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 Chairman expressed her admiration for the phenomenal work that had been carried out to get to the current position and she thanked all those involved for their work.  She acknowledged that being in special measures was a process and that it had to be monitored even when you were at the high level that the Council was currently.

In introducing the report, the new Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning stated that he was delighted that there was a dedicated Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Housing.   He made a commitment to working together with all those present to deliver the basic requirement of a decent home for those who were in most need whatever challenges the Council faced.  He made reference to the national housing crisis and the challenges that were being faced including record inflation, rising interest rates and rising mortgage rates.  Reference was made to the local backlog in fitting kitchens, bathrooms and central heating and the current high turnaround period for void properties.

The first report before the Committee updated Members on the actions taken to ensure regulatory compliance of the Council’s Social Housing Landlord function.   The Council was a social housing landlord to almost 6,000 properties and was one of the largest local authority providers of housing across the East Midlands.

The Council had been in special measures since 2021 when it self-referred itself to the Regulator of Social Housing for its failure to comply with a range of legally required safety checks to protect its tenants with year on year failures in respect of gas, electricity and fire prevention measures.

Since February 2021 necessary actions had been taken following guidance from the Regulator of Social Housing.  The current compliance requirements were very close to reaching their goal and many of the actions and improvements were reported to tenants via the SKyline magazine a copy of which was appended to the report at Appendix 3.    The Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning was confident that the Council would soon be coming out of the special measures and that the housing service would be fit for purpose which hadn’t been the case two years ago.

The Acting Director of Housing referred Members to appendix 1 of the report which listed the KPI’s current position as at the end of May 2023.   Legionella, asbestos (re-inspections), Fire Risk Assessments and Lift Inspections were all at 100%, gas inspections were at 99.3% and electricity was at 90.29%, with Smoke and CO at 99.76% (14 properties outstanding) and Damp and Mould at 99.80% (12 properties still in need of work), there were still some issues with gaining access to some properties.

Members thanked everyone for the work involved to date and asked when full compliance would be achieved and the Council would come out of special measures.  The Chairman stated that an audit had been undertaken and there were still a few minor matters that needed addressing but it was estimated that in two to three months the Council would be as close as it could be to 100% compliance.

Questions were then asked about the KPI’s in relation to the smoke detectors and the figures shown and a question that was asked at a recent Governance and Audit Committee and how long-standing repairs were managed to which the Acting Director of Housing replied and referred to the new housing management system and aligning it to the repairs system.  

Further comments were made about policies and political decisions to which the Acting Director of Housing stated that there were a number of policies that needed a refresh, there were 34 across the housing directorate and due process had to be given to each, which was why the allocations and repairs policy had been brought before the Committee.

Further comments were made about the achievements that had been made over the last two years and the amount of work that had been done by Officers and Members to reach the current position.

Reference was made to the SKyline magazine and its informative content which it was felt would benefit private tenants also.  It was stated that some of the key pages were reproduced in SK Today.  The Deputy Leader of the Council referred to SK Today which was now produced on-line and hard copies were no longer delivered, therefore reducing costs, although the bin schedule would still be circulated each year.

Members noted the latest compliance position following the ongoing meetings with the Regulator of Social Housing and that the Committee received a further update report at its next scheduled meeting.

Ø Action

That the Committee receive a further Housing Regulatory Compliance update at its next scheduled meeting.