Agenda item

[Report of the Director for Housing, Regeneration and Planning.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Planning, Licensing and Housing Services]

The Council is required to undertake statutory consultation under section 105 of the Housing Act 1985 on the proposal to bringing HfH back in- house. Following the conclusion of the statutory consultation, Cabinet will be requested to make a decision on the proposal to bring HfH back in-house

Councillor Chandwani left the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Cabinet Member for Employment, Skills and Community Services introduced the report which set out a proposal to insource Homes for Haringey and sought approval for a resident consultation process to inform a future decision.  The Cabinet Member added that this was the next step in removing barriers to ALMOs.  Tenants were last consulted in 2017, and it was planned to carry out a thorough consultation with maximum access and engagement with residents.  A final decision was due to be considered by Cabinet in December 2021.

The Cabinet Member and Director for Housing, Regeneration and Planning responded to questions from Councillor Barnes:

-           It wasn’t currently known which services were duplicated across the Local Authority and Homes for Haringey, but these would be identified as the consultation process evolved.

-           The consultation with residents would be as wide as possible to take in as many views as possible.

-           There was no intention of slowing down the pace of Council house building.  The building programme was the biggest house building plan of any London borough. 

RESOLVED that Cabinet

1.         Approve the consultation with tenants and leaseholders the proposal to insource Homes For Haringey.

2.         Approve the consultation processes set out in paragraph 6.11 of the report.

3.         Note complementary proposals to establish a cross-party Member working group, as set out in paragraph 6.14, and two regular resident participation meetings, a Housing Sounding Board and a Resident Housing Forum, as set out in paragraph 6.15. This is to further engage with all stakeholders on the proposal.

Reasons for decision

The proposal to bring HfH back in-house is rooted in four key rationales:

·           Robust governance – accountability to the regulator and residents.

·           Value for money – efficiency and quality of services.

·           Integrated services – housing as part of a wider customer service offer.

·           Improvement – enhancing organisational transformation to deliver better outcomes.

These objectives are explored in further detail in the four following paragraphs.

Robust Governance

The rationales for bringing HfH back in-house to ensure robust governance are based on the following:

·           The Council is the legally liable landlord for its 20,000 tenants and leaseholders;

·           As a Registered Provider, the Council is accountable directly to the Regulator of Social Housing and the regulation of local authority landlords is now being strengthened;

·           The Council is the “accountable person” for building safety under the new post-Grenfell regulations now progressing through parliament;

·           The Social Housing White Paper 2020 seeks a stronger local voice for residents in both building safety and housing management and maintenance services;

·           Direct delivery in-house will streamline and strengthen governance and accountability structures to meet the changing regulatory climate.

Value for Money

The rationales for bringing HfH back in-house to deliver VFM are based on the following:

·           Efficiency savings may be anticipated by eliminating areas of duplication and potentially revising existing back-office service level agreements;

·           Corporate services supporting the HfH Board and subgroups will no longer be needed;

·           Client-side monitoring resources in the Council can be repurposed;

·           Some HfH functions may be integrated with Council functions to deliver added value;

·           Any efficiency savings to the HRA can be reinvested in resident services or add value by funding capital investment in estate improvements and new homes.

Integrated Services

The rationales for bringing HfH back in-house to integrate services are based on the following:

·           An integrated management structure within the Council can facilitate a faster and more responsive decision-making process across the housing service, including the new build delivery programme;

·           Service improvement resources will be strengthened and focused by bringing the Housing Client team and HfH Business Improvement team together;

·           Bringing Housing Demand services back in-house will enable closer alignment with the Council’s social care and housing-related support services as well as Haringey Connects;

·           Integrated services will be more responsive to external demands (such as those within the charter for social housing residents: social housing white paper) and customer requirements, due to the direct strategic and operational control and direction of the services, with clear lines of accountability to elected Members;

·           A range of other service integration opportunities can be explored where appropriate including with Environment and Neighbourhoods; Customers, Transformation and Resources; Housing, Regeneration and Planning; etc.

Improvement

The rationales for bringing HfH back in-house to improve service delivery are based on the following:

·           Closer alignment between the existing HfH transformation programme and the Council’s transformation programme, in particular in terms of use of technology and office spaces.

·           Strengthened resident voice including co-production will lead to increased customer satisfaction.

Consultation approach

The rationales for the proposed consultation approach are as follows:

·           The Council’s existing corporate commitment to resident consultation sets out clear principles and requirements, based on the definition that “consultation is a process of dialogue that helps lead to a decision”.

·           This includes communicating the purpose of the proposal, providing information about how the proposal will affect people, seeking their views and communicating the results of the consultation and the decision.

·           In addition, there is legislation and Government guidance to be considered when consulting on bringing HfH back in-house.

·           The detailed legal requirements in this case are set out in section 8 below.

·           In summary, the consultation should include all Council tenants and leaseholders and be no less extensive than the 2017 consultation process undertaken when the HfH management agreement was extended.

Alternative options considered

As explained in the legal comments, there is not an option to proceed to a decision on insourcing Homes For Haringey without consulting residents first.  In any case, the Council is already committed to resident consultation over decisions of this significance (see the Haringey Consultation Charter).

Where the Council has a clear proposal and set of rationales to bring services in-house, it is considered sufficient to consult on this proposal and no alternatives.  There is no legal requirement to consult on a range of different options, even though there are a range of different possible approaches to organising and procuring housing management and maintenance services (e.g. transfer ownership to a housing association; transfer management to a housing association; procure a private sector managing agent; bring services in-house; continue with HfH) and these alternatives will be included in the report to Cabinet for decision following consultation on the insourcing proposal.