Issue - meetings

Report of the Cabinet Member for Housing and Property.

Purpose of Report

To provide Cabinet with an opportunity to approve a Housing Service Void Policy and Re-let Standard which sough to efficiently minimise rent lost whilst delivering high rates of tenant satisfaction and value for money.

Decision

Cabinet:

1.    Notes the content of the report in relation to the current management of void properties and the changes already implemented.

2.    Approves the proposed Housing Service Void Policy and Re-let Standard.

3.    Delegates to the Director of Housing and Property authority to make minor changes to the Policy and Re-let Standard as required by changes in legislation, regulatory standards and tenant feedback.

Alternative options considered and rejected

The only other alterative set out in the report was to do nothing. This would entail continuing with no Void Policy or approved re-let standard in place. This was rejected as there were no perceived benefits of progress with no such policy or standard in place and such an approach would impose a greater risk on non-performance.

Reason for decision

A key measure of the effectiveness and any landlord was the way in which they managed how tenancies ended and properties were re-let. These vacant properties were known as voids. The Council managed approximately 6,000 rented homes, of which around 5% became vacant each year based on the existing financial year.

Turnaround times and void rent loss remained a challenging area, despite recently combining the minor and major voids into one service area, implementing an interim service delivery structure and revising a number of void processes. It was reported, however, that the number of properties in the voids process had reduced from 113 in October 2021 to 85 properties as at 16 December 2021, with 26 further properties due to be signed up by the end of December 2021. Additional performance improvement measures were set out at paragraph 1.5 of the report.

The draft Void Policy had been drafted in accordance with the latest statutory and regulatory requirements and best practice within the sector. It confirmed the overall policy aim of ‘delivering a clean, safe and secure property to incoming tenants, within our targets for turnaround times, standard and cost’. It was therefore a high-level commitment to meeting customer expectations and the Authority challenging itself in relation to turnaround times between vacancies.

The re-let standard provided clear guidance for Officers and new tenants on the offer for tenants at the commencement of their tenancy, ensuring consistency in the standard of properties the Council let to its tenants.

It was noted that the team had been working very hard to address the issues associated with voids, which was a significant undertaking and had been longstanding for the Authority. As the largest social landlord in the district the Council had to take responsibility and ensure that it worked to a consistent standard.