Agenda and minutes

The Council welcomes engagement from members of the public. To speak at this meeting please register no later than 24 hours prior to the date of the meeting via democracy@southkesteven.gov.uk

There were no public speakers.

The Chief Executive who was attending the meeting in the place of the Director of Housing and Projects who was currently on compassionate leave introduced colleagues who were attending the meeting from the various sections of the Housing Service. 

Jim Tuck – Voids Manager

Jaron Hine-Maddock – New Repairs Manager

Andy Garner – Capital Programme Lead

Vicki Thompson – Performance and Data Lead

Officers who regularly attended the Housing OSC:

Phil Swinton – Head of Service (Heath & Safety, Emergency Planning and Housing Compliance)

Megan White – Support Officer Projects

Suniel Pillai – New Builds Project Officer

Kate Askew – Tenancy Services Manager

And Sarah McQueen - Head of Service (Housing)

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Ben Green, Councillor Gloria Johnson, Councillor Bridget Ley and Councillor Susan Sandall. 

Councillor Gloria Johnson was substituted by Councillor Nikki Manterfield and Councillor Bridget Ley was substituted by Councillor Tim Harrison.

Councillor Zoe Lane, the Vice-Chairman had indicated that she would be late attending the meeting.

Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

None disclosed.

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 October 2025 were proposed, seconded and agreed.

The Cabinet Member for Housing informed the Committee that she and the Leader of the Council had attended the award ceremony for the Inside Housing Development Awards 2025 as guests of the Lindum Group Ltd who had built the development at Swinegate, Grantham known as Knapp House and she had on display at the Committee the award that had been received.

As Members were aware, the development had won the Inside Housing Development Awards 2025 for the best development up to £5m which had been a huge surprise.

Massive congratulations were given to those responsible for the development by the Committee who felt that the award was richly deserved.

The Leader of the Council stated that this was the first award that had been received in respect of Housing and hoped it wasn’t the last.

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented the report which provided the Committee with an update regarding the new build housing pipeline and purchase using Right to Buy capital receipts.

At the forefront of new developments was the Swinegate development known as Knapp House at Swinegate, Grantham which had been officially handed over to the Council in September 2025 with a formal opening ceremony taking place on 3 November 2025.  The Cabinet Member for Housing informed the Committee that all apartments within the development were now allocated.

The development at Larch Close, Grantham which was being undertaken by Mercer Building Solutions was progressing despite the inclement weather and was due for completion in December 2026.

Wellington Way, Market Deeping was another site which was actively progressing and work on site was due to start in early February 2026.

Planning permission for the three-unit scheme at Toller Court, Horbling was granted at the Planning Committee in October 2025.  Procurement for the scheme had commenced with four expressions of interest received.  A report recommending the award of the contract for the development would be presented to Cabinet on 15 January 2026 meeting.

A public consultation had been undertaken in November 2025 in respect of the proposed development at Kesteven Road, Stamford and feedback from the consultation was currently being reviewed. 

A question was asked in respect of those Members who sat on the Planning Committee who also attended the Housing OSC, did they need to declare an interest in respect of developments going to Committee.  The Chief Executive indicated that there was no pecuniary interest as long as Members made no pre-determination in respect of any development.

The Committee were informed that the 12 empty properties at Lumby’s Terrace, Stamford had now been sold for at least Red Book Valuation cost.

A question was asked in respect of the EPC rating on new build properties. It was stated that the highest rating was aimed for i.e. A.

Another Member asked what the projected loss of Council housing stock was in respect of Right to Buy (RTB) sales.   Although the Cabinet Member for Housing did not have projected figures, in the three months of August to October only 2 properties had been lost due to RTB sales.  Due to the change in the rules around RTB less applications were being received.  It was indicated that the information would be circulated to Members of the Committee outside the meeting.

The Head of Housing Service stated that data was collected as required by Government at the end of the year which captured all the RTB sales, new builds and acquisitions.  The next data capture would be the end of the financial year 2025/26 but the figures for 2024/25 were due to be published in the winter edition of the Skyline magazine.  It was stated that the figures for 2025/26 could be brought to Committee when they had been completed next year.

