Verbal report from Alison Knight, Interim Executive Director of Housing.
Minutes:
The Chair introduced the item and invited the Interim Executive Director of Housing to speak. A resident asked about the improvement plan for Regina Road and whether it would appear on the Panel’s agenda. In response it was highlighted that all of the key actions taken around Regina Road could be found within the appendix.
The Interim Executive Director of Housing informed the Panel that the regulatory notice was issued on the 20 May 2021, this notice stated that the Council had breached the home standard and the tenant involvement and empowerment standard. The notice also discussed cost effective repairs, the maintenance service, and health and safety requirements. With regard to the tenant involvement and empowerment standard, the notice stated that the Council needed to treat its tenants with fairness and respect by resolving complaints promptly, politely and fairly.
The Council have held discussions with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the first few meetings were focussed on improving the service through achieving things like gas certificates which were currently at 99.5%, and expected to be 100% very shortly. The RSH would like the Council to give a voluntary undertaking in respect to the matters that were raised in the meeting, and they will work with the Council to ensure that they are meeting these voluntary requirements.
The RSH outlined the make-up of a voluntary undertaking, which was a three-stage approach. The outline of a voluntary undertaking was that at the first stage the Council needed to address the issue, this can be done by drafting a short summary of the weaknesses needing to be addressed. The second step required the Council to state how they will rectify the identified issues. The final step focussed on gaining assurance that the Council was compliant which would require extra independent verification. This would then be set out in a document to highlight how they will be transitioning from non-compliant to compliant. The Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council would have to agree these commitments with the regulator along with a timetable of actions.
The Council will be working with another local authority to identify how it would manage the various aspects of the undertaking and the steps required to achieve it. Once this work was complete, the commitments and standards would be set out in the voluntary undertaking.
The Panel was advised that the Council’s voluntary undertaking needed to demonstrate that its commitment to health and safety was paramount, the development of a responsive repairs service that fully monitors complaints and service satisfaction, that residents are engaged and feel as though they were listened to and treated with respect; the ways in which the Council measured its success including key performance indicators (KPI), baseline data and the development of a fully priced HRA plan showing estate improvements.
The Council would monitor this through the Housing Improvement Board, the Housing Improvement Plan, meetings with the Regulator of Social Housing, external validation, resident’s feedback (including Star surveys), tenant & leaseholder Panels (H&S, Tenancy Focus Group, TLP, Scrutiny and PMG) and having established timelines for success.
The Interim Executive Director of Housing informed the Panel that the Council aimed compile data which would be used as a baseline to measure progress. This data would be generated by asking residents a series of questions such as ‘how satisfied are you with the overall quality in your home?’, ‘how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the way that repairs and maintenance are carried out?’, ‘how satisfied are you that the Council listens to you?’, ‘how difficult was it to get your most recent inquiry resolved?’ and ‘how satisfied are you satisfied with the resident involvement opportunities’. These questions would help the Council to then validate what it was being told by the repairs service.
It was confirmed that the many of the KPI’s which will be used to monitor the progress of the improvement plan would also be part of the wider housing service.