Agenda item

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

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning presented the report and reminded the Committee that the Council had referred itself to the Regulator in February 2021 when it was found that the Council was not meeting its legislative requirements in relation to gas safety, electrical testing, asbestos, fire risk assessments, lift inspections and smoke and CO alarms.

He paid tribute to the huge amount of work undertaken by the Housing Team and the regular meetings attended by the Chief Executive, Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning and the Regulator which had finally resulted in the Regulatory Non-Compliance Notice being lifted.  Although there were still challenges ahead, he looked forward to continuing to work with the Housing Team to make improvements.  

The comments were echoed by the Head of Technical Services who referred to the new Total Compliance Policy that provided a framework of compliance going forward. It was noted that the appendices appended to the report contained figures for September and the specific graphs contained July data.

The Vice-Chairman passed on the Chairman’s thanks as well as his own for all the hard work that had been done by Officers on all levels, the Cabinet and Members both current and those within the previous administration who had worked together to get to the current position which should be celebrated, although there was no room for complacency.

Members echoed the comments made and congratulated the Officers for their hard work to reach the current position. Concern was expressed by some Members as it was felt that some areas were still struggling with meeting standards, specifically void properties.  One Member, not on the Committee, made reference to the dreadful living conditions of residents in properties on Lumby’s Terrace in Stamford and felt that there was still a very long way to go.   It was stated that the Committee was not the forum to discuss individual cases. 

Further discussion followed with the Housing team being congratulated on the work done to get to the current position.  A question was asked in relation to changes in the base figures used within the appendices, to which the Head of Technical Services replied that due to natural movement such as Right to Buy Sales, these did change from month to month.

The Chief Executive made reference to the significant amount of work undertaken by the Housing team since the Council had self-referred itself to the Regulator in February 2021.  The amount of work undertaken over the last two and half years should not be under estimated.  She made reference to the stock checking, stock surveys undertaken, the new systems put in place, the new electronic systems put in place, the monitoring undertaken, responding to Covid emergencies and she couldn’t under estimate the amount of work that had been undertaken.  She was disappointed that voids had been raised as Members had been to a workshop on voids and knew the challenges that were faced with void propertieies.  She stated that the Council had a fabulous Housing Team and a fabulous Repairs and Maintenance Team and the five new apprenticeships that had started between the ages of 16 and 17.  She wanted to recognise the amazing work that had been achieved and the significant improvements made, the meetings that she had attended with the Regulator month on month which reflected these improvements.  It was a key milestone which happened on the 25 October 2023 and should be celebrated.

The Vice-Chairman congratulated the Chief Executive and the Housing Team for all the work that they had done during the previous administration and over the last six months.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning thanked the Chief Executive for the comments made, he acknowledged all the work done to date, but that there was still room for improvement.  There had not been a previous Housing OSC in its own right to scrutinise the work done and there were still big challenges ahead.  References were made to voids and repairs and that more work was required in these areas.  He briefly touched on the state of Lumby’s Terrace and acknowledged that the houses were not in a good state.  There were still long standing problems in certain areas but progress was being made.

The Leader of the Council amplified the comments made by the Chief Executive and the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning. To get out of special measures required a high degree of attention and a high degree of commitment from both Officers and Members.  That same level of detail and attention would be applied to both repairs and voids to address the backlogs in a systematic fashion.  Compliance checks would still continue whilst this work took place.