Ø Action

Data capture figures for 2025/26 to be circulated to Members of the Housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented the regular report on the status and recent activity in SKDC’s Homelessness and Rough Sleeper services.  Homelessness was a year round concern which doubled when the cold weather arrived.  The report updated the Committee in respect of the homelessness and rough sleeper services and highlighted the continued demand across both the statutory homelessness function which was delivered by the Council’s Housing Options Team and the rough sleeper service which was delivered through the Change4Lincs Partnership.

An increase in the homelessness prevention grant funding was received for 2025/26 and this was used in conjunction with the Rough Sleeper Prevention and Recovery Grant to meet local needs.   Funding beyond March 2026 was currently unclear.

Rough sleeping remained a focus and 10 individuals were identified in the annual October 2025 snapshot which took place on 30 October 2025 and was required by MHCLG.

Homelessness figures remained steady and the use of nightly paid temporary accommodation had reduced due to the improved provision of alternative accommodation such as an HMO secured in Grantham.  The winter night shelter had opened on 10 November 2025 and eight individuals had stayed on various nights since the opening.

The Council was also managing pressures linked to national resettlement programmes with the Home Office with 45 properties currently being managed by a Government contractor across South Kesteven.

The Chairman asked whether the next round of homelessness funding would be expected before Christmas when the next round of local government funding was usually known.

The Chief Executive indicated that the provisional settlement figure should be known the week commencing 15 December 2025.  The figures would be worked on over Christmas and should include a number of grants which had been baselined into the multi-year settlement.  A report from the Leader would go to the Joint Budget OSC on 13 January 2026.

The Chairman asked for confirmation that the funding that had been received last year had increased by 27% would this be repeated this year.  The Chief Executive responded that no notification of any uplift had been received and it was expected that the revenues grant from the Government would be flatlined which would mean a negative budget.

Questions were then asked on the content of the report which included whether the figures shown in Table 2, paragraph 3.23 were they just South Kesteven figures, the Head of Housing replied that yes, the figures were only South Kesteven figures.  The Rough Sleeper provision was carried out by the Change4Lincs Partnership across the four districts but was not a statutory function, it was a discretionary service that was provided for using the Rough Sleeper Funding received.  The figures following on in the report referred to the homelessness function which was statutory under the Council’s homelessness duty and again were for South Kesteven only.

Thanks were given to the work undertaken in respect of the Grantham Ark Project working in conjunction with St Wulfram’s Church.  A comment was also made in respect of the homelessness figures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing presented the report which covered the performance of Housing Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) against the Corporate Plan 2024-27.  The Corporate Plan was adopted by Council on 25 January 2024 and the KPI’s relevant to Housing were agreed by the Committee in March 2024.

The period covered was Q2 (July – September). Of the nine KPI’s relevant to the Housing OSC seven were green, one was amber and HOUS12 was currently under review and would not be known until the end of the financial year.  The Cabinet Member reminded the Committee that the KPI’s belonged to them and were not set in stone if they were found inadequate, then the Committee could review and amend them.  The Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Licensing thanked the Policy Officer, Charles James for the hard work which had gone into the report.

Discussion on the KPI’s followed with the following comments/questions made:

·       The continued improvement to the turnaround of void properties and repairs.

·       Who was delivering the Empty Homes Policy, the Head of Service (Public Protection) was leading of this policy and it was noted that there was a lot of work being undertaken on the project.  It was suggested that the new Policy come to the February meeting of the Committee.

ØAction

The new Empty Homes Policy to be added to the Work Programme for February 2026.

·       Thanks were given to the Housing Team for the work that had been undertaken to improve the Service over the last few years to a Service to be proud of.

·       A question was asked in respect of the target for HOUS7 and what data had been used to set the target.  It was noted that the performance for this target had significantly improved and it was suggested that this target be reviewed at the February meeting of the Committee to stretch the targets going forward.

·       Were the overdue decisions listed within the report the same issues or different issues from the previous ten listed.  No, it was stated that these were in regard to homelessness cases and were ten different cases.  It was noted that the target set was an optimistic target and going forward more tolerance would be included.  It equated to 9% which was good.

