Issue - meetings

The presentation would concentrate on providing an update on the preferred option to bring council housing stock into council management.

Councillor Whitehead, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing & Safer Neighbourhoods, presented an update report on the future of East Kent Housing (EKH) and highlighted the following points as part of the update:

·  Thanet Council was to be ‘Landlord’ again of the council’s housing stock. There was a need to increase our housing stock and support local residents, many of whom were vulnerable;

·  Cabinet agreed to bring the management of its housing back ‘in-house’ at the extraordinary Cabinet meeting on the 17^th February 2020. There was overwhelming support from Members to do this, in order to deliver on the capital programme and the corporate improvement plan;

·  In the future, Thanet would be focused on improving health and safety standards, spending more on vital building maintenance and maintaining the quality of services our residents already expected from East Kent Housing;

·  Members were aware of the risks regarding staffing, performance dips, increased costs during the transition period and reputational risks;

·  However this should be seen as an opportunity for greater control and scrutiny, enhanced resident involvement, easier decision making and more local procurement, which would enhance the housing experience for the tenants who rely on council services.

Further details from the presentation can be found in the slides attached as an annex to these minutes.

Members asked the following questions:

·  How many staff members would be moved over? How would we ensure their welfare, and could we be selective in our future recruiting process?

·  How would this impact the current funding for the housing service?

·  Why was the response rate from the consultation so low, and did this really mean there was overwhelming support to bring the service back in-house?

·  Could we have conducted better scrutiny on the performance of EKH?

·  When do we expect the housing stock maintenance to be taken back in-house?

·  Would there be an extensive quality control scheme?

·  How would tenants be involved in the maintenance process?

·  What were the priorities of the new East Kent Housing interim Chief Executive during this transition period?

Councillor Whitehead, Mr Bob Porter, Head of Housing & Planning and Mr Tim Willis, Deputy Chief Executive responded as follows:

·  It was difficult to work out how many staff members from East Kent Housing would be TUPE’d to Thanet, as it was at the individual employee’s choice to make amongst the four partner councils;

·  It was also important to work out a local arrangement for those staff members not protected by TUPE;

·  TDC would identify the skills set required for potential staff

·  TDC would take legal advice on the process. The Council had not started engaging the EKH staff. Staff retention was a key principle of the council on such matters;

·  There would be a potentially good transfer rate of officers willing to join TDC to a point that  there might even be vacancies that would still need to be filled;

·  The council would aim to minimise redundancies and support staff during this difficult time by recruiting a Transition Manager to oversee the process;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 228

The Panel requested this presentation on 22 October and the Deputy Leader agreed to be in attendance for the item. The presentation would concentrate on providing an update on the preferred option to bring council housing stock into council management.

The item was deferred to 20 February.