Agenda item

Bob Porter introduced the report and made the following comments:

• Eighteen months from when the housing service was brought back in house, there had been significant improvements in service delivery;
• Safety standards compliance was now being attended to through an established dedicated team;
• The team was reporting monthly to the Regulator;
• On 24 February 2022, the Regulator removed the compliance notice;
• The council was still working attaining full compliance;
• The council was now in compliance regarding asbestos surveys;
• Work was in progress and on time regarding refurbishments;
• Water safety: the number of repairs still be done had been reduced;
• Electrical certification – At the time of producing the report there were 777 properties with non compliance. However that figure had since gone down to 600;
• An additional contractor had been taken non board to help with the certification;
• All fire risk assessments were now being carried out by an external specialist;
• The report indicated that there were 237 fire risks to be done. That number had now gone down to 180;
• Capital Programme: Royal Crescent in Ramsgate – Specifications were now being put in place for the project. Project tender will be done in the next quarter;
• Churchfield – The council had consulted with residents on what needed to be done. Fire safety matters were the main priority for this project;
• Voids turnaround times: A new team had been set up to improve the times;
• Rent Arrears: This was a significant risk moving forward due in part to inflation.

Members asked questions and made comments as follows:

• A number of households were currently facing a lot of financial pressures;
• Had staffing issues during the pandemic not affected the work of the Housing Service, particularly relating to officer visits to tenants in council housing;
• The performance report showed some very impressive results. Could a glossary be provided for the acronyms used in the report?
• A few years ago there were concerns regarding the lack of fire, gas and electric certification on some of the council houses. Has this issue been resolved?

Bob Porter and Chris Blundell responded as follows:

• Early intervention to support struggling families was always the council’s policy;
• The Wellbeing Team provided support to households so that families can maximise their income;
• The team provided advice on livelihoods and secure employment;
• The focus by the team was on prevention;
• There was a discretionary housing payments facility of £460k to support households in difficulties. This year the council had used £430k of the funding to date of that fund, with the remainder expected to be used by the end of the year;
• Regarding officer visits to residents; the plan was to have more officers working from the office and have contact with households where required;
• Remote working has brought its own challenges and benefits as well. The hybrid approach to working had also been quite beneficial;
• Officer were going to add a glossary for the acronyms used in future performance reports;
• Data on certification of houses that was received from East Kent Housing had been in a very bad state. The housing Team had since cleansed the data, using True Compliance, a new electronic system being used by Housing;
• The new system identifies properties not in compliance and flags them up and this was making a huge difference;
• Using True Compliance had freed up officers to then go out on property visits.

Councillor Jill Bayford thanked officers for the hard work to improve service delivery in Housing.

Members noted the report.