Agenda item

This report seeks to update Committee on actions to ensure regulatory compliance of the Council’s social housing landlord function following the non-compliance notice issued by the Regulator of Social Housing.

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property presented the progress report.

 

The Committee had now received nine update reports since March 2021 that confirmed the Regulatory Notice served on the Council and provided an outline of the work that officers would continue to complete to ensure progress through a programme of improvement. The Committee determined that it wished to receive update reports on progress at each of its meetings to ensure that Members had oversite of broad progress around the key areas of activity and could engage with Officers and scrutinise work where required.  It identified the following core headings as a means of updating Members and would identify the following information to assist this process. In addition, at the meeting on 01 July 2021, Committee requested sight of the Improvement Plan; the latest version was appended to this report.

 

Updating Tenants and Members:

As reported to the Committee’s meeting in June 2022, a full tenant consultation exercise was undertaken – “The Big Listen”.  This involved several questions on both the current experience of tenants in terms of the services the Council offered as a landlord and what they would like to see prioritised in the Housing Revenue Account Business Plan, which required a complete review in 2022/23.  The questions were based on the Regulator of Social Housing’s proposed Tenant Satisfaction Measures and the initial report was provided to Committee in the meeting on 23 June 2022.

 

Good practice suggested a comprehensive Stock Condition survey should be completed every 5 years, usually by undertaking a survey of 20% of the stock each year.  The Survey has now concluded, and analysis of the findings continued.  The Council continued to utilise its Rant and Rave feedback system, seeking real time feedback from tenants following responsive repairs and continued to see overall satisfaction of 4.5 out of 5, demonstrating sustained high satisfaction at the point where repairs are undertaken.  An all Councillor briefing on Housing was delivered in November, providing an update on the work ongoing across the teams to provide an understanding of the current priorities, projects and pressures that the team were currently dealing with.

 

Regular Meetings with the Regulator:

Monthly meetings between the Chief Executive, Acting of Housing and the Regulator’s Officers took place as scheduled.  Auditors had started their review recently alongside progress that had been significant right across the landlord health and safety compliance function with the intention that the Audit would endorse compliance. An HSE report on the Riverside complex had been considered and findings concluded too.  The relationship with the Regulator was positive, with the Regulator acknowledging that the Council was moving to a position to seek removal of the Notice that was formally served in February 2021. 

 

Leadership Compliance Meetings:

Chaired by Cabinet Member for Housing and Property and attended by the Leader of the Council, the Chief Executive and the Acting Director of Housing, these meetings were a continued feature of the more detailed compliance review process being undertaken.  Members of this group ensured specific responses to the changing compliance review process and managed tenant and communication responses to actions associated with key service and regulatory responses such as agreeing the scope and nature of key issues to be covered by the next SKyline magazine publication, due in December 2022.

 

Regular Reports to Committees and Cabinet:

Members were invited to comment on this report content and confirm their views and observations relating to the detail contained within this report. These were to be further determined through work with the Regulator, the adjusted Improvement Plan and consideration of key outputs by Members, Leadership Compliance meetings, and All Member briefing sessions as arranged.

 

During discussion, Members raised the following points:

 

·       When was the Stock Condition Survey completed and when were the findings to be reported to scrutiny committees, particularly as the results were to inform the budget for next year’s Capital Programme?

 

·       That not all Members were familiar with the ‘Rant and Rave’ consultation process for tenant feedback.

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property confirmed that the findings of the Stock Condition Survey were in preparation for the budget and a paper was to be heard at the upcoming Cabinet meeting. 

 

The Acting Director for Housing added that the Stock Condition Survey was undertaken from June 2021 and concluded in April 2022.  78% of stock was completed and the data obtained was used to inform the budget decisions going forward. 

 

The ‘Rant and Rave’ process was an opportunity for tenants to provide feedback upon completion of repairs or the start of a tenancy.  Tenants were generally satisfied but improvements to the time taken to complete repairs were underway.

 

The Chairman highlighted that a demonstration of the new Housing Management System was due to be brought to the next Committee meeting.

 

A query was raised regarding the percentage of people who had received a repair or moved into a property completed the feedback forms.

 

It was confirmed that 738 feedback responses had been received since the end of May 2022, equating to between 8-10% of all interactions.

 

Members and Officers expressed their disappointment of only 8-10% of residents interacting via feedback forms. It was further noted that the ‘Big Listen Survey’ had received a 29.7% interaction rate from residents. 

 

‘Rant and Rave’ had been publicised via Skyline and had been communicated through the Tenants Liaison Group.

 

A query was raised regarding gas compliance inspections and the number of residents required to attend court and whether any warrants had been issued.

 

The Acting Director of Housing highlighted that court sessions take place monthly, where 20 cases would be taken per month. All warrants granted in court were then executed. At the end of November 2022, there were 24 non-compliant properties which had reduced from 40 non-compliant properties.

 

Clarification was sought on whether Officers were unable to gain full entry to certain properties and whether any properties were seen to be sub-let.

