Court of Common Council
Thursday 6 March 2025
Questions from Cripplegate Councillors regarding the delay to the Windows Refurbishment and Associated Works on Golden Lane Estate due to the failure to register Crescent House as a Higher Risk Building; request for additional support for both Housing Revenue Account and Leaseholders to expedite the works; improved governance.
Cllr Ceri Wilkins also had a question which she was not given time to ask:
Leaseholders understand that eventually they will be charged for major works and window replacement. In the meantime is is not fair and reasonable that leaseholders should be consulted about contracts which have a set price and that those contracts should be properly tendered in an accountable process. For example is it reasonable that GLE leaseholders have had no say in the award of a communications contract which over 3 years will cost £240k and over 10 years will be in excess of £1m?
Watch from 1:37:00
transcript
START 1:37:00
Cllr Dawn Frampton: In 2018 I spoke as a resident at a Cripplegate ward mote about the terrible condition of Golden Lane Estate caused by decades of neglect by this Corporation. For two decades plus residents have been given many excuses and explanations about the lack of work. The corporation when responding to the resulting ward mote resolution admitted its neglect and promised a package of measures to rectify it.
Now seven years on the situation is worse as a result of a recent administrative blunder, involving the failure of the Corporation to count the number of stories of the blocks, its residents face another three years delay to the start of the window replacement program. Residents are now very angry at the prospect of having to wait up to 2031 for Crescent House to have their windows replaced and possibly 2045 for the wider estate. This mistake and the subsequent delays will add to the already spiralling costs to lease holders and the Housing Revenue Account.
Will the Policy Chair commit to breaking the log jam by proposing to his Committee that it will make the necessary funds available to expedite this work and to commit to renovating all the Corporation’s estates in a timely manner?
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): I thank the honourable Member for giving me notice of her question. She is quite right, the Golden Lane Estate has suffered from decades of underinvestment, as have all our housing estates. This is an estate in our City, it bears our crest and is housing our residents and those residents have been let down and to those residents I genuinely apologise. We still have, as I said earlier, a long way to travel and all of us at the City Corporation, all of us, have to do better for our residents than we have done thus far.
Last April the honourable Member, alongside her ward colleague Ceri Wilkins gave me a tour of the Golden Lane Estate. I saw then both the amount of work that needs doing and in the pilot flat in Crescent House an example of what accommodation in Golden Lane could and should look like. I have consistently, consistently supported proper investment in Golden Lane to bring it to that standard as quickly as possible and these constant delays and the increased costs are just not good enough. These delays, which I am told happened because the City Corporation mistakenly failed to register Crescent House and six additional blocks on the Golden Lane Estate as higher risk buildings cannot be expedited without additional resource.
However, officers have already drawn up a new wider program of improvement for the Estate and the revised scope for the blocks will include essential fire safety works alongside other high priority planned maintenance and improvements to thermal efficiency, redecorations and more. Let me be clear, this is no longer just a project to refurbish windows, it is a complete holistic investment plan for the estate. Now this program is being developed with two different time scales as you made reference to in your question; two different options, one to end in 2035 and another to end a decade later. I met with senior officers and members on Monday and I made clear that we must show the residents of Golden Lane our commitment to them, which we have said in the past, including through the immediate appointment of sustained staffing on the Golden Lane Estate, but secondly and more importantly in my personal view we have to commit to the earlier and earliest of time scales.
Now on a day when our Chairman of Finance has presented his annual budget, and we have heard various amendments to the budget, we have to remember that yes of course we are the business City, I’ve always said that in this Chamber, but we also have a responsibility for our residents and we cannot make them feel like second class citizens over and over again. And too often we promise and too often we are failing to deliver. I also want to improve how we communicate with residents. We’ve tried to do a lot since the beginning of the resident reset policy – we’ve had much more in the way of City Question Times, we’ve published You Said We Did, we’ve really tried to work hard but we’re nowhere there yet and we’ve got to improve how we communicate with residents at every stage of the project.
