Issue - meetings

Cabinet considered the proposed Housing Estates Strategy that was drafted in part from the feedback received from Council tenants. Residents told Council that the condition of Council estates was very important to them. The Tenant and Leaseholder Services had used resident feedback from customer satisfaction surveys and two focus groups to develop these documents. The strategy was the vision they had for the estates and it described four objectives that they believed would enhance the Council estates as a place to live.

These were to:

• Promote Community;
• Improve estate appearance;
• Have better vehicle management; and
• Make the estates a safer place to live.

The strategy also described:

• how the Council would approach the estates to achieve the objectives, and
• how the Council would prioritise the estates for review and improvement works.

An estate policy was a regulatory requirement. It applied the rules around how the strategic objectives would be delivered, letting all stakeholders know the part they play and their responsibilities. The estate standard let Council tenants know what work the Council would do to maintain and take care of the communal areas in and around its blocks of flats. This work included, communal cleaning, communal repairs, grounds maintenance and car parks. It let residents know what they were responsible for including the storage of belongings in communal areas and the disposal of refuse.

Councillor Jill Bayford proposed, Councillor Kup seconded and Cabinet the following:

1.  To approve the adoption of the Housing Estates Strategy, Policy and Standard;

2.  To give delegated authority to the Acting Corporate Director of Place in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing to execute minor amendments to the documents.

Sally O’Sullivan, Tenant and Leaseholder Services Manager introduced the report and made the following comments:

• Service standards were a set of commitments to council residents. They provided information about the level of service they could expect from the council. These standards also provided guidance to officers to the level of service they should be providing;

• Residents were involved in the development of these standards to varying degrees;
• Repairs service standard - This standard described the service that was delivered by the council’s partnering contractors, Mears and Gas Call. It also provided information to Council tenants about what to expect from the repairs service, that included on the following issue:

• The different ways in which they can report a repair;
• How long different categories of repairs will take to be carried out;
• How an appointment will be made;
• What to expect from a contractor when they come to their home;
• How we monitor the service.

• Much of this standard was dictated by the contracts the council had in place. However, Council had consulted the Thanet Tenant & Leaseholder Group (TTLG) on the Mears customer pledge. This document set out standards of behaviour for the operatives and call centre staff and as a result of the feedback from the TTLG, further training was put in place for the call centre staff;
• The Lettings standard informed residents on what they could expect when they move into one of the council homes. The standard provided them with information on what would happen when they sign a tenancy agreement, what information they would receive and what standard to expect their new home to be in when they move in;
• To inform this standard, officers surveyed all new tenants from the previous six months. The purpose of this exercise was to learn from residents’ experience and find out what was important to them when moving in;
• A message that came through this survey was the concern about the quality of the information given to new tenants and this feedback prompted the development of a new resident handbook.

Members made comments as follows:

• Members fully supported the new proposals as contained in the officer report;
• Tenants Groups were a useful platform for creating wider consultation with residents on any new changes;
• Some residents had been asked by the council to remove wall gardens in communal areas in tower blocks without prior explanation;
• This had caused some distress to residents;
• It was important that on implementation of any new policies that resident’s involvement and consent was considered.

Sally O’Sullivan and Bob Porter, Corporate Director of Place responded to comments from Members as follows:

• It was unfortunate that residents were asked to remove their wall gardens from communal areas;
• However this had been done as a result of the feedback from the Fire Risk Assessors;
• A fire risk assessment was carried out and required that the wall gardens be removed from communal areas in tower blocks;
• The fire risk assessment came up with a position of zero tolerance wall gardens  ...  view the full minutes text for item 418