| 1 | None submitted |
| 2 | None submitted |
| 3 | The Board received the minutes of its meeting held on 10th June 2008. |
| 4 | A Member referred to the continued congestion on Washwood Heath Road and Alum Rock Road affecting residents of this Borough commuting into Birmingham. The response from the City Council's Cabinet Member for Transportation and Street Services had referred to a highway improvement scheme as part of the current year's capital programme. The Member stated that these works had not yet commenced and asked that this Council pursue this matter further with the City Council. |
| 5 | The Board received the minutes of the Housing Scrutiny Panel held on 30th July 2008.
Members made reference to the discussion in the meeting over new build proposals and possible sites, Members offered further comment on these which Officers agreed to explore.
Concern was expressed that in some cases, scaffolding had been left in place unnecessarily for months. Officers agreed to take this up with Solihull Community Housing (SCH).
A Member praised the performance of Mansells, a company involved in the refurbishment programme in North Solihull. Officers agreed to pass on this praise.
A Member expressed some concern over appointment keeping by the repairs and maintenance staff. Again Officers agreed to take this up with SCH. |
| 6 | Stephen Munday, Joint Director of Public Health gave a presentation in respect of his latest Annual Report. A copy of the Report had been circulated to Members.
The presentation explained that the purpose of the report was to contribute to improving health and well being and reducing health inequalities by highlighting issues; promoting action for improvement; supporting the planning of local services and making appropriate recommendations.
Priorities for 2007/08 were seen as closing the gap in life expectancy; promoting and supporting healthy lifestyles; improving sexual health and
preventing health care acquired infections.
The presentation highlighted health inequalities with differences in health outcomes between groups in the population; driven by deprivation, poor education and unemployment; health inequalities are widest in Birmingham and the Black Country; Health inequalities around All Age, All Cause and cardiovascular mortality widening but stable or better for cancer mortality. It was noted that the 2010 overall mortality targets had already been met.
The Board noted the required lifestyle changes to address these issues, namely stopping smoking; promoting breast feeding of infants; preventing falls and accidents; promoting physical activity; promoting healthy eating; promoting good mental health and promoting health in schools.
The conclusions reached were that overall, Solihull has very favourable health outcomes; inequality is a major issue for many health issues; lifestyle change interventions and preventative care are key to improving health and
inequalities cannot be overcome by "health" services alone.
As for recommendations the Report suggested a re-focus of the health inequalities action plan on effective, high-impact interventions including tackling the underlying causes of poor health; to commission a comprehensive range of targeted integrated lifestyle change services, supported by a health trainer service; to implement sexual health strategy and support infection prevention and control service, focussing on community health care associated infections.
It was noted that the Report would be considered at a Task & Finish Group focussing on health inequalities. it was suggested that the Task & Finish Group should take evidence from the North Solihull Partnership to understand what the regeneration programme was doing which may help address health inequalities.
The Board offered the following comments: -
- Many people, particularly in the north of the Borough, are trapped in a certain lifestyle owing to their social circumstances. Stark choices are being made each day by people living on limited resources. These circumstances undoubtedly create lifestyle stress.
- The impact of crime/ fear of crime on this situation was highlighted.
- Some concern was expressed at the effectiveness of some of the Care Trust's communications, particularly consultation exercises.
- The importance of ensuring that the unique regeneration programme in the north is not delivered in isolation and ensuring that NSP takes on board health issues and that the Care Trust engages with NSP and tailors its priorities and provision of services to the special needs of North Solihull.
- The measures used to assess progress must be appropriate for any change will not occur overnight.
- Examples quoted whereby the patients' postcode determined the level of service that they could receive.
- Health organisations must address issues around young people and mental health.
- The messages given in this report are similar to those being espoused in the late 1970s. Commitment to adequately address these issues was required in order to make progress. The comment was made that being judgemental about peoples' lifestyles was not the best way to approach a change. Creative methods were required.
- A statement made that the lack of vitamin B12 in the diet could contribute to the onset of dementia.
- The issues in the report need to be addressed by a fundamental change in the way that health services are delivered with greater emphasis on generalist medicine and patients being treated as individuals.
Stephen Munday was thanked for bringing his report to the Board
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| 7 | The Board considered the report of the Strategic Director Community and Economic Regeneration on the provision of affordable housing in the Borough.
The report reflected on the definitions of affordable housing; the policies applied by Solihull MBC; current housing need; constraints around delivery of affordable housing and the current approach; future prospects and opportunities.
The Strategic Director clarified a number of points in the report, firstly the development on Monkspath Hall Road would, subject to final outturns, provide funding for affordable housing. Secondly table 3, if the development at Dickens Heath was to be taken out of the number of completions, the percentage of affordable homes would increase to 22.5% which would put Solihull on a par or better than a number of authorities. Thirdly, he assured Members that the Council will exploit all possibilities around the thresholds for the provision of affordable housing in private sector development.
Members offered the following comments on the report: -
- Lack of clarity around the definition of an affordable home. Officers agreed to produce further guidance for Members on this
- Given the depressed nature of the housing market there may be an opportunity to push forward with the provision of increased numbers of social housing. A further view was put in that whilst developers may be more willing to provide affordable housing, given the state of the market land values will have fallen.
- A comment was made over the provision of affordable housing linked to certain categories of workers.
- The mechanisms used by developers to circumvent the threshold for the provision of affordable housing.
- The need to be creative around the use of the Council's land bank.
- The energy and commitment of the Local Government Association in furthering the local authorities' cause in the provision of affordable housing was questioned.
- Issues around getting empty houses re-occupied.
- Concern expressed over the prospect of homes being provided to an inferior standard, particularly with regard to carbon footprint.
- The prospect of redeveloping areas particularly where there are redundant garages.
- The possibility of change of use of office accommodation to provide affordable housing.
The Board thanked the Officers for a very comprehensive report. |
| 8 | The Board considered the monitoring report of the Strategic Director Community & Economic Regeneration in respect of targets contained in the Local Area Agreement.
Members noted that there were a number of targets against which it was not possible to report as performance information would not be available until later in the year.
An explanation was given on the support given by the Council in establishing new businesses.
In response to a question, the Head of Housing advised that certain targets would be re-negotiated owing to the national economic situation.
A Member commented that the report indicated that there were no financial implications, whereas, failure to meet certain targets would result in the loss of reward grant monies which would inevitably have financial implications. |
| 9 | The Board received the draft Forward Plan of the Economic Development & Regeneration portfolio. |