Now I understand that queries have been raised regarding the appointment of a communications agency and I personally will want to be assured by officers that any appointed communications agency is able to perform and retain, and this is the important point, retain the confidence of residents both tenants and lease holders in their activities. I would reiterate that the current appointment is a six-month contract. I think we’re about two months into it and I have had assurance from officers that a full competitive tender process will take place after that period and I have requested and have guaranteed that residents will be involved in that tender process. Successful delivery of the program and doing what we say we will on time and on budget will be key components of our new approach. That is what our residents deserve and it is vital to build back the trust that we have no doubt lost.
Cllr Dawn Frampton: Thank you. So just to be clear does that mean that you will be proposing additional funding for the project?
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): As this honourable court will know, I have no executive powers to provide that commitment to the court today. What I can say is, will I be supporting it? Yes, I will and I give that open commitment here and I’m saying it in front of the Chairman of Finance because the Finance Committee will have to consider the matter, but also of course I’ve said it to the Chamberlain and I have made absolutely clear as has the Town Clerk in the presence of the Chairman of the Children and Community Services Committee and the Chairman of the Housing Management subcommittee that this is something we absolutely have to do. Can I tell you how we’re going to fund it today? No, I can’t. Can I tell you that I’m committed to finding that funding? Yes, I can.
START 1:44:57
Alderwoman Liz King: I too thank the Policy Chair for agreeing to address this scandalous situation. It is the epic failure of the administration in the Corporation to register all blocks but Great Arthur House on the Golden Lane Estate as higher risk buildings by the statutory deadline of October 23. That is a criminal offence and is now the major cause of yet another delay to the refurbishment of the great Golden Lane Estate.
With increasing construction costs and accelerating disrepair and dilapidation, it is clear to me and all members of the Finance Committee that the HRA cannot afford to fund these additional costs and all the other projects so urgently needed to bring the London wide Corporation housing stock up to standard. The City Fund, as we know from the Finance Chair in today’s paper is also under pressure due to its current program and pipeline of major works. In an unusual display of creative thinking, City Estates, thanks to past Lord Mayor and Alderman, Ian Luder and my predecessor, has in recent years supported the HRA with the fire safety work required post Grenfell tragedy. We have condemned Golden Lane leaseholders and the HRA and our tenants and neighbours to yet more years of uncertainty and higher costs. This is unacceptable and shames us all. For most of these residents this is their only home.
Will the Policy Chair agree to use the City Estate funds to mitigate the financial pressures on the HRA, individual leaseholders and tenants due to our epic failure and negligence and get this project on track? I would also like a commitment from him today to set out a timeline of how this will be achieved by the April Court meeting. I appreciate we can’t all do it today but we need an idea so we can remove the uncertainty from all these long-suffering residents.
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): I thank the Alderwoman for her question. She started her remarks with I think quite a… well I’m, I’m, I think I’m unsure about… from a legal perspective her charge that the registration failure was in fact a criminal offence. Clearly that is a bold statement to make and one which we would need to refer to our legal officers for an opinion on. Whether it was a criminal offence, it was certainly a mistake of failure without any doubt whatsoever.
Now the HRA is just not sustainable to fund these sorts of works; we’ve heard it from the Chairman of Finance, we’ve heard it in Finance Committee. The HRA, without putting too fine a point on it, it is a busted flush. We have to look for more innovative ways to actually fund these sorts of works and to deliver this and City Estate funds to which the Alderwoman refers are probably but I didn’t say any more than that the only likely route that we’re going to be able to follow.
She asked me to give a timeline – what I can tell her is that at the meeting I held on Monday with senior officers and senior Members, I have convened another meeting four weeks later by which time I have insisted that there is progress on the matters that we discussed at that meeting, which I’ve outlined to you all here today in this honourable Court and I will report back to the court therefore. So, I’m taking a very keen personal interest and leadership role in this. There will be another meeting within a month.
