Issue - meetings

Cabinet discussed the performance report for Quarter 3 and covered both council’s progress on tenant and leaseholder health and safety compliance and provided an update on the overall performance of the tenant and leaseholder service. Cabinet was pleased to announce that the regulatory notice that was placed on the Council in 2019 was removed on the 24 February 2022. This had been accomplished by the hard work and dedication of the entire team, who had pulled together to improve the position on Landlord Compliance.

The performance report showed that most work streams were operating as business as usual, but two areas that were still in recovery were electrical safety and fire risk assessment actions. The team had a robust action plan in place to resolve by the end of March 2022 and were making good progress. More widely, the team’s performance remained steady in most areas for Quarter 3. The planned works programme was progressing as expected with only 2 projects that were experiencing delays:

·  At Royal Crescent, in Ramsgate, there had been a delay with the tender documents due to the complexity of the works required and the need to carry out additional inspections and surveys. It was anticipated being ready to procure for this project in April 2022.

·  At Churchfields, in Margate, a fire risk assessment identified a lack of compartmentation in the loft space. This therefore had to be resolved as an emergency project and the compartmentation works were being completed now. The planned project for new bin stores and parking that was approved by Cabinet in November will be planned into the 2022/23 programme.

The report also identified areas of performance that needed to improve. One key area for improvement was the turnaround time for void properties. Disappointingly for the team this had not improved since transition. To address this they had restructured to create a dedicated voids team and changed the way they work with their contractors to complete void works. Further work to improve turnaround times was taking place during Q4 as the team streamlined processes, systems and communication.

The rent arrears position had declined in Quarter 3 when compared to Quarter 2. This was an area that had previously been improving since transition. However, the position was better than their position at Quarter 3 last year; and comparison with previous years and other providers showed that an increase in arrears during Quarter 3, which included the Christmas period was not unusual.

Councillor Jill Bayford proposed, Councillor Kup seconded and Cabinet noted the performance report.