Agenda and minutes

In the absence of the Chair and Vice Chair it was after being duly moved and seconded -

RESOLVED:

That Councillor Debono be elected Chair for the remainder of the meeting

Councillors O’Sullivan, Jackson, Spall and Graham. Apologies also received from Councillor Ward, Executive Member Housing and Rose Marie MacDonald co-opted Member

None

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

*(a)   Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b) Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f) Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

None

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 03 February 2022 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

None

The Chair stated that the order of business would be as per the agenda

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

The Chair outlined the procedure for Public questions

This item was deferred to the June meeting as the Fire Brigade Commander was not able to be in attendance that evening

The Director of Housing, Maxine Holdsworth was present and outlined the report

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         Noted the performance indicators and that the number of new homes started on site by the Council is behind schedule at this point, as three separate projects encountered delays due to upgraded fire safety works and are now expected to start on site in Q4

·         Number of affordable new homes, social rented or shared ownership completed by developers ahead of target

·         Number of households in temporary accommodation nightly booked is down by 29 this quarter, but is back on line with  position at the start of the year

·         Number of homeless preventions is off target, however the target has increased this year and is partly attributable to the number of cases coming in

·         Number of people sleeping rough is off target, however rough sleepers found have only been sleeping rough for one or two weeks recently. This shows that prevention work is succeeding

·         Percentage of repairs fixed first time is above target, 88.5% compared to a target of 85%, and arrears increasing at Christmas is an established trend

·         Rent arrears are on target but have increased slightly to 4.77%. Partners has also seen the usual Christmas increase in rent arrears

·         Noted that there was an error in H3 – Number of affordable homes and corrected details would be circulated to Members

·         In response to a question it was stated that there was always a need for temporary accommodation but the aim was to accommodate people in long term housing as soon as possible

·         Reference was made to P.I’s H1 and H7 and 8 and that it would be helpful if more details could be provided in future reports

·         In response to a question on rough sleeping it was stated that – OLA TO COMPLETE

·         A Member enquired whether there could be a comparison given in future reports as to the number of repairs undertaken by Partners as compared to those of the Council and it was stated that this could be included in future reports

·         Noted the Council carried out 70000 repairs a year and whilst they attempted to fix a repair first time there would be occasions where an operative had to revisit to complete the job

·         Noted communication on repairs with residents was usually by e mail or telephone call

·         Noted the triage staff were in the office however it was noted that at some periods in the pandemic they had to work at home. Calls to the Triage service were quality checked for consistent standards, and a team of officers followed up and responded to Members enquiries

·         In response to a question on voids it was stated that the turnaround time was is 30 days, however if Members knew of any void properties that had been vacant for a long period these could be reported and followed up

·         It was stated that often the standard of repairs carried out was not satisfactory and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 344.

Jo Murphy, Service Director Homes and Communities was present and outlined the report

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

·         Noted all calls to 5300 telephone number are recorded and can be listened to at a later date. From December onwards, 10 calls  per month have been picked at random and assigned to a tenancy services manager to audit. Managers assess the quality of the advice given against a set of questions, with an overall % score allocated to each call. Feedback is used to inform the service development plans and training and constructive feedback given to enable improved performance

·         A manager on duty sits alongside officers in the triage team and listens to calls in real time, and provides coaching and support to staff, as needed. Where a call appears to be challenging managers will intervene and where necessary take over the call. Additionally managers will listen to a call if there is a complaint

·         Noted the analysis of action detailed in the report and that Members were welcome to visit the triage service to look at how the service operated

·         Reference was made to ASB and that this usually was resolved without incurring a breach of tenancy and Court action

·         Noted that some tenants causing ASB had mental health issues and that this needed to be handled sensitively.  However there was a history of regular callers kept and staff well-being was important and there was access to a psychologist if needed in terms of dealing with abusive or threatening calls

The Chair thanked Jo Murphy for attending

The Chair stated that she would wish to thank officers and Members for their work during the past year as this was the last meeting of the Committee in this municipal year

The Chair added that the date of the next meeting was 21 June 2022