Agenda item

Committee to receive a presentation.

The Housing Service Performance report was introduced by the Director of Housing and presented by the Heads of Services for Housing.

It was confirmed that Housing Service Performance reports would be provided at each subsequent Committee meeting.

Technical Services

Repairs call handling results were positive and ahead of target with the percentage of calls handled and interflowed at 92% in April with only 8% abandoned.  

Whilst improvements had been made in the number of overdue repairs, emergency/ non-emergency repairs completed on time, and post inspections, these were still below target. However, repairs satisfaction was on target at 95% in May.

Emergency repairs completed on time regarding damp and mould was on target at 100% in May, as was the number of overdue surveys at 1. Improvements had also been made regarding the timely completion of other repairs, with the exception of the ‘no damp and mould repairs overdue.’

With the exception of the average time to repair a minor void, improvements had been made across the voids service. Particularly the average time to repair a temporary accommodation void which was on target at 7 days in May.

During discussions, Members commented on the following:

-       It was confirmed that there was an agreement in place with Welland Procurement that any sub-contracting would be offered to local businesses initially.

-       It was queried at what point are prices agreed with contractors. For material costs there was confirmed to already be a contract in place with Hughes Gray for the purchase of materials for in-house teams. With external contractors, separate budgeting was set out in the revenue accounts to account for the contractor’s time, cost and materials.

-       South Kesteven District Council facilitated four apprenticeships for local college students, two in repairs and one in voids.

-       It was acknowledged that whilst the cost of materials had increased over recent years, there had not been issues with the availability of materials.

-       It was confirmed that KPI’s were monitored as benchmarking by using Housemark. There informed the targets set by SKDC. 

Allocations & Lettings

Allocations & Lettings call handling was positive, achieving 11-13% over target for March-May 2025.

The number of cases in temporary accommodation dropped from 73 in March to 59 in May, largely due to the high number of lettings in April. The allocations statistics confirmed this with 138 offers made during April, 87 of which being SKDC properties with 51 being housing association.

The number of monthly homeless approaches remained broadly similar.

Tenancy Management statistics were presented outlining the number of anti-social behaviour cases, Right-to-Buys, successions, mutual exchanges, evictions, and notices issues.

During discussions, Members commented on the following:

-       It was queried whether there had been an increase in the number of Housing Register applications. It was explained that trends showed there was often a spike in January and during the peak of summer.

-       It was confirmed that the reason for the increase in the number of complete Housing Register application waiting for assessment was due to a combination of the complexity of the applications being received and staffing levels. The Head of Service (Housing) outlined that their focus was on decreasing the time taken to assess application as they would like to see this drop from 10 weeks to a month.

-       A Member praised SKDC for retaining its housing stock and observed that more applications was likely the result of increased rent in the private sector.

-       A breakdown was given of the staffing level and positions within the service. 

Compliance

It was confirmed that the following areas were 100% compliant: Legionella, Asbestos, FRA, Lifts, Smoke.

Gas was at 99.3% and EICR was at 95.17%. The issue with EICR was where SKDC were being denied access by particular residents to undertake the necessary work. The Director of Housing confirmed that SKDC had taken the stance that non-emergency repairs would not be completed for properties where the statutory compliance was not in place.

The Housing Service Performance was noted by the Committee.