Agenda item

Report of the Chief Officer (Environment).

Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chief Officer (Environment) presented a report on the Repairs and Maintenance of Council Housing and gave a presentation to provide the Panel with information on the performance of the Council Housing Repairs and Maintenance Service (RMS) and the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) Report. A copy of the APSE Report was attached for Members’ consideration.

Members were advised that there were 3,740 City Council owned council houses spread geographically spread across the whole district. The biggest clusters of Council Housing stock were on the estates in the urban areas but there were also a number of properties in rural parts of the district.

Members were advised that Council Housing provision was split over two service areas with asset management and RMS part of Environmental Services and council housing tenancy and estate management within the Health and Housing Service.

The RMS total expenditure in 2015/16 had been £9.4 million and that this had been divided between planned (revenue) and planned (capital) works, responsive repairs and void repairs. This work was divided between in-house and external contractors.

Members were advised that the Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2015 showed that satisfaction of tenants was high, but that the worst performing area was the time taken before work was undertaken, even so 76% of tenants said they were satisfied on this respect

It was also reported that one of the key areas highlighted in the APSE Report for improvement was voids. The number of days to re-let and therefore the percentage rent loss, had both increased in 2014/15. The latest information showed that the standard re-let time was decreasing with the average for the first quarter of 2016 being 53 days.

It was reported that APSE had been commissioned by the City Council in summer 2015 to conduct a 6 day “diagnostic exercise” of RMS including:

·         Benchmarking analysis of data via APSE Performance Networks.

·         Review of procedural and other documentations.

·         Diagnostic workshop with RMS, housing and financial employees.

The report had highlighted a number of strengths and weaknesses of the service and set out a number of recommendations.

Members were advised that the Council’s Organisational Development Team had been engaged by the Chief Officer (Environment) and Management Team in January 2016 to support the implementation of the recommendations in the APSE Report and take advantage of any wider opportunities for service development.

A collaborative approach had been taken in order to access the necessary skills and experience to deliver change by continuing to develop internal relationships with ICT, Finance and HR, as well as other Local Authorities, APSE and external suppliers.

Members asked a number of question regarding the s.151 officer comments on the report, voids, planned works in the void period and the effects on rental income of extended void periods, the organisation relationships between the Environment and Health and Housing Services, benchmarking and information sharing, electric fleet vehicles and appointments for responsive repairs.

The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing and Environmental Health advised, at the meeting, that KPMG had been asked to scope a further report on the Council’s repairs and maintenance service to establish vfm, prospects for improvement and amount of resource required and based on that provide options for future direction and delivery of the service. Cabinet would then decide on whether they wanted to commission this report. The Cabinet member said she would welcome the views of Panel Members upon the report prior to consideration by Cabinet.

Resolved:

(1)          That the report to consider whether to commission KPMG to undertake a further review of the service, be reported to Budget and Performance Panel prior to consideration by Cabinet.

(2)          That Councillor Karen Leytham, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Housing and Environmental Health, to be invited to attend that meeting.

(3)          That the Panel’s Work Programme be updated.