Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director (Resident Services and Climate Change)

The Executive Director (Resident Services and Climate Change) introduced the report and took the meeting through a presentation which is attached to these minutes.

Members made the following points:

• A member noted the number of repairs that were not completed as a result of no access. Officers said a task and finish group had looked at the customer journey and Morgan Sindall would be asked to increase text messages reminding residents of appointments to see if that made a difference; various suggestions would be presented to the Tenants’ Panel next month. When there is no access, tenants are written to with their duties and responsibilities set out. Additional text messages will remind them the appointment can be rescheduled and if they are not present at a scheduled appointment a card is left inviting them to make contact to rearrange. A ‘getting to know you’ survey will take place next financial year to ensure tenants’ email and phone numbers are up to date. 
• A member asked about the improvement plan. Officers said this is in place with Morgan Sindall: voids have remained on it and a target for major repairs has been added. Future reports will highlight which elements are part of the improvement plan so members can monitor where improvements are being made (action: Assistant Director, Homes and Neighbourhood). The Council’s expectation is that improvements will need to be sustained and so items will remain on the plan until there have been improvements over three consecutive months. 
• In relation to overall satisfaction with the repairs service, a member asked how many homes the survey had been sent to and what work was taking place to increase the response rate and ensure the survey was more accessible to non-responsive tenants. Officers undertook to provide the figures (action: Assistant Director, Homes and Neighbourhood) and noted it was unusual for this to be below target; there had been a larger sample size this time which explained the dip. 
• With planned works, officers advised the number of survey questions had been reduced and incentives offered but this had not led to increased responses. Contractors were also carrying out a survey which the Council has asked to see.
• A member asked about housing complaints. Officers explained there are two stages to the corporate complaints process and if a resident remains dissatisfied they can approach the Ombudsman. There had been no Ombudsman determinations this quarter; future meetings would be informed of any determinations and this is also reported to Cabinet.
• A member expressed concern about the efficiency of the repairs service. Officers acknowledged this was a challenging area for all social housing providers and there was more work to do. Some of the Key Performance Areas (KPIs) were monitored via an improvement plan, including voids and some repair response times; there had been an increase in customer satisfaction in these areas in the last quarter (see later report on Tenant Satisfaction Measures). Staff were discussing the customer journey with the Residents’ Panel which was key in unpicking how the repairs service could be improved.
• A member noted it had taken more than six months to turn around some voids and asked how this was being addressed. Officers advised there had been more void properties recently than usual which had affected turnaround times. Legacy voids had been unoccupied for an extended period due to a range of factors including the need for major structural works (some of which needed design work by architects) which lengthened the time the homes remained void; they wanted works to be done more quickly and noted that longer-term voids skewed the voids figure as a whole. Morgan Sindall had experienced some supply issues and had brought in additional subcontractors to progress voids work but some of those did not have a direct labour force which had had a knock-on effect. Major voids needing replacement bathrooms and/or kitchens, electrical wiring replaced etc would normally take place as part of a planned programme - the contractor is proposing to take this approach and has said this will mean they can work on more voids and will provide a plan for this which the Council will monitor. However officers were mindful of the need to have a Plan B in place. The member was concerned about the issue with the contractor and subcontractors. Officers responded that timescales were determined as voids came in and the improvement plan was a result of timescales not being met. The plan had seemed realistic (as the contractor had said they had an additional supply chain in place) but had not been met and officers reiterated the need not to be fully reliant on this approach and have an alternative. The contract contains liquidated damages and the Council was collating data on that.
• A member noted 17 properties had not been inspected due to no access and asked whether the gas could be turned off there for safety reasons. Officers said they needed to go down the legal route to gain access which could be delayed as a result of the court process which was why it was important to expedite contact with the tenant.
• The Tenants’ Panel Chair advised that panel representatives were attending some strategic meetings looking at the improvement plan and some of their proposals had been accepted, for example, text messages now state which services will be addressed during an appointment. The Tenants’ Panel was concerned about the voids situation and intended to do some work to support tenants in understanding what they were required to do when releasing their homes. 

The Panel noted the report.