Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive on the Housing Compliance Update.

Report of the Chief Executive providing an update on the Housing Compliance position.

The following points were raised and discussed:

·       It was noted fire was 100% compliant with fire risk assessments. There are still some remaining actions and they are programmed to be completed this year. The Council have escalated the programme significantly to ensure that they are all completed.

·       Water hygiene is 100% and that does include actions.

·       Asbestos is 100% with no outstanding actions.

·       Electricity comes in two parts, blocks which is 99.99% with one block, non-compliant due to an issue with the meter and is not a risk issue and is currently being dealt with by UK Power Networks.

·       Domestic is 99.1% compliant and the council have had significant access issues.

·       The same with gas, there are two parts, communal is 100% compliant with no outstanding actions and domestic is 99.87% compliance and the access issues have prevented the council from getting in, however, the council have in the last few weeks started to see the injunctions coming in.

·       It was noted lifts were 100% compliant.

·       Members thanked officers for their hard on making sure the council were compliant.

·       Members asked about 3.2 of the report and asked what kind of things make up the medium actions taken from the FRA that have not been done yet as there’s quite a few of them and what is the most common action from them that is still outstanding? Officers stated the most common action is nominal fire doors, it is a fire door, but it is not fire door set, so it does need to be upgraded, but it is not a high risk because is a nominal fire door and they were done last year. The council have completing 2000 fire doors since then, so the council have completed the majority of the high risk with 10 now remaining for the high risk and that they are programmed in in the next few weeks.

·       Members noted that it was positive to see the really high compliance in each of the areas, and know no access has been an issue, and there was always a hope and an expectation that when residents got used to the inspections, that it would drive down the no access issues. When do you think the council will get to that stage where no access does not become such an issue because then there is a lengthy process trying to gain access, would it be in two years, five years?  Officers stated the council had a plan to get information out to residents this year, a plan the council have been working on since the start of the issue, so the council is hoping by the end of this year they will have significantly better chance of getting access just because of the safety information they are going to send out to the residents on a on a regular basis.

·       Members asked about 5.1 of the report - no financial implications, does that mean the team were able to do the work without having to bring in external people to help out and is it done within the council budget for the department?  Officers stated there is no additional support for this report, the council did do a report at the start of the issue, where there were some financial changes but for this report, there are none.

RESOLVED (Unanimous)

Members noted the contents of the report.