·       A question was asked in relation to safeguarding and domestic violence and it was stated that these were considered separately. There was a lot of work being undertaken in these areas and it was suggested that more information could be included in the next KPI report, with situations rather than statistics.  It was noted that safeguarding came under the remit of Rural and Communities OSC.

The Policy Officer stated that he would take the comments made in respect of the KPI’s and the metrics used and rethink the measures going forward.

The Cabinet Member for Housing presented the report which showed a significant improvement in the Housing Service which included reduced, outstanding and overdue repairs, better damp and mould response times, fewer void properties and shorter turnround periods, higher levels of decent homes and stock conditions survey coverage.

Housing Services Performance also showed progress with reduced housing register applications, lower register numbers following increased lettings and a seasonal fall in anti-social behaviour cases. 

Compliance remained strong across the key safety areas with near or 100% compliance in all areas.  The Cabinet Member for Housing referred the Committee to page 56 of the report which concerned voids.  Over the last 12 months she indicated that never a week passed without someone asking about void figures.   At March 2025 the number of void properties had stood at 103 by October 2025 the figure stood at 50, in less than six months the figure had halved.  The average time to repair temporary accommodation voids stood at eight days, three years ago the figure would have been unheard of and she praised the officers for the work that had been undertaken to get the figures to where they currently stood.  She reminded Members where figures had been when looking at the data, especially those which were still showing as red, and reminded the Committee that very optimistic targets had been set.

The Head of Housing Services then went through each slide highlighting various factors.

Repairs Call Handling

All areas were above target and continued to be with a positive performance above 90%.

Reactive Repairs – All Repairs

It was noted that although the figures were still red the improvement since March 2025 had been good and the Team had done sterling work.  The number of outstanding repairs had fallen from 4,075 in March to 2,660 in October which was a massive improvement.  The number of overdue repairs had also reduced from 2,276 in March to 1,249 in October which showed a continued improvement.  A question was asked as to what WIP stood for and it was confirmed that this was Work in Progress.  A question was asked in respect of the 10% and it was stated that this was in relation to 10% of the 4,075 total.

Reactive Repairs – In House

The total had again reduced from 2,807 in March to 1,700 in October.  The number of repairs overdue had reduced from 2681 in March to 914 in October which showed improving numbers.

Reactive Repairs – Sureserve

Overall it was a positive performance on heating repairs.  It was confirmed that Sureserve were the main contractor for heating.  Completion was shown as on time or near to targets with post inspections at 5% with a target of 10%.

Reactive Repairs – Other Contractors

The number of repairs had reduced, however the number of repairs overdue had increased.  Completion on time figures had remained below target and work was being done to mobilize the new contractors to increase capacity to complete more repairs on time and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

The Cabinet Member for Housing stated that she wished to bring a report to the Committee in respect of the Renters Right Act.  Provisional dates of when parts of the Act became effective were known and also some funding had been received.  A plan was being drawn up to cover the burden which would be placed on the Council by the Act once more detail was known and she asked for a report to come to the February meeting of the Committee.

A Committee Member who was substituting asked whether a report on Empty Homes could come to the Committee in the first quarter of 2026.  He also asked about a report in respect of the Sheltered Housing Review for a total cost per scheme, fairness between the schemes and the options to rationalise  any under used spaces within the facilities.  Also when the garage site survey results were known could these be circulated once known rather than wait until all surveys had been completed.

Clarity was sought in respect of the timing in respect of the first quarter and it was confirmed that the Member had referred to the new financial year.  It was confirmed that an Empty Homes report could come to the June meeting of the Committee. 

In respect of the Sheltered Housing Review, a lot of work had gone into the Service Charge Review which was due to come to the Committee in February.  It was felt that this Phase should be completed before anything further was added.

It was confirmed that updates in respect of the Garage Sites could come to the Committee as and when they were completed.

A comment was raised in respect of Article 4 which had been recently raised at meetings and it was confirmed that this would be discussed at the Joint OSC meeting.

None.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending and thanked everyone for the work that was being undertaken within the Housing Team.  He wished everyone a fantastic Christmas and a successful 2026.

Meeting closed at 15:54.