Agenda item

Report from Cabinet held on 26 July 2021, attached for the Panel’s information.

The Chair introduced the item and the Cabinet Member for Homes informed the Panel that there had been a fire at Regina Road. She detailed how the fire began, the response from the fire brigade, and how residents reacted.  The Panel were informed that nobody was injured and that the fire did not spread.

The Cabinet Member for Homes also stated that letters had been distributed to residents, informing them of the response to the fire.

The Interim Executive Director of Housing shared a presentation with the Panel, which outlined the emerging Housing Improvement Plan, which the officers were recommending to the Panel to adopt.

The Interim Executive Director gave an overview of the Ark Report, stating that there were issues around care and respect, communication, complaints, performance management, data and intelligence. The recommendations set out in the report were to ensure that there was a team focused on policy and performance, improving the investment planning and making sure that there was a strategic group that have the power to oversee the development and implementation of the plan. There were other recommendations around governance, leadership, planning, and workforce planning.

An action plan was developed and work had begun on the Housing Improvement Plan.

The Interim Executive Director of Housing stated that a structure was agreed at the previous Full Council meeting, following the appointment of a permanent Chief Executive. In future there would be a Corporate Director of Housing which would be a permanent role in the new structure. The structure would also include a Head of Policy and Performance, who would be responsible for developing a new housing strategy and looking at all of the policies. The Head of Responsive Repairs and Safety would have a complete overview of all of the safety aspects. The Head of Housing Service Planning and Delivery, would have a few slight changes to their position but they would oversee capital delivery, planned maintenance, asset management and the Council’s plan to improve the estate in the future, making sure that there's a plan of works that fit in with the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan.

The Interim Executive Director had been tasked with pulling the teams in the Housing Department together into a new directorate, to ensure that the new structure would be ready in the coming months. She further outlined the broad structure of the new directorate, however, it was noted that this may be subject to small changes prior to implementation. 

The Interim Executive Director of Housing further outlined the importance of focusing on resident engagement and the need to address comments in the ARK report around the size of patches, the number of cases people are working with, and the number of resident’s people are working with. This would require additional resources in order to be addressed.

The Interim Executive Director of Housing then informed the Panel that the Housing Improvement Board was a recommendation following the governance comment that was in the ARK report about having a strategic board that would oversee the Council's actions, hold the Council to account in regards to their performance. This board would be independently chaired and would make recommendations to Cabinet.

The Housing Improvement Board would reflect the aims of the Charter for Social Housing about safety, monitoring how the landlord was performing, and ensuring complaints were dealt with promptly and fairly.

The Independent Chair of the Board would be appointed by the Interim Executive Director of Housing, the Cabinet Member for Homes and the Leader of the Council. Representatives on the Board would include individuals from the Tenants and Leaseholder Panel and the Improvement Panel, There would also potentially be representatives from the Local Government Association (LGA), an external representative from a London Council or a housing association, and an individual from the voluntary and community sector. The invite would also be extended to the Regulator for Social Housing, who would occasionally attend, but would not be a formal member as this would be seen as a conflict given the regulation notice.

The Interim Executive Director of Housing informed the Panel that, based on the ARK report, there was a need for a work stream around vision and strategy, which would have governance arrangements. There would be a separate work stream focussed on performance and developing a baseline performance management framework. There was also a need to review the complaint system to ensure it worked effectively to enable the Council to identify service improvement in the future. There was also a work stream focussed on resident engagement, for which the resident engagement team would play an important part in looking at whether the existing structures were fit for purpose.

There had been a focus on improving the statistics related to compliance and safety, ensuring that the Council had up to date statistics on various areas such as fire regulation, gas, electric, lifts, water and asbestos which are all key areas for resident’s safety. There was also a renewed focus on the management of the repairs contract.

Business intelligence would be included in asset management and investment planning to ensure that the HRA 30 year business plan had an underlying improvement strategy to outline how the Council will improve its housing stock over that time frame.

The Interim Executive Director of Housing advised that the work stream on workforce planning and staff development included the Council reviewing whether it had the right resources in place, the use of the HRA rate and how staff development would have led to a culture change and an improved customer service. Invoice management would also be addressed with changes to be made based on some of the ideas that have come forward with the papers that have been submitted.

Temporary accommodation was another area that needed to be addressed, with a strategy in development aimed at improving how the Council managed its’ with temporary accommodation. This would include a focus on demand management and where the Council could make better use of its void properties and other types of accommodation.

Prior to opening the floor for questions, the Chair addressed the Panel, advising that resident’s experiences needed to be central to the service going forward. This would require the Council to listen to its residents and find ways to actively involved involve them. The Chair stated that while it was accepted that the Housing Board structure had not been finalised, it was hoped that tenants would be central in the new structure. The Chair also expressed his view that the complaints process at the Council was sufficient at ground level, but there were many roadblocks within the system.

In response to a question from a resident regarding the workshops local residents were able to access, it was explained that the workshops implemented by the Council were in response to the findings in the ARK report and was a key reason why the Council have a key work stream built around resident involvement. The Cabinet Member for Homes informed the Panel that tenancy engagement was very important to the Council, highlighting some of the changes that had already been implemented such as tenancy officers and caretakers reporting issues back to the Council. This meant that when a resident received engagement from one or two officers they were really engaging with the whole team.