Agenda item

The Voids/Temporary Accommodation Task and Finish Group to submit their final report for approval and further recommendation to Cabinet.

Councillor Pat Cumbers, Chair of Scrutiny Committee introduced the report, the purpose of which was to detail the findings of the review carried out by the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group for Housing Voids Management and Temporary Accommodation.  The Task and Finish Group had proposed a number of recommendations, which were presented for the Committee’s approval and further recommendation to Cabinet.

Councillor Cumbers noted that this had been Scrutiny’s first Task and Finish Group.  Members of the Group had invested a lot of time and effort into the review, which had been invaluable.  She thanked Group members and officers involved in the review for their time and contribution.

The Director for Growth and Regeneration, Pranali Parikh added her thanks to the Committee and Group members for their work, which had been extremely helpful and useful.  The Group had gathered comprehensive information, insight and a good evidence base for the proposed recommendations.  She also highlighted the work undertaken by officers in her team to review and improve housing voids management, noting that both officers and Members had worked towards the same objective and the timing of the reviews worked very well.

Mrs. Parikh referred to the ‘Summary – Void Analysis’, which had been circulated to Members at the start of the meeting, highlighting that there had been an improvement in the average void turnaround in December 2019.  She anticipated that further updates to Members would show a consistent improvement.

During discussion the following points were noted:

      i.        It was not possible to confirm at this meeting when the remaining 30 voids would be available to let but currently, the average void turnaround time was 14/15 day and officers aimed to accelerate this as much as possible.

    ii.        Members reiterated the importance of dealing with this issue swiftly.  Thorough reviews had been undertaken by both officers and the Group and it was time for action.

   iii.        The Housing Revenue Account was in a healthy condition to support an improved voids performance. 

   iv.        Benchmarking with other councils would be useful to determine the scale of the Council’s problem and what ‘good practice’ could be adopted.  Officers at North West Leicestershire District Council had provided extremely constructive information about how they improved their Housing Voids performance.

    v.        The Council having better maintenance of its housing stock and encouraging tenants to look after their properties would ensure a quicker void turnaround time.

   vi.        Members of the Group agreed that they had been able to undertake an effective review.  Council tenants and officers had provided feedback and North West Leicestershire District Council who were now one of the better performing councils had been an excellent authority to speak to.

  vii.        There were issues with the Council’s contractor, as referred to in the report.  Councillor Browne informed the Committee that he had reviewed the contract and found it to be robust but it needed to be managed better.

viii.        The visits referred to at paragraph E3 of the report, were not reflected in the proposed recommendations but should be added, as this could be an important key to improvement to ensure that views and feedback from tenants were collected and used to develop further improvements.

Councillor Douglas proposed that an amendment be made to the recommendations in the report adding the recommendation below:

‘To implement new Tenant visits on occupation and again after 6 months’.

The Committee were in favour of this amendment.

RESOLVED

Scrutiny Committee APPROVED and RECOMMENDED to Cabinet the Final Report of the Task and Finish Group for Housing Voids Management and Temporary Accommodation, subject to the addition of the recommendation detailed above.