The Committee is asked to approve the following reports and recommendations for submission to Cabinet:

·       Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Report (NB A number of proof-reading errors have been corrected since the previous version of the report, and an additional recommendation, number 10, has been added since the last one was issued)

·       DSS Discrimination Motion Update

The Committee is also asked, following comments made at Cabinet, to decide whether it wishes to retain or dispense with Cabinet being asked to state their agreement/partial agreement/ disagreement with a recommendation.

The Scrutiny Officer introduced the following reports:

·       DSS Discrimination Motion Update

·       Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Report

The Scrutiny Officer advised that progress against actions related to the DSS Discrimination Motion passed by Council was on track and all actions had been completed apart from the establishment of a tenants’ forum – although progress had been made. Following discussion, the Committee agreed that the tenants’ forum, once established, should be given the option to split into a Council tenants’ forum and a private tenants’ forum if it was felt appropriate by the forum itself, as there was recognition that the needs of each distinct group would be different. It was suggested that the management of the forum should be made aware of the potential tensions and differing needs between private and Council tenants so that conversations about splitting into two forums could be facilitated as the group developed.

In relation to the Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Report, the Scrutiny Officer provided an overview of the key messages contained in the report and said that the Council was doing a lot of good work in this area.

Cllr Corais joined the meeting.

The Committee discussed the need to strengthen arrangements for tenants and suggested it would be good to have a tenant champion for different areas of the City who knew the area and could support tenants with any issues (e.g. repairs). The Committee also discussed the use of language in Council reports and expressed a desire to move away from the use of corporate terms such as ‘client’ or ‘customer’ (as the Council was not a business) and instead use the term ‘resident’ and ‘Council’. In addition, concern was raised that contacting repair companies was difficult. It was also noted that the report highlighted younger generations were the least satisfied with the Council’s work.

The Committee approved the following reports for submission to Cabinet:

·       DSS Discrimination Motion Update

·       Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Report (subject to client/customer/corporation references being amended to reflect ‘resident’ and ‘Council’)

The Committee is asked to approve the following reports and recommendations for submission to Cabinet:

·       Tenant Involvement and Empowerment Report

·       DSS Discrimination Motion Update