START 1:49:10
Cllr Anne Corbett: This is really good news, thank you, but unfortunately we’ve heard this before. The City’s Housing Strategy dated July 2002 included the mission statement: ‘our mission is to develop to deliver best value in housing and sport development in the City and London as a whole’. This clearly hasn’t happened. How can I be sure, how can we be sure that in 20 years’ time my successor will not be asking the same question?
Additionally, considering the success of the focused and clear leadership on the Barbican Estate following the Lisvane report [see link at end of transcript] and the subsequent review of the Barbican Estate office is it not now time to set up a proper housing scrutiny committee to take charge of all housing and learn from the successes that have taken place in the last year on the Barbican Estate?
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): I thank the honourable Member for the supplementary question. She starts by saying, “well, we’ve heard it all before”. She’s right, you have unfortunately heard it all before and I stand here deeply embarrassed to be put in this position again in front of honourable Members. I apologised for it in my opening policy statement to the Court today. Of course, we don’t want in 20 years’ time a Member to be standing here asking the same question about what are we doing about residents, what are we doing about housing, what are we doing about Golden Lane Estate, why aren’t we providing decent housing for our residents? But of course, it takes the collective will of this Court to make sure that that doesn’t happen. I can’t do it alone. I can lead but I cannot do it alone, I need the support of every member of this Court, in the new Court, to actually help to drive this forward for whatever period of time I remain as your Policy Chairman.
1You mention of course about the idea of establishing a Housing Scrutiny Committee; this was considered under the Lisvane proposals and not carried forward at that particular time. Yet again, that’s another big piece of work not unlike the leadership question which would have to be addressed by our Town Clerk’s department, but it was not carried forward at the time of the Lisvane proceedings. If that’s what Members want of course, if you are able to bring it back to this honourable Court and if they so wish to instruct for that work to be looked at again, it could of course be done so.
Cllr Anne Corbett: Thank you for that considered response. I think it’s down to leadership and I think the leadership that has been shown on the Barbican Estate has shown that quite a lot can be done in a short space of time, so please can we follow that model?
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): Yes, a lot has been done, you’re quite right, on the Barbican Estate and that is why at the meeting I held on Monday we said to officers we want proper dedicated staffing for the Golden Lane Estate in a similar fashion to that provided on the Barbican Estate.
START 1:52:30
Cllr Mark Wheatley (ward of Dowgate): I’ll be brief because my point is essentially the same as Miss Corbett’s – essentially for years we’ve heard about a legacy of treating our estates badly, both those in the City like Golden Lane Estate and those outside the Square Mile. We have batted around the idea of a Housing Committee and we have shuffled that into the long grass. Would the Chair of Policy commit to this court within 12 months to conduct that review and bring a proposal to this Court so that we can reconsider the creation of a Housing Committee that will give both a locus for decisions to be taken and a body which can lobby and lead that delivery? For too long we have let down London.
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): I think it’s a fair question that the honourable Member asked me about carrying out a proper review to see whether we could create a Housing Committee and again it’s just like the other issues in relation to standing orders. It needs to have a report, it needs to provide options as to how that would operate, the benefits, the disbenefits etc but a year seems a fair time scale to give us to do that and so I will ask officers at your request to prepare something in the next civic year.
START 1:54:04
Chair of relevant Committee, Helen Fentimen: Thank you and my Lord Mayor with your leave in part of my supplementary question I’d like to provide some extra context and information for the benefit of this honourable Court. Thank you Policy Chair first of all for your support and commitment given to our residents on the Golden Lane Estate. More and more widely across all our estates there is no doubt that Golden Lane Estate has suffered from a lack of investment as have all housing estates but there are very particular and very difficult problems in Golden Lane that in my view are more significant and severe than we see in some of our other estates. I can confirm my commitment and focus to provide the very best service and support to our residents. I am sorry for the delays and the impact of the errors made in the high-rise building registration but I can confirm that we have registered all buildings and all are now appropriately registered.
