Agenda item - Housing Management Performance Report Quarter 4 and end of year 2016/17

Report of Executive Director Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing (copy attached).

17.1   The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing which covered Quarter 4 of the financial year 2016/17, alongside year end results.  The report was presented by the Head of Income, Involvement & Improvement, accompanied by the Business & Performance Manager.

17.2   Councillor Barnett asked for an explanation of the role of a field officer.  The Executive Director, Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing explained that the proposal to have field officers was part of the neighbourhoods programme. The latest report on this matter would be submitted to the Neighbourhoods, Inclusion, Communities and Equalities Committee on 3^rd July. Field officers would be geographically based officers who undertook low level enforcement.  The Director could arrange for the Head of Libraries and Information Services to give a briefing or Councillor Barnett could be sent the papers.  There was nothing that was agreed that would have any implication for any service at the moment, but potentially there would be implications for City Clean, Housing Services, Planning, Regulatory Services and Community Safety. Councillor Barnett stated that she would like the papers to be sent to her.

17.3    Councillor Bell commented on page 234, paragraph 4.3 – Average time to complete routine repairs (calendar days).  This showed 21 days in Q4 and 20 at year end.   Councillor Bell asked for an update and was sorry to see there was no Mears Ltd representative at the meeting.  The Business & Performance Manager explained that this information related up to the end of March 2017.  The figures for April and May had much improved.  The April figure was 17 days and the May figure was 15 days.  The Head of Income, Involvement & Improvement commented that when officers looked at the benchmarking data it was noted that the end of year performance was two days slower than the average performance for other organisations that the council benchmarked against. It was three days slower than the top quartile. 

17.4   Councillor Gibson thanked officers for the report and noted that it included many good results. He referred to paragraph 7.2 on the Tenancy Sustainment work which he thought was excellent and vitally important. Councillor Gibson commented that much of the value in performance monitoring was the benchmarking and comparing the city to similar councils.  His concern remained that the city was not quite doing that. He would be seeking reassurance about that.  There was a group of 10 other councils with a stock size of 10,000 dwellings or more.  His concern was that the city was only just over that 10,000 and he was interested to know the average stock size of all the benchmarking groups.   He noted that the benchmarking group included four London boroughs.  He knew costs in London councils were higher and the issues were different.  Councillor Gibson referred to paragraph 2.2 – Customer satisfaction figures which were reasonably below target. He asked for an update.  The Head of Income, Involvement & Improvement explained that she could provide the information regarding the average stock size of the benchmarking group. Meanwhile, she stressed that there were many ways of benchmarking and the figures were to give an indication. It had been mentioned that costs were higher in London, but she stressed that wages were not necessarily higher. If the council was looking at employment or contract matters then there were similarities. For as many differences you might see in any benchmarking group there would be some similarities.  In terms of Customer Service, there was not a current figure available as the survey was carried out every six months. The next survey would be carried out in September and officers could come back with that information. 

17.5   RESOLVED:-

(1)            That the report which was circulated to Area Panel members on 25 May 2017 be noted along with the comments of the committee.