Agenda item

The Committee is to receive a planned update on the Council's preparations regulatory change in housing. A workshop with Council tenants will also take place.

The Director for Housing and Communities introduced the report on regulatory change in housing.

Officers were congratulated on the work they have done in this area.

The query was raised as to whether the audit overlaps could be reduced, however in response it was explained that one Officer is responsible for Corporate Health and Safety and another Officer is responsible for Housing Health and Safety and that the audits for both roles do cover different elements. In addition to this there is Internal Audit who are responsible for carrying out a formal audit on the service and then there is External Audit who are independent of Council and will conduct their own audits from time to time. Members were reassured that work was not being duplicated.

Following a question about the new arrangements and whether they cover private sector landlords, it was confirmed that the arrangements are focussed on the public/social sector and that there will be separate arrangements for private sector landlords.

In response to a question about renumeration for tenants when they join the Landlord Assurance Board, Members were informed that the Council can’t pay tenants a salary when they join the board but that training and expenses, for travel and child care, can be provided so that they can discharge their duties more effectively.

In regard to the timetable for appointing to Landlord Assurance Board, it was noted that the first meeting was a few weeks prior to the meeting. Members were assured that tenants could be involved. Recruitment to the board would take between 2 to 3 weeks.

When reviewing the responses and in particular the satisfaction about repairs, it was commented that the dissatisfaction isn’t with the Council but with the contractor. However, it was explained that the Council are the landlord and therefore it is up to the Council to hold the contractor to account. This is an issue which has been worked on, and along with regular meetings with contractors, Officers have also increased the percentage of post inspections to assess the quality of the repairs and identify and trends or issues in service delivery. 

A Member commented that statistics have to be handled with care and that the Council has to be mindful of those who aren’t satisfied. In response, it was explained that the Council can benchmark against other landlords and compare how the Council is performing amongst similar sized organisations. The Council are able to do this as a result of it’s membership of Housemark.

RESOLVED

The Scrutiny Committee:

(1)  Considered and commented on the work undertaken to prepare for the new housing regulation regime and proactive consumer regulation inspection and provide feedback to Cabinet on areas for further development or improvement.

(2)  Considered the outcome of the Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2023/24 and will provide feedback to Cabinet that reflects the views of tenants on how the Council can continue to improve its role as a landlord and how tenant satisfaction could be improved in the future.

(3)  Noted that an annual report from the Landlord Assurance Board would be provided for consideration by Scrutiny Committee, Cabinet and Council. The first of these being for the period 2024/25.