Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2015.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 2 March 2015 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Councillors and officers to declare any interests which they have in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

Councillors and officers were invited to declare any interests which they had in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

Personal Interest

To consider call-in items (if any).

There were no call-in items to consider.

To consider a report of the Corporate Director for Place Management & Regeneration.

The report details an initiative known as the Rental Exchange which has been developed by Big Issue Invest (the social investment arm of the well-known Big Issue Group), in association with the credit referencing agency Experian. The initiative involves Registered Providers (RPs) providing tenant rental payment records to Experian on a monthly basis so that tenants are recognised for paying rent on time, similar to how homeowners are recognised for paying their mortgage each month.

The Scrutiny Committee is recommended to comment on and note the report.

Officer contact: Andy Kippax on 0161 474 4319 or email: andy.kippax@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Chief Executive of Stockport Homes submitted a report of the Corporate Director for Place Management & Regeneration (copies of which had been circulated) detailing an initiative known as the Rental Exchange which had been developed by Big Issue Invest (the social investment arm of the well-known Big Issue Group), in association with the credit referencing agency Experian.

The initiative would involve Registered Providers providing tenant rental payment records to Experian on a monthly basis so that tenants were recognised for paying rent on time, similar to how homeowners were recognised for paying their mortgage each month.

The Executive Councillor (Economic Development & Regeneration) (Councillor Patrick McAuley) attended the meeting along with Vicky McNab (Head of Strategic Markets, Experian) and Christian Hartley (Customer Finance Manager, Stockport Homes) to answer members’ questions.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

·         Appropriate safeguards for the transfer of any data between Stockport Homes and Experian needed to be secure and robust.  In response it was stated that the same industry standards that applied to the 500 million records currently held by Experian would similarly apply to the data transfers with Stockport Homes and which would be regulated by a data processing agreement drawn up between the two parties.

·         Tenants would have the opportunity to opt out of the scheme if they wished to do so including new tenants in the future.  The experience from similar projects elsewhere had been that the number of opt-outs was relatively low and lower still in those area where communication with tenants about the scheme had been good.

·         Concern was expressed that the projected number of tenants who would have their credit score negatively impacted by the scheme seemed low in the light of the number of tenants who were known to be in arrears.

·         Stockport Homes already proactively supported those tenants who were falling into arrears with their rent payments.

·         There needed to be support available to those tenants who were negatively impacted by these proposals to ensure that they were not forced into obtaining credit from illegal money lenders.

RESOLVED – (1) That the Executive be recommended to give approval to the proposed Rental Exchange Project with the credit reference agency, Experian.

(2) That the Corporate Director for Place Management & Regeneration be requested to submit a report to a future meeting of this Scrutiny Committee in twelve months’ time detailing how the scheme had operated in practice and what impact there had been on those tenants whose credit score had been negatively impacted by the scheme.

To consider a report of the Democratic Services Manager.                                                        

The report sets out planned agenda items for the Scrutiny Committee’s next meeting and Forward Plan items that fall within the remit of the Scrutiny Committee.

The Scrutiny Committee is invited to consider the information in the report and put forward any agenda items for future meetings of the Committee.

Officer contact: Damian Eaton 474 3207 or email: damian.eaton@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of the Democratic Services Manager submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) setting out the planned items for the Scrutiny Committee’s next meeting and Forward Plan items which fell within the remit of the Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED – (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That the Corporate Director for Place Management & Regeneration be requested to submit a report to the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on the Council’s approach to illegal money lending.