Although the delay is deeply regrettable we are not wasting this time. The plan in the March 2023 Children Services Committee was largely focused on windows. We now know that the Estate needs a much more comprehensive plan for investment so have revised the program bringing everything together to deliver an extensive coordinated and inclusive program of works. The Chairman has listed those but to be absolutely clear and to reinforce the complexity and the breadth of this project this includes window refurbishments, roofing, fire safety maintenance improvements, better insulation and the redecoration and repair of all of the central areas. I will continue to push hard to ensure the work can be done well and in the fastest time scale. Like the Chairman of Policy and Resources we are pushing officers to produce a timeline which is the shortest possible and more in the 10-year line than in the 20 year line, that we felt was completely unacceptable.
We are in active discussions about the funding needed to deliver the program but as the Chair says that that isn’t going to materialise immediately. That said we have already had £30 million allocated so money to start the detail of the program is already there. We don’t need to wait for the conclusion of the discussions on additional monies to get started. The commitment is there to support this program and that £30 million that’s already allocated is available to move this program on now. I want to say as well, the program has started, the clock has already started ticking…
…Communication is key, we have to rebuild the trust and deliver on our promises on time and on budget. This is what the residents deserve and at the moment we are looking at interim measures to support any urgent repairs that are made pending the completion of the full refurbishment, we are exploring measures to offer support to residents and we’ll receive an update on that in the committee in ccs committee in April.
In response to Miss Corbett we will also establish two things: one is an Improvement Board and the second is something akin to the Barbican Residential Committee for HRA tenants. We have already introduced a new repairs and maintenance contract it’s being mobilised now…
…These things that I’ve outlined will make a significant difference. To make this happen the Policy Chair has given a commitment already to make his… …support to the CCS committee. I’m asking him if at the soonest possible date these resources can be confirmed so that we can absolutely commit to the expedited 10-year program. Thank you
Policy Chair (Chris Hayward): I believe that it’s our Residential Reset which has to be so much more than just words. We must be honest with our residents, we must invest in our residents and we must deliver for our residents. In so far as your Community and Children’s Services Committee is responsible for enhancing our estates and bringing them to a quality that the residents can be proud to call home and we can be proud to bear our crests you have my absolute support.
I hope that your committee opts for what I am suggesting which is the faster 10-year project route and will continue to work with the Chamberlain, the Chairman of Finance to ensure that this project can be properly resourced so that the Golden Lane Estate can be brought to the proper standard as quickly as possible.
I can’t actually just finish my answer without saying of course, Golden Lane isn’t the only one of our estates needing investment and you have my commitment to work with you to provide the necessary support to deliver housing quality that we and residents can be proud of across our entire estate family.
– (auto-generated transcript provided by YouTube with minor corrections and tidying up)
HRB legal opinion follow up
6 MARCH 2025: from Alderwoman Liz King
Subject: High Risk Building Registration – Legal Opinion
This is the publicly available legal opinion that I was referring to at Court earlier today:
https://www.dlapiper.com/en/insights/publications/2023/09/building-safety-building-owners-must-register-higher-risk-buildings-30-septemberReading it as a lay person, I took particular note of the third paragraph from the end
What happens if I fail to meet the registration deadline?
Failure to register a building before it is occupied is a criminal offence which could lead to a fine or imprisonment. Where the party that fails to meet the registration deadline is a body corporate, any director, manager or officer of that body corporate who allows (either expressly or tacitly) the failure to occur or causes the failure to occur due to their negligence, may also be held responsible. As such, directors and officers may have concurrent liability for health and safety offences with the body corporate. The maximum penalty for an individual convicted of health and safety offences is two years’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both. The court may also make a directors disqualification order prohibiting the person from acting as a company director if they are unfit to act due to their conduct.
I do, of course, apologise if my lack of expertise in such matters has led me to misinterpret the opinion attached.