 

It was clarified that there were no properties that were seen to be sub-let. A core of the Council’s tenant group were more reluctant than others regarding allowing access. Therefore, the Council were regularly reinforcing the importance for tenants to access Skyline to increase tenant interaction.

 

A further query was raised on whether the Council were still engaging with the sheltered housing accommodation residents. 

 

The sheltered housing workshops were still taking place once a month across the District. By February 2023, it was hoped that the Council had visited every sheltered housing complex.

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property noted that the contract relating to social landlord services would be heard at the next Cabinet meeting on 13 December 2022.

 

Queries were raised regarding ‘Rant and Rave’:

 

·       Whether only feedback was received through ‘Rant and Rave’.

·       Whether negative feedback was coming from residents awaiting works in their home or had not received a response.

·       The timeframe from a complaint being received to the time it takes to repair was queried.

 

The Acting Director of Housing highlighted that the feedback was purely a transactional satisfaction mechanism, and the tenant would provide feedback following undergoing works in their Council property.

 

It was confirmed that the complaints procedure coincided with the customer feedback policy. There had been a backlog on low level, non-urgent repairs, however, emergency repairs were attended to within a 48-hour period. The Council’s repair team were expediting works on weekends to complete the repairs in a timely manner. The reasoning of most complaints was not due to timescales, they were mostly related to the dissatisfaction of a 4-5 week wait for a repair to be completed.

 

One Member sought further clarification on the analysis of the stock condition survey and the reasoning behind jobs going out to tender as a result of what had been identified. It was suggested that the Committee receive a full report on findings of the stock condition survey and what actions were due to be taken.

 

The following questions were raised in relation to the actions outlined in the appendices:

 

·       Why the action relating to the lack of strategy and policy framework had previously been rated amber and no improvement could be seen.

·       Concern over the Draft Repairs Policy not being taken to Cabinet until April 2023, and whether this would affect the Council being taken out of special measures.

·       A timescale of when Housing would be taken out of special measures.

 

In response to the above questions, the Acting Director of Housing outlined that the Council were refreshing a high number of policy frameworks at present. Progress was ongoing regarding repairs in coherence with the draft repairs policy, which would be completed alongside the new housing management system. It was confirmed that external auditors had completed work around the housing special measures within the last few days, however, the turnaround for the audit was 4-6 weeks. Upon receipt of the outcome of the audit, the regulator would assess as the figures provided to ensure they were correct, which could then see the notice lifted. It was hoped that the audit be complete before the end of January 2023.

 

The Acting Director of Housing reassured the Committee that data loaded from the stock condition survey coincided with a KPI that was due to be reviewed in another report. The report identified the ‘Decent Home Standard’ at 94.49% that had been taken directly from the stock condition survey from the Councils Apex asset management system. An update would be forthcoming regarding future investment requirements in line with the Council’s HRA Business plan.

 

One Member raised concern on whether the timescale was realistic to receive the audit response and achieve regulator sign off for regulatory notice in January 2023.

 

It was confirmed that at the time of the last reporting of regulatory compliance, the Council had sent expressions of interest to four audit companies, which had to be procured correctly, sign off from procurement was completed at the end of November 2022. The sign off from the regulator would depend on the timings of their next board meeting.

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property clarified that the contract for the audit went through procurement. The appointed audit company was under contractual arrangements that they would deliver by the end of January 2023. Upon success of the audit, the regulator had provided a benchmark to complete the sign off in a timely fashion which had been contractually provided.

 

One Member queried whether the Council had to pay court costs were for non-compliant gas safety, if so, how much these costs were and whether the costs could be recovered.

 

At the previous meeting, it was suggested that local ward Members visit non-complaint gas safety properties for Members to highlight the importance of gas safety checks. It was queried as to whether this had taken place.

 

Clarification was sought on the breakdown of the £6.2 million available for fire doors, windows, and other aspects on 6000 Council properties, which equated to £1000 per property. Concern was raised that £1000 per property seemed extreme. 

 

The Acting Director of Housing noted that the recently adopted recharge policy outlined the fact that court costs would be recharged to the tenant in relation to any costs incurred by the Council.

 

The capital program breakdown figure had been similar to previous capital program figures each year regarding capital improvements. Each of the Council’s contractors were procured independently for each stream of work (roofing, doors windows or heating systems).

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Property notified the Committee that the code of housing members safety and attending non-compliant properties had been considered around not entering a property in difficult circumstances and not attending a property alone. This initiative had been overtaken due to the last remaining gas compliant failures diminishing considerably, therefore, it did not seem necessary. 

 

One Member suggested that the Committee voted on the recommendations and requested opportunity to scrutinise the proposals prior to them being heard at Cabinet, following the discussions around the stock condition survey and capital improvement costs.

 

The Acting Director of Housing confirmed that the £6.2 million in question was part of the overall budget setting process for 2023, therefore would be going through full scrutiny, Cabinet and Full Council.

 

AGREED:

 

That Committee:

 

1.    Noted the latest compliance position following the ongoing meetings with the Regulator of Social Housing.

 

2.    Received a further update report at its next scheduled meeting