society

2.    Communication and engagement with residents, and sharing information

3.    Building local sources of knowledge

4.    Creating an effective plan to net zero, starting with planting lots of trees in the immediate term, followed by generating local carbon-free energy supplies and lobbying the Government for change in the long term.

The Leader welcomed the report and added two years ago the Council had set up the Climate Change Unit to look into how the Council would rise to the climate change challenge. A commitment to responding to the Climate Emergency had become one of the Council’s six core values and was now the responsibility of every Council’s department.

Councillor Ben Coleman also thanked the work done by the Commission and the way it was presented. Particularly the focus on food/healthy eating and the positive impact of the traffic schemes in south Fulham, which reduced the overall volume of cars coming through the area by 75%.

Councillor Harcourt stressed that one of the comments received at CSEPAC was that the Council needed to change the culture of the entire borough through an effective and sophisticated communications strategy to help deliver the recommendations in the report. The Council would need to prepare a robust communications plan which explained the necessary actions in order for residents to understand the climate change implications in all schemes being done by the Council.

Paul Beaty-Pownall stated that food was a very important point in relation to climate change. The Council could enable and facilitate access to quality, healthy food at a fair price. He added that Scarlett Knowles, the Youth Mayor, had joined the Commission and her role had been critical in coming up with solutions that would help implement positive changes for young people and the future generations.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Councillor Lisa Homan stated that this was the overarching strategy of many other strategies resulting from it related to housing issues. This particular strategy included the Homebuy Allocations Scheme. She added that the Housing Strategy had five key strategic objectives for housing:

·         Working with Residents to Meet Housing Needs,

·          Safe, Sustainable Housing;

·          Make H&F a Great Place to Live;

·          Delivering More Homes for Residents; and

·          Prevent Homelessness and End Rough Sleeping.

Councillor Lisa Homan added that many other housing related strategies were currently being updated.

NOTED AND AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY CABINET:

1.    To note the summary and analysis of responses to the Housing Strategy consultation process in the Housing Strategy Consultation Summary Report (Appendix C)

2.    To note the Equality Impact Assessment (Appendix D)

3.    To Adopt the:

a)  Housing Strategy (Appendix A);

b)  Homebuy Allocations Scheme (Appendix B),

The Key Decision List was noted.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 - ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Proposed resolution:

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.       

There was no discussion of exempt elements.