Ipswich Borough Council’s top leaders’ decision reached on ‘scant information’, says Cllr Ian Fisher

A decision made by a council’s top leaders has been called in due to being reached on ‘scant information’.

Cllr Ian Fisher, who leads the Conservative group at Ipswich Borough Council (IBC), has called in a decision made by the council’s executive members two weeks ago.

Calling in a decision means it cannot be ratified before an examination of how it was reached is carried out.

On August 6, members of the executive — of which Cllr Fisher is also part — decided to progress with the procurement of stock condition surveys for the council’s own homes.

As a registered social housing landlord, IBC conducts the surveys on a five-year cycle to ensure its homes are decent and free from hazards which could cause harm to its residents.

During the meeting, Cllr Fisher, who voted against the decision, said conducting the surveys in-house by the council’s officers could be cheaper than paying someone else to do it and argued there was not enough information to make an accurate decision.

Indeed, the report did not include any cost comparison between the council’s preferred option and the in-house alternative.

Cllr Fisher said: “I did not think that we were given enough information and challenged the validity of the scant information we were presented with.

“It was no surprise to me that after my challenge, and after the decision had been reached, I was emailed briefing notes that really should have been contained in the original report and debated on the night.

“It is astounding to me that this information was held back and councillors were not then allowed to debate the validity of the information supplied after the meeting.

“This is not how the council should be operating and the Labour administration needs to start taking more responsibility instead of delegating major policy decisions to others.”

His ‘call in’ request will be discussed during next week’s strategic overview and scrutiny committee meeting, on Thursday.

The papers said these surveys warranted specific training which housing officers did not have, meaning conducting them in-house would require further training, costed at £500 per person.

As it stands, the council needs to conduct 1,575 such serveys every year, with the number set to grow as new homes continue to be delivered. To meet this target, the papers state four new full-time officers are required.

The papers said: “While some hazards may be identifiable by a non-trained person, there are others like the identification of exposure to asbestos biocides, CO2, and Radon, as examples, that require a trained officer.

“Inspecting the home, its physical structure and the components that make up a home requires a sufficient level of technical training and knowledge in building and building construction.

“Housing officers have never traditionally been employed or been expected to be building experts.”

The cost of conducting these surveys in-house has been estimated at just over £1.3 million over five years, as opposed to the £637,500 for the procurement option approved by the executive.

Next week’s report also states that the grounds for calling the decision in was that no consideration had been given to the advantages of performing the work in-house, only the disadvantages.

IBC said it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time but a council spokesperson said: “Call-in is an important part of the democratic process. Details of how call-in works can be found in the council’s constitution”