Hello Everyone,
I hope you all had a good week and a nice weekend. As you’d expect, housing is still very much at the forefront of my mind. I have been working with the Chief Executive and Corporate Director of Inclusive Economy and Housing and the two new cabinet members that I have appointed to oversee different aspects of the housing services area at the Council in response to the C4 judgement by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) on the Council’s Housing Services department. I promised that I would send regular updates about what has been happening on this front. On Monday 21 October, RSH staff met with the Chief Executive, Corporate Director for Inclusive Economy and Housing, Interim Director for Housing and other relevant officers to discuss and agree the next steps across the coming months, including ways of working.
The first of a series of fortnightly meetings will take place week commencing 4 November and will commence a period of ‘intensive engagement’. These meetings with the RSH will be attended by the Corporate Director, Director of Housing and senior officers from Housing, with reports compiled regularly in line with the Council’s internal governance structure. The focus of the first meeting will be on producing and agreeing an Improvement Plan. Thereafter, meetings with RSH staff will ensure focused and constructive discussions across the following key areas: - The Council’s ability to put things right;
- Progress against a clear and credible Action Plan;
- Adequate practice on ongoing diagnostics;
- Assurance within the Council;
- Pro-active updating of the Regulator on new or emerging issues.
We’ve also set up a new ‘Housing Strategic Improvement Board’ (HSIB) which is part of a refreshed internal governance structure here at the Council in response to the Regulator of Social Housing judgement. It’ll be Chaired by Abi Gbago, the Council’s Chief Executive with the Corporate Director Paul Kitson as Deputy Chair; and membership will include both Cllr Blossom Young and Cllr Amar Virdee from the Cabinet in light of their respective housing services cabinet roles and close working, with a clear line of sight on the Council’s response to the Regulator through its Action Plan held by Cllr Young. I’ll be receiving regular reports, and will be shortly announcing the names of the additional advisory experts who I’ll be appointing following the publication of the Regulator of Social Housing C4 judgment. We’ll also been submitting reports to formal meetings of Cabinet as part of ensuring transparency about what the Council is doing as it progresses with the improvements it has to make for our residents living in Council homes. I also started last week with the alarming news of a fire in one of our residential blocks in Plaistow first thing on Monday morning. Thankfully, because of the building’s ‘compartmentalised’ design, which means fires can’t easily spread between flats, and due to the incredible work of the emergency services, no one was seriously hurt. But a small number of residents won’t be able to go home until damage has been repaired, and the Council is supporting them until they can. Council staff were on the scene straight away to set up a rest centre in the nearby community centre for people evacuating – some still in their pyjamas. It was really heartening to hear a journalist at the scene reporting that “residents couldn’t have spoken more highly of the response from the Council and Fire Service” and talking of the fantastic community spirit we have in Newham. The Fire Service investigation has found the fire was caused by a faulty lithium-ion battery – which they think was being recharged on a balcony. I would add my voice to that of the London Fire Brigade, and our fire safety and trading standards officers, in warning about these batteries which are responsible for so many house fires in London if they are faulty or damaged and would urge you to recharge them safely. We had our Full Council meeting on Monday evening, which focussed on Newham’s Temporary Accommodation crisis, and what needs to happen to help end the scourge of homelessness in our borough. I talked about both the financial and human impact of the 26% increase in those needing temporary accommodation– you can watch the meeting online. I was really pleased that the administration’s approach on temporary accommodation was unopposed, underlining the importance of the issue for everyone in Newham. One of the things Council agreed was to set up a special task force of Councillors and stakeholders to examine all the causes and possible solutions of the Temporary Accommodation crisis and to report back in two months’ time. The impact of the Temporary Accommodation crisis, and what it means for the Council’s finances is very much the subject of discussions I am having with many of you at events across the borough, where we want to talk to residents about the challenges we face and hear your views – this week in Stratford, next week in East Ham – you can see all the events here. Please do sign up, take part and have your say. There was good news last week across Newham as well! I was really pleased on Monday to officially open the new entrance to Stratford Station linking to the Carpenters Estate. It’ll ensure better connection and ease of access from this part of the borough to a major transport link, knocking 20 minutes off people’s journeys. The new station entrance also supports our work to restore the Carpenters Estate with over 2,000 new homes where 50% will be at social rent, and has been made possible by investment of £1m from the Council from our Community Infrastructure Levy. I remember signing off the papers for that back in 2019.
On Thursday, I celebrated five-years of brilliant Newham Heritage Month cultural activities across the borough. Over that time, we’ve distributed £850,000 in UK Heritage funding to support community-driven heritage and cultural production, with 58 community grants and 355 in-person or online events. It’s all part of our Building Newham’s Creative Future cultural strategy where we want to widen participation and increase skill and job opportunities in the creative and cultural sectors in London. Thursday was another day spent with our youngsters, with my first stop over at Sheringham Nursery school and Children’s Centre where I launched our third Family Hub. All part of our commitment to give all young children the best start in life. Talking of giving our youngsters the best start, I was delighted recently to announce the election results of Newham’s two new Youth Parliament members Zara Achhodi and Isa Rafiq who will represent the borough at the UK Youth Parliament, following an election process run by our Youth Empowerment service involving young people from our Youth Zones and schools. These two 15-year-olds are seriously impressive and I know will do great things with the platform their election offers them. They’ll be tasked with also reporting back regularly to our young people in Newham, as they should as our Newham representatives at the UK Youth Parliament. I also had fun with our young people from across the borough last week as we headed over to the first day of the always-popular MCM ComicCon London event at the ExCel. The Comic Con focuses on comic books, video games, sci-fi, cosplay, anime and popular media, and is one of the biggest conventions in the world. We sorted 250 free tickets for our young people as part of our important collaboration with the organisers, highlighting how we work hard to grab as many opportunities as we can for our young people. Our Black History Month finale too place this weekend over at the Old Town Hall Stratford, celebrating the evolution of Black British culture over the past 30 years with Ruff Sqwad Arts Foundation with a showcase of film, music, and poetry – plus a special guest Q&A. See more here.
The clocks also went back this weekend as we dive into winter, I hope you adjusted your times!
Best wishes,
Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE Follow what I am up to via X/Twitter: @rokhsanafiaz | 
