Agenda item - Housing Management Performance Report Quarter 2 2018/19

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

(1)      That report and comments of the Committee be noted.

57.1    The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director, Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing which covered Quarter 2 of the financial year 2018/19. Notable results were covered in appendix 1 and were summarised in paragraph 1.1.  The report was presented by the Head of Income, Involvement and Improvement.

57.2    Councillor Atkinson thanked officers for the report and was pleased to see the work being carried out on Wickhurst Rise. He expressed concern about cables that were still on site and needed to be removed by Virgin Media.

57.3   Councillor Phillips stated that there were many positive aspects to the report but raised the following questions which were answered by the Head of Income, Involvement and Improvement. 

·       Question: Customer service and complaints (page 105). This detailed the number of complaints dealt with in 10 working days. How long did it take the remaining 27% of complaints to be responded to?  Answer: The information was not available at the meeting but could be circulated to the Committee. 

·       Question: Anti-social behaviour. Why were the remaining 12% unsatisfied with the way their anti-social complaint was dealt with? Answer: Questions were asked around satisfaction with the service provided, as distinct from satisfaction with the outcome. However, sometimes a person’s outcome would impact how they felt about the service provided. There had been a great improvement in keeping people informed. 

·       Question: Tenants arrears collected (page 109). Was there an explanation for drop in the former tenants’ arrears collected which was just below target?  Answer: The explanation for all the indicators where there was a decrease of performance was in the relevant section of the report.  There had been some vacancies in that team which would have an impact on collection of rents. Staff had now been recruited into the team.  There was also the impact of the introduction of Universal Credit. There had been around 10 new cases a week and this took up many hours of officers’ time.

·       Question: Why had Tenants served a Notice of Seeking Possession increased by over 100? Answer: The notice of seeking possession was the first stage in formal action against rent arrears. This was done to safeguard the council’s interest and to encourage people to engage with officers.  As there had been an increase in arrears there had been an increase in the numbers of people more than four weeks in arrears.

·       Question: Why were Calls answered by Housing Customer Service Team (Page 113) below target? Answer: The explanation had been given on the following page. In line with other Customer Service Teams in the Council there had been a focus on answering emails more quickly. The performance was improving.

·       Question: Average re-let time, excluding time spent in major works (calendar days) (page 115). Was the drop since the last quarter due to an administrative problem? Answer: The information was given on page 160. This was generally around seniors’ housing properties that had been difficult to let which had brought the average time down. Officers were trying to promote some of the less desirable seniors’ housing. These were bedsits with their own bathroom and kitchen. 

·       Question: Page 117 – Long Term Empty Dwellings – number of dwellings and average rent lost. Preston Park average rent loss was £3.3k and total rent loss was £6.5k. More information requested.   Answer: There had been problems in the last year with these properties but there had been considerable improvements since then. Many of the long term properties had now been let. There were a few remaining properties where there had been major works required.

·       Question: Page 119 – Waiting times for repairs for lifts. The waiting time had increased. Did this include people being stuck in the lifts? Why had there been a decline in performance in August? Answer: There was one case where there was someone in the lift but the response was well within the target time. The reference to decline in performance was trying to give context to the quarter in question. There had been a dip in performance in August when there had been a number of lift breakdowns which took longer to fix.  In September the performance was much better.

57.4   Councillor Mears thanked the Head of Income, Involvement and Improvement for the detailed report. She also thanked the Head of Housing Strategy, Property & Investment for the major projects programme summary. It was very helpful for that information to be included in the report as it gave an overview of what was going on. Councillor Mears asked about the Oxford Street conversion. When would there be a completion date for this property bearing in mind how long it had been left empty?

57.5   The Head of Housing Strategy, Property & Investment explained that there was currently a planning application for Oxford Street. There had been delays due to a party wall legal dispute with the adjoining property.  Pre-planning works were now going taking place on site. A planning application had been submitted and it was expected that it would be determined in February/March 2019. The scheme was due to be finished by the end of this calendar year subject to planning, and any other issues that arose. Officers had undertaken to take regular reports back to the Estate Regeneration Members Board.   

57.6   The Chair thanked the Head of Income, Involvement and Improvement officers for a very well written and interesting report.

57.7   RESOLVED:-

(1)      That report and comments of the Committee be noted.